The topic specifies on the theories of striving for superiority ( Adler)

1. STRIVING FOR
SUPERIORITY
(ADLER)
Prepared by:
BERNIDO L. MALOLOY-ON JR.
TC 1-2
Nurturing Innovative Teachers

2. BIOGRAPHY OF ADLER
 Born in a Viennese suburb in 1870
 Second son of middle class Jewish
parents
 Received his medical degree in 1895
 Charter member of Freud’s organization
 Rivalry with Freud led to his departure
from the group
 Founded the Society for Individual
Psychology
 Died in Scotland in 1937

3. STRIVING FOR SUPERIORITY
 Is the use of effort to obtain superiority over
others.
 The drive motivates a person to do everything
perfect and complete so he may get
superiority over others.
 Putting a maximum effort into a task i order
to gain a superior level.

4.  The first tenet of Adlerian theory is: The
one dynamic force behind peoples’
behavior is the striving for success or
superiority.
 He reduced all motivation to a single
drive – it is the striving for success or
superiority.
Why do you think so?
-his childhood was marked by physical
deficiencies and strong feelings of
competitiveness with his older brother.

5.  Adler believed that aggression was the
dynamic power behind all motivation.
 Later on, he become dissatisfied with his
term, he rejected aggression as a single
motivational force.
 By then, h e used the term masculine
protest – will to power or a domination of
others.
 Again, dissatisfied, abandoned masculine
protest as a universal drive.- still continues
to give it a limited role in his theory of
abnormal development.

6.  Next, Adler called the single dynamic
force striving for superiority. (his final
theory).
 However, he limited it to those people
who strive for personal superiority over
others.
 He introduced the term striving for success
to describe actions of people who are
motivated by highly develop social
interest. (Adler 1956)

7. Individual is guided by FINAL GOAL
 People strive toward a final goal either
personal superiority or the goal of success
for all humankind.
 Important because it unifies personality
and renders all behavior comprehensible.
 Each person has the power to create
personalized goal.
 Goal is neither genetically nor
environmentally determined
 It is a product of creative power.

8. Striving force as Compensation
 People strive for superiority or success as means of
compensation for feelings of inferiority or
weakness.
 Adler believed that humans are “blessed” at birth
with small, weak, and inferior bodies. --- these
physical deficiencies ignites feelings of inferiority
only because people, by their nature, posses an
innate tendency toward completion and
wholeness.
 Striving force is innate, but its nature and direction
are due both to feelings of inferiority and to the
goal of inferiority.

9. Striving for personal superiority
 Some people strive for superiority with little
or no concern for others at all.
 Their goals are personal ones.
 Their strivings are motivated largely by
exaggerated feelings of personal
inferiority.
 e.g, murderer, thieves.

10. Some people create clever disguise
for their personal striving and may
consciously or unconsciously hide
their self-centeredness behind the
cloak of social concern.

11. Striving for success
 In contrast to people who strive for
personal gain are those psychologically
healthy people.
 These people are motivated by the social
interest and the success of all mankind.
 These healthy individuals are concerned
with goals beyond themselves.
 Capable of helping others without
expecting payoff.
 Able to see others not as an opponent
but a people to work with towards
success.

12.  People who strive for success rather than
personal superiority maintain a sense of
self, of course, but they see daily
problems from the view of society’s
development rather than from a strictly
personal vantage point. Their sense of
personal worth is tied closely to their
contributions to human society. Social
progress is more important to them than
personal credit. (Adler, 1956)