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ADLERIAN tHEORY
ADLERIAN tHEORY
ALFRED ADLER

ALfRED ADLER
ALfRED ADLER
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 Alfred Adler – 1870 Vienna, Austria
 2nd
born of six siblings in a middle-class Jewish family
 Adler’s early years were characterized by struggling to overcome
illnesses and feelings of inferiority. He felt inferior to his brother
and peers; which made him determined to compensate for his
physical limitations, and gradually he overcame many of his
limitations.
 Developed rickets, which kept him from walking until he was four
years-old and nearly died of pneumonia at five years-old.

ALfRED ADLER
ALfRED ADLER
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bIOgRApHY
 His early childhood had an impact on the formation of his theory.
Adler is an example of a person who shaped his own life as
opposed to having it determined by fate. His teacher advised his
father to prepare Adler to be a shoemaker but not much else.
 Co-founder of the psychoanalytic movement as a core member of
the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society.
 Adler resigned as the president of the Vienna Psychoanalytic
Society in 1911 and founded the Society for Individual Psychology
in 1912. He was the first major figure to break away
from psychoanalysis to form an independent school of
psychotherapy and personality theory. It was at this point that
Freud asserted that it was not possible to support Adlerian
concepts and still remain in good standing as a psychoanalyst.

ALfRED ADLER
ALfRED ADLER
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 Adler had a passionate concern for common person and he was
outspoken about child-rearing practices, school reforms, and
prejudices that resulted in conflict.
 Adler wrote spoke and wrote in simple, non-technical languages
so that the public could understand and apply the principles of his
Individual Psychology. Adler’s “Understanding Human Nature”
(1959) was the first major psychology book to sell hundreds of
thousands of copies in the United States.
 Died in 1937 of Heart Attack

Adlerian Theory of Personality
 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.
 Adler stresses a unity of personality which states that people can
only be understood as integrated and complete beings. Adler
emphasized that where we are striving to go is more important
than where we have come form, i.e. the future is more important
than the past.

View of Human Nature
 A Person’s Perceptions are based on His
or Her View of Reality (Phenomenology)
– Adler believed that we “construct” our reality
according to our own way of looking at the world.
– “I am convinced that a person’s behavior springs
from this idea…because our senses do not see
the world, we apprehend it.” (Adler, 1933/1964)

 Each person must be viewed as an
individual from a holistic perspective.
– Adler suggested that dividing the person up into
parts or forces (i.e., id, ego, and superego) was
counterproductive because it was mechanistic and
missed the individual essence of each person.
– In his view, understanding the whole person is
different than understanding different aspects of
his life or personality.

 Human Behavior is Goal Oriented (Teleological)
– People move toward self-selected goals. “The life of the
human soul is not a ‘being’ but a ‘becoming.’” (Adler,
1963a)
– This idea requires a very different way of viewing humans
than the idea that behavior is “caused” by some internal or
external forces or rewards and punishments.
– Understanding the causes of behavior is not as important as
understanding the goal to which a person is directed. Since
we have evolved as social creatures, the most common goal
is to belong.

Determinism
Determinism
– Moving through life, the individual is
confronted with alternatives.
– Human beings are creative, choosing,
self-determined decision-makers free to
chose the goals they want to pursue.

Conscious and unconscious are both in
the service of the individual, who uses
them to further personal goals (Adler,
1963a)

Striving for superiority to overcome
basic inferiority is a normal part of
life.
– Mosak(2000) reports that Adler and others
have referred to this central human striving
in a number of ways: completion,
perfection, superiority, self-realization, self-
actualization, competence, and mastery.

 Social Interest and a Positive involvement
in the community are hallmarks of a
healthy personality.
– All behavior occurs in a social context.
Humans are born into an environment with
which they must engage in reciprocal
relations.
– Adler believed that social interest was innate but
that it needed to be nurtured in a family where
cooperation and trust were important values.

Adlerian Core Concepts and
Adlerian Core Concepts and
Explanation of Behavior
Explanation of Behavior
 Style of life or Lifestyle
– A way of seeking to fulfill particular goals that
individuals set in their lives. Individuals use their
own patterns of beliefs, cognitive styles, and
behaviors as a way of expressing their style of
life. Often style of life or lifestyle is a means for
overcoming feeling of inferiority.

Four areas of lifestyle:
Four areas of lifestyle:
 1. The self-concept
– the convictions about who I am.
 2. The self-ideal
– convictions about what I should be.
 3. The Weltbild, or “picture of the world”
– convictions about the not-self and what the world
demands of me.
 4. The ethical convictions
– The personal “right-wrong” code.

Adlerian explanation of Behavior
(Theory of Personality)
(Theory of Personality)
Family Constellation and Atmosphere:
– The number and birth order, as well as the
personality characteristics of members of a family.
Important in determining lifestyle.
– The family and reciprocal relationships with
siblings and parents determine how a person finds
a place in the family and what he learns about
finding a place in the world.

Birth order is important, and that it motivates
Birth order is important, and that it motivates
later behavior.
later behavior.
Firstborns:
 Monarch of the family
 Receive all the attention, the parents
practice on them.
 They strive to achieve, behave and
please.
 Are parent substitutes for their
siblings.
 When another sibling is born, they are
dethroned and may become resentful
or overcompensate with power and
authority

Secondborns
 Don’t worry about power and
authority, are never dethroned.
 Usually are more outgoing,
carefree and creative and less
concerned with rules.
 Usually are the opposite of the
firstborn

Middle children – feel squeezed in & treated unfairly. They
learn the art of negotiation & understand family politics.
Often are manipulative and make reasoned choices about
where to find success

 The youngest child – always the baby of the family, they receive a
great deal of attention from others, expect others to care for them.
Tends to be the most pampered one. Youngest children tend to
go their own way. They often develop in ways no others in the
family have thought about. Can be quite charming and funny but
have a hard time breaking out of the baby role Can become
spoiled but often can be quite successful if the older siblings are
good role models

 The only child – shares some of the characteristics of the oldest
child (high achievement drive). May not learn to share or
cooperate with other children. Will learn to deal with adults well.
May become dependently tied to one or both of them. May want
the center stage all of the time, and if their position is challenged
will feel it is unfair.

 OLDEST - RECEIVE GOOD DEAL OF ATTENTION/SPOIL.
RESPONSIBILITIES WILL, AND RESENTMENT MAY, OCCUR ONCE
ANOTHER CHILD IS BORN.
 SECOND OF ONLY TWO - ACTS AS THOUGH THEY ARE IN A RACE
COMPETITIVE/SEEK WEAKNESS IN #1
 MIDDLE - FEELS SQEEZED OUT/POOR ME/PROBLEM CHILD
 YOUNGEST - PAMPERED/GO THEIR OWN WAY/NEW WAYS OF
DOING THINGS
 ONLY CHILD - SHARE CHARACTERISTICS OF AN OLDER CHILD. HIGH
ACHIEVER. HARD TO SHARE WITH OTHERS

 Social Interest:
– The caring and concern for the welfare of others
that can serve to guide people's behavior
throughout their lives. It is a sense of being a part
of society and taking responsibility to improve it.

 Inferiority:
– Feelings of inadequacy and incompetence that
develop during infancy and serve as the basis to
strive for superiority in order to overcome feelings
of inferiority.

 Inferiority complex:
– A strong and pervasive belief that one is not as
good as other people. It is usually an exaggerated
sense of feelings of inadequacy and insecurity that
may result in being defensive or anxious.

Superiority
– The drive to become superior allows
individuals to become skilled, competent,
and creative.

 Superiority Complex:
– a means of masking feelings of inferiority by
displaying boastful, self-centered, or arrogant
superiority in order to overcome feelings of
inferiority.

 Early recollections:
– Memories of actual incidents that clients recall
from their childhood. Adlerians use this
information to make inferences about current
behavior of children or adults.

Assets:
– Assessing the strengths of individuals'
lifestyle is an important part of lifestyle
assessment, as is assessment or early
recollections and basic mistakes.

 Birth order:
– The idea that place in the family constellation (such as being
the youngest child) can have an impact on one's later
personality and functioning.
– Birth order and the interpretation of one’s position in the
family have a great deal to do with how adults interact in the
world.
– Although it is important to avoid stereotyping individuals, it
does help to see how certain personality trends that began
in childhood as a result of sibling rivalry influence individuals
throughout life.

 Basic mistakes:
– Self-defeating aspects of individuals' lifestyle that
may affect their later behavior are called basic
mistakes. Such mistakes often include avoidance
of others, seeking power, a desperate need for
security, or faulty values.

 Adler stresses that striving for perfection and coping with
inferiority by seeking mastery are innate.
 An individual core beliefs and assumptions through which
the person organizes his or her reality and finds meaning in
life events constitutes the individual’s lifestyle.
 In striving for goals that have meaning to us, we develop a
unique style of life.
 In striving for the goal of superiority, Adlerian believe some
individuals develop their intellect , other, their artistic,
talent; others, athletic skill; and so on.

Social Interest and community feeling
 Social interest and community feeling are probably Adler’s most
significant and distinctive concepts.
 These terms refer to individuals’ awareness of being part of a
human community and to individual’s attitudes in dealing with the
social world.
 Social interest includes striving for a better future for humanity.
 The socialization process begins at childhood; which involves
finding a place in society and acquiring a sense of belonging and
of contributing.
 Social interest is taught, learned and used.

 Adler equated social interest with a sense of identification and
empathy with others: to see with the eyes of another, to hear with
the ears of another, to feel with the heart of another.
 Social interest is the central indicator of mental health.
 From the Adlerian perspective, as social interest develops,
feelings of inferiority and alienation diminish.
 People express social interest through shared activity and mutual
respect.

TECHNIQUES FOR CHANGE
 A lifestyle analysis helps the Adlerian therapist to
gain insights into client problems by determining the
clients' basic mistakes and assets. These insights are
based on assessing family constellation, dreams, and
social interest. To help the client change, Adlerians
may use a number of active techniques that focus to
a great extent on changing beliefs and reorienting the
client's view of situations and relationships.

 Life tasks:
– There are five basic obligations and opportunities:
occupation, society, love, self development, and
spiritual development. These are used to help
determine therapeutic goals.

 Interpretation:
– Adlerians express insights to their clients that
relate to clients' goals. Interpretations often focus
on the family constellation and social interest.

Immediacy:
– Communicating the experience of the therapist to
the client about what is happening in the moment.
 Encouragement:
– An important therapeutic technique that is used to
build a relationship and to foster client change.
Supporting clients in changing beliefs and
behaviors is a part of encouragement.

 Acting as if:
– In this technique, clients are asked to "act as if" a
behavior will be effective. Clients are encouraged
to try a new role, the way they might try on new
clothing.

 Catching oneself:
– In this technique, patients learn to notice that they
are performing behaviors which they wish to
change,. When they catch themselves, they may
have an "Aha" response.
 Aha response:
– Developing a sudden insight into a solution to a
problem, as one becomes aware to one's beliefs
and behaviors.

 Avoiding the tar baby:
– By not falling into a trap that the client sets by
using faulty assumptions, the therapist
encourages new behavior and "avoids the tar
baby" (getting stuck in the client's perception of
the problem).

 The Question:
– Asking "what would be different if you were well?"
was a means Adler used to determine if a person's
problem was physiological or psychological

 Paradoxical intention:
– A therapeutic strategy in which clients are instructed to
engage and exaggerate behaviors that they seek to change.
By prescribing the symptom, therapists make clients more
aware of their situation and help them seek to change. By
prescribing the symptom, therapists make clients more
aware of their situation and help them achieve distance from
the symptoms. For example, a client who is afraid of mice
may be asked to exaggerate his fear of mice, or a client who
hoards paper may be asked to exaggerate that behavior so
that living becomes difficult. In this way individuals can
become more aware of and more resistant from their
symptoms.

 Spitting in the client's soup:
– Making comments to the client to make behaviors
less attractive or desirable.
 Homework:
– Specific behaviors or activities that clients are
asked to do after a therapy session

 Push-button technique:
– Designed to show patients how they can create
whatever feelings they what by thinking about
them, the push-button technique asks clients to
remember a pleasant incident that they have
experienced, become aware of feelings connected
to it, and then switch to an unpleasant image and
those feelings. Thus clients learn that they have
the power to change their own feelings.

Summary of the practical techniqueS
uSed in adlerian therapy
 Life Tasks. There are five basic obligations and opportunities:
occupation, society, love, self development, and spiritual
development. These are used to help determine therapeutic goals.
 Interpretation. Adlerians express insights to their clients that relate
to clients' goals. Interpretations often focus on the family
constellation and social interest.
 Immediacy. Communicating the experience of the therapist to the
client about what is happening in the moment.
 Encouragement. used to build a relationship and to foster client
change. Supporting clients in changing beliefs and behaviors is a
part of encouragement.
 Acting as if. clients are asked to "act as if" a behavior will be
effective. Clients are encouraged to try a new role, the way they
might try on new clothing.

 Catching Oneself. Patients learn to notice that they are performing
behaviors which they wish to change,. When they catch themselves,
they may have an "Aha" response.
 Aha Response. Developing a sudden insight into a solution to a
problem, as one becomes aware to one's beliefs and behaviors.
 Avoiding the Tar Baby. By not falling into a trap that the client sets
by using faulty assumptions, the therapist encourages new behavior
and "avoids the tar baby" (getting stuck in the client's perception of
the problem).

 The question. Asking "what would be different if
you were well?" was a means Adler used to
determine if a person's problem was physiological
or psychological
 Spitting in the client’s soup. Requires the
counselor to make certain behaviors less
attractive to the client
 Homework. Specific behaviors or activities that
clients are asked to do after a therapy session

Application: Therapeutic Techniques and Procedures
Application: Therapeutic Techniques and Procedures
Adlerian Brief Therapy (ABT): 4 Phases
 Phase 1: Establishing the Relationship
 Working collaboratively and being caring, involved, supportive
 Making person-to-person contact rather than starting with “the
problem”

Phase 2:
Phase 2: Exploring the Individual’s Dynamics
Exploring the Individual’s Dynamics
Two Interview Forms:
 Subjective Interview – Active listening (followed by a sense of
wonder, fascination, and interest) to help the client tell their story
as completely as possible.
 Objective Interview – Gathering info as to how the clients’
problems began, precipitating events, medical history, social
history, reasons for choosing therapy, coping skills, and a life
assessment.
 “Lifestyle Investigator”: The Family Constellation and Early
Recollections

Phase 3:
Phase 3: Encouraging Self-Understanding and Insight
Encouraging Self-Understanding and Insight
 To help the client understand the motivations in their life,
understand how they are contributing to their problem, and
making adjustments to correct the situation

Phase 4:
Phase 4: Helping with Reorientation
Helping with Reorientation
 Putting insights into practice
 Encouragement Process
 Change and the Search for New Possibilities
 Making a Difference! Promoting

Contributions to Multicultural Counseling
Contributions to Multicultural Counseling
 Adlerian theory addressed social inequities long before it became
a focal point in the profession

Adler’s multicultural approach to counseling include the
Adler’s multicultural approach to counseling include the
following ideas
following ideas
 Adler’s multicultural approach to counseling include the following
ideas
 The importance of the cultural context
 The emphasis on health as opposed to pathology
 A holistic perspective on life
 The value of understanding individuals in terms of their core goals
and purposes
 The ability to exercise freedom within the context of social
constraints
 The focus on prevention and the development of a proactive
approach in dealing with problems

 Adlerian theory encourages clients to define themselves within
their social environment, therefore, making the approach a good
one when dealing with a culturally diverse population.
 Culture is defined broadly including age, roles, lifestyle, and
gender differences.
 Adler advocated for equality for women.
 When practiced appropriately and competently, it is difficult to
identify major multicultural limitations.
 Adlerian approach seeks to find opportunities for viewing the self,
others, and the world from different cultures perspectives. The
strengths of one culture can often help correct the mistakes in
another.

 The goal is to help clients identify and change their mistaken
beliefs about self, others, and life and thus participate more fully
in a social world.
 Clients are not seen as mentally sick but as discouraged.
 The client and therapist work collaboratively to challenge the
client to translate the client’s insights into action in the real world.
 Major contributions include elementary education, consultation
groups with teachers, parent education groups, marriage and
family therapy, and group counseling.

Summary and Evaluation
Summary and Evaluation
 Individual Psychology assumes that people are:
 motivated by social factors
 responsible for their own thoughts, feelings, and actions
 the creators of their own lives
 are impelled by purposes and goals

Advantages of the Adlerian Theory
 Adlerian therapists are mainly concerned with doing what’s best
for the client rather than squeezing them into a theoretical
framework.
 The theory lends itself to short-term formats. This is beneficial to
a client to help them believe change can occur in a short amount
of time.
 Adler influenced many other therapy systems. They are all based
on the concept of the person as purposive, self-determining, and
striving for growth.
 Adlerians’ basic premise is that if clients can change their
thinking then they can change their feelings and behavior.

 It can be used for numerous issues and
disorders.
 Uses encouragement.
 It is phenomenological.
 It does not consider people to be
predisposed to anything.

Limitations and Criticisms of the Adlerian Theory
 Adler chose to teach and practice over getting organized and
presenting a well- defined systematic theory, making his written
presentations difficult to follow.
 More research needed to support the effectiveness of the theory.
 Limited use for clients seeking immediate solutions to their
problems and unwilling to explore childhood experiences, early
memories, and dreams.

 The amount of family and lifestyle information that is collected.
 Sometimes difficult to do the interpretations, especially the
dreams.
 Adlerian therapy works best with highly verbal and intelligent
clients. This might leave out many people who do not fit that
category.
 Might be too lengthy for managed care.
 Adlerians do not like to make diagnoses as it labels people.

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