Most people are familiar with the concept that one's birth order can affect one's personality, but may be unaware that Alfred Adler is the brains behind the idea. Perhaps his most well-known contribution is the theory of birth order. In the following sections, we'll see that Alfred Adler had some novel ideas regarding topics beyond personality development, such as social interest and inferiority complex.
- First, we will look at Alfred Adler psychology.
- Next, we will glance at some Alfred Adler theories.
- Moving on, we will explore Alfred Adler theory of personality.
- Then, we will also consider the Alfred Adler inferiority complex theory.
- To conclude, we will go over the overall Alfred Adler psychology contributions.
Alfred Adler Psychology
On February 7, 1870, a baby named Alfred Adler was born into a Jewish family. He had a rough childhood, marked by frequent illness and poor eyesight. Adler's childhood was marked by several health challenges, including rickets, pneumonia, and two incidents in which he was run over in the street. Because of this, Adler vowed to become a doctor and worked hard in school.
Fig. 1 - Alfred Adler Psychology is called Individual Psychology.
He earned a medical degree at the University of Vienna in 1895, specializing in ophthalmology. Then he went into private practice, focusing on internal medicine. From his experience as a doctor in a community with a wide range of socioeconomic factors contributing to illness, he first wrote about the tailoring industry's effect on worker health.
Adler argued that the social contexts of people's lives impacted the diseases that afflicted them.
In 1902, Adler met Sigmund Freud when he defended Freud's book, The Interpretation of Dreams, which wasn't well received by the public. There, Adler joined the Psychoanalytic Society and became the group's first president. Unfortunately, in February 1911, Adler had to give up his position as president and his role as co-editor of a psychoanalytic journal because his ideas differed from Freud's.
Before he met Freud, Adler had already started to form these ideas, one of which is the divergent perspectives on repression. According to Adler, those who repress themselves have trouble integrating into society, which leads to neuroses. Repression is then used as a safety mechanism by neurotic people. On the other hand, Freud thought that people repress themselves to fit in with society, which can result in neurosis.
Adler and nine other members formed their group, The Society for Free Psychoanalytic Research, but later changed its name to "Individual Psychology" due to Freud's objections to the word "psychoanalytic." Alfred Adler psychology is renamed "Individual Psychology" to reflect the theory's central tenet—that each person is an integrated whole.
Alfred Adler Theories
Alfred Adler's individual psychology movement spawned theories that helped us better understand behavior.
Individual psychology: a psychological approach in which the whole of the individual, including their environment and the people in it, is the primary focus.
These theories included his personality and inferiority complex theory. Along with that, Alfred Adler's theories also consist of other ideas on lifestyle, teleology, social interest, psychological types, and birth order.
Alfred Adler Theories: Lifestyle
Lifestyle, or the style of life as Adler would call it, is what he describes as a person's individuality, meaning each individual is unique and expresses their identity in the environment. We each have a style of life that is our pattern or manner of how we live, including how we relate to others and solve our life problems.
Adler added that the style of life is not merely an automatic reaction to what we experience in our environment.
Alfred Adler Theories: Teleology
The idea of teleology, according to Adler, is that every person has goals and principles they want to work toward achieving in their life. These goals are further broken down into concrete and fictional goals.
Fictional goals are arbitrary representations of our desires, such as fame or attractiveness.
For instance, Jenny hopes to be the best in class. To be the best in class is the fictional goal.
Concrete goals, on the other hand, refer to specific goals that help us achieve our fictional goals.
For example, if Jenny's fictional goal is to be the best in class, her concrete goals might include getting high grades and involving herself in many school activities.
Alfred Adler Theories: Social interest
Adler describes "social interest" as the desire for collaboration and contributing to the well-being of others. Social interest also involves a feeling of belonging, empathy, and caring about other people.
According to Adler, having a social interest is something that is born in a person but can also be taught in the sense that parents and society as a whole need to encourage and foster it. Adler also stated that little to no social interest (e.g., criminals) indicates poor mental health. One's concept of success is limited to one's superiority when lacking social interest.
Alfred Adler Theories: Psychological Types
Aside from social interest, Adler classified people into four types based on the energy they expend in their pursuit of superiority.
Ruling type: have the strongest desire for power and often act aggressively or try to dominate those around them.
Leaning type: characterized by low energy and reliance on others to get through life's challenges. Under extreme stress, they typically exhibit neurotic tendencies like heightened anxiety.
Avoiding type: the least energetic and gets by in life by avoiding other people as much as possible. They may withdraw into themselves when pushed too far.
Socially useful type: active and possesses social interest. Adler stated that this type is valuable to society and is considered a healthy individual.
Alfred Adler Theories: Birth Order
Adler acknowledged the importance of birth order and the influence of siblings.
The firstborn is an only child at first and gets all the attention, but if there's a secondborn, the firstborn loses their place, which may influence their personality.
Firstborn children may resort to defiant or disruptive behavior to assert their position. According to Adler, firstborn children tend to be more traditional than the other siblings.
However, the second-born child often displays competitive tendencies out of an attempt to one-up their older sibling. According to Adler, the middle child may share some characteristics with the second child, including a tendency to compete with others (though not necessarily the older sibling).
The youngest child never experienced dethronement and received the most attention. However, the youngest may be more likely to be troublemakers and may feel inferior around people who are older than they.
Alfred Adler Theory of Personality
The Alfred Adler Theory of Personality primarily focuses on an individual's feelings of inferiority. This is because, according to Adler, our feelings of inferiority serve as the impetus for our functioning, motivating us to acquire power and overcome our inferiority.
Adler also described that a healthy individual with a well-adjusted personality is motivated by social interest, while selfish interests may drive an individual with a neurotic personality.
Supporters of Adler's theory also contend that as social interest grows, inferiority complexes and negative tendencies decline.
Adler is aware of the connection between our actions and pursuits, and how the former influences the latter.
For example, Adler proposed that we all have three primary life tasks: work, friendship, and love.
We have mastered our work tasks when we find purpose and fulfillment in what we do.
We have mastered our friendship tasks when we have good relationships with other people.
We have mastered our love tasks when we love ourselves and other people.
Adler claims that only a highly active, socially useful type of person is capable of mastering all three activities.
Fig. 2 According to Adler, friendship is one of the most important life tasks.
Alfred Adler Inferiority Complex
The concepts of individual psychology include the Alfred Adler inferiority complex theory. Adler asserts that children experience feelings of inferiority as early as infancy, when they become aware of their frailty and reliance on people (like their parents or caregivers) who are stronger than they are. When a child is aware of their inferiority, they are motivated to strive for superiority to eventually overcome their weakness, which Adler refers to as compensation.
In other words, the child compensates for their feelings of inferiority. Adler continues by saying that our internal conflict between feelings of inferiority and a desire for superiority allows us to contribute positively to society.
Adler stated that pathological behavior stems from an inferiority complex and compensation.
Adler also mentioned "organic inferiority," which refers to feelings of inadequacy caused by a less developed body organ (e.g., eyes). The apparent lack of one organ is compensated for by increased activity in other organs. This encourages us to push ourselves further than we would if the affected organ were functioning normally. Adler refers to this as overcompensation.
For example, a woman born without arms learns to care for herself using her two feet.
It's also worth noting that different people's attitudes toward their organic inferiority can affect how they try to make up for it.
For example, a man who loves music but was born deaf may have a defeatist attitude and not do much to compensate for his inferiority. On the other hand, if he is brave and willing to learn, he will find ways to make up for his inferiority, allowing him to pursue his passion for music.
Alfred Adler Quotes
The individual feels at home in life and feels his existence to be worthwhile just so far as he is useful to others and is overcoming feelings of inferiority (Alfred Adler, Problems of Neurosis, 1964).1
The cause of a neurosis is not that a person has experienced something, but that he cannot digest an experience due to the lack of his style of life of the ability to cooperate. . . (Alfred Adler, The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler: A Systematic Presentation in Selections from His Writings, 1956).2
To be a human being means to have inferiority feelings. One recognizes one’s own
powerlessness in the face of nature. One sees death as the irrefutable consequence of existence. But in the mentally healthy person this inferiority feeling acts as a motive for productivity, as a motive for attempting to overcome obstacles, to maintain oneself in life. Only the oversized inferiority feeling, which is to be regarded as the outcome of a failure in upbringing, burdens the character with oversensitivity, leads to egotistical self-considerations and self-reflections, lays the foundation for neurosis with all its known symptoms which let life become a torture (Alfred Adler, Superiority and Social Interest: A collection of later writings, 1973).3
Alfred Adler - Key takeaways
- Alfred Adler introduced individual psychology with its primary focus on the individual as an integrated whole.
- Social interest is the desire for collaboration and contributing to the well-being of others. Adler claimed that those lacking in social interest are only driven toward personal superiority, which is a sign of poor mental health.
- Alfred Adler also thought birth order influences one’s personality. The firstborn tends to be more traditional than other siblings, the second born may display competitive tendencies, and the youngest child may feel inferior around those older than them.
- Alfred Adler’s theory of personality states that a healthy individual can adjust to their environment and is motivated by social interests. In comparison, an individual with a neurotic personality may be self-centered.
- The idea of the theory of inferiority complex is that people tend to compensate for their feelings of inferiority. A person’s attitude toward perceived inferiority can affect how they try to make up for it.
References
- Adler, A. (1964). Problems of neurosis. Harper Torchbooks.
- Adler, A. (1956). The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler: A Systematic Presentation in Selections from His Writings. Edited by H.L. Ansbacher & R.R. Ansbacher. New York: Harper and Row
- Adler, A. (1973). Superiority and Social Interest: A collection of later writings. Edited by H. L. Ansbacher & R. R. Ansbacher. New York: Viking Press.
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