Chapter 5 Powerpoint - Lecture notes 5 PDF

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Chapter 5 Powerpoint Alfred Adler’s Individual Psychology -

For Adler, Individual Psychology meant indivisible psychology Is based on the concept of holism Is a phenomenological approach Provides a teleological explanation of human behavior Stresses social interest Focuses on birth order and sibling relationships Therapy involves teaching, informing, and encouraging Considers basic mistakes in the client’s private logic The therapeutic relationship is a collaborative partnership

The Phenomenological Approach -

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The world is seen from the client’s subjective frame of reference o How life is in reality is less important than how we believe life to be o Our present interpretation of childhood experiences matters more than the actual events Unconscious instincts and our past do not determine our behavior

Social Interest -

Adler’s most significant and distinctive concept o Embodies a community feeling and the capacity to cooperate and contribute to something bigger than oneself o Mental health is measured by the degree to which we share with others and are concerned with their welfare o People express social interest through shared activity, cooperation, participation in the common good, and mutual respect

Lifestyle -

One’s perceptions regarding self, others, and the world Characteristic way we think, act, feel, perceive, and live A life movement that organizes our reality, giving meaning to life o “fictional finalism” or “guiding self ideal” Faulty interpretations may lead to mistaken notions in our “private logic” Lifestyle is how we move toward our life goals o Unifies behaviors to provide consistency and makes all our actions “fit together”

The Life Tasks -

We must successfully master three universal life tasks: o Building friendships (social task) o Establishing intimacy (love – marriage task) o Contributing to society (occupational task)

Inferiority and Superiority -

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Inferiority Feelings o Are normal and a source of all human striving o Are the wellspring of creativity o Develop when we are young – characterized by early feelings of hopelessness Superiority feelings o Promote mastery and enable us to overcome obstacles

Birth Order -

Five psychological positions: o Oldest child – receives more attention, spoiled, center of attention o Second of only two – behaves as if in a race, often opposite to first child o Middle – often feels squeezed out o Youngest – the baby o Only – does not learn to share or cooperate with other children, learns to deal with adults

Four Phases of therapy -

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Phase 1: Establishing the Proper Therapeutic Relationship o Supportive, collaborative, educational, encouraging process o Person-to-person contact with the client precedes identification of the problem o Help client build awareness of his or her strengths Phase 2: Exploring the Individual’s Psychological Dynamics o Lifestyle assessment  Subjective interview  Objective interview  Family constellation  Early recollections  Basic mistakes Phase 3: Encouraging Self-understanding/insight o Interpret the findings of the assessment o Hidden goals and purposes of behavior are made conscious o Therapist offers interpretations to help clients gain insight into their private logic and lifestyle Phase 4: Reorientation and Re-education o Action-oriented phase; emphasis on putting insights into practice o Clients are reoriented toward the useful side of life o Clients are encouraged to act as if they were the people they want to be

Encouragement -

Encouragement is the most distinctive intervention and is central to all phases of Adlerian therapy It is a fundamental attitude more than a technique

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Expecting clients to assume responsibility for their lives builds their self-confidence and courage Discouragement is the basic condition that prevents people from functioning

Adlerian Techniques -

Immediacy Advice Humor Silence Paradoxical intention Acting as if Catching oneself Push-button technique Externalization Reauthoring Avoiding the traps Confrontation Use of stories and fables Early recollection analysis Lifestyle assessment Encouraging Task setting and commitment Homework Terminating and summarizing

Application to Group Counseling -

Group provides a social context in which members can develop a sense of community and socialrelatedness Sharing of early recollections increase group cohesiveness Action-oriented strategies for behavior change are implemented to help group members work together to challenge erroneous beliefs about self, life, and others Employs a time-limited framework

Other Areas of Application -

Child guidance School psychology and counseling Parent education Couples and family counseling Cultural conflicts Correctional and rehabilitation counseling The community mental health movement Mental health institutions

Strengths from A Diversity Perspective

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Adlerian therapy focuses on multicultural and social justice issues and addresses the concerns of a contemporary global society Concepts of age, ethnicity, lifestyle, sexual/affectional orientations, and gender differences emerge in therapy Adlerians focus on cooperation and socially oriented values Adlerians investigate culture in much the same way that they approach birth order and family atmosphere The approach offers flexibility in applying cognitive and action-oriented techniques to help clients explore their problems in a cultural context Adler was one of the first psychologists at the turn of the century to advocate equality for women

Limitations from a Diversity Perspective -

The approach focuses on the self as the locus of change and responsibility, which may be problematic for some clients Exploring past childhood experiences, early memories, family experiences, and dreams may not appeal to all If clients expect the therapist to be the “expert,” they may be dissatisfied with the Adlerian’s collaborative stance

Contributions of Adlerian Therapy -

This approach is flexible and integrative; it allows for the use of relational, cognitive, behavioral, emotive, and experiential techniques It is suited to brief, time-limited therapy Many of Adler’s ideas were revolutionary and far ahead of his time. Many of his ideas have found their way into most of the other therapeutic approaches

Limitation of Adlerian Approach -

Adler spent most of his time teaching his theory as opposed to systematically documenting it Many of Adler’s ideas are vague and general, which makes it difficult to conduct research on some concepts Although brilliant in many ways, Adler was not scholarly

GLOSSARY OF KEY TERMS -

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Adlerian brief therapy: an intervention that is concise, deliberate, direct, efficient, focused, short-term, and purposeful Basic mistakes: faulty, self-defeating perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs that may have been appropriate at one time but are no longer useful. These are myths that are influential in shaping personality. Birth order: 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 interpretation of his or her place in the family

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Community feeling: 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 Early recollections: 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 Encouragement: 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 Family atmosphere: the climate of relationships among family members Family constellation: the social and psychological structure of he 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 Fictional finalism: 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 Goal alignment: a congruence between the client’s and the counselor’s goals and the collaborative effort of two persons working equally toward specific, agreed-on goals Guiding self-ideal: another term for fictional finalism, which represents an individual’s image of a goal of perfection Holistic concept: we cannot be understood in parts; all aspects of ourselves must be understood in relation to each other Individual psychology: Adler’s original name for his approach that stressed understanding the whole person, how all dimensions of a person are inter-connected, and how all these dimensions are unified by the person’s movement toward a life goal Inferiority feelings: 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 Insight: a special form of awareness that facilitates a meaningful understanding within the therapeutic relationship and acts as a foundation for change Interpretation: understanding clients’ underlying motives for behavior the way they do in the here and now Life tasks: universal problems in human life, including the tasks of friendship (community), work (a division of labor), and intimacy (love and marriage) Lifestyle: the core beliefs and assumptions through which the person organizes his or her reality and finds 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 Lifestyle assessment: the process of gathering early memories, which involves learning to understand the goals and motivations of the client Objective interview: Adlerians seek basic information about the client’s life as a part of the lifestyle assessment process Phenomenological approach: 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

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Private logic: basic convictions and assumptions of the individual that underlie the lifestyle pattern and explain how behaviors fit together to provide consistency Reorientation: 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 Social interest: a sense of identification with humanity; a feeling of belonging; an interest in the common good Striving for superiority: 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 Style of life: 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 Subjective interview: the process whereby the counselor helps clients tell their life story as completely as possible The question: used in an initial assessment to gain understanding of the purpose that symptoms or actions have in a person’s life. The Question is, “How would your life be different, and what would you do differently, if you did not have this symptom or problem?”...