AO1 - Humanistic Approach

• The humanistic approach focuses on the unique nature of an individual and their free will to behave as they wish.
• Humanistic psychologists focus on the self as a centre for understanding behaviour.
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs is an idea in Psychology proposed by American psychologist Abraham Maslow in 1943.
• From the bottom of the hierarchy upwards, the needs are physiological (food and clothing), safety (job security), love and belonging (friendship), esteem, and self-actualisation.
• Self actualisation is what a person’s full potential is and the realisation of that potential.
• To reach the top of the hierarchy individuals must reach self actualisation.
• Carl Rogers devised a humanistic therapy called client-centred therapy.
• Humanistic Psychology focuses on the individual, and believes everyone is in charge of their own destiny.
• Maslow was interested in human potential, and how we fulfil that potential.
• According to humanism behaviour is not constrained by either past experience of the individual or current circumstances.
• Rogers stated for a person to "grow", they need an environment that provides them with genuineness, acceptance and empathy.
• According to Rogers genuineness is an openness and ability to have the confidence for self-disclosure.
• Rogers outlined people need acceptance (being seen with unconditional positive regard) and empathy (being listened to and understood).
• Rogers believed that every person could achieve their goals, wishes, and desires in life.
• The self is the humanistic term for who we really are as a person.
• According to Rogers (1959), we want to feel, experience and behave in ways which are consistent with our self-image and which reflect what we would like to be like, our ideal-self.
• The closer our self-image and ideal-self are to each other, the more consistent or congruent we are and the higher our sense of self-worth.
• A person is said to be in a state of incongruence if some of the totality of their experience is unacceptable to them and is denied or distorted in the self-image.
• The humanistic approach states that the self is composed of concepts unique to ourselves, known as the self-concept.
• There are 3 parts of the self concept; self worth (or self-esteem), self image (how we see ourselves) and ideal self (the person who we would like to be).
• Carl Rogers (1951) viewed the child as having two basic needs: positive regard from other people and self-worth.
• Rogers believed feelings of self-worth developed in early childhood and were formed from the interaction of the child with the mother and father.
• Rogers believed that we need to be regarded positively by others; we need to feel valued, respected, treated with affection and loved.
• Unconditional positive regard is where parents or significant others accept and love the person for what he or she is.
• Conditional positive regard is where positive regard, praise, and approval, depend upon the child, for example, behaving in ways that the parents think correct.
• A person who constantly seeks approval from other people is likely only to have experienced conditional positive regard as a child.
• A difference may exist between a person’s ideal self and actual experience, this is called incongruence.
• The closer our self-image and ideal-self are to each other, the more congruent we are and the higher our sense of self-worth.