Humanistic approach

• All human beings are self-determining and have free will
• The approach believes that we are still affected by external and internal influences, but are also active agents who can determine their own development
• Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs 


  Maslow describes a hierarchy of needs that motivate our behaviour. In order to achieve self-actualisation, a number of other deficiency needs must be met first. At the bottom are physiological needs like food and water, the next one is safety and security, then love and belongingness, then self-esteem and then finally at the top is self actualisation
• Self-actualisation is the desire to grow psychologically and fulfil one's full potential- becoming what you are capable of
• Congruence is the aim of Rogerian therapy, when the self-concept and ideal self are seen to broadly accord or match
• Carl Rogers argued that for perosonal growth to be achieved, an individuals self must broadly have congruence with their ideal self. If too big of a gap exists, the person will experience a state of incongruence and self-actualisation will not be possible due to the negative feelings of self worth that arise from incongruence
• To fill the gap between the self and ideal self, Rogers developed client-centred therapy to help people cope with the problems of everyday living. Rogers claimed that many issues we face as adults have their roots in childhood and can be explained by a lack of unconditional positive regard from our parents
• A parent who sets boundaries or limits on their love for their child (conditions of worth) by claiming 'I will only love you if...' is storing yp psychological problems for that child in the future. Thus Rogers saw one of his roles as an effective therapist as being able to provide his clients with the unconditional positive regard that they failed to receive as children
• The humanistic approach is optimistic, and psychologists of this approach have been praised for bringing the person back into psychology and promoting a positive image of the human condition -contrasts with Freuds psychodynamic approach which sees humans as prisoners of their past who exist between 'common unhappiness and absolute despair'
• A strength of the humanistic approach is that it is not a reductionist (rejects attempts to break up behaviour and experience into smaller components) , unlike approaches like behaviourism. This approach may have more validity than its alternatives by considering meaningful human behaviour within its real-world context
• A limitation of the humanistic approach is that it may be culturally-biased. Many of the ideas that are central to humanistic psychology, such as individual freedom, autonomy and personal growth, would be much more readily associated with countries that have more individualist tendencies. Therefore, it is possible that this approach does not apply universally and is a product of the cultural context in which it was developed