Biography: Alfred Adler

Personality is who an individual is, how one does things, manages events and situations, and how one describes other individuals. One 's personality can help guide an individual throughout one 's life, in addition to having power over the situation or task. Many, if not all of these factors of personality, traits, and genetics, make up who an individual is. One 's may believe an individual 's personality, differences, and individualities is the core of who an individual truly is.

Every single individual has a personality; it is the very quintessence of human existence. Personality drives our interactions with others, our desires – conscious and unconscious, our perceived needs, and to a certain extent, even our actions. Psychodynamic approaches to personality are focused on the belief that we have virtually no control over our own personality, that it is primarily controlled by unconscious powers. Social cognitive approaches to personality centers around the belief that we still have

Burton, western & Kowaslki (2015) describes Personality as the enduring patterns of thought, feeling, motivation and behaviour that are expressed in different circumstances. In other words it can be defined as differences in characteristics in a person, including their way of thinking, likes, dislikes, sociability, openness, feelings and behaviour, which make them the person they are and differentiates them from others. All these traits when brought together is known to be the personality of that particular person.

The word personality is known as quite a diverse concept and can be described differently in accordance to different people, it comes from the word persona which is a Latin term and is referred to as a mask which actors use when performing. Based on this it could be concluded that characteristics which are visible along with external characteristics (the aspects of us in which can be seen by others) is what personality refers to, (Schultz and Scultz, 2004). Another definition of personality by a different psychologist is “The dynamic and organized set of characteristics possessed by a person that uniquely influences his or her cognitions, motivations, and behaviours in various situations.” (Rychman, 1999: 5). There are many areas of personality

Chapter 10 is over personality. Personality is described as a pattern of enduring, distinctive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that characterize the way an individual adapts to the world. The book goes over psychodynamic perspectives, trait perspectives, personological and life story perspectives, social cognitive perspectives, and biological perspectives.

Alfred Adler was born in 1870 in Austria and developed his own theory on Individual Psychology in 1912. Adler’s theory is closely related to Humanistic Psychology. Influenced by Freud, Smuts and Vaihinger, Adler based his theory on the client’s ability to live as a fully functioning adult in society. Adler’s holistic theory views each person as unified. Adler discussed birth order personality traits. Adler’s theory also discussed the roles therapists should take and the techniques that should be used in Individual Psychology therapy sessions.

Personality is looked at everyday purposely and accidently. Whether you are judging how your new professor for the semester will be, or if you are studying your best friend for a project, personality is studied abundantly. While there are many ways to define personality, there is not a worldwide definition around. Personality is the unique combination of patterns that influence behavior, thought, motivation, and emotion in a human being (boundless.com). That is one of many ways of defining personality. When examining personality, there are four main approachable theories including: The Psychodynamic Approach, The Trait Approach, The Social-Cognitive Approach, and The Humanistic Approach.

Adlerian theory, also known as individual psychology, was developed by Alfred Adler in the twentieth century (Hess, Magnuson, & Beeler, 2012). He had been conceptualizing and finalizing his theory until about 1931 (Dunn, 1971). This was approximately around the same time Freud was working and becoming popular (Dunn, 1971). Adler is known as the father of the humanistic movement and created his theory in resistance to psychoanalysis and Freudian thinking (Dunn, 1971). Individual psychology asserts that the “whole is greater than the sum of its parts” (Dunn, 1971). More specifically, people cannot be understood without understanding them in a social context (Dunn, 1971; Hess, Magnuson, & Beeler, 2012). Further, behavior cannot be understood in fragments, but needs to be understood in context of the whole person (who is understood within their social

Alfred Adler the founder of Adlerian psychology/psychotherapy believed that it was of the upmost importance to become closely associated with a person’s birth order parents background upbringing and education not to mention their lifestyle. This theory also focusses on a person need to be or feel accepted and to flourish in life. Adler was big on exploring early childhood because he believed that “everyone develops a life by the age 5 or 6.the pan which Adler calls it the lifestyle guides individuals’ enter lives” Murdock, N. L. (2009, pg111). Theories of counseling and psychotherapy: a case approach. Boston: Pearson”.

Alfred Adler was the founder of Adlerian Counseling. He was born in 1870 in the country of Austria. who gave his theory the name Individual Psychology, because he wanted people to see that his theory and methods were designed to help clients help themselves. He believed that everyone had and internal need to be a part of society, and a desire to contribute to that society. That everyone strives for perfection, and everyone initially feels inferior to everyone else. He believed that when that feeling is not overcome, inferiority complexes develop, and if a person tries to overcompensate for inferiority, the develop superiority complex.

What is a personality? A personality is a reflection of a person identity of a human being but we don’t share the same type of personality. There are so many different type of personality in the world some people have outgoing, shy, crazy, and settle personality. There are some people where there culture and surrounding shape their personality traits. In my culture and surrounding it has help me shape my personality in many ways.

Both Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler were pioneers and both had a phenomenal impact on the world of psychology. However, while they were raised in the same era, came from the same city and were educated at the same university, they had decidedly different views regarding personality theories (Schultz, 1990, p. 120). Freud and Adler were both colleagues in the psychoanalytic movement that Freud started. However, because of personality differences and vastly contrasting views about personality theories (Mosak & Maniacci, 1999, p.6) Adler left to begin his own faction, which he called Individual Psychology. It is my intention to briefly describe the main areas of their theories, compare and contrast their ideas of personality development, explore what types of experiences contributes to unhealthy development and what types of interventions they would have each prescribed to patients experiencing difficulties in their lives. However, while both Freud and Adler continue to influence many areas of contemporary personality psychology, only one of them can truly be called a humanitarian.

Compared to psychoanalysts of Victorian Era, Alfred Adler looked at psychology from a more holistic, humanistic and positive perspective. He was convinced that the main focus should be shifted from biological needs, drives and instincts to individual differences, experience, interaction and social environment. Adler placed great emphasis on sibling and peer group relationships, social interest and achieving perfection. He also introduced the terms inferiority and superiority complex, so commonly used nowadays, to the world.

Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler are well-known and respected men in the world of psychology. Both their theories involved the study of the human mind. Freud believed that much of the human instinct was sexually based and that many problems they suffered were due to this instinct. Freud concluded that his patients' memories reached back to childhood and that many of the repressed experiences they recalled concerned sexual issues. Adler believed there was more to the individual but also knew that biology had an influence. He also believed that one’s birth order and socially affected the development of the human personality.

Personality takes many shapes and forms and is affected by many factors. My understanding of personality is simply a genetic and environmentally determined set of psychological traits that influence our reactions in the world around us. Genetic because our parents possess a certain set of psychological personality traits that we tend to have in common with them so therefore in my opinion there are heritable personality traits. Personality is environmental because we each have our own separate experiences in the world and these experiences help form our unique personality. Neo-Freudians such as Jung have given us a wide array of ideas of how they believe personality is developed and formatted. Jung in particular has a very interesting take on personality. It is this theory that I can most resonate with and apply to myself and even friends and family of mine.