Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionII. Psychodynamic
Theories- Adler: Individual
Psychology
© The McGraw−Hill^101
Companies, 2009Chapter 3 Adler: Individual Psychology 95Concept of Humanity
Adler believed that people are basically self-determined and that they shape their
personalities from the meaning they give to their experiences. The building mate-
rial of personality is provided by heredity and environment, but the creative power
shapes this material and puts it to use. Adler frequently emphasized that the use
that people make of their abilities is more important than the quantity of those
abilities. Heredity endows people with certain abilities and environment gives them
some opportunity to enhance those abilities, but we are ultimately responsible for
the use they make of these abilities.
Adler also believed that people’s interpretations of experiences are more im-
portant than the experiences themselves. Neither the past nor the future deter-
mines present behavior. Instead, people are motivated by their present perceptions
of the past and their present expectations of the future. These perceptions do not
necessarily correspond with reality, and as Adler (1956) stated, “meanings are not
determined by situations, but we determine ourselves by the meanings we give to
situations” (p. 208).
People are forward moving, motivated by future goals rather than by innate
instincts or causal forces. These future goals are often rigid and unrealistic,
but people’s personal freedom allows them to reshape their goals and thereby
change their lives. People create their personalities and are capable of altering
them by learning new attitudes. These attitudes encompass an understanding
that change can occur, that no other person or circumstance is responsible for
what a person is, and that personal goals must be subordinated to social
interest.
Although our final goal is relatively fixed during early childhood, we remain
free to change our style of life at any time. Because the goal is fictional and un-
conscious, we can set and pursue temporary goals. These momentary goals are not
rigidly circumscribed by the final goal but are created by us merely as partial solu-
tions. Adler (1927) expressed this idea as follows: “We must understand that the
reactions of the human soul are not final and absolute: Every response is but a par-
tial response, valid temporarily, but in no way to be considered a final solution of
a problem” (p. 24). In other words, even though our final goal is set during child-
hood, we are capable of change at any point in life. However, Adler maintained that
not all our choices are conscious and that style of life is created through both con-
scious and unconscious choices.
Adler believed that ultimately people are responsible for their own personal-
ities. People’s creative power is capable of transforming feelings of inadequacy into
either social interest or into the self-centered goal of personal superiority. This ca-
pacity means that people remain free to choose between psychological health and
neuroticism. Adler regarded self-centeredness as pathological and established so-
cial interest as the standard of psychological maturity. Healthy people have a high
level of social interest, but throughout their lives, they remain free to accept or re-
ject normality and to become what they will.