Wanda was the hardest working student in her school. Her constant efforts were rewarded at graduation when she received an award as the university's best math student. She confessed at that time that in elementary school she had failed math and was told by her teacher that she should pick an occupation that did not require her to work with numbers. What might Alfred Adler have said about Wanda?
A) Wanda is the exception to the rule, in that she should have instead displayed an inferiority complex.
B) She most likely is a first-born child.
C) Her striving for achievement resulted from her earlier feelings of inferiority.
D) She achieved because she never saw herself as inferior, regardless of what happened to her in elementary school.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Alfred Adler believed in his Theory of Individual Psychology that human behavior is motivated by a person's efforts to compensate for feelings of inferiority. Wanda's earlier failure in math and being told by her teacher to avoid working with numbers might have led her to feel inferior, and her striving for achievement was a compensation for those feelings. Therefore, Adler would have said that her motivation for success was a result of her earlier feelings of inferiority.

Wanda Was the Hardest Working Student in Her School