PSYC 2283 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Individual Psychology, Psychosexual Development, Inferiority Complex
23 Jan 2017
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Chapter 3—Adler: Individual Psychology
Pages 69-95
Overview
o Individual Psychology: presents an optimistic view of people while resting heavily on
the notion of social interest, that is, a feeling of oneness with all humankind
o Difference between Freud and Adler
o Freud: reduced all motivation to sex and aggression
o Adler: Saw people as being motivated mostly by social influences and by their
striving for superiority or success
o Freud: people have little or no choice in shaping their personality
o Adler: people are largely responsible for who they are
o Freud: assumed that peoples present behaviour is cause by past experiences
o Adler: present behaviour is shaped by peoples view of the future
o Freud: placed heavy emphasis on unconscious components of behaviour
o Adler: psychologically healthy people are usually aware of what they are doing
and why they are doing it
Biography
o After almost dying of pneumonia and losing a younger brother, he decided to become a
physician
o Second born child who was in constant rivalry with older brother, Sigmund Adler
o Contrasts to Freud
• Both experienced death of a younger brother
▪ Freud more guilt because he had wished for death
▪ Adler more optimistic because he wanted to prevent death (physician)
• Family and friend relationships
▪ Freud more family oriented—one to one relationships
▪ Adler more social—appreciated his social circle more
o Started a private practice as an eye specialist—gave it up and turned to psychiatry and
general medicine
o Wednesday Psychological Society—Fall 1902
• Freud invited Adler to these meetings
• Discussed psychology and neuropathology
• 1908—Vienna Psychoanalytic Society
• Adler didn’t believe all that Freud had to say but believed he and other members
could make contributions to psychoanalysis that Freud would agree with
• Adler and Freud didn’t see eye-to-eye
▪ Adler published work
• Study or Organ Inferiority and Its Psychical Compensation
(1907/1917)
o Suggested physical deficiencies—not sex—formed
foundation for human motivation
o Started to believe psychoanalysis should be much broader than Freud’s view of infantile
sexuality
o 1911—Now president of Vienna Psychoanalytic Society—suggested that the drive for
superiority was a more basic motive than sexuality for the need of strong sexual
proclivities of psychoanalysis
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o Left this group with 9 other men
o Formed Society for Free Psychoanalysis Study 1911
• Changed to Society for Individual Psychology
▪ Making it clear he had abandoned psychoanalysis
o After WWI
• Borrowed money from brother
• Suggested that social interest and compassion could be the cornerstones of human
motivation
o Taught psychology at Columbia University and New School for Social Research
o 1932
• Became a united states citizen
• Held the title “Vistiting Professor for Medical Psychology” at Long Island
College of Medicine (Downstate Medical School) and University of New York
o Married a Russian women (Raissa) is 1897
o Had 4 children
o Favorite relaxation—music, art, and literature
o Died of a heart attack in 1937
Introduction
o Three reasons for why Adler’s name is less known than Freud and Jung
1. He did not establish a tightly run organization to perpetuate his theories
2. Was not a particularly gifted writer—most of his books were compiled by a
series of editors using Adler’s scattered letters
3. Many of his views were incorporated into the works of such later theorists as
Maslow, Rogers and Ellis and this are no longer associated with Adler’s name
o Writings revealed great insight into the depth of complexities of human personality
o Evolved a basic theory
1. People are born with weak inferior bodies—a condition that leads to feelings of
inferiority and a consequent dependence on other people
o Everyone has an inherit need for social unity (social interest) and the ultimate standard
for psychological health
o Statements of Individual Psychology
1. The one dynamic force behind people’s behaviour is the striving for success or
superiority
2. People’s subjective perceptions shape their behaviour and personality
3. Personality is unified and self-consistent
4. The value of all human activity must be seen from the viewpoint of social interest
5. The self-consistent personality structure develops into a person’s style of life
6. Style of life is molded by people’s creative power
Striving For Success of Superiority
The one dynamic force behind people’s behaviour is the striving for success or superiority
o All motivation was reduced to a single drive—striving for success
o Individual Psychology
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o Everyone begins life with psychical deficiencies (his constant sickness) that
activate feelings of inferiority (like he felt with his older brother) – these feelings
motivate a person to strive for either superiority or success
o Instead of using aggression as the term to describe the dynamic power for all
motivation, he developed the term masculine protest
• Implied the will to power or a domination of others
• Abandoned term
o Used striving for superiority
• Used to describe people who strived for personal superiority over others
o Used striving for success
• Described people who were motivated by highly developed social interest
o The Final Goal
• People strive for a final goal
▪ Personal superiority
▪ Goal of success for all humankind
• Is fictional—does however, unifies personality and renders all behaviour
comprehensible
• People have the power to create their own goals that are not influenced by
genetics or environment—product of creative change
• To achieve the “final goal” individuals create and pursue preliminary
goals (sub-goals) which are conscious
• The connection between them and the final goal are unknown
• The viewpoint of the sub-goal is unknown but once the final goal is
achieved, the sub-goals behaviours become understood.
o The Striving Force as Compensation
• People strive for superiority or success as a means of compensation for
feelings of inferiority or weakness
• Adler—people are born with weak bodies and ignite a need to strive for
superiority or success through innate tendencies towards completion or
wholeness (growing in this case)
• Striving force is innate, but direction and nature are due both to feelings of
inferiority and to the goal of superiority
• Goal is set to compensate for the inferior feelings
• Striving for success is innate however it needs to be developed
• At birth it is there but the person must realize it and activate it
• At age 4-5 children begin this process by setting a direction for superiority
of social success
• Goal provides guidelines for motivation, shaping psychological
development and giving it an aim
• The goal may take any form—it is not necessarily a mirror image of the
deficiency, even though it is a compensation for it
• Heredity establishes the potentiality of the goal
• Environment contributes to the development of social interest and courage
• Both forces (nature and nurture) cannot deprive a person from setting a
goal and achieving it
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Held the title vistiting professor for medical psychology at long island. College of medicine (downstate medical school) and university of new york: married a russian women (raissa) is 1897, had 4 children, favorite relaxation music, art, and literature, died of a heart attack in 1937. The value of all human activity must be seen from the viewpoint of social interest: social interest: translation of the german gemeinschaftsgefuhl, meaning a community feeling or a sense of unity with all human beings. The self-consistent personality structure develops into a person"s style of life: style of life: a person"s individuality that expresses itself in any circumstance or environment. It includes a person"s goals, self-concept, feelings for others and attitude towards the world. Style of life is molded by people"s creative power: adler"s term for what he believed to be an inner freedom tht empowered all individuals to create their own style of life.
