Alfred Adler (1870-1937) was an Austrian psychiatrist who founded the school of individual psychology. Some key aspects of Adler's theories include: (1) He believed human behavior is determined by social forces rather than biological instincts. (2) He focused on conscious rather than unconscious determinants of behavior. (3) Adler proposed people are motivated by their perception of the future rather than past experiences. Adler made significant contributions to personality and motivation theories but his work also received criticisms for lacking empirical validation and precise definitions.

1. ALFRED ADLER (1870-1937)

2. LIFE SKETCH
➔ BIRTH : on 7 February 1870, Vienna, Austria.
➔ DEATH : 28 May 1937, Aberdeen, Scotland.
EARLY LIFE
● He was the 2nd child of a wealthy Jewish Merchant family.
● His childhood was marked by illness, jealousy for his brother an rejection by
mother so rejected the idea of Oedipus complex.
● At age 4, he recovered pneumonia and intended to become physician.
● Worked intensely academically and socially on self-esteem & acceptance from
peers.
● Inferiority at his core system reflects his childhood, Adler acknowledged

3. Life Sketch
1895
1902
1910
Received medical degree, specialised in Opthalamology and
practiced medicine.
Became interested in Psychiatry and joined Vienna Psychological
Society under Freud.
Became the President of Psychoanalytical Society.

4. Life sketch
Resigned from the society with 6 other followers.
1914-1918
1920
During World War l, served as Physician and opened child
guidance clinics.
Developed Individual Psychology
1911

5. Life Sketch
1937
1937 Died on the lecture tour in Aberdeen, Scotland.
Settled to US and appointed as professor of Medical college at
New York.

6. INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY
● He believed that human behaviour is determined largely by social forces not
biological instincts.
● Social interest : is an innate potential to cooperate with others to achieve
personal & societal goals. Our social interest devops in infancy through
learning experiences.
● He focused on conscious rather than unconscious determinants of
behaviour. Where as Freud associated present with past experiences.
● He also believed that we are more strongly affected by our plans of our
future. Striving for goals or anticipating coming events can influence present
behaviour.
● For example: Person fears eternal damnation after death is likely to behave
differently from a person with a different expectation.

7. ● He believed that we should see person as a whole rather than a part.
● Where as Freud divide personality into separate parts (id, ego & superego).
Adler emphasized the unity of personality & consistency of personality.
● He posited an innate, dynamic force that channels the personality’s resources
toward an overriding goal.
● Superiority (in the sense of perception) represents a complete development
& fulfillment of the self.
● Adler believed in equality for sexes & supported the women’s emancipation
movements of the day.
INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY

8. ORGAN INFERIORITY AND
COMPENSATION
● Paper : The Study of Organ Inferiority and its Psychical Compensations (1907)
● People having some kind of organ inferiority (such as poor vision, hearing etc)
try to compensate by developing excellence in other fields. Eg. Surdas (blind,
famous poet)
● Attitude matters - may try to compensate or may remain satisfied by defensive
measures.
● In 1910, extended the concept, inferiority feelings are innate and hence
universal.
● The feeling of inferiority give birth to the striving for superiority & that gives
'upward drive' from 'below to above'. Thus it is feeling of inferiority and not
defective organ that motivates.
ORGAN INFERIORITY & COMPENSATION

9. Masculine Protest
● Striving to be strong and powerful as a compensation for feeling of being
inferior and unmanly.
● To be masculine means to be superior and to be feminine means to be inferior.
● Later on, replaces the concept of masculine protest by striving for superiority.
Now referred to the protest woman expressed against their feminine role.
● Women, being weaker than men, wish for qualities and privileges regarded in
our society as important and dominant such as strength, courage, sexual
freedom etc.

10. STRIVING FOR SUCCESS OR SUPERIORITY
● In 1908, Adler stated that aggression was the dynamic power behind all
motivation- become dissatisfied with the term and replaced with
masculine protest.
By 1912, he changed the concept to striving for superiority .
Later in Adler’s writings this term was modified as striving for success or
superiority.
● It refers to basic urge to move towards getting perception. This may
include :
Striving
for
success
Striving
for
superiority

11. STRIVING FOR SUCCESS OR SUPERIORITY
● Striving for success : Actions of people motivated by highly developed social
interest.
○ It is innate, must be developed & remains present at birth.
○ It is a single motive that shapes other drives.
● Striving for superiority : People who strive for personal superiority over
others.
○ universal drive found in both normal & neurotic individuals.
○ However, the path adopted by these 2 types of people in arriving at
goal differs.
○ The neurotic people - path of exaggerated personal superiority
○ mentally healthy people -path of social interest or perfection for
everyone.

12. SOCIAL INTEREST
● Social interest may be defined as an innate potential to cooperate with others
to achieve personal and societal goals.
● Adler believed we are more strongly affected by our plans for future.
● He focused on conscious determinants of behaviour.
● It is the social interest that motivates the person to strive for success in healthy
way.
● There are people who never develop social interest and among them
exaggerated personal superiority dominates.

13. ● Adler believe that everyone wants to achieve superiority or perfection, but have different
ways to achieve that goal or drive.
● Style of life is a person's unique way of arriving at a particular goal as well as his self
concept, feeling towards others and attitude towards the world.
● Product of several forces like heredity, environment, social interest, goal of success,
etc
● Development of social interest depends on the person's style of life.
● He considered this as major governing force that is equivalent to Freudian concept of ego.
● Style of life may change if the person recognizes the faults or mistakes and tries to change.
STYLE OF LIFE

14. Adler has proposed four general life style attitudes-
● Ruling type- This type of people has dominating attitude towards others and lack social
interest.
● Getting Type -This type of people are interested in getting as much as possible from others,
and are dependent on them.They have little social interest and contributes little to the society.
● Avoiding Type - This type of people have attitude of general avoidance and withdrawal. Little
social interest.
● Socially useful Type- This type of people are helpful in society and have high social interest.
They rightly recognizes 3 basic social problems- neighborly, sexual and occupational love .
Style of Life

15. Inferior Style Pampered Style
● Self centered
● Selfish
● Lack social
Interest
● Similar to
pampered style
● Always conciously
wish to be spoiled
(Narcissistic)
Neglected Style
Style of Life
Adler recognized Three faulty Style of Life
● Strong organ
inferiority
● Can't make
adequate
compensation
● Adopt escape or
avoidance behavior

16. ● According to Him, each person has a freedom to create their own style of life and therefore, is
solely responsible for who he is and how he behaves.
● Creative Power decides the style of life of a person to a greater extent.
● Contributes to the development of social interest & determines the method for striving for goal.
● It also determines the cognitive abilities like perception, memory, dreams, fantasy etc.
● People are consciously involved in shaping their personality and destiny rather than having it
determined by past experience and unconsciousness.
● So, according to Him creative power is a dynamic concept because it implies free movement
toward a goal.
CREATIVE POWER

17. ● Adler believed that people are motivated by the subjective perception that is
expectation of the future or fiction than by the external causes or past.
● Fiction is the final goal of success and superiority and is important as it brings
unification in personality and makes the behavior easily comprehensible.
● In reaching the final goal we make many subgoals that are conscious but the
connection between these goals and final goal is unconscious.
● Through fictional final goal Adler expressed his stand on teleology (future
striving tend to shape our present behavior)
● This idea has originated from the book "The Philosophy of as if" published
in 1911
FICTIONAL FINALISM

18. BIRTH ORDER
● Adler became interested in the relationship between personality and birth
order.
● He studies four types of birth order :
- The first born
- The second born
- The last born
- The lone born
● He found that the oldest, middle and youngest children because of their
positions in the family have varying social experiences that result in different
attitudes towards life and different ways of coping.

19. The first born
● Child gets undivided attention and care from parents and
then experiences a traumatic experiences of dethronement
when a new baby is born.
● This creates a feeling of hostility and resentment in the first
born towards younger brother or sister.
● Have overprotective tendencies and high anxiety.
● Freud was also typical eldest son.

20. The second born
● Child to be ambitious, rebellious and jealous constantly striving to
surpass the first born.
● Adler was himself second born and had a lifelong competitive
relationship with his older brother whose name was sigmund.
● Second born child is better adjusted than the first born or the
youngest child.
● Adler said that youngest child in the family was likely to be
spoiled and predisposed toward behaviour problems in childhood
and adulthood.

21. The last born
● Last born is unique and he has a great risk of being a
problem child.
● He has strong feelings of inferiority and lacks
independence.
● Is also achievement oriented and competition minded.

22. The lone child
● Lone child has no siblings to compete and hence, he has to
compete with his parents.
● This child has an inflated self concept and exaggerated sense
of superiority.
● Such child is too dependent upon others and lacks the feeling
of cooperation and social interest.

23. CRITICISMS
● His theory was superficial and relied on commonsense observations from
everyday life. Freud said Adler’s system was too simple.
● Like Freud, Adler has several untestable concepts like creative power and
fictional finalism. No meaningful conclusion can drawn.
● Most of the terms of individual psychology (like style of life, creative power,
etc) lack precise operational definitions.
● Concept of birth order can't be definitely studied. Researches have failed to
correlate personality traits with different birth order of persons.

24. Criticisms
❏ Neglected the role of :
● Genetics
● Environmental factors
● Faulty Cognitions
● Past experiences

25. DIFFERENCES : FREUD & ADLER
FREUD ADLER
● explained every aspect of human behaviour
by emphasising biological nature
● emphasised social nature of man and
considered social forces to be important
determinant of behaviour.
● stressed importance of past in shaping
behaviour
● emphasised on future aims that determine
present behaviour
● Major drive- sex drive ● Major drive- aggression and striving for
power.
● emphasised unconscious ● emphasised conscious
● lack emphasis on individual ● emphasised uniqueness and indivisibility
of the person

26. MIND MAP
LIFE SKETCH
INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY
ORGAN INFERIORITY AND COMPENSATION
STRIVING FOR SUCCESS AND SUPERIORITY
SOCIAL INTEREST
CREATIVE POWER
STYLE OF LIFE
FICTIONAL FINALISM
BIRTH ORDER
CRITICISMS
DIFFERENCES: FREUD & ADLER

27. Team Members
● Harshita Mamodia
● Kashika Dangri
● Shweta Santlani
● Archna Tyagi
● Ayushi Agrawal