Alfred Adler Glossary

Motivation and Inferiority

Aggression Drive: One of Adler's early terms for the motivating force behind behavior. It referred to the assertive reaction that occurs when other needs or desires are frustrated. Adler later moved away from this term.
Masculine Protest: Adler's early term for striving toward the power, strength, assertiveness, and independence that his culture associated with the male role. Adler did not mean that males were naturally superior. He later reduced his use of the term because it was frequently misunderstood.
Organ Inferiority: Adler's observation that individuals may have physical or physiological weaknesses that can contribute to feelings of inferiority and motivate attempts to compensate.
Compensation: The process of responding to an actual or perceived inferiority by developing abilities or strengths that help overcome the difficulty.
Overcompensation: An exaggerated attempt to overcome feelings of inferiority, sometimes resulting in behavior intended to demonstrate unusual strength, ability, or superiority.
Psychological Inferiority: A perceived personal weakness or inadequacy that is psychological rather than an actual physical limitation. A person may come to believe that he or she is unintelligent, unattractive, weak, incapable, or otherwise less worthy than others.
Inferiority Complex: A persistent and overwhelming sense of inferiority that interferes with a person's ability to face life's problems effectively.
Superiority Complex: An attempt to cover feelings of inferiority by acting or believing as though one is superior to others.
Striving for Superiority: An earlier Adlerian term for the desire to rise above one's present condition. Adler later became less satisfied with the term because superiority could suggest striving to become better than other people. He increasingly associated this form of striving with unhealthy or neurotic development.
Striving for Perfection: Adler's later term for the basic human motivation toward development, completion, improvement, and fulfillment of one's potential. It means striving toward greater wholeness rather than literally becoming flawless.

The Individual and the Future

Holism: The view that a person should be understood as a unified whole rather than as a collection of separate psychological parts.
Individual Psychology: Adler's name for his approach to psychology. The word individual emphasizes the person as an undivided and unified whole.
Style of Life: The characteristic way a person lives, approaches problems, relates to other people, and pursues goals. Adler viewed each person's style of life as unique.
Teleology: Explaining behavior in terms of purposes or goals toward which the person is moving. Adler emphasized that present behavior can be influenced by what a person believes about the future, not merely by events from the past.
Fictions: Ideas or assumptions that cannot necessarily be proven but that people live by "as if" they were true.
Fictional Finalism: Adler's idea that people organize their lives around important assumptions or "fictions" about themselves and their futures. These future-oriented beliefs can influence present behavior even though they may not be objectively true.

Empathy: Experiencing or understanding another person's feelings from that person's point of view. It involves putting yourself in another person's place and goes beyond simple sympathy.
Social Interest: Concern for other people and a desire to contribute to the welfare of the community. For Adler, healthy development involves becoming useful to others rather than concentrating only on oneself.
Social Feeling: Adler's idea of connection with other people and concern for the larger community. Boeree uses social feeling as another expression for social interest.
Gemeinschaftsgefühl: Adler's original German term for social interest or social feeling. It can be translated as "community feeling."

Psychological Types

Adler considered these types useful ways of thinking about personality, not rigid categories. Each person has a unique style of life.

The Ruling Type: A style of life characterized by high energy but insufficient social interest. These individuals tend to be aggressive, dominant, and concerned with personal power. In extreme cases, they may become bullies or hurt other people or themselves.
The Leaning Type: A style of life characterized by lower energy and dependence on other people to deal with life's difficulties. When overwhelmed, these individuals may develop anxiety, phobias, obsessions, compulsions, or other neurotic symptoms.
The Avoiding Type: A style of life characterized by very low energy and an attempt to avoid life's problems, particularly relationships with other people. Under extreme stress, the individual may withdraw increasingly from the social world.
The Socially Useful Type: Adler's healthy type. This person has sufficient energy to deal with life's challenges while also possessing strong social interest and concern for other people.

Historical Temperament Comparisons

Boeree compares Adler's four psychological types with the ancient temperament theory. These are rough comparisons, not Adler's explanation of personality.

Choleric: In ancient temperament theory, the choleric person was described as hot and dry, angry, and associated with an excess of yellow bile. Boeree compares this temperament roughly with Adler's ruling type.
Phlegmatic: In ancient temperament theory, the phlegmatic person was described as cold and wet, sluggish, and associated with an excess of phlegm. Boeree compares this temperament roughly with Adler's leaning type.
Melancholy: In ancient temperament theory, the melancholy person was described as cold and dry, sad, and associated with an excess of black bile. Boeree compares this temperament roughly with Adler's avoiding type.
Sanguine: In ancient temperament theory, the sanguine person was described as warm and moist, cheerful, and associated with a relative abundance of blood. Boeree compares this temperament roughly with Adler's socially useful type.

Childhood and Birth Order

Adler treated birth order as a useful guideline rather than a rigid prediction of personality. Age differences, family circumstances, relationships among siblings, and each child's interpretation of the family can change the psychological meaning of birth order.

The Only Child: The only child may be especially likely to be pampered because parental attention is concentrated on one child. If the home is abusive, however, the only child also has no siblings with whom to share that experience.
The First Child: The first child initially receives the parents' undivided attention but may experience being "dethroned" when another child arrives. Adler believed first children were more likely than others to become problem children, although they could also be precocious, relatively solitary, and conservative.
The Second Child: The second child grows up with an older child serving as a pace-setter and therefore may become particularly competitive. Other middle children may show similar patterns depending upon their particular family situation.
The Youngest Child: The youngest child is often especially likely to be pampered and is never dethroned by another younger sibling. At the same time, being surrounded by older and more capable siblings may create feelings of inferiority or motivate the youngest child to surpass them.

Instructor's Lecture: Areas of Living

The following concepts are included because they are covered in the instructor's lectures on Adler.

Work (Occupational Task): This involves contributing to society through a career, trade, or meaningful daily activities. Adler believed that finding a way to be useful to others fulfills a basic human need and helps us feel a sense of worth.
Love (Intimate Relationship Task): This covers close, romantic partnerships and marriage. It requires deep cooperation, vulnerability, and the ability to care for another person's well-being as much as your own.
Social Interaction (Communal Task): This relates to friendship, neighborhood, and community connections. It is driven by what Adler called Gemeinschaftsgefühl (social interest), the innate human desire to belong and contribute to the greater good of humanity.
Spirituality (The Existential Task): Added later by Adler's followers, such as Rudolf Dreikurs and Mosak, this addresses how a person relates to the universe, God, nature, and the meaning of life. It helps an individual answer the questions of existence and their place in the grand scheme of things.

Return to Alfred Adler