MODULE 3 – Freudian and Neo-Freudian Approaches

Personality refers to the relatively enduring characteristics that differentiate one person from
another and that lead people to act in a consistent and predictable manner, both in different
situations and over extended periods of time.
According to psychoanalysts, much of behavior is caused by parts of personality which are
found in the unconscious and of which we are unaware.
Freud’s 3 levels of awareness/consciousness:
 the conscious mind;
 the preconscious mind; and
 the unconscious mind.
CONSCIOUS
The conscious, as Freud defined the term, corresponds to its ordinary everyday meaning. It
includes all the sensations and experiences of which we are aware at any given moment.
Freud considered the conscious a limited aspect of personality.
PRECONSCIOUS
This is the storehouse of memories, perceptions, and thoughts of which we are not
consciously aware at the moment but that we can easily summon into consciousness. Things
we are not currently aware of but which we could focus on.
UNCONSCIOUS
The unconscious is the larger invisible portion below the surface. This is the focus of
psychoanalytic theory. It contains, however, the primary motivations for all of our biological
instinctual drives (such as for food and sex) and repressed unacceptable thoughts, memories,
and feelings, especially unresolved conflicts from our early childhood experiences
STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY
Freud’s theory suggest that personality is composed of id, ego, and superego.
ID- the unorganized, inborn part of personality whose purpose is to immediately reduce
tensions relating to hunger, sex, aggression, and other primitive impulses.
 The id uses the most primitive of thinking process.
 Basic biological urges (e.g., hunger, self-protection).
 The id operates on the Pleasure Principle.
 Seeks pleasure and avoids pain:“I want what I want NOW!”
 The id operates completely at an unconscious level.
 No direct contact with reality.
 The id has 2 major instincts:
Eros: life instinct = motivates people to focus on pleasure-seeking tendencies (e.g., sexual
urges).
Thanatos: death instinct = motivates people to use aggressive urges to destroy.
  The energy for the id instincts comes from the libido, (the energy storehouse).
EGO: restrains instinctual energy in order to maintain the safety of the individual and to help
the person to be a member of society.
- The ego consists of a conscious faculty for perceiving and dealing intelligently with
reality.
 The ego acts as a mediator between the id and the superego.
 The ego is partly conscious.
 Deals with the demands of reality.
 Makes rational decisions
The ego serves the ID:
 The rational part of personality that maintains contact with reality.
 Governed by ‘Reality Principle’
 “What consequences are there to my behavior?”
 The ego is the Executive of the personality
 The ego controls higher mental processes.
 Reasoning, problem solving.
 The ego uses these higher mental processes to help satisfy the urges of the ID
SUPEREGO: the rights and wrongs of society and consists of the conscience and the ego-
ideal.
 Superego: the moral part of personality.
 Internalized rules of parents and society.
 Superego consists of two parts:
 Works on moral principle
Conscience: “notions of right/wrong.”
Ego Ideal: “how we ideally like to be.”
 Superego: constrains us from gratifying every impulse (e.g., murder) because they are
immoral, and not because we might get caught.
 Superego: partly conscious, partly unconscious
According to Freud, an individual’s feelings, thoughts, and behaviors are the result of the
interaction of the id, the superego, and the ego.
The id, the ego, and the superego are continually in conflict with one another.
 This conflict generates anxiety.
 If the ego did not effectively handle the resulting anxiety, people would be so
overwhelmed with anxiety that they would not be able to carry on with the tasks of
everyday living.
 The ego tries to control anxiety (i.e., to reduce anxiety) through the use of ego defense
mechanisms.
DEFENCE MECHANISMS
Defense mechanism is a psychology tendency that the ego uses to help prevent people from
becoming overwhelmed by any conflict (and resulting anxiety) among the id, the ego, and the
superego.
Defense mechanisms operate at an unconscious level:
 We are not aware of them during the time that we are actually using them.
 However, we may later become aware of their previous operation and use.
 To minimize the anxiety due to the conflict between the id and the superego, the ego
uses
defense mechanisms.
Unconscious methods of minimizing anxiety by denying and distorting reality
 Repression (forgetting)- pushing unacceptable and anxiety-producing
thoughts into the unconscious; involves intentional forgetting but not
consciously done; repressed material can be memories or unacceptable
impulses. A rape victim cannot recall the details of the attack
 REGRESSION - acting in ways characteristic of earlier life
stages/earlier stage of personality. A young adult, anxious on a trip to
his parents/ home, sits in the corner reading comic books, as he often
did in grade school.
 Denial (ignoring) - : claiming and believing that something which is
actually true is false. A person disbelieves that she is age, asserting that
“I am not getting older.
 Projection (attributing to others) - attributing one’s own
unacceptable feelings or beliefs to others; perceiving the external
world in terms of one’s own personal conflicts. An employee at a store,
tempted to steal some merchandise, suspects that other employees are
stealing.
 DISPLACEMENT- redirecting emotional feelings (e.g., anger) to a
substitute target; involves directing unacceptable impulses onto a less
threatening object/person. A husband, angry at the way his boss treated
him, screams at his children. Instead of telling your professor what you
really think of her, you tailgate and harass a slow driver on your way
home from school.
 REACTION FORMATION (CONVERTING TO ITS
OPPOSITE)- replacing an anxiety-producing feeling with its exact
opposite, typically going overboard; repressed thoughts appear as
mirror opposites. A man who is anxious about his interest in gay men
begins dating women several times a week
 Rationalization (making excuses) - creating false but believable
excuses to justify inappropriate behavior; real motive for behavior is
 not accepted by ego. A student cheats on an exam, explaining that
cheating is legitimate on an unfair examination
 Sublimation (channeling into acceptable outlets) - substitute socially
acceptable behavior for unacceptable impulses. Playing video games
instead of getting in a fight.
Freud: Stages of Personality Development
 Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality suggests that personality develops
through a series of stages, each of which is associated with a major biological
function.
 More specifically, Freud theorized that as people age, they pass through several
systematic stages of psychosexual development in their personality.
 The stages of personality development involve critical events that occur in every
child’s life.
 At each level, there is a conflict between pleasure and reality.
 The resolution of this conflict determines personality.
 At any stage “fixation” can occur:
 If needs are either under-gratified or over-gratified, we become fixated at a particular
stage.
 Each stage also involves an erogenous zone.
 Parts of the body that involve sexual pleasure.
Oral stage: the oral state is the first period, occurring during the first year of life.
 Time period: Birth to 18 months
 Gratification through sucking and swallowing.
 Oral fixation has two possible outcomes.
 Oral receptive personality:
- Preoccupied with eating/drinking.
- Reduce tension through oral activity.
- eating, drinking, smoking, biting nails
- Passive and needy; sensitive to rejection.
 Oral aggressive personality:
- Hostile and verbally abusive to others.
ANAL STAGE -
 Time period: 1 1/2 to 3 years of age.
 Erogenous zone is the anus.
 Conflict surrounds toilet training.
 Anal fixation has two possible outcomes.
 Anal retentive personality - Stingy, compulsive orderliness, stubborn, perfectionistic.
 Anal expulsive personality. - Lack of self control, messy, careless
PHALLIC STAGE - the phallic stages follows, with interest focusing on the genitals.
 Time period: 3 to 6 years.
  Erogenous zone is the genitals: self-stimulation of the genitals produces pleasure.
 At age 5 or 6, near the end of the phallic stage, children experience the Oedipal
conflict (boys)/the Electra conflict (girls)--a process through which they learn to
identify with the same gender parent by acting as much like that parent as possible.
 Oedipus complex (boys) vs Electra complex (girls)
 Child is sexually attracted to the other sex parent and wishes to replace the same sex
parent
 Castration anxiety: Son believes father knows about his desire for mom. Fears dad
will castrate him. Represses his desire and defensively identifies with dad.
 Electra complex (little girls):
 Penis envy: Daughter is initially attached to mom. Shift of attachment occurs when
she realizes she lacks a penis. She desires dad whom she sees as a means to obtain a
penis substitute (a child).
 Represses her desire for dad.
 incorporates the values of her mother , accepts her inherent “inferiority” in society
LATENCY PERIOD: then follows the latency period lasting until puberty.
 During the latency period, little girls and little boys try to socialize only with
members of their own gender.
 Freud posits that children do this so as to help minimize the awareness of “sexuality.”
 Thus, they continue the process of sexual repression that began in the previous stage
(for those who successfully made it through the Oedipal Complex/Electra Complex).
GENITAL STAGE: after puberty, people move into the genital stage, a period of mature
sexuality.
 When adolescence begin puberty, they enter the 5th stage of psychosexual
development.
 They develop secondary sexual characteristics (e.g., pubic hair).
 The onset of the physical sexual characteristics “re-awakens” people sexual urges, and
thus they are no longer able to successfully repress their sexual desires, impulses, and
urges.
 They begin searching for a marital mate, with whom they can share sex and intimacy.
Freud’s psychoanalytic theory has provoked a number of criticisms.
a lack of supportive scientific data;
 the theory’s inadequacy in making predictions; and
 its limitations owing to the restricted population on which it is based.
 Still, the theory remains popular.For instance, the neo-Freudian psychoanalytic
theorists built upon Freud’s work, although they placed greater emphasis on the role
of the ego and paid greater attention to social factors in determining behavior.
Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development
What is Psychosocial Development?
Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development is one of the best-known theories of
personality in psychology. Much like Sigmund Freud, Erikson believed that personality
develops in a series of stages. Unlike Freud’s theory of psychosexual stages, Erikson’s theory
describes the impact of social experience across the whole lifespan. One of the main elements
of Erikson’s psychosocial stage theory is the development of ego identity.
1. Ego identity is the conscious sense of self that we develop through social interaction.
According to Erikson, our ego identity is constantly changing due to new experience
and information we acquire in our daily interactions with others. In addition to ego
identity, Erikson also believed that a sense of competence also motivates behaviors
and actions. Each stage in Erikson’s theory is concerned with becoming competent in
an area of life. If the stage is handled well, the person will feel a sense of mastery,
which he sometimes referred to as ego strength or ego quality.
2. If the stage is managed poorly, the person will emerge with a sense of inadequacy. In
each stage, Erikson believed people experience a conflict that serves as a turning point
in development. In Erikson’s view, these conflicts are centered on either developing a
psychological quality or failing to develop that quality. During these times, the
potential for personal growth is high, but so is the potential for failure.
Psychosocial Stage 1 - Trust vs. Mistrust
 The first stage of Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development occurs between birth
and one year of age and is the most fundamental stage in life.
 Because an infant is utterly dependent, the development of trust is based on the
dependability and quality of the child’s caregivers.
 If a child successfully develops trust, he or she will feel safe and secure in the world.
Caregivers who are inconsistent, emotionally unavailable, or rejecting contribute to
feelings of mistrust in the children they care for. Failure to develop trust will result in
fear and a belief that the world is inconsistent and unpredictable.
Psychosocial Stage 2 - Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
 The second stage of Erikson's theory of psychosocial development takes place during
early childhood and is focused on children developing a greater sense of personal
control.
 Like Freud, Erikson believed that toilet training was a vital part of this process.
However, Erikson's reasoning was quite different then that of Freud's. Erikson
believe that learning to control one’s body functions leads to a feeling of control and
a sense of independence.
 Other important events include gaining more control over food choices, toy
preferences, and clothing selection.
 Children who successfully complete this stage feel secure and confident, while those
who do not are left with a sense of inadequacy and self-doubt.
Psychosocial Stage 3 - Initiative vs. Guilt
 During the preschool years, children begin to assert their power and control over the
world through directing play and other social interaction.
  Children who are successful at this stage feel capable and able to lead others. Those
who fail to acquire these skills are left with a sense of guilt, self-doubt and lack of
initiative.
Psychosocial Stage 4 - Industry vs. Inferiority
 This stage covers the early school years from approximately age 5 to 11.
 Through social interactions, children begin to develop a sense of pride in their
accomplishments and abilities.
 Children who are encouraged and commended by parents and teachers develop a
feeling of competence and belief in their skills. Those who receive little or no
encouragement from parents, teachers, or peers will doubt their ability to be
successful.
Psychosocial Stage 5 - Identity vs. Confusion
 During adolescence, children are exploring their independence and developing a sense
of self.
 Those who receive proper encouragement and reinforcement through personal
exploration will emerge from this stage with a strong sense of self and a feeling of
independence and control.
 Those who remain unsure of their beliefs and desires will insecure and confused about
themselves and the future.
Psychosocial Stage 6 - Intimacy vs. Isolation
 This stage covers the period of early adulthood when people are exploring personal
relationships.
 Erikson believed it was vital that people develop close, committed relationships with
other people. Those who are successful at this step will develop relationships that are
committed and secure.
 Remember that each step builds on skills learned in previous steps. Erikson believed
that a strong sense of personal identity was important to developing intimate
relationships. Studies have demonstrated that those with a poor sense of self tend to
have less committed relationships and are more likely to suffer emotional isolation,
loneliness, and depression.
Psychosocial Stage 7 - Generativity vs. Stagnation
 During adulthood, we continue to build our lives, focusing on our career and family.
 Those who are successful during this phase will feel that they are contributing to the
world by being active in their home and community. Those who fail to attain this
skill will feel unproductive and uninvolved in the world.
Psychosocial Stage 8 - Integrity vs. Despair
 This phase occurs during old age and is focused on reflecting back on life.
 Those who are unsuccessful during this phase will feel that their life has been wasted
and will experience many regrets. The individual will be left with feelings of
bitterness and despair.
  Those who feel proud of their accomplishments will feel a sense of integrity.
Successfully completing this phase means looking back with few regrets and a
general feeling of satisfaction. These individuals will attain wisdom, even when
confronting death
CARL JUNG: ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY
 Broke from traditional psychoanalysis and rests on the assumption that occult
phenomenon can and do influence the lives of everyone.
 Jung believed that each of us is motivated not only by repressed experiences but also
by certain emotionally toned experiences inherited from our ancestors. These
inherited images make up the collective unconscious. The CU includes those elements
that we have never experienced individually but which have come down to us from
our ancestors.
This theory includes:
 Archetypes – The most inclusive archetype is self-realization and can be viewed as a
balance between various opposing forces of personality. It is a compendium of
opposites (introverted/extraverted, rational/irrational, male/female,
conscious/unconscious, past events/future expectations).

Levels of the Psyche

 Like Freud, Jung believed that the mind had both conscious and unconscious levels.
 Jung strongly asserted that the most important part of the unconscious springs not
from personal experiences of the individual but from the distant past of human
existence, a concept called the collective unconscious.
 Of lesser importance to Jung are the conscious and the personal unconscious.
Conscious
 Images are those that are sensed by the ego
 The unconscious elements have no relationship to the ego
 Jung’s notion of the ego is more restrictive than Freud. For Jung, the ego is not the
whole personality but must be completed by the more comprehensive self, the center
of the personality is largely unconscious
 In a psychologically healthy person, the ego takes a secondary position to the
unconscious self
 Consciousness plays a relatively small role in analytic psychology
 An overemphasis on expanding one’s conscious psyche can lead to psychological
imbalance
 Healthy individuals are in contact with the conscious world but also allow themselves
to experience their unconscious self
 When this happens the individual can then achieve individuation
Personal Unconscious
  The personal unconscious embraces all repressed, forgotten, or subliminally perceived
experiences from one particular individual
 The personal unconscious is similar to Freud’s view of the unconscious and the
preconscious combined
 Contents of the personal unconscious are called complexes
 These are emotionally toned conglomerations of associated ideas
 For example, the concept of “mother”
 Complexes may be partly conscious and may stem from both personal and the
collective unconscious
Collective Unconscious
 Has roots in the deep ancestral past of the entire species
 These include distant ancestor’s experiences with universal concepts like God,
mother, water, earth, that are transmitted through the generations so that people in
every time have been influenced by their primate ancestor’s primordial experiences
 The contents of the collective unconscious are the same (more or less) for people of
every culture!
 It is human’s innate tendency to react in a particular way whenever their experiences
stimulate a biologically inherited response tendency (like a mother’s unlearned or
unlikely response of love toward her newborn)
 Initially contact with these images are forms without content but with practice the
content emerges and become relatively autonomous images called archetypes
Archetypes
Archetypes are ancient or archaic images that derive from the collective unconscious. They
are similar in that they are emotionally toned collections of associated images. While
complexes are individualized components of the personal unconscious, archetypes are
generalized and derive from the contents of the collective unconscious. The potential for
countless numbers of archetypes exists within each person, and when a personal experience
corresponds to the latent primordial image, the archetype becomes activated.
Archetypes are expressed indirectly and, when activated, it expresses itself through dreams,
fantasies, and delusions. Dreams are the main source of archetypal materials and offer what
Jung considered proof for the existence of archetypes.
Anima is the feminine side of men and originates in the collective unconscious as an archetype and
remains extremely resistant to consciousness.

 Few men become well acquainted with the anima because this task requires great courage
and is even more difficult to become acquainted with than their shadow.
 To master the projection of the anima, men must overcome intellectual barriers, delve into
the far recesses of their unconscious, and realize the feminine side of their personality.
 Jung believed that the anima originated from early men’s experiences with women including
mothers, sisters, and lovers which combine into the concept of women.
 At times the archetype of anima is an image and at other times it is represented as a feeling
or a mood.
Animus is the masculine side of women and originates in the collective unconscious as an archetype
that, too, is resistant to consciousness.

 The animus is symbolic of thinking and reasoning and is capable of influencing the thinking
of women yet it does not belong to her.
 It belongs to the collective unconscious and originates from the encounters of prehistoric
women with men.
 Animus originates from early women’s experiences with men including fathers, brothers,
and lovers that are combined into the concept of men.

Both the anima and animus can influence the relationship of men and women with partners.

DYNAMICS OF PERSONALITY
Jung insisted that human behavior is shaped by both causal and teleological fprces and that
causal explanations must be balanced by teleological ones. Adaptation to the outside world
involves the forward flow of psychic energy called progression while adaptation to the inner
world relies on a backward flow of psychic energy is called regression.
Progression inclines a person to react consistently to a given set of environmental conditions,
whereas regression is a necessary backward step in the successful attainment of a goal.
Balance of both regression and progression leads to health personality development
Psychological Types
Various psychological types grow out of the union of two basic attitudes (introversion and
extraversion) and four separate functions (thinking, feeling, sensing, and intuiting).
Attitudes
Attitude is a predisposition to act or react in a characteristic direction. Introversion is the
turning inward of psychic energy with an orientation toward the subjective Extraversion is
the turning outward of psychic energy so that a person is oriented toward the objective and
away from the subjective People are neither one nor the other but, rather, a balance of both
Functions
These four functions are combined with the two attitudes to form eight possible orientations.
 Sensing tells people that something exists
 Thinking enables them to recognize its meaning
 Feeling tells them its value or worth
 Intuiting allow them to know about it without knowing how they know
The four functions usually appear in a hierarchy, with one occupying a superior position,
another a secondary position, and the other two inferior positions. Most people cultivate only
one function, so they characteristically approach a situation relying on the one dominant or
superior function. Some people develop two functions, and a few very mature individuals
have cultivated three. A person who has theoretically achieved self-realization or
individuation would have all four functions highly developed.
Analytical psychology is essentially a psychology of opposites, and self-realization is the
process of integrating the opposite poles into a single homogeneous individual. This
 process of “coming to selfhood” means that a person has all psychological components
functioning in unity, with no psychic processes atrophying. People who have gone
through this process have achieved realization of the self, minimized their persona,
recognized their anima or animus, and acquired a workable balance between introversion
and extraversion. In addition, these selfrealized individual have elevated all four of the
functions to a superior position, an extremely difficult accomplishment.
Psychotherapy
Word Association Test (responses reveal complexes)
Dream Analysis (reflect a variety of complexes and concepts)
 Proof of the collective unconscious
Active Imagination (requires the person to begin with an impression like a dream, image,
vision, picture, fantasy, and to concentrate on it until the impression begins to move). Follow
the image and try to communicate with it no matter where it goes.

Critique
 Nearly impossible to verify or falsify
 Difficult to test empirically
 Generated a moderate amount of research
 Moderate rating on organizing research
 Low rating on practicality
 Has some internal consistent but terms can have more than one meaning
 Low internal consistency
 Low rating on parsimony
 Neither optimistic nor pessimistic
 Neither deterministic nor purposive
 Both conscious and unconscious
 Motivation is both causal and teleological
 Has a clear biological orientation
 Emphasizes highly the similarities among people
 Low on individual differences
ALFRED ADLER- INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY
Adler stressed a positive view of human nature. He believed that individuals can control their
fate. They can do this in part by trying to help others (social interest). How they do this can
be understood through analyzing their lifestyle. Early interactions with family members,
peers, and teachers help to determine the role of inferiority and superiority in their lives.
INFERIORITY FEELINGS ‘
Adler proposed that inferiority feelings are the source of all human striving. Individual
growth results from compensation, from our attempts to overcome our real or imagined
inferiorities. Throughout our lives, we are driven by the need to overcome this sense of
inferiority and to strive for increasingly higher levels of development.
The process begins in infancy. Infants are small and helpless and are totally dependent on
adults. Adler believed that the infant is aware of his or her parents’ greater power and
strength and of the hopelessness of trying to resist or challenge that power. As a result, the
infant develops feelings of inferiority relative to the larger, stronger people around him or
her.
The Inferiority Complex
 A condition that develops when a person is unable to compensate for normal
inferiority feelings.
 An inferiority complex can arise from three sources in childhood: organic inferiority,
spoiling, and neglect.
The Superiority Complex
 A condition that develops when a person overcompensates for normal inferiority
feelings.
 This involves an exaggerated opinion of one’s abilities and accomplishments.
 Such a person may feel inwardly self-satisfied and superior and show no need to
demonstrate his or her superiority with accomplishments.
STRIVING FOR SUCCESS AND SUPERIORITY
 Reduced all motivation to a single drive – the striving for success and superiority
 Everyone begins life with physical deficiencies that activate feelings of inferiority
 Psychologically unhealthy – strive for personal superiority
 Psychologically healthy – seek success for all humanity
 Early in his career, aggression was dynamic power behind motivation – became
dissatisfied with the term and replaced with masculine protest (the will to power or a
domination of others) and later changed to striving for superiority
 Striving for superiority –people who strive for personal superiority over others
 Striving for success – actions of people motivated by highly developed social interest
 Both are guided by final goal
THE FINAL GOAL
 Each person has the power to create a personalized fictional goal
o Provided by heredity and environment
o Product of creative power – ability to freely shape their behavior and create
their own personality
o The final goal reduces the pain of inferiority , feelings and points that person
in the direction of either superiority or success
THE STRIVING FORCE AS COMPENSATION
 People strive for superiority or success as a means of compensation for feelings of
inferiority or weakness
 The striving force is innate but its nature and direction are due to feelings of
inferiority and to the goal of superiority
 Without the innate movement toward perfection , children would never feel inferior,
but without feelings of inferiority they would never set goal of superiority or success
STRIVING FOR PERSONAL SUPERIORITY
 People strive for superiority with little or no concern for others
 Goals are personal ones and strivings are motivated by exaggerated feelings of
personal inferiority or presence of inferiority complex. Ex: murderers, thieves and
con artists
 Some people create clever disguises for their personal striving and may consciously or
unconsciously hide their self centeredness behind social concern – self serving and
motivated by overcompensation for exaggerated feelings of personal superiority
Striving for success
 Healthy individuals concerned with goals beyond themselves – capable of helping
others without demanding or expecting a personal payoff – able to see others not as
opponents but as people with whom they can cooperate for social benefit
 Their own success is not gained at the expense of others but is a natural tendency to
move toward completion or perfection
 They maintain a sense of self – seldom see problems from point of view of society’s
development than from a strictly personal vantage point
 Social progress is more important to them than personal credit
Subjective perceptions
 People strive for superiority or success to compensate for feelings of inferiority but
the manner in which they strive is not shaped by reality but by their subjective
perceptions of reality – their fictions or expectations of the future
Fictional Finalism
 Adler applied the term fictionalism to the idea that we have an ultimate goal, a
fictional state of being, and a need to move toward it.
 The goals for which we strive, however, are potentialities, not actualities. In other
words, we strive for ideals that exist in us subjectively.
 Adler believed that our goals are fictional or imagined ideals that cannot be tested
against reality. We live our lives around ideals such as the belief that all people are
created equal or that all people are basically good.
 These beliefs influence the ways we perceive and interact with other people
  Adler formalized this concept as fictional finalism, the notion that fictional ideas
guide our behavior as we strive toward a complete or whole state.
 There are two additional points about striving for superiority.
 First, it increases rather than reduces tension. Unlike Freud, Adler did not believe that
our sole motivation was to reduce tension. Striving for perfection requires great
expenditures of energy and effort, a condition quite different from equilibrium or a
tension-free state.
 Second, the striving for superiority is manifested both by the individual and by
society. Most of us are social beings.
 We strive for superiority or perfection not only as individuals but also as members of
a group. We try to achieve the perfection of our culture.
STYLE OF LIFE ‘
 The ultimate goal for each of us is superiority or perfection, but we try to attain that
goal through many different behavior patterns.
 Each of us expresses the striving differently. We develop a unique pattern of
characteristics, behaviors, and habits, which Adler called a distinctive character, or
style of life.
 style of life is a unique character structure or pattern of personal behaviors and
characteristics by which each of us strives for perfection. Basic styles of life include
the dominant, getting, avoiding, and socially useful types. style of life A unique
character structure or pattern of personal behaviors and characteristics by which each
of us strives for perfection. Basic styles of life include the dominant, getting,
avoiding, and socially useful types.
 To understand how the style of life develops, we return to the concepts of inferiority
feelings and compensation. Infants are afflicted with inferiority feelings that motivate
them to compensate for helplessness and dependency. In these attempts at
compensation, children acquire a set of behaviors.
 For example, the sickly child may strive to increase physical prowess by running or
lifting weights. These behaviors become part of the style of life, a pattern of behaviors
designed to compensate for inferiority.
 The style of life is learned from social interactions that occur in the early years of life.
 The style of life becomes the guiding framework for all later behaviors.
 As we noted, its nature depends on social interactions, especially the person’s order of
birth within the family and the nature of the parent–child relationship.
CREATIVE POWER OF SELF
 A dynamic concept of implying movement which is the most salient
characteristic of life
 Psychic life involves movement toward a goal
 People are creative beings much more than a product of heredity and
environment who do not only react to their environment but also act on it and
cause it to react to them
 Adler used the analogy “ the law of the doorway”
Adler described several universal problems and grouped them in three categories:
1. Problems involving our behavior toward others
2. Problems of occupation.
3. Problems of love
He proposed four basic styles of life for dealing with these problems:
1. The dominant type - displays a dominant or ruling attitude with little social
awareness. Such a person behaves without regard for others. The more extreme of this
type attack others and become sadists, delinquents, or sociopaths. The less virulent
become alcoholics, drug addicts, or suicides; they believe they hurt others by
attacking themselves
2. The getting type - The getting type (to Adler, the most common human type) expects
to receive satisfaction from other people and so becomes dependent on them.
3. The avoiding type- The avoiding type makes no attempt to face life’s problems.. By
avoiding difficulties, the person avoids any possibility of failure.
4. The socially useful- cooperates with others and acts in accordance with their needs.
Such persons cope with problems within a well-developed framework of social
interest.
SOCIAL INTEREST
 Gemeinschaftsgefuhl – German term for social interest
 Social interest
attitude of relatedness with humanity as well as empathy for each member of the human
community
Natural condition of the human species and the adhesive that binds society together
 A person with well developed social interest strives not for personal superiority but
for the perfection for all people in an ideal community.
 The natural inferiority of individuals necessitates their joining together to form a
society.
 Social interest is a necessity for perpetuating the human species.
Without protection and nourishment from a father or mother, a baby would perish
Without protection from the family or clan, our ancestors would have been destroyed by
animals that were stronger .
IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL INTEREST
 Social interest is the only gauge to be used in judging the worth of a person
 People who posses social interest are psychologically mature
 Immature people lack social interest are self-centered and strive for personal power
over others
  Healthy individuals are genuinely concerned with about people and have a goal of
success that encompasses the well being of all people
 Social interest is not synonymous with charity and unselfishness

BIRTH ORDER
Even though siblings have the same parents and live in the same house, they do not have
identical social environments. Being older or younger than one’s siblings and being exposed
to differing parental attitudes create different childhood conditions that help determine
personality.
ONLY CHILD
 Only child are more likely to be pampered because the parents have probably invested
all of their love and energy into this one and only child, this child is usually extremely
taken care of
 Sometimes this excessive care can lead to anxiety-filled control because the child is
the pride and joy of the parents.
 If the parents are abusive, the child will suffer the consequences of abuse all alone
FIRST CHILD
 The first step of this child’s life is as an only child
 The child will be used to complete attention given to him/her
 When the second child comes and “dethrones” the first child, this child often battles
for his/her lost position
 The child may act like a baby and cry, refusing to grow up
 Some may become disobedient and rebellious
 Adler believed the eldest child is more likely than any other to become a problem
child
 On the positive side – they tend to be solitary and more conservative
 They are also extremely caring with the rest of the family and extremely responsible
SECOND CHILD
 This child has the role as the “pace-setter”
 He/she will often be very competitive, constantly trying to outdo the eldest child –
they also often succeed
  They still feel often throughout their whole lives that the race is never complete and
tend to dream of constantly running without getting anywhere
YOUNGEST CHILD
 Most likely to be most pampered in the family with more than one child – this child is
never ‘dethroned’ that’s why!
 Youngest children are often the second most likely source of problem children after
the first children
 They may also incredibly feel inferior with everyone being older, thus “superior”
 The youngest are often very social and confident and usually funnier