Question

Discuss Adler’s concept of style of life. Do you agree with him that what is crucial is not our childhood experiences themselves, but our attitude toward the early events of our life? What do you consider to be the major contributions and shortcomings of this approach?

Answer 1

Alfred Adler forwarded a concept of 'style of life' in order to explain the dynamics of personality. Style of life relates to a person's unconscious and persistent way of reacting to three major components of life namely, friendship, love and work. In simpler terms, style of life is a person's habitual attitude or reaction towards others in his or her life. The concept of style of life is hidden in a person's way of thinking, feeling and acting. It involves self-concept, the self or ego ideal, an individual's ethical posture and a concept of the broader world. A person's creative power helps in generating his life style, which is embedded in his or her early childhood experiences. An individual's style of life is an important determinant of his or her behavior. An individul's style is known to be unique and remains stable throughout his or her life, except when it is changed through depth psychotherapy.

I agree with Adler that what is crucial is not our childhood experiences themselves, but our attitude toward the early events of our life. This is because our childhood experiences can be negative, but how we react to it, that is, our style of life or our attitude is framed by the individual, himself. Adler focused on one's motiva­tion to move towards superiority, post feelings of inferiority. This means an individual can strive for improvement in his or her condition, in order to make life better. The individual is motivated to remove weaknesses and become as powerful as he can. A child can reach the extent of over compensating for feelings of inferiority created due to early childhood experiences. To win over negatives experiences or events or limitations or weaknesses, a person can be motivated to set extremely difficult targets, thereby feeling superior.  

Some critics do not consider Adler's theory to be scientific. It is important to note that the concepts of a theory should be measurable to be scientific. The theory should have an experimental orientation, that is, it should have physical or behavioral variables. But Adler's basic concepts are not considered to be either physical or behavioral. It is unknown how ‘striving for perfection’, ‘feelings of inferiority’, ‘social interest’ and ‘the creativity of a person’s lifestyle’ are measurable. Several parts of alder's theory are too informal or unreliable. They cannot be generalized to the larger population. Also, as opposed to Adler's point of view, a person do not need to react in a given way to a given situation. He or she has choices to make. Adler has forwarded his view that one's basic personality and uniqueness generates from the creative power of the self. Heredity, environment, conscious and unconscious are believed by him to frame the personality and one's uniqueness. But, this viewpoint is partially true. A person's struggle is not limited to the feelings of inferiority and superiority. It can be viewed as a more complicated inner and objective religious struggle, which involves a revolt against a true God and submission to Him.

Adler's constructs are not complete truths or facts, but Adler’s concepts are known to be important constructs, considering that science is all about framing important constructs. It is also important to note that in his theory, Adler has given due importance to children, families and education. Adler's theory has given birth to Adlerian therapy or person-centered therapy. This therapy deals with an individual's feelings of anxiety and inferiority, to know about his or her sense of belongingness. This therapy can help a person to feel comfortable and confident in his or her specific community and society. The therapy has four stages namely, engagement, evaluation of personal history, insight and reorientation.