Adlerian Terms.docx

Adlerian terms Avoiding Type: one of four basic style of life; no attempt to face life's problems Accusation: form of neurotic aggression that involved blaming other people for one’s shortcoming and seeking recent against those people Aggression: safeguarding strategy; can take 3 forms- depreciation, accusation, self-accusation Basic mistakes: Self-defeating aspects of individuals' lifestyle that may affect their later behavior are called basic mistakes. Such mistakes often include avoidance of others, seeking power, a desperate need for security, or faulty values. Birth order: The idea that place in the family constellation (such as being the youngest child) can have an impact on one's later personality and functioning. Community feeling: An individual's awareness of being part of the human community. It embodies the sense of being connected to all humanity and to being committed to making the world a better place. Compensation: Motivation to overcome inferiority, to strive for higher levels of development Constructing obstacles: form of distancing; creation of minor obstacles so that they can be overcome thereby increasing the neurotics false feeling of worth Creative self: free element of the personality that allows the person to choose between alternative fictional goals and lifestyles. it is the differential exercise of this creative power that is mainly responsible for individual differences Depreciation: neurotics safeguarding strategies whereby one’s accomplishments are overvalued and the accomplishments of others are undervalued Distancing: strategy used by neurotics that involves creating barriers between themselves and their problems in life Dominant type: one of four basic style of life, ruling attitude with little self-awareness and social regard, may attack others, may believe to be hurting others by attacking themselves 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. Excuses: safeguarding strategy whereby neurotics use their symptoms as excuses for their shortcomings Family atmosphere: The climate of relationships among family members. Family constellation: 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. Fictional finalism: idea that there is an imagined or potential goal that guides our behavior. The means by which we try to strive for superiority are tailored according one's subjective ideals First memories: persons earliest recollections such recollections provide the basis for a person’s worldview fictional final goal and lifestyle Fraternal birth order effect: the older, biologically related brothers a male child has, the more likely he is to be homosexual Fundamental fact of life: Adler replaced his earlier contention that people seek power to overcome feelings of inferiority with the contention that they aspire to become superior or perfect 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. Getting type: one of four basic style of life; being dependent on others

Getting-leaning type: person exhibiting the mistaken lifestyle that expects everything to be given to him or her by others Guiding self-ideal: Another term for fictional finalism, which represents an individual's image of a goal of perfection. Hesitating: form of distancing; becoming involved in diversions until it is too late to confront a problem Holistic concept: We cannot be understood in parts; all aspects of ourselves must be understood in relation to each other. Idealization: whereby standards used to judge people are so high that no real person could live up to them and is thus depreciated (form of depreciation) Immediacy: Communicating the experience of the therapist to the client about what is happening in the moment. Individual psychology: 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 unified by the person's movement toward a life goal. Inferiority feeling: 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. Inferiority complex: Condition that develops when a person is unable to compensate for normal inferior feelings. People with such have a poor opinion of themselves and feel helpless and unable to cope with the demands of life 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 behaving the way they do in the here and now. Life task: 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. Masculine protest: attempting to become more powerful by being more masculine and thereby less feminine Mistaken lifestyle: any lifestyle that is not aimed at socially useful goals in other words any lifestyle that minimizes social interest Moving backwards: form of distancing; use of childlike behavior in order to gain attention and control Neglect: one source of inferiority complex in infancy and childhood characterized by a lack of love and security because of indifferent or hostile parents; the child develops feeling of worthlessness or even anger and view other with distrust Objective interview: Adlerian seek basic information about the client's life as a part of the lifestyle assessment process. Organic inferiority: one source of inferiority complex in childhood. Defective parts of the body shape personality through the person's efforts to compensate for the defect or weakness; If efforts to compensate fail, it could lead to an inferiority complex Overcompensation: process by which through considerable effort a previous weakness is converted into a strength 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.

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. Self-accusation: form of neurotic aggression that involves wallowing in self-torture and guilt the ultimate purpose to which is to hurt other people Self-concept: the convictions about who I am. self-ideal: convictions about what I should be. Social interest: originates from the mother-child relationship during the early months of infancy. our innate potential to cooperate with other people to achieve personal and societal goals; community feeling. A sense of identification with humanity; a feeling of belonging; an interest in the common good. Social useful type: one of four basic style of life; cooperates with others; acts in accordance with their needs; cope with problems within a well-developed framework of social interests Spoiling: one source of inferiority complex in childhood; center of attention at home; first experience at the school comes as shock, since they are no longer the center of attention; when confronted with obstacles to gratification, spoiled children come to believe that they must have some personal deficiency that is thwarting them Standing still: form of distancing; avoidance of failure by not attempting to do anything 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. Subjective interview: The process whereby the counselor helps clients tell their life story as completely as possible. Superiority complex: condition that develops when a person is over compensates for normal inferiority feelings; exaggerated opinion of one's abilities and accomplishments; boastful, vain, self-centered, tendency to denigrate others