Humanistic Approach

• Determinism: the extent to which behaviour is shaped by forces, over which we have no control.
• While other approaches tend to ignore the influence of free will, the Humanistic Approach considers humans to be self-determining and having free will.
• The humanistic approach accounts for both internal and external influences.
• Maslow & Rogers said that we don't need to create general principles of human behaviour because every human is unique. They suggested that we need to focus on subjective experiences instead of principles.
• The Humanistic approach is a person-centred approach.
• Maslow's Hierarchy of needs:

  A) Self Actualisation

  B) Self Esteem

  C) Love and Belonging

  D) Safety and Security

  E) Physiological needs

  
• Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is based on the idea that humans have an innate tendency to achieve our full potential (Self Actualisation).
• In Maslow's Hierarchy of needs, each lower tier must be met in order to meet the next tier.
• Maslow believed that personal growth is an essential part of human development and that the reason that people may feel unfulfilled or unsatisfied with their life is that the psychological barriers described in the hierarchy of needs are stopping them from fulfilling themselves.
• Humans have a self and an ideal self. In order for personal growl to happen, the ideal self cannot be too far from the self because this affects the self esteem of the person trying to achieve their ideal self
• Client-centred therapy is a large part of the humanistic approach. It helps people cope with everyday living if they have issues such as low self-esteem or worthlessness. The humanistic approach believes that these issues are rooted in childhood due to lack of unconditional positive regard or love from parents.
• Self-actualisation is the ability to become the best version of oneself - to fulfil one's potential.
• This is Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

  
• Holism the belief that subjective experiences can only be understood by considering the person as a whole.
• Holism has more validity than Reductionism because it considers meaningful human behaviour within a real life context
• The humanistic approach has revolutionised counselling techniques because it explains the reasons for motivation to improve oneself and the steps to help a client to do that.
• A criticism of the humanistic approach is that it is not a very comprehensive theory and it lacks a sound evidence base.
• The Humanistic approach is criticised for having abstract and untestable concepts.
• The Humanistic approach is a positive approach because it believes that all humans are able to be helped and acheive self-actualisaton.
• The Q-sort measures progress in therapy objectively.
• The Humanistic approach is criticised for having an anti-scientific perspective. This leads to it having limited empirical evidence