Five Principles of Adlerian Psychology

The Five Basic Principles of Adlerian Psychology

 

1.                Socially Imbedded.

 

We are social beings in a social world with an innate desire to belong, or find our place in the group.

 

Social Interest is developed as a result of this desire to belong

        

          Being a part of this group allows us to find our place.

 

It’s only possible to see ourselves in relation to others which makes all behaviour interpersonal, making the group the field in which we move.

 

We need and use the group in order to reach our perceived goal of belonging.

 

Genuine concern brings co-operation and compassion.

(task oriented versus self glory)

 

2.                Self – Determining and Creative.

 

Adler says life is constant movement from a perceived felt minus to a perceived felt plus of belonging.

 

We’re constantly searching for that place of significance.

 

We are active participants in that search who choose whether to act or to react, thus determining and shaping our own destiny.

 

Our thought creates our emotions and we have our choice as to what to do with them . . . thus making us the master of our own soul.

 

This gives us the optimism to say we can change.

 

 

3.                Goal Directed or Teleological.

      

Our behaviour is purposive, though often unconsciously so.  We are not pushed by causes, but rather pulled by our unconscious goal to belong.

 

Causes are speculative but goals, once recognized, offer choice.

 

Our goal to belong is unique to each of us.

It is fictive.  It is our self ideal and therefore insatiable.

 

This goal is pursued and becomes our direction.  This direction becomes our personality.

 

We choose our behaviour for the impact it brings

 

4.                Subjective.

 

We give meaning to our own life.

 

We have the choice of what we do with what we have. 

 

Reality is as we perceive it.  It’s not what happens to us but       how we feel about it that matters.

 

We can not be objective about our interpretation of our experiences.

 

All perception is biased according to our own unique viewpoint:  our own lifestyle and our own self ideal.

 

The world is unique to all of us.

 

All behaviour, values, and truths are affected by our belief about self and the world around us.

 

 

 

 

5                   Holistic.

 

A part is never understood by itself

 

The whole is more than the sum of it’s parts.

 

Adlerians look for a ‘pattern’ into which all details fit.

 

This pattern is what Adler calls a lifestyle.