humanism

• freewill


  humanism emphasises that individuals are self-determining and have free will, we are active agents who have the ability to determine our own development
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs 


  emphasised the importance of personal growth and fulfilment
• hierarchy of needs


  every person has an innate tendency to achieve their full potential and become the best they can possibly be = self-actualisation

  people who had self-actualisation tend to be creative, accepting of others and have an accurate perception of the world around them. most basic needs at the bottom and most advanced at the top. each level must be fulfilled before a person can move up to a higher need but not everyone will reach the top
• 1 = physiological 


  breathing, food & water, sleep
• 2 = safety 


  security of employment, resources, family, property
• 3 = love/belonging


  friendship, family, sexual intimacy
• 4 = esteem 


  self esteem and confidence, respect of others
• 5 = self actualisation 


  self actualisation
• rogers 


  the self, congruence and conditions of worth
• rogers 2 basic needs

  1= a feeling of self-worth(what we think about ourselves)

  2=positive regard from other people
• self worth


  the closer together our self and our ideal self are to each other the greeter our feelings of self worth and the better our psychological health
• congruence 


  similarity between ideal self and their self there's a congruence / match
• incongruence 


  a difference between the self and ideal self = incongruence
• positive regard

  feelings of self-worth develop in childhood as a result of the child's interactions with parents and significant others
• unconditional positive regard 


  love and acceptance is unconditional and a person is accepted for who they are
• conditional positive regard 


  people are only accepted if they do what others want them to do
• conditions of worth 


  when people experience positive regard they develop conditions of worth = conditions that they perceive others put on them

  person believes these conditions have to be in place if they are accepted by others, receive positive regard and see themselves positively
• the influence in counselling psychology

  humanistic therapists regard themselves as facilitators - provide empathy and unconditional positive regard

  by doing this they offer a supportive environment to help dissolve the clients conditions of worth

  they will be able to behave true to the person they are rather than how others want them to be
• strength 


  takes a positive approach , gives a refreshing alternative to the psychodynamic approach
• strength 


  supporting evidence has been found for conditions of worth , teenagers who creates a 'false self' pretending to be the person their parents want them to are more likely to develop depression
• strength 


  not reductionist, humanists advocate holism - subjective experience can only be understood by considering the whole person = more validity than other approaches
• weakness 


  based on vague and abstract ideas that are difficult to test

  however rogers did attempt to introduce a more objective measure by developing the Q-sort - a measure of progress in therapy

  • the approach is lacking scientific evidence to support its claims
• weakness


  culturally biased , many of the ideas such as individual freedom and personal growth and associated with individualistic cultures in the western world such as the USA

  collectivist cultures which emphasise the needs of the group and community may nor identify so easily with the values of humanistic psychology - wouldn't generalise