Humanistic approach

• There are 4 main assumptions for the humanistic approach:

  1.Free will and self-actualisation.

  2.Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

  3.Focus on the self, congruence and the role of conditions of worth.

  4.The influence on counselling psychology.
• Free will is the notion that humans can make choices, and their behaviours and thoughts are not determined by internal biological or external forces.
• Self-actualisation is the desire to grow psychologically and fulfil one’s full potential. Everyone has an innate tendency to reach their full potential.
• Concept of free will is that we are all able to choose and determine our own actions and behaviours.
• Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs:

  -There are 5 levels to this hierarchy of needs - physiological needs, safety and security, love and belongingness, self-esteem and self-actualisation. You can only advance from one level to the next once all of your desires on one level are met.
• 1. Physiological needs - the need for basic living items like water, oxygen, nutrition and homeostasis.
• 2. Safety and Security - the need for stability, protection, order and boundaries.
• 3. Love and Belongingness - the need for affection, love, friendship, romance, a sense of community belonging.
• 4. Esteem needs - the need for respect from others as well as the need for self-respect.
• 5. Self-actualisation - the fulfilment of one's potential to be truly the best version of yourself.
• • 'Self' is our sense of who we are, including our values and morals. Our self-worth comes from our view of ourself.
• • We have our actual self and our ideal self which represents who we would like to be.
• • Congruence is the 'degree of fit between the ideal self and actual self'.
• • the closer our actual self is to our ideal self, the happier we are and the higher our feelings of self-worth are.
• • Rogers thought that self-actualisation is most likely when we experience 'unconditional positive regard' which is where we are supported and loved regardless of our choices and behaviour.
• • Conditions of worth is when a parent places limits or boundaries on their love for their child.
• Counselling in psychology:

  -In order to reduce the gap between actual-self and ideal-self, Rogers developed ‘client-centred therapy’ – also known as counselling.

  -Client-centred therapy works by getting the clients to come to their own conclusions regarding their issues.
• Client-centred therapy has many features: the therapist provides unconditional positive regard, the therapist doesn't provide judgements or interpretations and the therapist shows empathy towards clients.
• Evaluation – Positive approach:

  -The humanistic approach takes a positive and optimistic outlook to evaluating and defining behaviour.

  -Many psychologists have praised this approach’s positive image of psychology by contrasting Freud’s negative outlook.

  -This approach runs on the basis that all humans are innately good.  
• Evaluation – Research support:

  -Harter et al (1996) provides evidence for conditions of self-worth which is an assumption of the approach.

  -Harter found that teenagers who feel they must fulfil certain conditions or standards in order to gain their parents approval tend to not like themselves and who they are. -the researchers found that adolescents who create a 'false self' are more likely to develop depression.
• Evaluation – Not reductionist:

  • This approach rejects all attempts to define and divide behaviour into smaller components.
  • This approach takes a holistic approach to evaluating behaviour, it considers the humans personal subjective experience.
  • due to this holistic view which no other approach takes, the humanistic approach might have more validity as it considers human behaviour within a real world context.
• Evaluation – Cultural Bias: -A limitation is cultural bias, many of the humanistic ideas such as free will and personal growth are associated with countries that have more individualistic tendencies such as the USA.

  -Collectivist countries such as China and Japan have tendencies to focus on the needs of the group and interdependence rather than the autonomy of citizens of an individualistic country.