PSY 313 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Birth Order, Inferiority Complex, Personality Development
31 May 2020
School
Department
Course
Professor
• Limits & liabilities of Freudian theory
o Many rejected idea that adult personality is formed almost in entirety by 6 years old
o Many challenged Freud’s emphasis on instinctual sources of personality
o Many disliked generally negative tones of Freudian theory
• Alfred Adler
o First member of psychoanalytic group to break
▪ Several others left with him
o Individual psychology
▪ Notion of striving for superiority
▪ Role of parental influence on personality development
▪ Effects of birth order
o Striving for superiority
▪ Person’s effort to overcome feelings of inferiority
▪ Excessive feelings of inferiority can have opposite effect
• Inferiority complex
• Results in feelings of helplessness rather than an upward drive to
establish superiority
• Run away from challenges rather than overcome them
• Combine superiority striving with concern for social interest
o Parental influence on personality development
▪ 2 parental behaviors lead to problems for children later in life
• Pampering: giving kids too much attention
• Robs child of independence
• Adds to feelings of inferiority
• Issues living on their own, making own decisions, and dealing with daily
hassles & frustrations
• Allowing children to struggle is good
• Give children the freedom to make many of their own choices
▪ Neglect: children receive too little attention
• Grow up cold & suspicious
• Incapable of warm, personal relationship
• Uncomfortable with intimacy, closeness, touching
o Birth order
▪ All different personalities
▪ First-born: excessive attention by parents
• “dethroned” with arrival of baby #2
• Strong perception of inferiority as a result
• Among firstborns, often find “problem children, neurotics, criminals,
drunkards, and perverts”
▪ Middle children
• No pampering
• Intensity superiority striving
• Always one step behind – constantly trying to catch up
• Highest achievers
▪ Last-born: pampered by whole family
• Spoiled = very dependent
• Could “get away with murder”
• Little personal initiative
• Vulnerable to strong inferiority feelings
• Carl Jung
o 1st president of international psychoanalytic association
o Analytic psychology
o The collective unconscious
▪ Consists of thoughts & images that are difficult to bring into awareness
• Never repressed out of consciousness
• Born with this unconscious material
▪ Primordial images: make up collective unconscious
• A potential to respond to the world in a certain way
• Referred to as archetypes
o Some important archetypes
▪ Anima: feminine side of males
▪ Animus: masculine side of females
▪ Help guide selection of romantic partner and direction of subsequent
relationship
▪ Shadow: contains negative unconscious parts of ourselves
• Dark side of our personality
• Evil side of humankind
o Evidence for the collective unconscious
▪ Relied on mythology, cultural symbols, and dreams
▪ Argued that if collective unconscious was basically the same for each person,
then primordial images should be found in various forms throughout cultures &
history
• Erik Erikson
o Ego psychology
▪ Principle function of ego is to establish and maintain a sense of identity
▪ Identity crisis: confusion and despair felt when lacking a strong sense of self
o Personality development throughout life
▪ Maintained that personality development continues throughout a person’s life
▪ 8 stages of personality development
• Encounter a “fork in the road” at each stage
o Called these crises
o How each crisis is resolved determines the direction of
personality development and influences how later crises are
resolved
▪ One way is adaptive, the other not
• Stage one: basic trust vs. mistrust
o Infants given loving care – basic trust
Document Summary
Individual psychology: notion of striving for superiority, role of parental influence on personality development, effects of birth order, striving for superiority, person"s effort to overcome feelings of inferiority, excessive feelings of inferiority can have opposite effect. Incapable of warm, personal relationship: birth order, all different personalities, first-born: excessive attention by parents. Dethroned with arrival of baby #2: strong perception of inferiority as a result, among firstborns, often find problem children, neurotics, criminals, drunkards, and perverts , middle children, no pampering, always one step behind constantly trying to catch up. Last-born: pampered by whole family: spoiled = very dependent, could get away with murder , vulnerable to strong inferiority feelings. Infants given loving care basic trust: the world is a good place, people are loving & approachable. Learn to set goals & tackle challenges with conviction: develop sense of ambition and purpose, children who fail to develop a sense of initiative guilt.
