HUMANISTIC APPROACH

• Free will


  This approach claims that all our actions are based on free will and we are not affected by external influences. It states every human experience is unique and subjective so they cannot be made into laws and principles. It is primarily a person-centred approach and focusses on the individual and their thoughts and feelings. 
• Hierarchy of needs and self-actualisation: 

  Personal growth (all): 

  Growth need -- 

  1. Self-actualisation – need to pursue and fulfil potential 

  Deficiency needs -- 

  1. Esteem needs – the need for self-esteem from others acceptance of you 
  2. Love/belonging needs – the need to be loved and feel like you belong  
  3. Safety needs – the need to feel safe and secure 
  4. Physiological needs – the needs that keep us alive and healthy (food, shelter) 
• Pneumonic for hierarchy of needs

  Save Every Longing Stare Peeta 
• Self-actualisation


  Self-actualisation is the innate tendency to achieve our full potential and the highest level of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Personal growth is essential to being a human and not everyone will achieve self-actualisation in their life - only a few have e.g. Ghandhi, Einstein, Lincoln 
• Congruence:  

  Congruence is the extent to which your current and ideal self align. To gain personal growth there must be congruence and if there is a big gap then the individual may experience incongruence and will not be able to achieve self-actualisation. 
• Client centred therapy: 


  To reduce incongruence, Rogers developed client centred therapy. Its focus is on the present and helping clients towards self-actualisation.
• Client-centred therapy

  Suggests that most of our problems like self-esteem issues are rooted in our childhood and can be explained by a lack of unconditional positive regard (complete acceptance of a person no matter what) from parents
• Unconditional positive regard


  Complete acceptance of a person no matter what
• Conditions of worth


  Parents who set conditions of worth - “I will only love you IF” - are setting children up for future psychological problems.
• Clients are treated with empathy, kindness, and unconditional positive regard to help them realise their worth. However, this cannot help more serious conditions as they may be more deeply rooted into the persons mind and behaviours.
• Strengths: 

  ✅ Advocates for holism (consideration of the whole person) and rejects attempts to break up behaviours (reductionism) so there is more validity to this approach. 

  ✅ Optimistic approach – all people are good and can work towards their goals. 

  ✅ Rogerian therapy revolutionised counselling to focus more on the individual and their goals. 
• Limitations

  ❌ Minor impact on the psychological world and little real-world application as it tends to be seen as a loose set of abstract ideas. 

  ❌ Untestable concepts – the vague, abstract ideas the humanistic approach puts forth tend to be difficult to test under experimental conditions and there is a lack of empirical evidence to back up the approach. 

  ❌ Cultural bias – more associated with western individualistic cultures rather than collectivist cultures such as India so may not identify with the approach