Style Of Life

The concept of “style of life” is inserted in Alfred Adler’s model of personality development. According to Adler, style of life represents the individual’s unique personality structure, which encompasses personal goals, opinions, compensation strategies, and attitudes towards the self, others, and the world. In other words, the style of life reflects a person’s pattern of thinking, feeling, and behaving that typically drives how one responds to the three main tasks of living: friendship, love, and work.

An individual’s style of life is usually set by the age of 4 or 5 and although it is vulnerable to change, it tends to turn into a consistent lifelong personality orientation. This structure is a product of the interaction between early childhood experiences, hereditary factors, and one’s creative power (innate impulses to develop and strive). Adler proposed the existence of 4 primary types of style of life, from which only the first is adaptative:

The socially useful type: individuals who are mentally and physically healthy and positively contribute to society, as they tend to act in ways that benefit others and show high social interest.
The ruling type: individuals who have aggressive and dominant behavioral tendencies towards themselves (e.g. suicide or self-harm victims, drug addicts) or others.
The dependent type: individuals who have the propensity to rely on others and need support from outside sources to get over life difficulties. They take more than they give others.
The avoidant type: individuals who have low energy levels and tend to withdraw from others. They are also prone to avoiding or trying to escape difficult life situations.