Adlerian Theory

Front 1

Adlerian Brief Therapy

Back 1

An intervention that is concise, deliberate, direct, efficient, focused, short-term, and purposeful.

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Basic Mistakes

Back 2

Faulty, self-defeating perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs that may have been appropriate at one time but are no longer useful. Myths that are influential in shaping personality.

Front 3

Birth Order

Back 3

Adler identified five psychological positions from which children tend to view life: oldest, second of only two, middle, youngest, and only. Actual birth order itself is less important than a person's perception of his or her place in the family.

Front 4

Community Feeling

Back 4

An individual’s awareness of being part of the human community. Community feeling embodies the sense of being connected to all humanity and to being committed to making the world a better place.

Front 5

Early Recollections

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Childhood memories (before the age of 9) of one-time events. People retain these memories as capsule summaries of their present philosophy of life. From a series of early recollections, it is possible to understand mistaken notions, present attitudes, social interests, and possible future behavior.

Front 6

Encouragements

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The process of increasing one’s courage to face life tasks; used throughout therapy as a way to counter discouragement and to help people set realistic goals.

Front 7

Family Atmosphere

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The climate of relationships among family members.

Front 8

Family Constellation

Back 8

The social and psychological structure of the family system; includes birth order, the individual’s perception of self, sibling characteristics and ratings, and parental relationships. Each person forms his or her
unique view of self, others, and life through the
family constellation.

Front 9

Fictional Finalism

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An imagined central goal
that gives direction to behavior and unity to the
personality; an image of what people would be
like if they were perfect and perfectly secure.

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Goal Alignment

Back 10

A congruence between the client’s and the counselor’s goals and the collaborative effort of two persons working equally toward
specif c, agreed-on goals.

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Guiding Self-Ideal

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Another term for fictional finalism. An individual's image of a goal of perfection.

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Holistic Concept

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We cannot be unstood in parts; all aspects of ourselves must be understood in relation to each other.

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Individual Psychology

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Adler’s original name
for his approach that stressed understanding the
whole person, how all dimensions of a person
are interconnected, and how all these dimensions are unif ed by the person’s movement toward a life goal.

Front 14

Inferiority Feelings

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The early determining
force in behavior; the source of human striving and the wellspring of creativity. Humans
attempt to compensate for both imagined and real inferiorities, which helps them overcome handicaps.

Front 15

Insight

Back 15

A special form of awareness that
facilitates a meaningful understanding within
the therapeutic relationship and acts as a foundation for change.

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Interpretation

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Understanding clients' underlying motives for behaving the way they do in the here and now.

Front 17

Life Tasks

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Universal problems in human life,
including the tasks of friendship (community),
work (a division of labor), and intimacy (love
and marriage).

Front 18

Lifestyle

Back 18

The core beliefs and assumptions
through which the person organizes his or her
reality and f nds meaning in life events. Our perceptions of self, others, and the world. Our characteristic way of thinking, acting, feeling, living, and striving toward long-term goals.

Front 19

Lifestyle Assessment

Back 19

The process of gathering
early memories, which involves learning to understand the goals and motivations of the client.

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Objective Interview

Back 20

Adlerians seek basic information about the client’s life as a part of the
lifestyle assessment process.

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Phenomenological Approach

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Focus on the way people perceive their world. For Adlerians, objective reality is less important than how people interpret reality and the meanings they attach to what they experience.

Front 22

Private Logic

Back 22

Basic convictions and assumptions of the individual that underlie the lifestyle
pattern and explain how behaviors fit together to
provide consistency.

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Reorientation

Back 23

The phase of the counseling
process in which clients are helped to discover
a new and more functional perspective and are
encouraged to take risks and make changes in
their lives.

Front 24

Social Interest

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A sense of identification with
humanity; a feeling of belonging; an interest in
the common good.

Front 25

Striving for Superiority

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A strong inclination
toward becoming competent, toward mastering
the environment, and toward self-improvement.
The striving for perfection (and superiority) is a
movement toward enhancement of self.

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Style of Life

Back 26

An individual’s way of thinking, feeling, and acting; a conceptual framework by which
the world is perceived and by which people are
able to cope with life tasks; the person’s personality

Front 27

Subjective Interview

Back 27

The process whereby
the counselor helps clients tell their life story as
completely as possible.

Front 28

The Question

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Used in an initial assessment to gain understanding of the purpose that symptoms or actions have in a person's life. The question is, "Would would your life be different, and what would you do differently, if you did not have this symptom or problem?"

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Key Figures

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Alfred Adler (Founder) Rudolf Dreikurs (Significant developer) Adler coined "Individual psychology" to avoid reductionism.

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Philosophy

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Social psychology and positive view of human nature. People control fate not victims of it. Past as perceived in the present and how interpretation of early events has a continuing influence. Individuals create distinct lifestyle at early age rather than being merely shaped by childhood experiences. Lifestyle remains relatively constant and defines one's beliefs about life and dealing with it's tasks.

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Key Concepts

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Consciousness is center of personality. Growth model stressed individual's positive capacities to live fully in society. Life goals provide direction. Humans motivated by social interest. Social interest innate but also learned, developed and used. Feelings of inferiority often serve as motivating.

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Therapeutic Goals

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Identify and change their mistaken beliefs about self, others and life. Work collaboratively with clients in ways to help them reach their self-defined goals and assisting them in developing socially useful goals. Fostering social interest, helping clients overcome discouragement, changing faulty motivation, restructuring mistaken assumptions, assisting clients to feel a sense of equality with others. Educating on new ways of looking at self others and life. Assist in modifying lifestyles and navigating life tasks.

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Therapeutic Relationship

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Based on mutual respect. Both client and therapist are active. Through partnership, recognize they are responsible for their behavior. Attention to examining lifestyle. Interpreting lifestyle by connecting past to present and future.

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Techniques and Procedures

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Fit to needs of client. Attending and listening in the beginning and clarifying goals. Immediacy, advice, humor, silence, paradoxical intention, acting as if, spitting in the client's soup, catching oneself, push-button technique, externalization, re-authoring, avoiding the traps, confrontation use of stories and fables, early recollection analysis, lifestyle assessment, encouraging, task setting and commitment, giving homework, terminating and summarizing. Lifestyle assessment. Therapies are not bound by a specific set of procedures. Therapists are creative.

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Application

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Varied application particularly for groups, education, families, etc. Suited to time limited therapy as well when identifying target problems, goal alignment, active/directive interventions. Groups are ideal context to explore family experience influences. Groups offer opportunities to expand members social interest.

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Multicultural Perspectives

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Well suited to diverse populations. Range of cognitive and action-oriented techniques to help explore concerns in a cultural context. Flexible in adapting to each client's unique life situation.

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Limitations

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Does not lend itself to evidence based practice. Critics content that it oversimplifies compex human functioning and based too heavily on commonsense perspective.