The document summarizes Alfred Adler's theory of striving for superiority. It discusses Adler's biography and how his childhood experiences influenced his theory. The key points of Adler's theory are: 1) Adler believed the single driving force behind all human motivation is the striving for superiority or success over others. 2) This striving is a result of innate feelings of inferiority that compel people to achieve more in order to feel whole. 3) People either strive for personal superiority, focused on their own gain, or strive for the success of humanity through socially-minded goals and cooperation with others.

1. STRIVING FOR
SUPERIORITY
(ADLER)
Prepared by:
BERNIDO L. MALOLOY-ON JR.
TC 1-2
Nurturing Innovative Teachers

2. BIOGRAPHY OF ADLER
 Born in a Viennese suburb in 1870
 Second son of middle class Jewish
parents
 Received his medical degree in 1895
 Charter member of Freud’s organization
 Rivalry with Freud led to his departure
from the group
 Founded the Society for Individual
Psychology
 Died in Scotland in 1937

3. STRIVING FOR SUPERIORITY
 Is the use of effort to obtain superiority over
others.
 The drive motivates a person to do everything
perfect and complete so he may get
superiority over others.
 Putting a maximum effort into a task i order
to gain a superior level.

4.  The first tenet of Adlerian theory is: The
one dynamic force behind peoples’
behavior is the striving for success or
superiority.
 He reduced all motivation to a single
drive – it is the striving for success or
superiority.
Why do you think so?
-his childhood was marked by physical
deficiencies and strong feelings of
competitiveness with his older brother.

5.  Adler believed that aggression was the
dynamic power behind all motivation.
 Later on, he become dissatisfied with his
term, he rejected aggression as a single
motivational force.
 By then, h e used the term masculine
protest – will to power or a domination of
others.
 Again, dissatisfied, abandoned masculine
protest as a universal drive.- still continues
to give it a limited role in his theory of
abnormal development.

6.  Next, Adler called the single dynamic
force striving for superiority. (his final
theory).
 However, he limited it to those people
who strive for personal superiority over
others.
 He introduced the term striving for success
to describe actions of people who are
motivated by highly develop social
interest. (Adler 1956)

7. Individual is guided by FINAL GOAL
 People strive toward a final goal either
personal superiority or the goal of success
for all humankind.
 Important because it unifies personality
and renders all behavior comprehensible.
 Each person has the power to create
personalized goal.
 Goal is neither genetically nor
environmentally determined
 It is a product of creative power.

8. Striving force as Compensation
 People strive for superiority or success as means of
compensation for feelings of inferiority or
weakness.
 Adler believed that humans are “blessed” at birth
with small, weak, and inferior bodies. --- these
physical deficiencies ignites feelings of inferiority
only because people, by their nature, posses an
innate tendency toward completion and
wholeness.
 Striving force is innate, but its nature and direction
are due both to feelings of inferiority and to the
goal of inferiority.

9. Striving for personal superiority
 Some people strive for superiority with little
or no concern for others at all.
 Their goals are personal ones.
 Their strivings are motivated largely by
exaggerated feelings of personal
inferiority.
 e.g, murderer, thieves.

10. Some people create clever disguise
for their personal striving and may
consciously or unconsciously hide
their self-centeredness behind the
cloak of social concern.

11. Striving for success
 In contrast to people who strive for
personal gain are those psychologically
healthy people.
 These people are motivated by the social
interest and the success of all mankind.
 These healthy individuals are concerned
with goals beyond themselves.
 Capable of helping others without
expecting payoff.
 Able to see others not as an opponent
but a people to work with towards
success.

12.  People who strive for success rather than
personal superiority maintain a sense of
self, of course, but they see daily
problems from the view of society’s
development rather than from a strictly
personal vantage point. Their sense of
personal worth is tied closely to their
contributions to human society. Social
progress is more important to them than
personal credit. (Adler, 1956)