humanistic approach

• key concept of approach

  • Humanistic psychology = rejects scientific and objective explanations of behaviour, instead arguing that human experience is subjective and that humans have free will to choose their behaviour
  • humanistic psychologists see humans as affected by external and internal influences but self-determining (free will)
  • psychology should concern itself with subjective experience rather than general laws as we are all unique (a person-centred approach)
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs

  • order of needs (lowest to highest)
  • physiological needs = food, water, rest
  • safety and security = shelter, security/safety etc
  • love and belongingness = friends, intimate relationships
  • self-esteem = prestige, accomplishment
  • self-actualisation = achieving your potential
  • in Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the 4 lower levels must be met before the individual can work towards self-actualisation - a growth need (involves fulfilling your full creative, moral, and intellectual potential)
• self-actualisation

  • the innate tendency that each of us has to want to achieve our full potential and become the best we can possibly be
  • Maslow and Rogers characterised it in different ways:
  • Maslow = meeting all levels of his hierarchy of needs, the top includes creativity, problem solving, and full achievement of potential
  • Rogers = having unconditional positive regard and achieving congruence between self-concept (how you see yourself) and ideal-self (the version of yourself you want to be).
  • Rogers’ treatment approach is counselling psychology, aims to help individuals self-actualise.
• Rogers

  • congruence
  • conditions of worth
  • counselling psychology
• congruence

  • aim of therapy is to establish congruence
  • Rogers argued that personal growth requires an individual's concept of self to be congruent with their ideal self (the person they want to be)
  • if the gap is too big, the person will experience a state of incongruence and self-actualisation isn't possible
• conditions of worth

  • Rogers believes that = issues such as worthlessness and low self-esteem have their roots in childhood and are due to a lack of unconditional positive regard from our parents
  • parents who impose conditions of worth may prevent personal growth
  • a parent who sets boundaries on their love for their child (CoW) by claiming 'I will only love you if...' is storing up psychological problems for that child in the future
• counselling psychology

  • in Roger's client-centred therapy (counselling) = an effective therapist should provide the client with 3 things:
  • genuineness
  • empathy
  • unconditional positive regard
  • aim = to increase feelings of self-worth and reduce incongruence between the self-concept and the ideal self
  • Rogers work transformed psychotherapy
  • 'non-directive' counselling techniques are practised = not only in clinical settings, but throughout education, health, social work and industry
• focus on the self

  • the self = the ideas and values that characterise 'I' and 'me' and includes perception of 'what I am' and 'what I can do'
• strength = anti-reductionist

  • humanistic psychologists reject any attempt to break up behaviour and experience into smaller components
  • they advocate holism = the idea that subjective experience can only be understood by considering the whole person (their relationships, past, present and future, etc)
  • this approach may have more validity than its alternatives by considering meaningful human behaviour within its real-world context
• counterpoint to approach being anti-reductionist

  • humanistic psychology, unlike behaviourism, has relatively few concepts that can be reduced to single variables and measured
  • means that humanistic psychology in general is short on empirical evidence to support its claims
• strength = approach is positive

  • humanistic psychologists have been praised for promoting a positive image of the human condition = seeing people as in control of their lives and having the freedom to change
  • Freud saw humans beings as prisoners of their past and claimed all of existed somewhere between 'common unhappiness and absolute despair'
  • => humanistic psychology offers a refreshing and optimistic alternative
• limitation = approach may be guilty of cultural bias

  • many humanistic ideas (eg self-actualisation) would be more associated with individualist cultures such as the United States
  • collectivist cultures (such as India) which emphasise the needs of the group, may not identify so easily with the ideals and values of humanistic psychology
  • => it is possible that the approach does not apply universally and is a product of the cultural context to which it was developed
• extra evaluation = limited application

  • critics argue that = compared to other approaches, humanistic psychology has had limited impact within psychology or practical application in the real world
  • HOWEVER = Rogerian therapy revolutionised counselling techniques and Maslow's hierarchy of needs has been used to explain motivation, particularly in the workplace
  • this suggests that the approach does have value, despite the fact that (unlike other approaches) it is resolutely 'anti-scientific'