Personal Beliefs And Development From An Adlerian Kaleidoscope

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.

If the Adlerian therapy is summarized, it can be added here that the therapy is more of a growth plan. One of the main facts that is stressed by the theory is that human beings are in control of their own nature and that there should be a positive view towards the nature. Views that an individual has towards his nature leads him in having a good or bad faith. Being a child, a certain kind of lifestyle is adopted by an individual and this kind of lifestyle goes on in a consistent manner throughout his life (Carlson, Watts, and Maniacci, 2006, p. 45).

The nature vs nurture issue has been a controversial argument among psychologist for decades. This argument exposes two different views. One of them emphasizes that our personality depends solely on genetics (nature). On the other hand, the second view suggests that humans “develop through experience” (Myers 2013, SG 6) (nurture).

Corey, 2017). He also states that the study of clinical populations is extremely limited and "there is a definite need for further Adlerian-oriented research on inpatients and outpatients alike" (Corey, 2017).

This paper identifies the three major counseling theories that have been the most influential in the development of my ideas on counseling. The major points of Person-Centered Therapy, Adlerian Therapy, and Behavioral Therapy are looked at in brief. Each theory is then shown how a school counselor can apply them into their work with students. While one theory does not work for every situation in the school setting, each theory brings something beneficial to the school counselor.

Everyday our environmental factors continue to influence our individual personality development. It is important note that even though a group of people share an environment each person can have different experiences. Our environmental influences consist of any outside influences and conditions that affect of life and development. Some examples of environmental influences that shape who we become are authority figures, family members, communities, and our peers.

Alfred Adler believed that humans “are not passive victims of heredity or environment (not objects) but active constructors and interpreters of their situations (subjects) (Stein, 1998).” This means that whatever has happened in the past, and early childhood especially, has greatly impacted the way we conduct our lives as adults. However, it is not what was done to us or not done to us that only effects our lives, but mainly how be interpreted those situations and how we formed our self image around them. It can be said that if a young child continually compared themselves to older children and adults they may develop inferiority feelings, which are guided by fictional beliefs. Adler believed these feelings would force these children to strive toward an unrealistic final goal. “The final goal is a fictional creation of the individual – an imagined ideal situation of perfection, completion, or overcoming. Movement toward the final goal is motivated by a striving to overcome the feelings of inferiority (Stein, 1998).” Yet, Adler believed in an actual and attainable “final goal” that was very similar to Maslow’s theory of “self-actualization [and moving] toward the full realization of [peoples] potential (Maslow, 1970).”

The desired outcomes for reality therapy groups and Adlerian therapy groups are both similar and dissimilar to one another in varying ways. Reality theory groups seek to change a members“…being stuck in repetitive and nonproductive activities” and that failing to achieve their goals should not bring self-deprecation (Gladding, 2016, p. 334). Adlerian groups “emphasize social cooperation and teamwork…focusing primarily on the growth and actions of the individual within the group rather than the group itself” (p.

Most of society thinks that a mentally healthy person is a person with a sound sense of self and someone who functions on a daily basis within the community without problems of any signs of a mental illness. For Adler, psychological health is determined by the level of social contribution beneficial to the greater community, to the degree, that one integrates and furthers the social context, thus the measurement of his or her mental health. Named after Alfred Adler, Adlerian theory primarily emphasizes concepts pertaining to inferiority and superiority, styles of life, family constellation and birth order, and

Nature versus nurture. The origin of personality is character-biological nature with a heredity support. Individuals with dependent personality generally display orientation towards being vigilant and at the same time apprehensive as far back as their childhood age (Bornstein, 1992). However, growing up

The counseling style of Adlerian therapy is based on creating a positive therapeutic relationship. Establishing this relationship with Stan, is created in the initial phase. “A positive relationship is created by listening,

This theory uses subjectivity for understanding the person. In order to understand the individual, we must understand his or her cognitions. Harold Mosak (1995) identifies five underlying assumptions to the Adlerian theory. He states, “a) the individual is unique, b) the individual is self-consistent, c) the individual is responsible, d) the person is creative, an actor, a chooser, and e) people in a soft-deterministic way can direct their own behavior and control their destinies” (Mosak, 1995, p.87). According to Adlerian theory, people strive to attain goals that provide them with a place in this world, in turn giving them security and enhancing self- esteem.

Adlerians believe that striving for superiority characterizes the final goal of every individual. Superiority, in Adlerian terms, means that there are various ways to strive for and find significance in one’s place in the community by creating personal strategies for achieving superiority (Fall, Holden, & Marquis, 2004). This became a major innovation of Adler using self-created goals as a source of motivation and dynamic functionalism. His emphasis on subjective future orientation as a guiding principle for psychic phenomena became a major innovation in conceptualizing human thinking, feeling, and action.

Adlerian theory, also referred to as individual psychology, stresses the need to understand individuals within their social context (Mosak & Maniacci, 2014). Interestingly, Alfred Adler gave his theoretical framework the name, Individual Psychology, which derives from the Latin term individuum. The meaning of individuum translates to “indivisible” and represents the holistic foundation of Adlerian theory (Mosak & Maniacci, 2014). Adlerians assume that every behavior has a purpose, causing them to focus on clients’ “style of life”, or consistent themes that occur throughout their life. Mosak and Maniacci (2014) describe Adler’s “style of life” as, “bias apperceptions about self, others, and the world from a self-consistent cognitive and attitudinal set which organizes and directs movement toward the goal” (p. 12). Accordingly, Adlerian concepts revolve around achieving the main tasks of life through cooperation rather than competition, in work, friendship, love, self-task, and spiritual task (Mosak & Maniacci, 2014). Furthermore, this theory focuses on influences that might encourage the development of exaggerated inferiority, and how these feelings can push people to better themselves in guiding the self-ideal and altering the way they strive toward success, such as through choices and level of responsibility.

A counselor duty is to understand his or her client’s problems they are facing with life, and to collect active data about each individual background. The duty of being Alice counselor, I analyze the information that was provided to me and understood that Alice probably was the middle child growing up in her family. Therefore, she was the child who went unnoticed throughout her childhood. This behavior shows up within her marriage, she plays a back role with Javier. Prior to the behavior she exhibits, she has no voice in any family suggestions that are made. Examining the information that was provided to me about Javier, the conclusion I drawn he was the oldest child in his family. Furthermore, the child who’s the oldest in a family holds the most responsibilities, then any other child within the household. Due to circumstances, the behavior Javier shows within his marriage as the one who take care of all the responsibilities, and care for everyone in the household. As using the Adlerian concept, I will focus on Javier’s and Alice’s