Humanistic approach

• assumption 1 of the humanistic approach: people have full control over their own destiny- free will.
• assumption 2 of the humanistic approach: people are motivated by growth, self actualisation and personal fulfilment
• Assumption 3 of the humanistic approach: (Rogers) people have two basic needs - positive regard from others and self-worth to have good psychological health.
• the self: the individual's sense of self, the way we perceive ourselves.
• assumption 4 of the humanistic approach: (Maslow) the hierarchy of needs represents the events needed for personal growth in order to reach self-actualisation.
• congruence is when a person’s self-image and ideal self are close to each other, allowing for feelings of self-worth.
• incongruence occurs when there is a gap between one’s self image and ideal self leading to anxiety and low self esteem.
• Conditions of worth are conditions that are imposed on an individual’s behaviour that are deemed necessary to gain positive regard from others.
• unconditional positive regard is when an individual is given positive regard regardless of their behaviour.
• conditional regard is when conditions are put on an individual by others in order to receive positive regard. this leads to a sense of self-acceptance only when the conditions are met.
• Acronym for Maslows hierarchy of needs

  Philip Schofield Loves Eating Salt
• First level of the pyramid of needs

  Physiological: Air, food, water
• Second level of the pyramid of needs

  Safety: security of employment, resources, health
• Third level of the pyramid of needs

  Love/belonging: friendship, family, romantic
• Fourth level of the pyramid of needs

  Esteem: confidence, self-esteem, respect
• Highest level of the pyramid of needs

  Self-actualisation: morality, creativity, problem solving
• a strength of the humanistic approach is it has research support. a study with adolescents found that individuals who experienced conditional positive regard display false self behaviour - do things to meet expectations even though it doesn’t align with their own beliefs. rogers found that these individuals were more likely to develop depression. therefore the approach has ecological validity.
• A weakness of the humanistic approach that it is unrealistic of its view of human nature (Idealised). Critics say that it is too idealistic and ignores the reality of human nature; development is directed by innate potential for growth is oversimplistic. Therefore the approach is not applicable to human society and lacks mundane realism.
• a strength of the humanistic approach is that it is applicable to modern society. Carl Rogers established Client-centred therapy which allowed individuals to receive unconditional positive regard, empathy and acceptance in order to have congruence. Therefore the approach is applicable in modern psychological treatment.
• a weakness of the humanistic approach is that it is culturally biased. a study showed that in china, needs of belonging were more fundamentally required than physiological needs, and that self-actualisation was more based on the contributions to society than individual development. This the approach could be seen as ethnocentric and cannot be generalised to the population.