AO1

• Congruence is when an individual's ideal self and self image align
• Maslow's hiehierarchy of needs:

  1. Self actualisation
  2. Esteem
  3. Love/belonging
  4. Safety
  5. Physiological
• Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

  
• Self-actualisation (SEB SP)

  • All people have an innate tendency towards growth and the fulfilment of their potential, they have a desire to become everything that they are capable of – self-actualisation.
  • However, according to Maslow, people also have needs which must be met for self-actualisation to be possible. The basic needs e.g. food and water have to be satisfied before the higher
• According to Rogers, people could only self-actualise if they had a positive view of themselves (positive self-regard). This can only happen if they have unconditional positive regard from others – if they feel that they are valued and respected without reservation by those around them (especially their parents when they were children).
•  Assumptions:

  • Every person has their own unique way of perceiving and understanding the world and that the things they do only make sense in this light. Therefore, the aim of this approach is not objectivity as the other approaches; its aim is to understand people’s subjectivity.
  • People should be viewed holistically as if we only look at one aspect of an individual we may miss other explanations for their behaviour.
•  Assumptions:

  • According to this approach, people are self-determining, which means that they have free will they can make choices about the way they think and act. These choices are not determined by biological or other external factors.
  • The scientific method is not an appropriate measure of behaviour as it tries to be too objective, yet humans are subjective in how they think and behave.
• Self-actualisation is only possible if there is congruence between the way an individual sees themselves and their ideal self (the way they want to be or think they should be).
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs

  A) self actualisation

  B) Esteem

  C) love and belonging

  D) Safety

  E) physiological

  
• The closer our self image and ideal self are to each other, the greater the congruence and the higher our feeling of self worth
• If there is a difference between self and ideal self, the person experiences a state on incongruence