Rudolf Dreikurs

Rudolf Dreikurs (February 8 1897, Vienna - May 25 1972, Chicago) was an American psychiatrist and educator who developed psychologist Alfred Adler's system of individual psychology into a pragmatic method for understanding the purposes of reprehensible behaviour in children and for stimulating cooperative behaviour without punishment or reward.

He suggested that human misbehavior is the result of not having one of four basic human needs met: power, attention, revenge and avoidance of failure.

Dreikurs' main theory dealt with misbehavior of pre-adolescents. He reasoned that these students will “act out” based on four, principled, "mistaken goals." The first reason for their misbehavior is that they desire attention. If they do not receive the attention they crave through their actions (good or bad, e.g doing well on a paper or throwing a tantrum), they move onto seeking power (e.g. they may refuse to complete a paper). If their power struggle is thwarted, they try to get revenge. If even revenge does not get the desired response, they begin to feel inadequate. His books list many ways to combat these behaviors. His overall goal was that students would learn to cooperate reasonably without being penalized or rewarded because they would feel that they are valuable contributors to the classroom.