humanistic psychology

• humanism origins

  • 'third force' - aimed to replace behaviourism and psychoanalysis
  • intended to offer a less deterministic and artificial approach
  • concerned with human experiences, uniqueness, meaning, freedom and choice
  • can grow up in same family but still be different
• free will

  • notion humans can make choices not determined by biological or external forces
  • human beings are self determining - we are active agents who have the ability to determine our own environment
  • reject more scientific models of human behaviour as we are all unique individuals
• maslows hierarchy of needs

  • belives humans are motivated by needs beyond those of basic biological survival
  • fundamental to human nature is the desire to grow and develop to achieve our full potential - self actualisation
  • all levels must be met before a person can move up to the next level - can go up and down throughout life
• hierarchy of needs

  1. physiological needs (hunger, thirst)
  2. safety needs (secure, out of danger)
  3. belongingness and love needs (belong, accepted)
  4. esteem needs (gaining approval, achieving)
  5. cognitive needs (knowing, understanding)
  6. aesthetic needs (order, beauty)
  7. self actualisation needs (realising ones potential, self fulfillment)
• carl rogers

  • says individuals strive to achieve their ideal selves as they are motivated towards self improvement
  • saw freud as the 'sick half' of psychology, humanistic approach concerned itself with explanations of healthy growth in individuals - positive image of human condition
• humanism - key assumptions

  • humans have full conscious control over their own destiny and have free will
  • to be psychologically healthy, a persons ideal self and real self must be congruent
  • all individuals strive towards self actualisation - the ability to realise ones own potential (maslow)
  • the process of self actualisation can only occur if we see ourselves as being loved and accepted unconditionally
• self actualisation

  • the ability to grow and develop to achieve our full potential
  • fundamental to human nature
• conditions of worth

  • conditions of worth - expectations or standards that we feel we must meet in order to be valued or loved
  • incongruence may stem from childhood : parent who limit their love (conditions of worth) create psychological problems in the future
• self, ideal self and congruence

  • self - a persons current perception of themselves
  • ideal self - the person someone aspires to be
  • congruence - rogers argued someones way of seeing themselves must be somewhat the same as their ideal self
  • if the 2 are too far apart, self actualisation cant be achieved due to negative feelings from incongruence (misalignment between self and ideal self)
  • rogers created client centered therapy to help reduce the gap between actual and ideal self
• the Q sort

  • technique developed by rogers
  • involves ranking a number of statements about how you perceive yourself and comparing those to rankings of how you want to be
  • used to find out whether there is congruence or incongruence between a persons perceived self and their ideal self
• humanism eval - :) not reductionist

  • rejects reductionism
  • advocate holism, idea subjective experience can only be understood by considering the whole person
  • this approach may have more validity than its alternatives by considering meaningful human behaviour within its real world context
  • HOWEVER, reductionist approaches can be more scientific, because ideal of science is the experiment, which reduces behaviour to independent and dependent variables
  • within humanism few concepts can be broken down into single variables and measured, meaning its short on empirical evidence to support its claims
• humanism eval - :) positive approach

  • brings the person back into psychology and promotes a positive image of the human condition
  • freud claimed we all existed between common unhappiness and absolute despair
  • but humanists see people as good, in control and free to work towards acheivement of their potential
  • suggests humanism offers refreshing and optimistic alternative to other approaches
• humanism eval - :( western cultural bias

  • may be culturally biased
  • many ideas (individual freedom, personal growth) are more associated with individualist cultures in western world
  • collectivist cultures emphasise needs of the group and interdependence
  • some cultures may not identify with ideals and values of humanism - approach doesnt apply universally and is product of cultural context in which it was developed
• humanism eval - :( limited application

  • approach has been described as a loose set of abstract ideas, compared to other approaches like biological or behaviorism
  • HOWEVER... rogers therapy revolutionised counselling techniques and maslows hierarchy of needs has been used to explain motivation, particularly in the workplace