Humanistic

• Background:

  • Humanistic psychology emerged in the United States in the 1950s largely as the result of the work of Rogers & Abraham Maslow 
  • It became known as the ‘third force’ in psychology, alongside behaviourist and psychodynamic approaches, represented a challenge to both 
  • Rogers felt that Freud has dealt with the ‘sick half’ of psychology, so the humanistic approach concerned itself with explanations of ‘healthy’ growth in individuals
• Free will:


  • All approaches considered so far are deterministic to some degree in their suggestion that our behaviours is entirely, or at least partly, shaped by forced over which we have no control
  • Humanistic psychology is quite different in this respect, claiming that human beings are essentially self-determining and have free will 
  • It doesn't mean people are not affected by external and internal influence but we are free agents, we are all unique and psychology should concern itself with the study of subjective experience rather than general laws (knows as person centred approach)
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs:

  • Abraham Maslow was one of the founders of the humanistic movement in psychology
  • One of his main interests was to motivate people 
  • To achieve the primary goal of self-actualisation, a number of other deficiency need to be met first 
  • Bottom → physiological need of food and water
  • Next deficiency → safety and security followed by love and belonging and then esteem
  • A person is only able to progress through the hierarchy after the current need in the sequence is met 
  • Top → self-actualization
• Self actualisation:


  • Every person has an innate tendency to achieve their full potential → to become the best they can possibly be
  • Self- actualization represents the upper most level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

   

  • Humanistic psychologists regard personal growth as an essential part of what it is to be human. Personal growth is concerned with developing and changing as a person to become fulfilled, satisfied and goal- orientated 

   

  • Not everyone will manage this, however, and there are important psychological barriers that may prevent a person from reaching their potential
• The self, congruence & conditions of worth

  • Rogers argued that for personal growth to be achieved an individual's concept of self must be broadly equivalent to, or have congruence with, their ideal self (the person they want to be) 
  • If a too big gap exists between the two ‘selves’, the person will experience a state on incongruence and self actualisation will not be possible due to the negative feelings of self-worth that arise from incongruence 
• The self, congruence & conditions of worth 


  • In order to reduce the gap between the self-concept and the ideal self, Rogers developed client-centred therapy, to help people cope with the problems of everyday life  
  • Rogers claimed that many of the issues we experience as adults have their roots in childhood and can often be explained by lack of unconditional positive regard from their parents
• Evaluation

  • Not reductionist: Strength 
  • Humans reject any attempt to break up behaviour and experience into smaller components.
  • In contrast to other theories, humanistic psychology advocates holism, the idea that subjective experience can only be understood by considering the whole person 
  • This approach may have more validity that its alternatives by investigating human behaviour within a real life context 
• Evaluation

  Positive approach: Strength  

  • Praised for bringing the person back into psychology and promoting a positive image of the human condition
  • Freud saw human beings as prisoners of their past and claimed all of us existed somewhere between ‘common unhappiness and absolute despair’
  • Humanistic psychologists see all people as basically good, free to work towards the achievement of their potential and in control of their lives 
  • Offers a refreshing and optimistic alternative to other approaches
• Evaluation


  Cultural bias: Limitation

  • Many of the ideas are more readily associated with countries that have more individualistic tendencies 
  • Countries that have collectivist tendencies emphasise the needs of the group and interdependence 
  • In such countries the ideals of humanistic psychology may not be as important as in others 
  • Does not apply universally and is a product of the cultural context within which it was developed