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                  Subject                  PSYCHOLOGY 
                  Paper No and Title       Paper No 5: Personality Theories 
                  Module No and Title      Module No 11: Individual Psychology: Alfred Adler 
                  Module Tag               PSY_P5_M11 
                                                                                                     
                  TABLE OF CONTENTS                  
                  1.     Learning Outcomes 
                  2.     Introduction 
                  3.     Biographical Sketch 
                  4.     Adlerian Theory 
                  5.     The striving for superiority 
                                  5.1 Fictional Finalism 
                                  5.2 The Striving Force as compensation for Inferiority Feelings 
                        6.   The subjective perceptions 
                        7.   The unity and self-consistency of personality                                         
                                  7.1 Organ inferiority 
                                  7.2 Conscious and unconscious 
       PSYCHOLOGY                   Paper No 5: Personality Theories 
                                    Module No 11: Individual Psychology: Alfred Adler 
                   
                                  
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                8.   The social interest 
                9.   The style of life 
               10.  The creative power 
               11.  Typology 
               12.  The birth order 
               13.   Evaluative comments 
                          13.1 Criticism and controversies 
                          13.2 Contributions 
               14.   Summary 
             
           
    PSYCHOLOGY      Paper No 5: Personality Theories 
                    Module No 11: Individual Psychology: Alfred Adler 
           
                                                            
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                 1.  Learning Outcomes 
                 After studying this module, you shall be able to 
                      Know about Alfred Adler’s individual psychology. 
                      Learn about an individual’s uniqueness and the social dynamics. 
                      Identify the role of social environment in shaping an individual’s personality. 
                      Evaluate the various external factors  that  act  on  an  individual  in  contrast  to  Freud’s               
                 unconscious determinism. 
                      Analyze what constitutes the personality make-up. 
                 2. Introduction 
                 The image of human nature shaped by Alfred Adler didn't describe individuals as affected by 
                 instincts and conflicts or condemned by biological forces and by the experiences of their childhood. 
                 He termed this approach as individual psychology as it centered the rareness of every individual. 
                 According to Adler, Individual psychology is “a science that attempts to understand the experiences 
                 and behavior of each person as an organized entity”.  According to Adler, people are born with 
                 inferior bodies and this leads to feelings of inferiority, which serves as a main source of human 
                 striving. To Adler, It is not the unconscious but the conscious which is at the core of personality. 
                 Instead  of  being  forced  by  instinctual  drives,  individuals  are  actively  engaged  in  creating 
                 themselves and directing their future. 
                  3. Biographical Sketch 
                  The Life of Alfred Adler (1870–1937) 
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                 On February 7 , 1870 Alfred Adler was born in Rudolfsheim in Vienna. Adler had a stigmatized 
                 early childhood due to illness, jealousy of his older brother and an awareness of death. He suffered 
                 from rickets (it is a deficiency due to lack of vitamin D causing softening of the bones), not allowing 
                 him to play with other children. His younger brother expired at the age of 3. Due to pneumonia, at 
                 the age of 4, Adler himself was close to death. Consequently, Adler decided that the goal of his life 
                 would be to vanquish death. 
                 Adler envied his elder brother, who was healthier and more athletic than him, was able to indulge 
                 in  various sports and activities in which Adler could not do. As all the other children of his 
                 neighborhood and his brother seemed healthier and more spirited, Adler felt inferior to them. So he 
                 decided to work hard to overcome inferiority complex and his physical constraints. He gradually 
                 gained a sense of self-worth and social acceptance and he won over his feelings of inferiority. 
                 Although Adler fulfilled his childhood dreams of studying medicine at the University of Vienna, 
                 he graduated with a mediocre academic score. He practiced privately as an ophthalmologist but 
                 soon shifting to psychiatry and general medicine. 
                 Adler's nine-year association with Freud began when in the year 1902 when Freud invited Adler 
                 along with three other to meet once a week at his place to discuss psychoanalysis. This group 
      PSYCHOLOGY                   Paper No 5: Personality Theories 
                                   Module No 11: Individual Psychology: Alfred Adler 
                  
                                                            
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                 eventually became the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. Even despite being one of the members of 
                 Freud’s inner circle, Adler and Freud never had a smooth relationship. By 1910, although Adler 
                 was president of the Vienna Psychoanalytical Society and co-editor of its journal, he was also an 
                 increasingly vocal critic of Freudian theory. Adler voiced his opposition to the strong sexual 
                 inclination of psychoanalysis and said that drive for superiority was a more basic motive than 
                 sexuality. Consequently breaking all connections with psychoanalysis and developing his own 
                 approach to personality. He also formed the society for Free Psychoanalytic Study, which was later 
                 called as Society for Individual Psychology. 
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                 In early months of 1937, while on speaking tour in the Netherland, Adler felt chest pains and on 28  
                 March, 1937 he died of heart attack. 
                   
                 4. Adlerian Theory 
                 The main tenets of Adlerian theory are as follows: 
                      The one driving force behind the behavior of people is striving for superiority. 
                      The subjective perceptions that people have, is the ultimate basis for their behavior and 
                 personality. 
                      People have a unified and self-consistent personality. 
                      The people’s style of life is the result of their self-consistent personality. 
                      The social interest is an innate potentiality that serves as a standard for determining the 
                 usefulness of life. 
                      An individual’s style of life is formed by his or her creative power. 
                     
                    All  these  tenets  will  be  discussed  in  full  detail  in  the  following  sections...  Inferiority 
                 Feelings-The 
                 5. The Striving for Superiority 
                 The first tenet of Adlerian theory is striving for superiority. According to Adler the one nonstative 
                 force motivating an individual's behavior is the striving for success or superiority. According to 
                 Adler,   every individual begins life with physical deficiencies that result in a sense of inferiority 
                 feelings within an individual. These feelings of inferiority act as a motivation for the individual to 
                 strive for superiority. 
                 Earlier, Adler believed aggression to be a dynamic force behind all motivation, but he soon rejected 
                 this  term  and  defined  masculine  protest  as  the  basic  motive  which  meant  will  to  power  or 
                 domination of others. Anyhow, soon he abandoned this term as well and defined striving for 
                 superiority as the driving force behind all behaviors. 
                  
                 Adler considered the motivation for superiority to be the fundamental fact of life. Striving for 
                 superiority is not an inflated opinion about an individual’s abilities and accomplishments nor is it 
                 an  attempt  to  be  better  than  others.  What  he  implied  was  that  the  striving  for  superiority  is 
                 instinctive. It is a basic urge in an individual comparable to Freud’s innate forces of eros and 
                 thanatos. It is fundamental and inborn in our nature. It is the ongoing effort towards a better 
                 adaptation between the world and man. 
      PSYCHOLOGY                   Paper No 5: Personality Theories 
                                   Module No 11: Individual Psychology: Alfred Adler