Overcome Procrastination: Use Adlerian Therapy - Essay Sample

Introduction

Procrastination involves leaving a task at the last minute to complete it in the future. Individuals with the habit of procrastinating have challenges in doing their business regardless of how much they try organizing time. Usually, such individuals will get organized for some time, but they later return to their previous patterns of doing things. However, other people will take advantage of their adrenaline rush to get everything done at the last minute. Adlerian therapy can treat procrastination by offering an evidence-based approach to treat this disorder successfully. Adlerian therapy would help in the treatment of procrastination by focusing on the lifestyle of an individual, problem-solving techniques, and reducing self-defeating behaviors.

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Values and Beliefs

Adlerian therapy is the most appropriate model for treating procrastination due to the evidence-based approach it offers. The framework provides a goal-oriented, short-term, and positive psychodynamic therapy to the affected individuals. Adler focused on feelings of discouragement, sense of belonging, and inferiority versus superiority in the contexts of community and society levels (Sharf, 2016). The theory suggests that feelings of inferiority are likely to cause neurotic behaviors and could also be used to motivate the patient to strive for better success. The theory is suitable in the treatment of procrastination since it focuses on individual personality development while accepting and understanding the interconnectedness amongst people.

My values include perseverance, peace, wisdom, achievement, respect, happiness, and freedom. I believe that humans are generally good at their young ages, but their personality changes based on upbringing and interaction with the environment. These values and beliefs significantly align with the approach taken by the Adlerian theory. The model is not only limited to therapy but also counseling of the client (Sharf, 2016). Therapy and counseling focus on the personality values and beliefs of a client before establishing the course of action and influencing the client to accept the recommended treatment. The understanding of the values and beliefs helps create a cooperative relationship that needs to be maintained throughout the therapy. A therapist analyzes individuals' constellations and dreams, interprets their comments, and aligns them with the goals of the therapy. Adlerian theory assists a therapist in helping clients stop their ineffective behaviors and beliefs related to their problems (procrastination). Therefore, the theory offers a platform and alignment to treating procrastination.

Currently, I am an independent-thinker regarding then nature of people regardless of my cultural identities and bias. While growing up, I had a robust cultural identity affiliated to my ethnic community and believed that it is a superior race. I believed that I am born in the best community amongst the surrounding communities in my region. Such kind of beliefs and bias made me a frustrated, depressed, self-doubted, hostile, and bitter individual. The negative values of pride, deserved-achievement, and competition were the contributors to my values of cultural beliefs and bias. However, I have changed these values and bias after an interaction with the environment for the better.

Theory of Personality

I believe that people are the way they are due to their experiences in workplaces, relationships, and the general environment. Procrastination has many causes, including excessive perfectionism, lack of focus, fear of failure, and lack of motivation. The assessment and analysis process of the Adlerian theory focuses on an individual's behavior to understand the contributors to self-defeating behavior. The observations and outcomes developed are compared as the therapists seek projective techniques to assist the client. However, the cause of a majority of the problems in therapists is linked to the behaviors of the clients. The Adlerian theory extends the assessment of a person's problems to consider properties such as assets and other things that make an individual's life meaningful.

Psychologically, people are likely to procrastinate due to a lack of self-control and motivation needed to complete a task. When one needs to get a task completed, he or she relies on self-control to bring the self to do it. Self-control receives support from the motivating factors which induce a person to complete a task timely and in the right way. Whenever there are demotivating factors such as excessive perfection, fear of failure and anxiety, one becomes less motivated to undertake a task. The Adlerian theory suggests that individuals have an ego, and whenever there is a threat to it, they are likely to avoid completing tasks. Adlerian theory is based on Freud's theory that states that anxiety is a warning of an existing threat to the ego when people face dangerous things that they could not have realized previously (Sharf, 2016). Whenever the ego faces a threat, individuals develop a defense mechanism that primarily involves avoiding a task. Consequently, procrastination is a behavior acquired in the past motivated by a person's experience and interactions in the workplace and the general environment.

Psychopathology

The Adlerian theory suggests that unwanted behaviors in people are caused by three primary factors than include style of life, social interests, and the inferiority and superiority concept (Sharf, 2016). The style of life impacts the way people adapt to obstacles in their lives and the strategies adopted in solving problems and meanings of achieving their goals. The style of life is mostly developed in early childhood, where children strive in their wants to gain superiority and perfection. As such, procrastination is a behavior that begins at an early age, and it is learned over the years. People learn a style of manipulating things all through to not complete tasks on time. Adler terms the unwanted behavior as a series of inferiorities established at a young age.

Adler considers social interest to have three stages in an individual's life that include aptitude, ability, and secondary dynamic features (Sharf, 2016). Everyone has an innate aptitude or ability to cooperate and exist in social living. People develop abilities to express their social cooperation in different ways after the development of the aptitude. Later, they develop secondary dynamic characteristics where they express their interests and attitudes in a social context. Hence, procrastination is a social interest expression that shows the weak attitudes and inadequate interests that one has to complete a particular task. Whenever people have a negative attitude to tasks or job roles, they lack the motivation to complete them and will do so when they are coerced by rules. Additionally, a lack of social interest in doing the job results in procrastination.

Adlerian Theory suggests that the inferiority and superiority complex cause unwanted behaviors (Sharf, 2016). At birth, infants are exposed to inferiority characterized by the need to attain and achieve in life. Adler regarded inferiority not to be a human weakness unless it results in an inferiority complex. While parents and other older siblings are independent, powerful, and bigger than a kid, the child will struggle to completion, perfection, and desired places in life. However, the development is threatened by neglect, pampering, and physical abilities. Therefore, procrastination is caused by these three factors based on the concepts of inferiority and superiority. Pampered children always expect to get whatever they need, which prevents them from being independent. Neglected children feel unwanted and will avoid doing everything due to their inferiorities, while physical abilities such as organ inferiority deter people from performing tasks.

Goals of Therapy

The primary objective of the Adlerian theory is to assist therapists in acquiring insights that would allow them, facilitate the personal growth of the clients. The framework promotes confidence and self-worth to help an individual interact naturally in societies and build strong relationships that support their wellbeing. Adlerian theory is based on the theoretical constructions of fictionalism goals (Sharf, 2016). Fictions entail the ideas that do not exist in reality, although they are critical in enabling people to deal with reality effectively. For instance, the concept that "all men are equal" is a fiction. Even though such a statement may offer hope for everyday life, it is not a reality. The Adlerian theory offers similar fictions to facilitate interactions with and amongst people, although they may not be true objectively. The concept of fiction assists in helping clients assess the meaning of their lives to boost their confidence and self-worth.

Adlerian therapy constitutes four stages that assist therapists in solve psychological issues presented to them. They include engagement, assessment of personal history, insight and interpretation, and reorientation. The engagement stage includes the initial interaction between the client and the therapist, which entails the assessment of family dynamics and constellation. The objective of this stage is to create a trust relationship between the two parties. The assessment of personal history includes the critical focus of family history and early childhood memories. The insights and interpretation stage constitutes a phase where therapists are informed about the challenges faced by the clients. The reorientation phase includes a phase for continued growth where clients are allowed to return to their occupations and society based on the new insights given to alter previous negative perspectives and responses actively.

Limitations/Multicultural Implications

The Adlerian theory faces several limitations and multicultural implications. Based on my analysis, I find the theory to lack scientific depth; it is superficial and lacks a foundation that would fully address the diverse psychological needs of clients such as procrastination. The theory is also highly founded on assumptions that offer undue weight to various concepts of human development. It is based on excessive concepts that primarily focus on an individual's characteristics as the basis for change. Adlerian theory impacts the multicultural implications of the clients since therapists need to first cultivate the background information of the clients before offering judgments.

Therapists need to carefully consider the core components of individual psychology, such as personality values and cultural backgrounds. Adlerian models provide the wholeness and unity of society. It uses the self-interests of individuals, fragmentations of reality, and collaborative efforts to solve various problems in the community, such as procrastination.

Conclusion

Procrastination is a common problem amongst most people characterized by delays and postponement in attending to activities and job roles. The Adlerian theory would help treat this psychological problem by a critical consideration of the lifestyle of an individual, problem-solving techniques, and reducing self-defeating behaviors. My positive values and beliefs prompt the choice of this model because it helps assess the background information, offer alternatives, and recommend the course of action. The goal of Adlerian therapy is to boost the confidence and self-worth of the clients.

References

Sharf, R. S. (2016). Theories of Psychotherapy and Counseling. (6thEdition). Boston: Cengage Learning.