This psychobiography used the framework of Individual Psychology to examine the life style development of the Honorable Ann Richards in order to provide insight into the creation of a life style by a successful, contemporary female leader. This single case study utilized a qualitative/phenomenological research methodology to examine from Ms. Richards' point of view the manner in which a highly visible and well-known individual created her particular style of life.

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According to Alfred Adler, founder of Individual Psychology, a feeling of inferiority is in some degree common to all people. People who are unable to overcome these inferiority feelings by striving for cooperation may become discouraged. Although there are three scales to measure social interest, no scales measuring discouragement for adults was found. Additionally, Adler held basic assumptions regarding homosexuality, and the findings suggest that the assumptions should be reexamined. The purpose of this study was twofold. First, three University of North Texas candidates developed a discouragement scale for adults 18 years of age and older, known as the Discouragement Scale for Adults (DSA). Discouragement was examined relative to the five life tasks. Second, this candidate normed the instrument for the scores of gay male subjects and compared it to the scores of the other subject groups. Since the emphasis was on developing the instrument and norming it for various subject groups, no hypothesis was developed. Data was collected on three subject groups, known as the general norm subjects, the discouraged subjects, and the gay male subjects. Analyses were performed on the scores. Among the analyses, it was found that gay male subjects were slightly more discouraged than the general norm subjects, and the discouraged subjects were far greater discouraged than the other two subject groups. Initial reliability and validity was found to be high, offering support that the DSA is a reliable and valid instrument. The recommendations for further research include cultural and gender studies, predicting behavior, counseling intervention, and exploring the relationship between discouragement and stressors, such as the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

The focus of the present study was to test through SEM the relationships between family influences (FI) and school influences (SI) on factors hypothesized to be associated with adolescent social interest: school belonging (SB), extracurricular participation (EP), and peer/romantic involvement (PRI). The final model consisted of FI and SI that contributed to the expression of adolescent social interest. FI included parental communication and parental caring. SI consisted of teacher fairness. SB consisted of a child's self-reported feelings of belonging at school, EP included self-reported involvement in sports or academic clubs, and PRI consisted of self-reported desire for romantic involvement or desire for participation with others. The proposed model suggested that FI contributed significantly to self-reported SB, EP, and PRI. Additionally, it was hypothesized that SI would contribute significantly to SB and EP, but not to PRI. The data used in the current study were part of an existing data set collected as part of the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health. The total sample size for the present study was 2,561 male and female adolescents aged 12-19 years. The data consisted of adolescent and parent self-report information. Results suggested a significant relationship between FI and self-reported SB and PRI. As expected, a significant relationship existed between SI and SB. Also as expected, no significant relationship existed between SI and PRI. Neither the relationship between FI and EP nor SI and EP were significant. When analyzed separately, a significant relationship existed between SB and PRI; however, no significant relationship was found between SB and EP. Results also indicated several of the fit indices, including the average off-diagonal absolute standardized residual, the comparative fit index (CFI), and the Bentler-Bonett non-normed fit index (BBNFI), were a low to moderate fit. However, the final model was highly skewed and the model chi-square and chi-square were both exceptionally high, indicating the model appeared to moderately fit the data, but the need for further refinement is clear.

This article will address how a physiological understanding of trauma can be applied to working with couples in which an affair has initiated trauma symptoms. A brief introduction related to trauma symptomology, as well as its impact on the body, will be included. A case example will demonstrate how a counselor worked with a betrayed partner struggling with ongoing trauma symptoms. Finally, a brief discussion on why this process is particularly fitting for Adlerian clinicians will be presented.

ABSTRACT THE RELATIONSHIP OF LIFESTYLE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL BIRTH ORDER WITH CAREER DECISION SELF-EFFICACY by Ronald M. Herndon Over the course of the last several decades Adlerians have demonstrated the vocational utility of Individual Psychology and the constructs of lifestyle and psychological birth order in determining career interests, preferences, and choices (Watkins, 1984a; Watts & Engels, 1995). However, these constructs have not been examined in terms of their relationship to career decision self-efficacy (CDSE). This study examined the relationship of the Adlerian lifestyle and psychological birth order constructs with CDSE among undergraduates (N = 156) at a major southeastern university. Participants were administered a survey packet containing a demographic questionnaire, the BASIS-A Inventory, the White-Campbell Psychological Birth Order Inventory (PBOI), and the Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale (CDSES). The BASIS-A Inventory and the PBOI are instruments measuring the Adlerian constructs of lifestyle and psychological birth order. Both of these instruments do not yield a singular overall score for these constructs. Rather, scores are reported as scale totals corresponding to the factors associated with these constructs. The CDSES is an instrument measuring career decision self-efficacy, which yields scores for the overall measure as well as the scales corresponding to the factors associated with the construct. Results indicate that many statistically significant relationships exist among the factors of lifestyle with the factor scales of CDSE and overall CDSE, including belonging/social interest (BSI) and striving for perfection (P) subscale. Further, the P subscale proved to be a statistically significant predictor of overall CDSE (ρ < .05). The factors of psychological birth order had fewer statistically significant relationships with CDSE and associated factors and did not demonstrate statistically significant predictive ability with CDSE. The significant relationships and predictive ability of specific factors of the lifestyle construct, as well as the significant relationships of psychological birth order, found in this study have implications for increasing the theoretical knowledge base and vocational applicability of Individual Psychology as well as gaining further practical understanding of utilizing these constructs in counseling and vocational assessment.

Addictions are prevalent in the United States with gay men’s drinking habits considered as problematic as their heterosexual counterparts (Bux, 1996). Although some research has compared gay men and heterosexual men’s drinking behaviors, further research is needed to identify the life-style and coping resource differences between gay men with and without drinking problems. This study explores gay men and problem drinking from an Individual Psychology perspective by comparing the life-style themes as measured by the Basic Adlerian Scales for Interpersonal Success – Adult Form (BASIS-A: Wheeler, Kern, & Curlette, 1993) and coping resources as measured by the Coping Resources Inventory for Stress (CRIS: Matheny, Aycock, Curlette, & Junker, 2003) between gay men with and without harmful alcohol use as determined by the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT: Saunders, Aasland, Babor, De LA Fuente, & Grant, 1993). Through probability sampling over the internet, 398 self-identified gay men completed online surveys. The 398 participants represented three groups: (a) No Current Alcohol Problem (n = 284, 71.4%), (b) a Current Alcohol Problem (n = 91, 22.9%), and (c) Alcoholic but Currently Abstaining (n = 23, 5.8%). A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) resulted in significant differences between the groups on several scales of the CRIS and BASIS-A, and a logistic regression identified Confidence, Tension Control and Going Along as significant predictors of alcohol problems in gay men. Limitations, needs for future research, and counseling implications are discussed.

The Adolescent Discouragement Indicator (ADI) was developed to assess the Adlerian construct of discouragement. The 75-item ADI contains five subscales corresponding to the five life tasks specified in Individual Psychology and is specifically designed to pinpoint the area and degree of adolescent discouragement. Item selection was based on ratings by five prominent Adlerians and item correlation with subscale scores. Age and sex norms for the ADI were established on 225 females and 299 males 12 to 18 years of age. Findings indicate that female adolescents are less discouraged than male adolescents on all scales except the love scale and both sexes reported the least amount of discouragment on the love scale. The only significant difference among the age groups is between the 13-year-olds and the 15, 16, and 17-year-olds on the love scale. An internal consistency coefficient of .95, a 2-week test-retest coefficient of .89, and a 4-week test-retest coefficient of .92 indicates that the ADI is a reliable instrument. Negative and significant (p < .001) correlations between the ADI and Social Interest Index (Greever, Tseng, & Friedland, 1973) and between the ADI and the Social Interest Scale (Crandall, 1975) contribute to construct validity and support Adler's belief that discouragement and social interest are inversely related. Results of behavioral and academic comparisons on a sample of adolescent males (N=57) seem to indicate a link between behavior, academic performance, and levels of discouragement. Results of factor analysis and interscale correlations are presented. Implications for further research include continued validation using behavioral criteria associated with discouragement, refinement of the subscales and establishment of score ranges to indicate when an adolescent is considered discouraged.

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ABSTRACT MURDERERS AND NONVIOLENT OFFENDERS: A COMPARISON OF LIFESTYLE, PAMPERING, AND EARLY RECOLLECTIONS by Richard A. Highland Alfred Adler outlined a theory of crime that suggests criminals suffer from a lack of social interest and have experienced parental pampering and childhood hyperactivity. He posited that these forces lead to criminality; however, his theory remains largely untested. A review of the criminological literature indicates that most theories of crime lack cognitive elements with adequate operational definitions. A convenience sample of male and female convicted murderers (n = 94) and nonviolent offenders (n = 76) derived from state prisons and parole populations were compared to find if differences in lifestyle attributes, parental pampering, and childhood hyperactivity exist. Prison inmates and parolees completed a demographic and criminal history questionnaire, the BASIS-A Inventory (Wheeler, Kern, & Curlette, 1993), Parental Behavior Questionnaire (Williamson, 1992), Paulhus Deception Scale (Paulhus, 1999), Wender-Utah Rating Scale (Ward, Wender, & Reimherr, 1993), and recorded three early recollections. MANOVA tests on murderer and nonviolent offender data using scales from the BASIS-A Inventory indicates that murderers scored significantly lower (p < .01) than nonviolent offenders on the Belonging Social Interest scale of the BASIS-A Inventory. A "W" aggregate profile on the BASIS-A Inventory data among the nonviolent offenders support prior research and validates the efficacy for using that instrument among criminal populations. MANOVA tests revealed that murderers had more childhood symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder than nonviolent offenders (p <.05); however, reported parental pampering did not vary by level of violence. Finally, a qualitative analysis of early recollections using the Early Recollections Rating Scale (ERRS; Altman, 1973) reveal moderate correlations between ERRS themes and Belonging Social Interest Going Along, and Being Cautious scales of the BASIS-A Inventory among all participants. Analysis of the data demonstrates partial support for Adler’s theory of crime. In particular, violent criminals exhibit less social interest, report higher levels of childhood hyperactivity, and more often report early recollections with themes of passivity and dependency than nonviolent offenders. Data support the usefulness of lifestyle appraisal among criminal populations as a means to improve methods for assessment and treatment of these offenders.