Humanistic approach

• What is the humanistic approach known as ?

  The third force of psychology
• When did the approach start?

  1960's as an emergent discipline
• What is the primary focus of the approach?

  It is about the importance of subjective experience and self-determination
• What is different from the other approaches compared to humanism?

  The humanism is the only holistic theory and it is not determinist
• What is the first proper section of humanism?

  Maslow's hierarchy of needs
• What are the different stages of Maslow's hierarchy of needs?

  1. Physiological needs like food, water
  2. Safety needs: security and safety
  3. belongingness and love: Intimate relationships
  4. Esteem needs: feeling of accomplishment
  5. Self-actualisation: achieving full potential
• What did Maslow focus on?

  • Unlike psychodynamic approach, he focused on what could go right with people
  • The hierarchy of needs emphasised personal growth and fulfilment
  • Every person has a natural tendency to achieve their full selves - self-actualisation
  • The most basic physiological needs are at the bottom of the pyramid and self actualisation is at the top
• What is self actualisation?

  • This is when people have the tendency to reach their full self
  • However this only occurs about 1 in 50 people
  • They have creativity, accepting of others and an accurate perception around them
• What were Rogers' two basic needs?

  • A feeling of self-worth
  • Positive regard from other people
• What is Roger's theory on self-worth about?

  • It refers to how we perceive ourselves
  • He believed that psychological health had a tie to our self-esteem
  • The more our self and ideal self are closer, the greater the feelings of self-worth
  • This is called congruence
  • On the other hand, when our self and ideal self are far apart, this is called incongruence
• What is Rogers' theory on positive regard about?

  • Self-worth is formed in childhood and depends on communication with guardians
  • Positive disregard is important for determining our self worth and congruence
  • Unconditional positive regard is when someone is loved no matter circumstances and loved for who they are
  • Conditional positive regard is when people are only loved under a set of conditions imposed by significant others (conditions of worth)
  • These people will only feel self-acceptance when they meet the conditions
• What did Roger believe with counselling psychology?

  • Roger thought problems were due to self worth and conditional positive regard
  • Counselling provides constructive ways for problem solving for becoming a functional person
  • Therapists act as a facilitator to help people understand themselves
  • Therapists provide unconditional positive regard and empathy, accepting the patient no matter what
  • This creates a supportive environment
  • This results in client moving towards developing good self-worth
• What is one positive evaluation for humanistic approach?

  • It promotes positivity for human behaviour
  • It is a refreshing alternative to the psychodynamic approach
  • It gives an optimistic view of all people as good and able to have freewill
  • Therefore, the humanistic approach is much more positive than the psychodynamic approach
• What is another positive of the humanistic approach?

  • Supporting evidence for conditions of worth
  • Harter et al found that teenager who feel they have to satisfy certain conditions, end up not liking themselves
  • Adolescents who create a fake version of themselves, end up likely to have depression
• What is another positive evaluation of the humanistic approach?

  • It is not reductionist
  • They do not break behaviour into smaller parts
  • They advocate for holism, which is the idea that subjective experience is understood through the knowledge of the entire person
  • It has more validity than the other approaches by considering the entirety of human behaviour within real life context
• What is a negative evaluation?

  • It is based on abstract and vague ideas not able to be tested
  • Self actualisation and congruence is helpful but difficult to test
  • However Rogers did attempt a objective way of progress of therapy through the q-sort, a measure of progress of therapy
  • Therefore, the humanistic approach lacks the capability of scientific testing but this is to be expected for a anti-scientific approach
• What is a negative evaluation regarding collectivism?


  • Humanism is culturally biased
  • It focuses on individualistic ideas like personal autonomy and individual freedom
  • For example, collectivist cultures like India emphasise needs of the group and interdependence
  • This means that cultures don't identify with the humanistic ideals
  • It is possible that the approach would not generalise well and is a product that is specific to individualistic culture