INTRODUCTION
Individual psychology (hereinafter "IP") is a psychological approach that offers a wide range of concepts and techniques for understanding the human individual as a social being. The essence of the theory was described at the beginning of the last century by Alfred Adler, and it is still relevant; many “more modern” psychological approaches (for example positive psychology) draw from it (Watts, 2015). Miller and Taylor (2016) argue for the applicability and current relevance of Adlerian ideas through research from neuroscience. In the case of the concept of social interest, they discuss the positive effect of compassion and kindness on a person's mental and physical health, while in the case of the concept of holism they point to the importance of negative early experiences, which may result in a decline in human cognitive, emotional, and social functions. Among the most significant concepts of individual psychology are social embeddedness, subjectivity, freedom of one’s own choice, holism, teleology, and goal orientation (Abramson, 2021). Nicoll and Nicoll (2018) discuss the importance of the concept of lifestyle, which in individual psychology is the equivalent of personality (Čechová, 2013). From the perspective of methods in individual psychology, many authors consider the method of early recollections to be the most significant technique used in therapeutic practice (Shifron, 2020). It is a technique that allows understanding an individual's lifestyle and helps the therapist get closer to understanding the client (Clark, 2001). Proponents of individual psychology (Dreikurs & Soltz, 2012; Walton, 2008) proposed approaches and techniques that are applicable not only in counseling but also in education and upbringing. Concepts and techniques of individual psychology are topics of research in Slovakia both from an empirical perspective (see Čechová 2014, Petričková, Čechová 2014) and from a theoretical perspective (Čechová, 2011a), with implications especially in parenting (Čechová, Kozáková 2017; Hanušková, Čechová 2019) and education (Čechová, 2007, 2011b). From individual psychology concepts, the concept of lifestyle has received research attention and its predictive power for university students’ behavior (Lewis & Watts, 2004). Lifestyles among university students predicted more behavior than family or membership in student associations. In the university context, encouragement (Wong, 2015) and the concept of social interest in students and its relation to optimism and hope (Barlow et al., 2009) were also studied. The concept of encouragement has a tradition in classroom management and education because it aims to improve students’ academic outcomes (Wong, 2015). Barlow et al. (2009) also linked individual psychology with positive psychology and found that optimism, as a positive psychology concept, predicts social interest in university students.
Individual psychology uses its own conceptual apparatus, so correct interpretation of individual concepts is therefore an important prerequisite for understanding the theory itself. For example, Watts and Eckstein (2009) note that misunderstanding, or incorrect interpretation, of the term individual, which is already present in the very naming of the approach, is a fairly common phenomenon. Research conducted on student populations shows that first-year students entering universities possess many unclear beliefs—so-called misconceptions regarding psychological knowledge—that can persist even after completion of basic psychology subjects (Kowalski & Taylor 2009). Misconceptions do not have to be limited to false general beliefs that are present in the public consciousness. We assume that they may also emerge regarding psychological approaches such as individual psychology, especially if students are introduced to it only partially, through other (“carrier”) subjects. If we proceed from the concept of expertise (Leinhart, 1983), students who complete specially focused courses can be considered expert students. They possess greater knowledge of a given topic, which they organize in a different way. Their knowledge is more elaborated in character, which is linked to the fact that presented tasks trigger a more elaborate schema in them. In contrast, so-called novices spend less time conceptualizing the problem and are more likely to arrive at superficial indicators of a given task (Leinhardt, 1983). Completion of university subjects is also associated with the concept of experience. In this context, experience can be understood as “knowledge, abilities, competencies obtained through intentional or unintentional means” (Bačová & Baláž, 2017, p. 12). As the concept of experience suggests, educational outcomes are not limited to the cognitive domain, that is, knowledge. Outcomes can also include skills and non-cognitive outcomes, such as attitudes and values. For this reason, we decided to examine outputs of two groups of students through free associations.
The aim of our paper is to find out what image of individual psychology students who completed a course on the basic aspects of individual psychology (so-called experts) have formed and how this image differs from that formed by students who did not complete the course (so-called novices).
METHODS
Research sample The research sample consisted of 37 students in total. Of these, 26 students were graduates of a course on the basic aspects of individual psychology. These were final-year students in the bachelor’s psychology degree program with a mean age of M=22,73, SD = 3,36 (women = 24; men = 2). Students who had not completed the course were 11. These were second-year psychology students with a mean age of M = 20,55; SD = 0,99 (women = 10 and men = 1). Participation in the study was voluntary.
Students in the expert group became familiar with the concepts of individual psychology in a course on the basic aspects of individual psychology. The course was held over three months at weekly intervals. The course curriculum consisted of a theoretical and a practical part. In the course, students were introduced to the biography of Alfred Adler and to the main concepts of individual psychology (social interest, inferiority feelings and striving for superiority, lifestyle, mistaken goals). In the practical part, participants were introduced to counseling methods and their use within the counseling process. Novice students were introduced to personalities and concepts of individual psychology in basic psychology subjects and did not complete a specialized course.
Analysis method Stimulus words were chosen to refer to core attributes of individual psychology. Stimulus words were presented through the following two questions: “With what five words do you associate the word ‘Alfred Adler’?” and “With what five words do you associate the word ‘individual psychology’?”
Data were collected through the Google Forms platform at the end of the semester from both groups of respondents. Students completed a short questionnaire immediately after finishing the courses online and individually via the above platform.
We chose thematic analysis of free associations as the analysis method, which helps us understand the image of individual psychology students have formed. A major advantage of the association method is that in addition to revealing the knowledge domain, it also allows space for the expression of non-cognitive contents. It is a method that is relatively natural, cognitively and time efficient. Therefore, it is not associated with the kind of stress typical of exams.
The association analysis was carried out by two researchers, who initially worked independently. After an initial review of associations, meaning-equivalent expressions were identified. In the next step, associations were placed into themes, and frequencies were assigned to them. In a further step, the researchers compared their outputs and reached consensus in discussion regarding each theme. They then adjusted the categorization. Discussion continued until consensus was reached. The final analysis step consisted of evaluating the distinctiveness of themes and checking whether each theme included all appropriate associations.
RESULTS
For the stimulus word Individual psychology, we conceptualized 7 themes: Founder, Core theoretical concepts, Methods and analytical procedures, Another (psychological) approach, Uniqueness, General concepts, and Unclassified. For the stimulus word Alfred Adler, we conceptualized 8 themes: Person of Alfred Adler, Core theoretical concepts, Another (psychological) approach, Methods and analytical procedures, Approach, Uniqueness, General concepts, and Unclassified. The tables list the themes, which in interpretation are supplemented by representative words.
Table 1: Frequencies of associations related to individual psychology
Figure 1
Table 2: Frequencies of associations related to Alfred Adler
Figure 2
Based on the analysis, we can state that the image of IP held by course graduates differs from the image held by students who had not completed it. Our results showed that although students were instructed to produce 5 associations, the average number of associations produced per student was somewhat smaller. Non-graduate students produced on average 3.9 associations (for the stimulus word “individual psychology”) and 3.6 associations (for the stimulus word Alfred Adler). For graduate students, the averages were 3.2 and 2.6 associations. Regarding the identified themes, the difference found in how many associations represented each theme indicated greater knowledge among the graduate group. A higher number of associations was present among them for themes that suggested theoretical and practical knowledge, such as Core theoretical concepts and Methods and analytical procedures. The theme Methods and analytical procedures, which points to knowledge of techniques and methods, was represented by non-graduates at only 12.5% in the founder question and was not represented at all in the question related to IP, while among graduates it was represented at 14.71% in the founder question and 21.43% in the IP question. The Core concepts IP theme was also more represented in percentages among graduates. For the cue word individual psychology, this was 44.05% among graduates and 25.58% among non-graduates, and for the cue word Alfred Adler it was 36.76% among graduates versus 12.5% among non-graduates. Among non-graduates, expressions typical of individual psychology (for example, “holism,” “social interest,” or “lifestyle”) were absent, which is an indicator of more superficial knowledge.
The theme Another (psychological) approach was represented at 13.95% among non-graduates, while among graduates only 1.19% for the question related to IP. In the founder question, Another (psychological) approach was represented at 15% among non-graduates and 10.29% among graduates. The high representation of this theme among non-graduates can be interpreted partly as these students mistaking the content of individual psychology for another approach. The content of associations such as “shadow” for the cue word “Adler” and “id, ego, superego” for the cue word “individual psychology” also suggests this. If we look at the content of the theme Another (psychological) approach among graduates, associations such as “Freud” and “psychoanalysis” appeared, which are in real relation to Adler. These associations suggest that graduates may have evaluated Alfred Adler and individual psychology in a broader context, as part of depth psychology. Based on the higher representation of the theme General psychological concepts among non-graduates for both cue words, we may infer that students who had not completed the course were more focused on broad categorization of individual psychology within the organization of psychological care.
The theme Uniqueness, which appeared for both cue words, indicates that the word “individual” evoked associations in both groups related to the individual, or uniqueness in the sense of being different from others. These are associations that suggest a misunderstanding of the term “individual,” which, correctly understood, means the unity of the person with society and also indicates the indivisibility of the person in terms of emotional, behavioral, and cognitive unity (Dreikurs-Ferguson, 2005). We therefore cannot rule out that the term individual itself is confusing for students and that assigning this term a new meaning (indivisible) causes them difficulties even after completing a specialized course.
DISCUSSION
The distribution of associations across the themes points to a different image of individual psychology between the graduate group and the non-graduate group. The differences are both quantitative and qualitative. While core theoretical concepts represented almost half of all associations related to IP and the majority of associations for the question related to Alfred Adler among graduates, among non-graduates core theoretical concepts were much less represented. This finding can be compared to results by Dew et al. (2009), who found differences in word production between novices and experts when solving tasks. Studies on novice–expert differences explain these differences by broader, more relevant knowledge and better access to that knowledge, which enables reaching relevant outputs from smaller amounts of prompt data. In answering the questions, graduates may have used analogical reasoning, which occurs when previously solved problems are stored in memory and a new problem is compared with stored problems, and these similarities are used to propose a solution to the new problem (Buchanan et al., 2006). The results for graduates indicated not only theoretical knowledge but also practical knowledge, that is, knowledge of methods and techniques of individual psychology. Based on the results, we can therefore state that course graduates may have acquired significant domain-specific knowledge that relates to a corpus of knowledge specific to a particular domain (Alexader & Murphy, 1998).
The differences we found between groups point to the need for universities to devote more space to teaching specific psychological approaches. Students who have completed basic psychology subjects do have basic knowledge of individual psychology, but this knowledge is mainly of a general nature (for example, that it is an approach applied in psychotherapy and counseling). Based on the results, we can therefore recommend that teaching focused on individual approaches be more strongly represented in study plans. A deeper understanding of theoretical and practical aspects of approaches may also be beneficial for students in career decision-making. Another value of the study is that it points to another way of examining educational outcomes. The use of the association method is time- and cognitively efficient and reduces the risk of the influence of students’ cognitive overload. It should be noted, however, that motivation can influence students’ responses, since in solving easy tasks students may not invest full effort (Liu et al., 2012). The influence of motivation on responses was partially reduced in our study because participation was voluntary for students. In conclusion, it should be noted that students’ responses are not exclusively the result of the educational process; factors such as student engagement in learning and interest in the subject also influence responses (Astin, 1984), as is also the case for individual psychology. Individual psychology itself is among approaches that have contributed to education (e.g., classroom management, the effect of encouragement) (Wong, 2015), although in Slovakia pedagogical outcomes in higher education are evaluated through the perspective of individual psychology only very rarely (e.g., Sokolová et al., 2014).
CONCLUSION
In sum, we can state that among graduates the image of individual psychology is much more elaborated, which is consistent with studies on expertise (Dew et al., 2009). The presence of a practical layer suggests that graduates may have acquired practical knowledge alongside theoretical knowledge by completing the course. A curriculum supplemented with practical demonstrations of methods (e.g., analysis of early memories) enables better understanding and grounding of knowledge. Although graduates of the course acquired significant knowledge across different areas of individual psychology, their responses also contained several terms indicating inaccuracies in understanding. The inconsistency was especially present regarding the term individual, which evokes uniqueness and exceptionalism. Our recommendation for the future, therefore, is that in specialized courses more space should be given to the terms mentioned above. If students become acquainted with individual psychology without a specialized course, we recommend allocating greater space to core concepts such as social interest, holism, or teleology.
Authors: Mgr. Andrea Zelienková, PhD. Katedra psychológie, Univerzita Mateja Bela v Banskej Bystrici
Mgr et. Mgr. Annamária Antalová Ústav aplikovanej psychológie, Fakulta sociálnych a ekonomických vied, Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave
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