Chapter 4 - Alfred Adler: Individual Psychology

individual psychology

Adler’s theory of personality.

inferiority feelings

The normal condition of all people; the source of all human striving.

compensation

A motivation to overcome inferiority, to strive for higher levels of development.

inferiority complex

A condition that develops when a person is unable to compensate for normal inferiority feelings.

superiority complex

A condition that develops when a person overcompensates for normal inferiority feelings.

striving for superiority

The urge toward perfection or completion that motivates each of us.

fictional finalismstyle of life

The idea that there is an imagined or potential goal that guides our behavior.

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.

creative power of the self

The ability to create an appropriate style of life.

social interest

Our innate potential to cooperate with other people to achieve personal and societal goals.

early recollections

A personality assessment technique in which our earliest memories, whether of real events or fantasies, are assumed to reveal the primary interest of our life.