Deck 3: Individual Psychology and Adlerian Therapy

Question 1

Which of these descriptions most accurately describes the relationship between Adler and Freud?

A) Adler was slightly older than Freud and guided Freud toward the discovery of the unconscious.
B) Adler was a bit younger than Freud, but he had published a book before he met Freud so they're best viewed as contemporaries.
C) Adler was younger than Freud and was always viewed as one of his main disciples.
D) Adler was always a strong rival of Freud's and never saw any utility in any of Freud's ideas.
E) None of these statements are true about Adler and Freud.

Answer 1

Adler was a bit younger than Freud, but he had published a book before he met Freud so they're best viewed as contemporaries.

Question 2

Which of the following is the best characterization of Alfred Adler's childhood?

A) He was a rather typical male born in Vienna in the latter part of the nineteenth century.
B) Adler was remarkable from an early age; he was brilliant, charming, and in excellent physical shape.
C) Adler was poverty-stricken; his family was poor, he was malnourished, and his father passed away before Adler could appreciate him.
D) Adler's childhood was challenging; he was often ill and experienced difficulty with his schooling.
E) Adler was born into a very wealthy family and, as the eldest child, was looked upon with favor.

Answer 2

Adler's childhood was challenging; he was often ill and experienced difficulty with his schooling.

Question 3

What did Adler mean by "the Masculine Protest"?

A) Women will inevitably rise up in protest over their physical deficiencies compared with males.
B) All women, deep inside, wish they were men.
C) Men needed to band together to begin protesting the discriminations they were experiencing.
D) Freud's penis envy theory was correct.
E) None of the above.

Answer 3

None of the above.

Question 4

If you could sum up Adler's key to psychotherapy, psychological health, and well-being in a single word, which of the following words would you use?

A) Masculinity.
B) Feminism.
C) Superiority.
D) Encouragement.
E) Individuum.

Question 5

According to Adler, what is/are the main cause(s) of psychopathology?

A) Lifestyle.
B) Repression.
C) Discouragement.
D) Being overwhelmed by a life task.
E) Both b and c.

Question 6

Which of the following is the best description of the central proposition underlying Adler's individual psychology?

A) The individual is shaped by his or her unconscious conflicts.
B) Our environments shape us as individuals.
C) Male and female norms and behaviors should be distinguished and upheld.
D) Humans actively shape themselves and their environments.
E) Behavior is a function of its consequences.

Question 7

Why did Adler choose the name "individual psychology" for his theoretical approach to psychotherapy?

A) As in the Latin individuum, he believed each individual was indivisible and should be viewed as an integrated whole person who strives with purpose.
B) He believed in individual freedom as an important existential principle.
C) He actually chose the name "psychoanalysis" but Freud won a lawsuit that prevented Adler from using that name.
D) Adler struggled naming his theory and finally chose "individual psychology" because it came to him in a dream.
E) Adler initially named his theory "Adlerian" but his disciples later renamed it "individual psychology."

Question 8

How would an Individual (Adlerian) therapist view why children misbehave?

A) Children who misbehave are experiencing guilt and/or anxiety and, when acting out, they obtain the negative attention they're seeking.
B) Children who misbehave lack self-awareness and thus have deficiencies in self-regulating their own behavior.
C) Children's misbehavior is purposeful and they strive toward goals, such as attention, power, or revenge, or they display inadequacy.
D) Children who misbehave are spoiled from having experienced an excess of encouragement.
E) None of the above is consistent with Adlerian theory.

Question 9

Based on Adlerian therapy, a goal for many clients should be to:

A) Discover the cause-and-effect relationships that impact their personal decisions.
B) Develop social interest or Gemeinschaftsgefuhl.
C) Delve deeply into childhood memories to uncover the origin of their problems.
D) Face and embrace their neurotic guilt or neurotic anxiety.
E) Develop higher levels of self-interest and personal confidence.

Question 10

According to Adler, the most basic striving in human beings is toward:

A) Understanding.
B) Sympathy.
C) Completeness.
D) Uniqueness.
E) Gemeinschaftsgefuhl.

Question 11

Soft determinism refers to:

A) A weak or subassertive lifestyle.
B) The midpoint between deterministic, cause-and-effect thinking and nondeterminism, which assumes no causal connections.
C) A gently persuasive strategy used by Adlerian therapists to facilitate change.
D) A moderate position lying somewhere between postmodern and premodern thought.
E) Soft determinism can be used to refer to either a or c.

Question 12

Which of the following terms is viewed as consistent with Adler's early concept of fictional finalism or fictional goals?

A) Community feelings.
B) Determinism.
C) Soft determinism.
D) Epistemological phenemenology.
E) Guiding self-ideal.

Question 13

Which statement is consistent with Adler's idea of lifestyle (or style of life)?

A) An individual's style of life is subjective, created, and both conscious and unconscious.
B) Lifestyle has been compared to a cognitive schema or map of how the world works.
C) The style of life has similarities to what psychodynamic theorists call repetition compulsion or what attachment theorists call the internal working model.
D) Your entire being is guided by your style of life.
E) All of the above are true.

Question 14

An Adlerian therapist would be likely to believe that transference is:

A) A product of poor interpersonal relationships.
B) A belief about heaven and hell.
C) A function of the client's lifestyle.
D) All of the above.
E) None of the above.

Question 15

Which three life tasks did Adler himself believe individuals must face in the world?

A) Work and occupation; social relationships; love and marriage.
B) Education; work and occupation; love and marriage.
C) Education; work; social relationships.
D) Social relationships; work and occupation; death.
E) The avoidance tendency; the blaming tendency; the self-interest tendency.

Question 16

Mike is working with an Adlerian counselor to address his unhealthy eating habits, a lack of exercise, and problems with obesity. Which life task domain will Mike's counselor be most likely to focus on in counseling?

A) Work or occupation.
B) Love and marriage.
C) Self.
D) All of the above.
E) Only a and b.

Question 17

Jo has come to you for therapy complaining of deep sadness following her recent conversion to Judaism. While she feels a deeper, more satisfying connection to God in her new faith, she has noticed that she is unable to connect with other congregants. She assumes this is because they don't trust her commitment to the religion and think she only did it for her new husband (whom she loves very much, and she reports their relationship is going well). She is especially distressed because she has also lost contact with close friends from her old church. Which life task is likely to be the focus of counseling?

A) Self.
B) Spirituality.
C) Love and marriage.
D) Social relationships.
E) All of the above.

Question 18

According to Adler, one of the most important components of successful romantic relationships is:

A) Diversity.
B) Mutuality.
C) Sympathy.
D) Dominance and submissiveness.
E) Shared interests.

Question 19

Which of the following statements is the most inconsistent with Alfred Adler's individual psychology?

A) People can be best viewed as being composed of many separate, distinct parts.
B) People are active participants within their environments and experiences.
C) Mental problems are at least partially caused by environments and relationships that lack support and encouragement.
D) Human beings have the capacity to shape themselves and their environments.
E) None of the above.

Question 20

Michelle would like to play college basketball. However, after playing a few pickup basketball games with members of the team, she comes back to the dorm and tells her roommate: "I'm really not good enough to play with these girls. I'm not bad and I did well in high school, but I don't think college basketball is the right choice for me." Assuming Michelle's self-assessment is accurate, which term best describes her situation?

A) Objective inferiority.
B) Inferiority feelings.
C) A normal inferiority complex.
D) A psychopathological inferiority complex.
E) Intensive inferiority.

Question 21

Let's assume Michelle didn't make her college basketball team, but instead of moving on, she keeps feeling and noticing all of her personal weaknesses and poor abilities in many different areas. For the most part Michelle contains these feelings and they don't affect her behavior much. Which term best describes her condition?

A) Objective inferiority.
B) Inferiority feelings.
C) A normal inferiority complex.
D) A psychopathological inferiority complex.
E) Intensive inferiority.

Question 22

The therapy stage during which client and therapist work together to develop therapeutic goals is called:

A) Forming the therapeutic relationship.
B) Lifestyle assessment and analysis.
C) Interpretation and insight.
D) Reorientation.
E) None of the above.

Question 23

Which strategy is NOT one of the three main strategies for assessing client lifestyle?

A) Goal alignment.
B) The family constellation interview.
C) The question.
D) Earliest recollection.
E) These are all main Adlerian assessment strategies.

Question 24

In individual psychology, "the question" is intended to establish:

A) If there are any secondary gains associated with the client's symptoms.
B) Why the client is seeking therapy.
C) The client's family constellation.
D) The client's prognosis.
E) Whether objective inferiority is present or absent.

Question 25

Which of the following techniques is most likely to be used by an Adlerian therapist to obtain pertinent information about a client's lifestyle development?

A) Behavioral observation.
B) The question.
C) Cognitive self-monitoring.
D) Free association.
E) Earliest recollections.

Question 26

What best describes what Adler means by "basic mistakes"?

A) When a client experiences objective inferiority.
B) When a client views himself or herself or others inaccurately.
C) When a client has a high orientation toward social interest.
D) When a student selects the wrong answer on a multiple-choice test.
E) Both b and c are correct.

Question 27

Which statement is consistent with an initial style of life interpretation?

A) It is designed to further the connection between therapist and client and begin the process of a deeper problem analysis.
B) It occurs early in counseling and is more of a collaborative guess than an interpretation and should be phrased as such.
C) It should be stated with an air of authority.
D) All of the above are true.
E) Only a and b are true.

Question 28

For Adlerians, client insight should always produce:

A) Heightened motivation.
B) Depression.
C) Elation.
D) None of the above.
E) Only a and c.

Question 29

What technique would an Adlerian therapist be using if he suggested to his client who is wishing for greater self-confidence: "Tomorrow, how about if you try to pretend for the day that you are filled with self-confidence?"

A) Creating new images.
B) The push-button technique.
C) The as-if technique.
D) A paradoxical strategy.
E) Spitting in the soup.

Question 30

What are the three phases of Watts's "reflecting as if" technique?

A) Reflecting, creating new images, and catching oneself.
B) Reflecting, planning, and implementing.
C) Dream analysis, reflecting, and planning.
D) Striving for superiority, acting as if, and reflecting.
E) Looking at your reflection, smiling, and recording cognitions.

Question 31

All of the following are examples of Adlerian techniques except:

A) Acting as if.
B) The future autobiography.
C) Motivational Interviewing.
D) The push-button technique.
E) Creating new images.

Question 32

Ralph is seeing a therapist who likes to point out to Ralph the price he is paying by engaging in a particular unhelpful behavior pattern. Which technique is Ralph's therapist employing?

A) Push-button.
B) Creating new images.
C) Future autobiography.
D) Spitting in the client's soup.
E) I'll betcha.

Question 33

Ralph gets tired of his therapist and decides to see someone different. This new therapist helps Ralph learn to use positive images to change his mood and coaches him on when to "push a button" to think of a positive image and improve his mood. What type of counselor is Ralph probably seeing now?

A) A Jungian analyst.
B) A psychoanalytic therapist.
C) A behavior therapist.
D) A person-centered therapist.
E) None of the above.

Question 34

Which of the following statements is NOT true regarding Adlerian therapy?

A) Consciousness, not the unconscious, is the center of personality.
B) Feelings of inferiority can be the wellspring of creativity.
C) It is a phenomenological and humanistic orientation.
D) The approach is grounded on the medical model.
E) Early influences can predispose the child to a faulty lifestyle.

Question 35

During an Adlerian therapy session, a client shows a strong tendency to do lots of caretaking in her close relationships and then she inevitably feels very underappreciated and resentful. This is an example of:

A) Her striving for superiority.
B) Soft determinism.
C) A basic mistake associated with her lifestyle.
D) Unconventional idiography.
E) A problem with the spirituality life task.

Question 36

Which Adlerian technique is most likely a historical predecessor to behavioral and cognitive self-monitoring?

A) Catching oneself.
B) Spitting in a client's soup.
C) Spitting in the client's hair.
D) Earliest recollections.
E) None of the above.

Question 37

In one of the case vignettes, which of the following is an example of J. Sommers-Flanagan's use of early interpretation to gain insight and enhance client motivation?

A) He asks for client permission before beginning an activity.
B) He has the client repeat the instruction "I'm the kind of guy who makes good decisions."
C) He asks the client why he decided to wear blue that day.
D) He vocalizes his idea that the client might be a perfectionist.
E) He determines the root of the client's inferiority complex.

Question 38

Which statement is an accurate summary of Veronica Johnson's opinion of Adlerian theory?

A) While it is an effective approach to use with children and individuals, she has not had success using it with couples.
B) It is a wellness-oriented perspective that recognizes that all humans strive for purpose in life, and she considers it an optimistic and creative approach.
C) It was a groundbreaking idea because of its holistic approach to mental health and its deviation from the medical model, but new theories such as existential and cognitive-behavioral theories have made it obsolete.
D) Its similarities with Freud's psychodynamic theory make it incompatible with modern feminist and multicultural theory.
E) None of the above are true.

Question 39

Which statement is most accurate regarding the suitability of Adlerian therapy for women and minority clients?

A) Adler was an early feminist and his approach is sensitive to social dynamics that can affect women adversely.
B) Although it focuses on the individual, Adler's social and family constellation emphasis makes his approach suitable for many minority groups.
C) Adler's legacy of only working with more wealthy populations limits the generalizability of his approach to working-class clients.
D) All of the above are true.
E) Only a and b are true.

Question 40

Which of the following reflects the state of psychotherapy research of Adlerian therapy?

A) Additional research to evaluate Adlerian therapy is unnecessary because the overall process of this treatment is effective and because paradoxical interventions, which are often used by Adlerian therapists, are highly effective.
B) Meta-analytic evidence suggests that Adlerian therapy may be more effective than placebo, but the studies were small in number and dated (i.e., they were conducted more than 20 years ago).
C) Because Adlerian therapy cannot be adapted to a brief therapy format, it is unlikely that future research will evaluate this outdated form of treatment.
D) None of the above.
E) Only b and c.