Individual Psychology: Research and Clinical Applications

Abstract

Individual Psychology:Research and Clinical Applications Jon Sperry and Len Sperry This issue highlights the application of Individual Psychology with five articles. We hope that you enjoyed the last two special issues on Adlerian play therapy and on the Alfred Adler sesquicentennial. Those special issues and this open issue demonstrate the reach and active efforts of authors and researchers advancing Individual Psychology around the globe. The first article in this issue, "Birth Order and Marriage: Examining Homogamy, Gender, and Remarriage," by Manning, examined birth order themes in a study with 1,595 participants. They examined themes of homogamy, which is the tendency for people to seek a love partner who has the same birth order as their own. They reported that homogamy was detected only when birth order was a categorical variable that included only-born individuals. The findings suggest that only-born individuals are especially likely to marry and remarry only-born partners. Last, they found that besides only-born individuals, birth order is not an especially good predictor of romantic affiliative preference. The second article, "Student Wellness: Exploring Personality Priorities and Perceived Wellness Among University Students," by Parker and Dickson, includes an empirical study examining wellness and personality priorities among a sample of 216 undergraduate and graduate students. Students in their sample most frequently identified with superiority or pleasing personality priorities. Although the study did not find that personality priorities were a predictor of participant wellness, the authors discussed the value of utilizing the Adlerian Personality Priority Assessment (APPA) to assist students in self-understanding and self-reflection in various educational settings, given the developmental challenges and changes that typically occur among these individuals. Implications for high school and college counselors are also discussed. [End Page 229] The next article, "Toward Sex Consciousness: Adler's Gender Roles," by Janssen, includes a theoretical and historical piece on Adler's view of gender roles and gender development. Besides Adler's socially embedded view of human behavior, his contribution of the "masculine protest" in the 1920s was one of the key constructs in his theory that differed from the work of Sigmund Freud and was also highly influential in child guidance and educational settings. This article highlights the history of Adler's influence on gender role development in the psychology literature. Evii articulates a conceptualization of clients experiencing eating disorders and discusses clinical implications of working with such individuals. The article, "Adlerian Social Interest, Anorexia Nervosa, and Cognitive Reconstruction," includes a clinical application of Individual Psychology. Adler's intentional efforts to help clients shift from a self-focus to another focus or a socially interested focus are highlighted. Further, this article demonstrates how cognitive reconstruction can be used to foster social interest among clients experiencing eating disorders. Positive Discipline is an Adlerian parenting program that highlights the use of encouragement and belonging through various experiential activities. "The Effectiveness of Positive Discipline Parenting Workshops on Parental Attitude and Behavior," by Carroll and Brown, examines the outcomes of this parenting workshop with parents who were mostly Hispanic, low income, and living in the southwestern United States. This study included a 7-week workshop that provided parents with tools and strategies for developing mutually respectful relationships. Results indicate improvements in parenting attitudes and parenting behaviors pertaining to authoritative parenting. These editors' notes were written while I (Jon) was traveling the globe during Spring 2020 on a research sabbatical supported by Lynn University. The purposes of the sabbatical were to provide training on trauma-informed care principles and to examine international perspectives of trauma treatment and social and systemic barriers to mental health care. While jumping from continent to continent, I had the opportunity to meet mental health professionals around Africa, Europe, North America, and South America. Not to my surprise, many of the individuals whom I interviewed were Adlerian counseling practitioners or at least aware of the influence of Alfred Adler on contemporary counseling approaches. It appears that Individual Psychology is alive and well throughout much of the world! [End Page 230] Copyright © 2020 University of Texas Press