Psychodynamic Approaches: Alfred Adler PDF

Psychodynamic Approaches: Alfred Adler MODULE 3 Contributions of Psychodynamic Theories  During the early to middle 1900’s, many psychologists interested in personality were reacting to, developing and challenging Freud’s psychanalytic theory  These psychodynamic theorists sometimes con...

Psychodynamic Approaches: Alfred Adler MODULE 3 Contributions of Psychodynamic Theories  During the early to middle 1900’s, many psychologists interested in personality were reacting to, developing and challenging Freud’s psychanalytic theory  These psychodynamic theorists sometimes continued to support many themes from Freud's work, sometimes challenged other themes and concepts and developed their own theoretical approaches that often incorporated:  The role of unconscious processes, needs and motives  The role of early experiences in creating enduring patterns of personality  The importance of internal, mental representations and their relation to goals and strivings in life  The role of emotional, affective dimensions of experience and their relation to goals, motivations and behaviours  A focus on “ego” growth throughout life, and on individual agency in the construction of personality  Movement towards understanding the profound role of social and cultural influences Activity: Future Identities  Think for a moment and write down one vision of yourself in the future that you hope will come true. Once you are done this, list one feared future self  Discussion questions:  What relevance, if any, do you think these future visions of yourself have for your current personality?  Are life goals and future selves related to enduring patterns of behaviour?  Who was Alfred Adler?  Alfred Alder was a Viennese physician  He became acquainted with Freud by reading The Interpretation of Dreams  After defending Freud’s theory publicly, he was asked to join the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society  He reported that his childhood was miserable due to a severe rivalry with his older brother and his suffering from various illness  He suffered from rickets as a child and came close to death several times  He had a younger brother who died during infancy, and it has been reported that he became a physician to “conquer death.”  His early memories often concerned competition with his older brother  In 1910, he became president of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society  He resigned in 1911 due to disagreements with Freud  After breaking with Freud, he went on the create a rival approach of psychoanalysis that he called individual psychology. Major Tenants of Alder’s Individual Psychology  For Adler, people are born with weak and inferior bodies as infants, and this leads to feelings of inferiority and a feeling of dependence on other people  Six major tenants of Alder’s individual psychology  1) The most important 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) A style of life is molded by people’s creative power Some Differences Between Adler and Freud  Freud’s views:  Adler’s views  Motivation stems from basic  People are motivated largely by social evolutionary drives related to sex and influences and by striving for aggression superiority and success  People have little to no choice in  People are largely responsible for who shaping their personality they are  Present behaviour is caused by past  Present behaviour is shaped by experiences people’s views of the future  Heavy emphasis on unconscious  Psychologically healthy people are components of behaviour usually aware of what they are doing and why they are doing it Striving for Success or Superiority  Adler proposed that striving for success or superiority was the most important motivating force in human behaviour  Based on the idea that we are all helpless and dependent on others in childhood and this activates feelings of inferiority  Feelings of inferiority motivate people to strive for either superiority or success  Throughout life we are driven to better ourselves to compensate for these initial feelings  Psychologically healthy and unhealthy strivings:  Psychologically unhealthy people strive for personal superiority  Psychologically healthy people are motivated by social interest and strive for success for all of humanity  Regardless of their motivation for striving, people move towards a personally constructed final goal of personal superiority or success for all humanity  The final goal is a fiction created by the individual that unifies their personality, and renders behaviour comprehensible  The final goal begins being set by about 4 or 5, when children have sufficiently developed their creative power  If children are neglected or too pampered, goals for superiority can become largely unconscious  If children experience love and security, they are likely to set conscious goals defined in terms of success and social interest  In striving for a final goal, people create and pursue many preliminary goals, which fit together in a sometimes unconscious, but self-consistent, pattern Inferiority Complex: Striving for Superiority as Compensation  For Adler, people strive for superiority or success as a means of compensation for their feelings of inferiority or weakness  People notice this inferiority because they possess an innate tendency towards completion or wholeness  Perceived inferiorities are often related to physical deficiencies, but are relevant to us as whole individuals (in our psychological and social experiences)  Inferiority complex: when a person is overwhelmed by feelings of inferiority instead of being motivated toward success (social interest) by those feelings  When experiencing an inferiority complex, people may overcompensate by striving for personal superiority with little or no concern for others  People may also consciously or unconsciously hide their self-centeredness behind what seems like social concern A Style of Life  For Adler, we overcome inferiority and strive towards a final goal by developing a style of life  This expresses our unique (and freely chosen) compensations and preliminary goals, and provides a framework within which later experiences are dealt with  It includes a person’s final goal, preliminary goals, self-concept, empathy, and attitude toward the world.  Influenced by early experiences and mostly set by 4 or 5 years of age (though aspects can change throughout life).  An individual’s style of life influences how they create meaning and construct fictional goals for the future  Creative power: The self is constructed by individuals through strivings after goals  In this way, individuals have the freedom to choose our own destinies  Subjectivity in Adler’s Theory  Alder suggested that the ways in which people strive for superiority or success are shaped by their subjective perception of reality  Subjective perceptions of reality are described as fictions  A fiction is a belief or expectation about the future that serves to motivate present behavior  Adler felt people behaved as if their fictions were true  In this way, Adler suggested that people are motivated not by what is true, but instead by their subjective perceptions of what is true  In contrast to Freud’s causality (behaviour has an unconscious cause), Adler emphasized teleology (behaviour is understood in terms of its final purpose or aim)  In this view, physical deficiencies and perceived inferiorities are not the causes of personality, rather they influence our motivations and strivings toward future goals that we construct  Social Interest  Social interest: feeling of oneness with all humanity.  Origins of social interest.  The potentiality for social interest is found in everyone.  Originates from the mother–child relationship and is fostered by experiences in the early social environment.  Importance of social interest.  Adler proposed that social interest was the best measure of psychological health and maturity.  He described it as “the sole criterion of human values” and the “barometer of normality.”  The major factor underlying all types of maladjustments in personality is an undeveloped social interest  The Role of Birth Order  One enduring idea from Adler’s work is his view of the role of birth order  Adler thought that birth order was an important influence on personality development as it provided different opportunities for the creation of the final goal and a style of life  First born: At first they are the favored “only child,” but later they are “dethroned” and need to learn to share parental attention with siblings  This leads to tendencies for independence, but also striving to regain status  Second born: born into situations of rivalry and competition  These can be motivating, but repeated failures can be damaging to self-esteem  Last born: Usually more pampered as the “baby of the family”  Can lead to high levels of ambition, but too much comparison may be overly pressuring, leading to a “lazy” response and dependency on others  First Memories  A common therapeutic technique used by Adler involved asking clients to describe their first memories, or early recollections  For Adler, early recollections provide clues to help understand a person’s current style of life  Early memories do not have a causal effect (as Freud suggested)  Instead, people reconstruct the events in these memories to make them consistent with a theme or pattern running through their life  In this way, early memories can help identify and illustrate conscious and unconscious strivings that are causing challenges in adjustment Evaluating Adler’s Theory  How do you think Adler’s theory relates to our evaluation categories  1) How much does it generate research?  2) Is it falsifiable?  3) Does it organize a wide range of relevant data?  4) Can it provide a guide for action or intervention?  5) How internally consistent is it?  6) Is it parsimonious?