Humanistic approach

• Main ideas

  Central concept of free will.

  
  

  Rejects attempts to establish sceintific principles of behaviour.

  
  

  Belief in the study of the conscious, subjective experience - person-centred.
• Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs


  Self actualisation at the top - innate desire to reach one's full potential.

  
  

  4 lower levels = deficiency needs. These must be met before working towards self actualisation - motivational theory.

  
  

  Psychological needs:

  Self-esteem

  Love and belongingness

  
  

  Basic needs:

  Safety and security

  Physiological needs - such as food and water.

  
  

  According to Maslow, this need for self-actualisation is uniquely human.
• Self-actualisation

  Self-actualisers are creative, accepting of others, and accurately perceive the world around them.

  
  

  Rogers used the term to describe when a person's ideal self is congruent with their real self (self-concept) and they become a fully functioning person.
• Carl Rogers


  Aim of therapy is to establish congruence between the self-concept (how we perceive ourselves) and ideal self (what we aspire to be)

  
  

  If the gap between them is too big, the person falls into a state of incongruence and self-actualisation isn't possible.

  
  

  People use defence mechanisms to protect themselves from the discomfort of incongruence.
• How does Roger's explain the issues we experience as adults?

  Problems such as low self esteem and feelings of worthlessness have roots in our childhood.

  
  

  A lack of unconditional positive regard from our parents may prevent personal growth and causes low self esteem - conditions of worth.
• Conditions of worth


  Requirements that you must meet to earn a person's positive regard.

  
  

  Roger's claimed that failure to meet these results in incongruence, and lower self-worth.
• Roger's client centred therapy


  An effective therapist should provide:

  - genuineness

  - empathy

  - unconditional positive regard

  
  

  Aims to increase feelings of self-worth and reduce incongruence

  
  

  He places us as 'active agents' in our own recovery.

  
  

  His counselling techniques are practiced in clinical settings, education, health, social work etc..
• Anti-reductionist


  Holism - the idea that considering the whole person is the only way to understand the subjective experience.

  
  

  Anti-reductionist, meaning it refuses to break behaviour and experience into smaller components, this may make it more meaningful.

  
  

  This contrasts the behaviourist approach (which explains learning in terms of simple stimulus-response associations); the biological approach (which reduces behaviour to basic physiological processes), and the cognitive approach (which sees humans as information processing machines).

  
  

  This increases validity of the approach as it considers human behaviour in a real-life context.
• Criticism for Maslow's hierarchy - P

  Maslow's hierarchy has received criticism because it doesn't account for differences in the cultural needs of societies and their unique social and intellectual needs.
• Criticism for Maslow's hierarchy - E

  For example, a study in China found that belonging took priority over physiological needs, and self-actualisation related to contributions to the community rather than individual development.
• Criticism for Maslow's hierarchy - E

  The needs of individualistic societies reflect the need for self-actualisation and self—fulfilment, focusing more on personal identity.

  
  

  Whereas, a collectivist society, such as China or Japan, define self-concept in terms of social relationships, placing more focus on acceptance and belonging within the community.
• Criticism for Maslow's hierarchy - L

  Therefore, Maslow's hierarchy might be said to be ethnocentric, based upon a Western ideology and therefore can't be directly extrapolated across cultures as a psychological model.
• Support for Roger's view - P

  Research supports Roger's view that people who experience conditional positive regard display more 'false self' behaviour
• Support for Roger's view - E

  For example, teenagers who feel they have to fulfil certain conditions to gain their parent's approval frequently dislike themselves.
• Support for Roger's view - E

  Researchers found that adolescents who create a 'false self', pretending to be the sort of person their parents would love, are also more likely to develop depression.
• Support for Roger's view - L

  This supports Roger's view of 'conditions of worth', the idea that unconditional positive regard from parents is essential for developing self-worth.
• Includes untestable concepts — P


  The humanistic approach has been criticised as it is largely unfalsifiable - key terms and concepts are vague or poorly defined and are untestable.
• Includes untestable concepts — E

  For example, it's difficult to provide a precise definition for terms like self-actualisation or self-esteem.
• Includes untestable concepts - E

  Therefore, the approach includes ideas that are difficult to test, anti-scientific and short in empirical evidence.
• Includes untestable concepts — L

  The lack of empirical evidence weakens the reliability and validity of the approach, thus weakening it's support.