The Humanistic Approach

• who are the key psychologists in the humanistic psychology?

  • abraham maslow
  • carl rogers
• how is the humanistic approach different to other approaches?

  • Humanistic psychology is different from the other approaches in psychology as it is intensively focused on discovering what it means to be fully human.
  • Humanistic psychologists insist that the other approaches in psychology are reductionist, deterministic and, as a result, cannot explain the holistic complexity of human behaviour.
• what is free will?

  • This means that everyone can consciously control and influence their own personal destiny, even within the constraints that exist in life from outside forces.
  • This idea makes the humanistic approach radically different from the other approaches that suggest that human behaviour is, to some extent, determined.
• what are the stages of maslows hierarchy of needs?

  1. physiological needs e.g. food, sleep
  2. safety and security e..g. resources and morality
  3. love and belonging e.g. friendship and family
  4. self-esteem e.g. confidence
  5. self-actualization
• what is self-actualisation?

  achievement provides the possibility of true self-awareness and an honest

  relationship with the realities of an imperfect world.
• what did Rogers suggest the two basic human needs where?

  1. self-worth
  2. unconditional positive regard from other people
• what is the role of conditions of worth?

  • individual is the recipient of unconditional positive regard, they develop conditions of worth as a result.
  • Parents are often the people who provide a child with unconditional positive regard during their upbringing.
  • However, some parents impose conditions of worth on their children meaning that they must behave in certain ways to receive this positive regard.
  • Conditions of worth are a type of expectation whereby an individual feels that their approval is dependent upon meeting them in order for other people, such as parents, to see them favourably.
• what is congruence?

  • unhappiness and dissatisfaction were the outcomes of a psychological gap between self-concept and the ideal self. When these two concepts are incongruent, it is necessary to use defence mechanisms to provide protection against feeling negative.
  • On the other hand, when there is an agreement between an individual’s self-concept and their ideal self, they are said to be in a state of congruence. However, it is uncommon for a person to be congruent all of the time, so most individuals will have, or are experiencing, some degree of incongruence.
• influence of humanistic on counselling psychology

  • It was the purpose of Rogerian therapy to close the gap of incongruence between self-concept and the ideal self, and thus allow an individual to recognise both their psychological limits and their strengths, and achieve a realistic balance between them.
  • Rogers believed that through taking a client-centred (person-centered) approach to counselling, an individual would be helped to make positive steps towards resolving their issues, learn a deeper understanding of themselves and, ultimately, achieve self-actualisation.
• strengths of humanistic approach (1)

  • a strength of humanistic psychology is that it has had a major influence on psychological counselling. Contemporary therapists use Rogers’ ideas of unconditional positive regard and help clients work toward self-awareness. This means it is a useful theory with real-world applications. It is, in fact, impossible to imagine modern client-centred therapy without its insights and techniques.
• strengths of humanistic approach (2)

  • The concept of free will is central to humanistic thinking. Advocates of this approach believe that behaviour is a choice, rather than determined by outside forces, and an individual can directly control and influence their own destiny.
  • Likewise, the concept of holism is of crucial importance to the humanistic approach which attempts to answer the question of what it truly means to be fully human. Since this approach focuses in subjective human experience whilst making no attempts to generate universal laws, it favours the idiographic approach.
• limitations of humanistic approach (1)

  • The evidence for the existence of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is empirically thin. This, however, is to be expected from an approach that disputes the validity of empirical research. There is some validation provided by clinical data, with some surprising confirmation from the realm of management studies. But the theoretical emphasis on individual achievement raises significant concerns about possible cultural bias since this is not desirable in every culture and may only be a feature of Westernised or individualistic nations.
• limitations of humanistic approach (2)

  • It is hard to scientifically test the effectiveness of humanistic counselling as it can’t be done in an experimental context. People believe they benefit from counselling, and there is considerable empirical evidence available to support the effectiveness of counselling methods. Since a causal explanation cannot be established between the treatment and outcome - that is, the client may have recovered without the counselling - scientific certainty about the validity of the theory is almost impossible.