Alfred Adler was a renowned psychiatrist and philosopher who highlighted the necessity for understanding individuals within their personal contexts. He was responsible for the development of the first holistic personality, psychopathology, and psychotherapy theory, which was intimately linked with the humanistic philosophy of living (Alfred Adler: Theory and Application, 2020). Adler was also adamant that in a bid to get a holistic view of a person, one must consider other internal and external factors.
The discourse on whether human behavior is determined by their environment or genetics is ancient and continuous. According to Adler’s theory, every individual has a uniqueness that sets them apart from the others. He also believed that individuals are not ruled by their unconscious to the extents that were claimed by Freud, but instead, every individual has the capacity to direct and monitor their life (Nature Versus Nurture Research Papers, n.d). In addition, Adler believed that social factors are critical in the development of personality, and this was based on the belief that each individual strives for superiority as a means to adapt and conquer environmental factors. This necessity for superiority is developed in one’s early life in response to the feelings of inferiority when they encounter individuals that are more powerful and older. Therefore, the personality develops by means of compensation as the person utilizes strategies to overcome real or imagined weaknesses or inferiorities via the development of one’s abilities.
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Therefore, while Adler seems to recognize the role of nature (genetics) as well as that of nurture (environment) in the development of a child, he mainly dwells on one’s immediate environment in which the child is brought up in and therefore, his interpretation would be more inclined towards nurture or environment because he believes that social factors, which are products of one’s environment, are critical in shaping an individual and are thus influential in the development of a child.
References
Alfred Adler: Theory and Application. (2020). Retrieved 8 September 2020, from https://alfredadler.edu/about/alfred-adler-theory-application
Nature Versus Nurture Research Papers. ( n.d ). Retrieved 8 September 2020, from https://www.papermasters.com/nature-versus-nurture.html
