Adler's Theory of Personality
Adler's theory of personality contended that individuals are whole beings. Therefore, their personality is formed based on several key concepts, including:
- Social Interest: a sense of community and one's attitude toward others
- Masculine Protest: in men, a tendency to compensate for feelings of inferiority by adopting excessively aggressive behavior; in women, a tendency to dominate others to overcome society's devaluation of women
- Lifestyle: a pattern of responses to situations
- Goal-directed and purposeful behavior: all behaviors are a result of our goals
- Feelings of inferiority: relying totally on others in early life causes us to feel inferior
- Striving for superiority: an attempt to overcome feelings of inferiority
- Fictional finalism: ideals with no basis in reality, thus cannot be tested or confirmed (i.e., "honesty is the best policy")
- Family constellation: one's family makeup and position within the family
- birth-order-theory: the order in which we are born affects our familial relationships, interactions, and feelings of inferiority
One of the main contributors to Adler's personality theory was the idea that all people develop feelings of inferiority early in life, resulting in an inferiority-complex. From childhood, people work toward overcoming this inferiority by "striving for superiority."
Adler believed that this drive was the motivating force behind human behaviors, emotions, and thoughts.
An example of Adler's theory would be a child who feels inferior, then misbehaves in an attempt to get their parent to pay more attention to them. Later in life, feeling inferior may cause some individuals to focus on collaboration and contributions to society while others will try to exert power over others.