Humanistic

• Humanistic psychology developed largely due to Rogers and Maslow. It became known as 'the third force' .Rogers felt that Freud had dealt with the 'sick' half of psychology so this approach concerned itself with explanations of healthy growth in individuals.
• The humanistic approach emphasizes the importance the desire to grow psychologically and fulfil one's potential - becoming what you are capable of.
• self is the notion that humans can make choices and are not determined by biological or external forces.
• self-actualisation is the ideas and values that characterise 'I' and 'me' and includes perception and valuing of 'what I am' and 'what I can do'.
• Conditions of worth is an approach to understanding behaviour that emphasizes the importance of subjective experience and each persons capacity for self-determination.
• Free will is when a parent places limits or boundaries on their love of their children ("I will only love you if... you study medicine").
• Assumptions of humanistic approach:

  • "person centred" approach is concerned with the subjective, conscious experience of the person
  • Each person is unique
  • A holistic approach should be taken when studying individuals as a whole
  • Humans strive towards self-actualisation
  • scientific methods are inappropriate for the study of human behaviour due to complexity as it is reductionist
• The humanistic approach suggests humans are self-determining and that we are affected by internal/external influences but we are active agents who are able to determine our own development.
• Human behaviour is motivated by 'deficiency needs' (1-4) to maintain physical/psychological equilibrium and 'growth needs' (5). Each need must be satisfied before the next can motivate us. Not achieving SA leads to restlessness and dissatisfaction with life.

  
• For personal growth to be achieved an individual's self-concept must be congruent with their ideal-self. According to Rogers the self-concept is made up of:

  • The ideal self (what you want to be like)
  • self image (your perceived self)
  • self-esteem (your self-worth)
  • Many of the issues we experience as adults can be traced back to childhood through lack of UPR but conditional positive regard from parents.
• Rogers' developed client-centred therapy (focuses on present and future not past) where people are referred to as clients as they are the expert of their own condition. The therapy is non-directive as the client is encouraged to discovering their own solutions. An effective therapist must provide:

  • Genuineness
  • Empathy
  • Unconditional positive regard
  • The aim is to increase feelings of self-worth and lead to a person becoming a more fully functioning person.
• S:Advocates holism, the idea that subjective experience can only be understood by studying the whole person, which may be a more valid approach as it considers meaningful human behaviour within a real-life context. For example both biological and environmental elements interact as demonstrated by diathesis-stress responses.
• W: It is non-scientific so there is no empirical evidence to support humanistic claims e.g. SA and are criticised for vague definitions and lack of operationalisation and cannot be applied to all people as not everybody is able to achieve SA. Also, the values (freedom/personal growth) have been criticised as being culture-bound in that not all cultures believe individual achievements bring self-fulfilment. For example a collectivist group like China may emphasise the needs of a group/community.
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs

  A) Psychological

  B) Safety

  C) Love/belonging

  D) Self-actualisation

  E) Self-esteem

  
• S: The hierarchy of needs shows how human are motivated and has been applied to areas such as education, therapy and management.