Alfred Adler Personality Theories

Alfred Adler was a little baby boy born on the suburb of Vienna on February 7, 1870. He almost died of pneumonia when he is five years of age. At this age he decided to become a physician. (Ewen, Robert,p. 5) . Alfred was an intelligent, sociable and a very active boy. He was n average student of a University. He finished his medical degree in the University of Vienna in 1895.

Alfred’s wife was Raissa Timofeyewuna Epstein, a social activist and a very intelligent woman and blessed with four children. (Ewen, Robert, p. 15) at first Alfred Adler become an ophthalmologist and soon changed it to his general practice..

He encountered clients like circus people. Because of these clients he realized that the strength and weaknesses of the performers made him develop into organ inferiorities and compensation. (Levine, Robert Alan,p. 10)He becomes a physician or a doctor in the Australian army. Because of this experience he comes up to a concept of social interest. This concept makes every human to realize that they must survive and change in their own ways. Contribution to the field of Psychology of Personality Alfred Adler’s motivating force is striving for the perfection. Adler believe that this is the desire of people have to fulfill their potential in order to come up their ideal.

Agression drive which refers to the reaction of people have, as well as their drives. Compensation is another term used by Adler which means striving to overcome. In the masculine protest, Adler emphasized that the boys have a high esteem than girls. It means that men are better than women. Boy’s have the capacity to do all great things and women don’t have. Just because they do have the power, education, talent and motivation needed to do all the excellent work. And the last one is the striving for superiority.

It is the desire to be better not for his own but to better than others. (Ewen, Robert, p. 22) Adler’s approach “individual psychology” was contributed to psychology. Adler developed a different personality types like the getting or leaning type, in this type people are anti-social and have a low activity levels. Next is the avoiding type, are people who hate to be rejected. People have a low social contact and afraid of rejection. In this type, people always aware to their actions and behavior. They are very careful on what actions or decisions should be made.

Ruling dominant are people who are willing to manipulate situations and people. And the last one is the social useful type, people in this type are very sociable and active. Instead of discussing about a person’s personality Adler also talk about lifestyle. According to Alfred Adler, lifestyle refers to how you live your life, how to handle problems and interpersonal relations. It means that lifestyle of people help them realize their selves, how to handle their problems and how to communicate to other people. Application of Personality Theories to Work Place Alfred Adler’s theory of personality is very useful because it can help people act properly.

People always think positively so that they can perform better and resulting to an excellent performance. They can carry all the problems that they will be encounter and they can find a better solution for that. People will always aim high and give excellent effort to perform their jobs. Personality theories application is said to be a positive theory, make people a goal oriented, positive thinking, problem solver ,and help to make people an excellent one in terms of their work and in their life. Life style approach of Adler refers how to live life, how to handle problems and interpersonal relations. According to Alfred Adler “The style of life of a tree is the individuality of a tree expressing itself and molding itself in an environment.

We recognize a style when we see it against a background of an environment different from what we expect, for then we realize that every tree has a life pattern and is not merely a mechanical reaction to the environment. ” Base on this approach we can conclude that every person’s behavior and personality usually based on their life pattern and their environment . Personality theory can help a lot to the work place because individual here has a good life pattern and environment.

People are willing to achieve goals and always want to excel in their own specializations. Problems are disregarded and always find solutions for it Because of this positive personality of people ,they become very successful and fulfilled.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ewen, Rowen B. , 1998, An Introduction to Theories of Personality Mahwah, New Jersey.

Ewen, Rowen B. , 2003, An Introduction to Theories of Personality Mahwah, New Jersey.

Levine, Robert Alan, 1982, Culture, Behavior, and Personality New York.

Schinka, John A. , 1997, Introduction to the Special Series-Personality Assessment Instruments.