The Fundamental Task Of Life: What, Why, How Julie A. Kaufman
How I First Experienced the Life Tasks Community Occupation Personal / Love / Intimacy Self-care Spiritual
Brief Review • All behavior serves a purpose - is a striving toward a felt plus. • Neurotic and psychotic safeguards = striving void of social interest. • These safeguarding movements are compensatory for feelings of inferiority. • We are whole indivisible beings.
What is the Fourth Life Task • It is how we experience ourselves. • It is getting out of our own way. • It is feeling comfortable in our own skin. • It is shaped by our daily self- narrative. • It is witnessed by others through our movement and life narratives.
• It is dynamic – we are constantly experiencing and re-experiencing ourselves. • Its real strength is only realized when we are confronted with difficulties. • It begins taking shape the moment we are born. • It is what we bring to the game.
• According to Adler, how we respond to life’s challenges isn’t always as logical as one would assume. • Rather, our solutions are based on the answers that our early childhood experiences and mistaken beliefs trained us to make.
Identity Formation • Beginning at birth, we get to know ourselves based on our interpretations of experiences. • As we grow, we begin to build our life narrative based on these interpretations. • Each new experience offers us the opportunity to validate or reject our previous narrative. • Unconsciously, we look to find congruence between what we experience and our underlying view of how we fit into the world.
• This can create a very narrow field of vision. • We tend to see only what validates what we believe to be true of ourselves. • We begin to use emotional reasoning: if I think it, if someone else thinks it, or if I feel it …. it must be true. • W e “sculpt” our personhood in an attempt to find validation, security, significance, and belonging.
The Sculpted Self • Sculpting is the process of modifying or negating one’s true and organic self. • Each new modification covers up a little piece of the organic self - which creates the sculpted self - which then becomes one’s working identity. • The sculpted self is not only influenced by the demands of life, it also influences how we meet them. • The sculpted self is what we bring to our creative self.
The Creative Self • The creative self is experienced in two ways: • Creative drive – innate urge • Creative power – artistic solution • And the Life force … is how it comes to fruition.
The Life Force
What it Isn’t • Sweeney and Witmer – 1991 • Ultimate goal of humankind is a striving toward optimum health and wellness • Proposed that the life tasks interact with external life forces : family, community, religion, government, media, education, and business/industry Sweeney, T. J., & Witmer, J. M. (1991). Beyond social interest: Striving toward optimum health and wellness. Individual Psychology, 47 (4), 527-540.
• Spirituality (renamed as life task one ) posited as the foundational life task — creative energy source, purpose, optimism, inner harmony, and character development • Self-regulation (renamed as life task two )
Where we Diverge • The life forces they described are: • external of the soul • not life-giving • not life-creating • A person’s ability to experience optimism, inner harmony, and socially interested contribution is dependent upon how he or she experiences their inner self.
• “ We are affected in our attitudes, values, beliefs, and behavior by cultural, historical, and world circumstances and events, i.e., the realm outside of the circle as well as the social institutions through which our major life tasks are expressed. We are affected, however, not so much by what happens as a result of circumstances or events, as by how we interpret and give meaning to what happens” ( pp. 530). • Sweeney, T. J., & Witmer, J. M. (1991). Beyond social interest: Striving toward optimum health and wellness. Individual Psychology, 47 (4), 527- 540.
Therefore I posit that a life force is an energy that arises from within the self and is more accurately deemed the influencer versus the influencee .
The Life Force • Courage • Power • Mindset • Authentic self-expression
Courage
Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway. — John Wayne
Courage is: • The foundation of the life force. • Learned. • Choosing to move in the direction of growth regardless of perceived vulnerability. • For Adler, courage was most importantly, a reflection of social interest.
Power
Social Power • Dominance over others, valuable resources, attention, etc. • Ability to control the states and behaviors of others. • Earned but limited. • Vertical striving – void of social interest and based in self-absorption. • Horizontal striving – based in social interest.
Personal power …. • Is experienced when one has the ability to live and act within the realm of their individual belief system. • Is dependent upon who we believe is in control of our fate. • Is mindful authority of movement. • Is freedom from being dominated by others. • Provides limitless control of our inner resources.
• Can only be understood within a social context. • Frees us from self-absorption. • Increases our tolerance to vulnerability. • Fortifies our ability to endure hardships. • Synchronizes our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors (Amy Cuddy).
The Power Relationship • People who have social power without a sense of personal power: • Are ego-defensive • Solicit less input • Judge others below them more harshly • Use more coercive power (threats)
Cycle of Powerlessness • Powerlessness heightens our sense of danger. • This is experienced as anxiety which impairs our thoughts. • Impaired thoughts further disable our inner resources. • Safeguarding behavior is used as an attempt to mitigate feelings of vulnerability. • Which leads to a greater sense of powerlessness.
• A sense of powerlessness causes us to modify our behavior to match the behavior or perceived expectations of those we believe hold more social power. • Perceived powerlessness also causes us to seek permission before acting.
Empowerment … ? Authority or power given to someone to do something. To give official authority or legal power. To give power to someone. • We don’t provide others with power …. power is an internal resource — permission is not required. — Inpowerment —
According to Cuddy , “Feeling powerful changes our interpretation of the emotions we feel when under pressure” (p. 132). Cuddy, A. (2015). Presence: Bringing your boldest self to your biggest challenges. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company.
Mindset
It is said that if you want to know what you were doing in the past, look at your body now; if you want to know what will happen to you in the future, look at what your mind is doing now. — His Holiness the Dalai Lama
• Mindset dictates movement. • It is shaped by our interpretations of what we observe and experience. • All experiences are filtered through our individual and distorted lenses of the world. • Our narrow vision of the world leads us to see only what provides cognitive comfort. • Because uncertainty is uncomfortable, we seek to prove what we believe to be true – even when it is self-limiting.
Fixed vs. Growth Mindsets • A 2012 study by Yeager and Dweck looked at how mindset affected the academic and social resilience of adolescents. • Students were taught either an incremental theory of intelligence (growth) or a fixed theory of intelligence. Yeager, D. S., & Dweck, C. S. (2012). Mindsets that promote resilience: When students believe that personal characteristics can be developed. Educational Psychologist, 47 (4), 302-314.
What Yeager and Dweck Found … • Youth who were taught the incremental theory of intelligence: • Responded to stressful academic and social events with the belief they were capable of growth and change. • Achieved significantly greater academic outcomes. • Began to view hostile peers with more compassion.
• Youth who were taught a fixed theory of intelligence: • Gave up more quickly when faced with academic challenges. • Viewed hostile others as “bullies” and “bad.” • Experienced significantly less academic success.
Fixed Growth • Desire to look smart. • Desire to learn. • Challenges embraced. • Challenges avoided. • Failure is viewed as necessary • Failure is viewed as the end for growth; as a part of the of the road. success process. • Failure represents rejection • Failure represents the and ultimate incompetence. courage to take risks. • Defensive response to • Criticism and instruction are criticism and instruction. accepted and evaluated for usefulness. • Threatened by success of others. • Inspired by success of others.
In Yeager and Dweck’s Conclusion … • Self-esteem boosting and trait labeling have a detrimental impact on mindset, perseverance, and outcome. • What students need are mindsets that define challenges as things that they can take on and overcome with time and effort.
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