humanistic

• Humanism

  Each person is a unique individual & psychology should focus only on subjective experiences.

  The emotions, feelings & thoughts of a person are central to our understanding of them.

  Humanists reject the creation of universal laws of behaviour, because if we're all different there is no point in generalisation.
• Approaches

  People have freewill over their actions, their behaviour is not determined by any other aspects, meaning people are free to choose how they think, feel & behave & what they can achieve out of life.

  People must be looked at from a 'holistic' view & behaviour can't be reduced to component parts, by focusing on component parts, the humanistic approach argues that we lose the essence of what it is to be a human being.

  Every person has an innate tendency to 'self-actualise', refers to the ability t achieve their full potential in life.
• Key theorists

  -Carl Rogers (person-centered theory)

  -Abraham Maslow (peak experiences)
• Person Centered theory

  -the fully functioning person

  -self worth

  -unconditional positive regards

  -self concept

  -congruency vs incongruency
• The fully functioning person

  -someone who is in touch with the here & now

  -someone who is in touch with their subjective experiences & feelings

  -someone who is continually growing & changing
• Self worth


  -how we think & feel about ourselves (self-esteem)

  -affects our ability to achieve goals & ambitions in life

  -starts in childhood via interactions with significant other
• Unconditional positive regard (UPR)


  -where we are accepted & loved for everything that we are, it is not withdrawn when we make a mistake or do something wrong

  -allows someone to try new things without worry about making mistakes, allows 'personal growth' to happen & self actualisation
• Self concept

  -consists of 2 parts - self worth + the real & ideal self

  -real self: what you are

  -ideal self: what you want to be
• Congruency vs incongruency


  -conflict between reality & personal expectation = incongruency

  -ideal & actual self is fairly similar = congruency

  -congruency leads to satisfaction with life/achievement

  -incongruency leads to conflict

  -Rogers: personal growth requires an individual's self-concept of self to be congruent with their ideal self

  -if the gap is too big, the individual will experience a state of incongruence & self-actualisation isn't possible
• Application

  Rogers developed client-centred therapy (CCT) to help overcome incongruence

  An important aspect of CCT is that the therapist gives the client unconditional positive regard

  CCT aka person-centred therapy (PCT)
• Peak experiences

  -occasional experiences characterised by 'a sense of delight, wholeness, meaningfulness' etc

  -can occur in different situations, eg. looking at the sunset, sport competition

  -the individual is 'at one with the universe' for a short moment

  -they're unique to the individual & are difficult to put into words

  -difficult to study
• Self actualisation

  -Maslow: people are driven to fulfil their potential

  -we have 'certain needs' that we must fulfil & we are driven to satisfy these needs

  -some needs take precedent over others
• Hierarchy of Needs


  self actualization -> esteem needs -> belongingness & love needs -> safety needs -> physiological needs

  Self actualization: achieving one's full potential

  Esteem needs: prestige & feelings of accomplishment

  Belongingness & love needs: intimate relationships, friends

  Safety needs: security, safety

  Physiological needs: food, water, warmth, rest
• Rejection of the scientific approach

  -both Rogers & Maslow were interested in subjective, conscious experiences of the individual, so reject the rigorous scientific approach for the study of humans

  -lab experiment are dehumanising & can't capture the richness of conscious experiences

  -see no value in applying findings from animal research to the human experience's humans are capable of 'reasoning
• Strengths

  Anti-reductionist: rejects attempts to break up behaviour & experience into smaller components, they advocate holism, so may have more validity than its alternatives as it considers context whilst promoting free-will.

  Praised for 'bringing the person back into psychology' & promoting a positive image of the human condition, so offers a refreshing & optimistic alternative.

  Has had a major influence on psychological counselling, so it is a useful theory with real world application & has helped improve the outlook of many patients.
• Weaknesses


  -has very few concepts that can be reduced to single variables & measured, so may be short on empirical evidence to support it's claims

  -ethnocentric: ideas are associated with individualist cultures & collectivist cultures may not identify with the ideals & values, so doesn't apply universally & is a product of the culture it was developed in

  -has limited impact in psychology / real world application compared to other approaches, may be due to fact it lacks sound evidence / has been described as a loose set of abstract concepts

  -includes a number of vague ideas that are abstract & difficult to test, concepts, eg. self-actualisation may be useful therapeutic tools but are difficult to asses under experimental conditions, so is short on empirical evidence to support its claims

  -CCT is of limited help for those with complex / severe problems, best applied to the treatment of 'mild' psychological conditions