Transcript Erik Erikson - Dr. Nadia T. Hasan

Alfred Adler:
Individual Psychology
“The goal of the
human soul is
conquest, perfection,
security, superiority.
Every child is faced
with so many
obstacles in life that
no child grows up
without striving for
some form of
significance.”
Chapter Outline
1. Individual Psychology
2. The Life of Adler (1870-1937)
3. Inferiority Feelings
4. Striving for Superiority or Perfection
5. The Style of Life
6. Social Interest
Chapter Outline, Cont’d.
7. Birth Order
8. Questions About Human Nature
9. Assessment in Adler’s Theory
10.Research on Adler’s Theory
11. Reflections
Individual Psychology
• Focus on uniqueness of each person
• Denied universality of Freud’s
biological motives
• Personality shaped by unique social
environments
The Life of Adler
Theme: Inferiority/Superiority
• Sick as child, Rickets, soft bones
• Younger brother died at 3, dethroned
Adler
• Jealous of older brother
• Feelings of inferiority
• Compensation for weaknesses
through persistence
The Life of Adler
Relationship to Psychoanalysis
• Studied medicine; specialized in
neurology and psychiatry
• Private practice
• Discussed ideas but did not study or
experience psychoanalysis with
Freud
• Was a critic of Freud’s theory and
interpersonal conflict with Freud
The Life of Adler
Individual Psychology
• 1912 – Society for Individual
Psychology
• Group training/guidance – precursor
to group therapy
• 1929 – Moved to U.S., became
prominent
• Died during exhausting lecture tour
in 1937
Inferiority Feelings
• Inferiority: The normal condition of
all people; the source for human
striving
• Compensation: Motivation to
overcome inferiority, to strive for
higher levels of development
• Feelings of inferiority may be real or
imagined
• Function of environment
The Inferiority Complex
• Inability to overcome or compensate for
normal inferiority feelings
• Intensification of inferiority feelings
• Researched organic inferiority: defective
body parts or organs and compensation
• Spoiling: inferiority feelings outside of
home
• Neglect: Lack of love  feelings of
worthlessness
The Superiority Complex
• Overcompensation for normal inferiority
• Boastful, self-centered; denigrates
others
Striving for Superiority
• Urge toward perfection or completion
• Superiority as the ultimate goal ≠
attempt to be better than others
• Perfection as completion – wholeness
• Freud – Past; Adler – Future
Fictional Finalism
• Idea of imagined or potential goal that
guides our behavior
• Fictional ideas that influence while
striving for wholeness
• Adler’s terms: “subjective final goal” or
“guiding self-ideal”
• Striving for Superiority
- Increases tension
- Individual with Society
The Style of Life
• Pattern of personal behaviors and
characteristics by which we strive for
perfection
• Influenced by social environment
• Creative power of self: The ability
to create an appropriate style of life
The Style of Life: Styles
• Four styles for dealing with problems
with others, with work and with love
• Dominant: Attacking, disregards
others
• Getting: Dependent
• Avoiding: No attempts to solve
• Socially Useful: Cooperates w/
well-developed social framework
Social Interest
• Innate potential to cooperate to achieve
goals
• Gemeinschaftsgefuhl: “community
feeling”
• Role of mother: Foster or thwart social
interest
• Cooperation, companionship, courage
• During Freud Conflict: power and
dominance focus
• After: focus on social interest
Birth Order: First-Born
• Focus/time/attention, then dethroned
• Battle to regain supremacy.
• Ill-behaved punishment hatred for
second child
• Age at birth of second child matters
• Power issues
• Positive: teacher/leader of younger
siblings. Intellectual development
• Organized, detail-oriented, authoritarian
Birth Order: Second Born
• Older sibling as pacesetter: model,
threat, or competitor
• Competition may motivate
• Little concern for power
• Optimistic, competitive, ambitious
Birth Order: Youngest Child
• Pet of the family
• Fast development – need to surpass
others
• High achievers
• If pampered, dependent
Questions about Human Nature
• Hopeful, flattering picture
• Free will to shape social forces and
form unique style of life.
Freud
Adler
Depressing universality Optimistic uniqueness
and sameness
with free will
• Humanity can strive for perfection:
social progress.
Assessment in Adler’s Theory
• Early recollections: Using themes of
real or imagined early memories to
reveal primary interest
• Dreams: feelings about current
problem p. 145
• Interpretation requires knowledge of
person and style of life
Measurement of Social Interest
• Adler was against use of tests; was
for therapist intuition
• Later psychologists:
– Social Interest Scale (SIS)
– Social Interest Index (SII)
– Basic Adlerian Scales for Interpersonal
Success (BASIS-A)
Research on Adler’s Theory
• Adler’s research – case study
• Dreams and problem solving
• Early memories connected to later
outcomes
• Childhood neglect and pampering
• High social interest predicts positive
outcomes
Birth Order Research
• First Born
– Prestigious/managerial occupations
– Mixed findings on IQ
– Mixed: anxiety, but self-esteem,
extraversion, conscientiousness
• Second Born
– Adler’s ideas about competition not
supported
– Influenced by older siblings
Birth Order Research, cont’d.
• Last Born
– More alcoholism and binge drinking
• Only Born
– Adler’s ideas: selfish, self-centered
– Mixed findings – cooperation or more
self-centeredness
– Higher achievement, initiative, selfesteem
– Fewer siblings related to higher grades
Reflections on Adler’s Theory
• Influenced theorists in multiple areas
of psychology, including Freud
• Women not inherently inferior –
subject to social expectations, roles
• Lasting importance: organic
inferiority
• Lack of public recognition
Reflections on Adler’s Theory
• Simple nature of theory a strength
and a perceived deficit
• Critics: inconsistency in theory,
disagreement with free will
• Theories still popular in multiple
fields