Humanism

• Assumptions - Free Will

  Emphasises individuals choice and therefore assume we have free will (active agents)
• Assumption - Self actualisation and the hierachy of needs (Maslow)

  Assumes we want to fulfil our potential and so are self driven

  Self actualisation - to realise ones true and full potential
• Assumptions - The role of self-perception (Roger’s)

  Believes behaviour is shared by our self perception, which is effected by others (self esteem)
• Assumptions - Scientific Method

  Rejects scientific method - idiographic approach
• Assumptions - Animal research

  Don’t believe in it - focuses on human research
• Maslow’s hierachy of needs

  Humans are driven by a desire to grow as a person

  However, we have different levels of ‘deficiency needs’/basic psychological needs that we must satisfy first - once these have been reasonably satisfied, we can focus on the next level

  Once ‘deficiency needs’ are met, we can start to fulfil our ‘growth needs’, ultimately striving for self actualisation - satisfaction in life, full of peak experiences where we feel happy, confident and inspired
• Roger’s (1951) - Unconditional Positive Regard

  Argued that self esteem affects behaviour, and that others contribute to this: getting positive regard from others helps to develop self worth

  Placing limits on acceptance/love leads to the developments of ’conditions of worth’

  Negative feelings of self worth arise from lack of congruence
• Congruence 


  When the self-concept and ideal self are seen to broadly accord or match
• Rogerian therapy - person centred counselling

  Aims to remove conditions of worth (by giving unconditional positive regard) and achieve congruence
• Strength - Applications 


  Roger’s referred to those in therapy as ‘clients’ rather than ‘patients‘

  • Therapy is made non-directive and the client is encouraged towards the discovery of their own solutions within a therapeutic atmosphere

  Roger’s believes therapists should provide client with three things: genuineness, empathy, and unconditional positive regard

  • Increases persons feeling of self worth, reduces levels of incongruence, and helps the person become a more fully functioning person
• Limitation - Counterpoint to Application

  However, a humanist psychology lacks evidence-base, and can be seen as abstract concepts rather than comprehensive theories
• Strength - Reductionism 


  Humanists reject any attempt to break up behaviour and experience into smaller components

  • Behaviourists explain human and animal learning in terms of simple stimulus-response connections
  • Biological psychologists reduce behaviour to its basic psychological processes
  • The cognitive approach see human brains as information processing ‘machines’

  Humanist psychologists advocate holism, the idea that subjective experience can only be understood by confiding the whole person
• Limitations - Scientific 


  Concepts are abstract and hard to test (self actualisation and congruence) so proves problematic to test under controlled conditions

  Roger’s attempted to introduce more rigour into his work by developing the ‘q-sort’ - an objective measure of progress in therapy

  Describe itself as anti-scientific, short on empirical evidence to support its claims