Humanistic

• 1.       Human beings have free will and are therefore self-determining.

  2.       Humans are good and have an innate need to make themselves and the world better.

  3.       Humans are motivated to self-actualise.

  Humans and behaviour must be understood in terms of the subjective conscious experience of individuals (idiographic approach) as opposed to objective empiricism (nomothetic).
• Unique, free-will, subjective, self-determining, idiographic, physiological needs, safety & security, love and belonging, self-esteem, self-actualisation, creativity, morality, self-concept, personal growth, ideal self, congruence, incongruence, conditions of worth, client-centred therapy.
• Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (1954) suggests that humans are free agents who strive to make improvements to themselves and others.
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs consists of physiological needs, safety & security, love & belonging, self-esteem & self-actualisation.
• Each stage in Maslow's hierarchy becomes progressively more difficult to master due to a range of environmental and psychological barriers.
• Roger’s personality theory emphasised the self and the three specific parts of our unique personalities.
• The self, according to Roger’s theory, is broken up into our self-concept (how we see ourselves) and the ideal self (who we want to be), which is based on our childhood experiences and evaluations from others.
• The second part of Roger’s theory is congruence, where the self-concept and the ideal self match up consistently.
• The third part of Roger’s theory is conditions of worth, which are barriers placed on love by parents.
• ü  Holism not reductionism – the approach does not attempt to simplify or reduce human behaviour.

  ü  Positive approach - embrace of optimism and human uniqueness, human beings are self-motivated to achieve their best potential.

  Ø  Not scientific – lacks scientific validity as it is not objective in its measurements of human behaviour.

  Ø  Culture bias - autonomy, individual freedom and personal growth are central within individualistic western cultures; however, they do not align as well within collectivist cultures.
• Free will – suggests that humans are self-agents who choice to control their lives for the better.

  Holism – does not reduce human behaviour down and embraces the complexity of human behaviour.

  Not scientific – relies on subjective theoretical models which cannot be scientifically tested.