Leadership By Encouragement

An Introduction to Life-Style Assessment [Book Excerpt] The ability to understand as well as to predict human behavior is one of the major goals of psychology. A significant contribution to the achievement of the goal was Adler (1929). He used the following analogy in presenting his definition of life-style: If we look at a pine tree growing in a valley we will notice that it grows differently from one on top of a mountain. It is the same kind of a tree, pine, but there are two distinct styles of life. Its style on top of the mountain is different from its style when growing in the valley. The style of life of a tree is the individuality of a tree expressing itself and molding itself in an environment. We recognize a style when we see it against a background of an environment different from what we expect, for then we realize that every tree has a life pattern and is not merely a mechanical reaction to the environment.