Humanistic approach

• Free Will

  • Unlike most other approaches, humanistic theories emphasise that people have full conscious control over their destiny, i.e. they have free will
  • Humanists believe that human beings are able to make significant personal choices within the constraints of society and biological factors.
• Maslow’s Theory (1943)

  • People have certain needs that allow personal growth.
  • People are motivated to meet certain needs. 
  • Maslow developed a hierarchical theory of human needs.
  • The most basic physiological needs are represented at the bottom
  • The most advanced needs at the top
  • Each level must be fulfilled before a person can move up to a higher need.
  • The more basic the need, the more powerful it is, making it harder to ignore (e.g. breathing, food, etc.)
• • self- fulfilment needs - Self-actualization: achieving one's full potential, including creative activities
  • Psychological needs - Esteem needs: prestige and feeling of accomplishment, Belongingness and love needs: intimate relationships, friends
  • basic needs : Safety needs: security, safety

  Physiological needs: food, water, warmth, rest
• Self-actualisation - to achieve full potential and become the best you can possibly be

  Self-Actualisation and Personal Growth

  • Self-actualisation involves meeting all four levels of the hierarchy to fulfill potential.

  • Personal growth involves developing and changing to achieve fulfillment and goal orientation.

  • Self-actualisation eliminates fear, doubt, and inhibitions, enabling goal achievement.

  • Psychological barriers hinder full potential achievement.

  • Those achieving self-actualisation are creative, accepting, and have accurate world perceptions.
• The self, congruence and conditions of worth

  • Rogers argued that for personal growth to be achieved an individual’s concept of actual self (the way they see themselves) must be broadly equivalent to their ideal self (the person they want to be)
  • This is known as congruence.
  • If the gap between actual self and ideal self is too big, the person experiences a state of incongruence
  • In this case, self-actualisation will not be possible because of negative feelings of self-worth that happen due to incongruence
• Conditions of Worth

  • Rogers claimed that many of the issues we experience as adults, e.g. worthlessness and low self-esteem, have their roots in childhood
  • Rogers claimed these issues could be explained by a lack of unconditional positive regard (lack of unconditional love) from our parents
  • A parent who sets boundaries or limits on their love for their child (conditions of worth) is storing up psychological problems for that child in the future
  • Therefore, therapy must involve providing clients with unconditional positive regard which they didn’t receive in childhood
• The influence on counselling psychology

  Rogers' Psychological Problems and Counselling

  • Psychological problems stem from conditions of worth and conditional positive regard.

  • Counselling can help individuals solve their problems constructively.

  • Humanist therapists guide individuals towards self-actualization.

  • Therapists provide unconditional positive regard, leading to clients becoming more true to themselves.
• • One strength of the humanist approach is that it is not reductionist.
  • It could be argued that the biological approach reduces behaviour to its basic physiological processes
  • In contrast, humanistic psychologists use holism, the idea that experiences can only be understood by considering the whole person.
  • Therefore, the humanistic approach may have more validity than its alternatives by considering behaviour within its real-life context
• • One strength of the humanistic approach is that it focuses on the person and promotes a positive image of the human condition.
  • Freud saw human beings as slaves to their past, stating that unconscious traumatic memories can lead to psychological problems later in life.
  • Humanistic psychology, on the other hand, offers an optimistic alternative
  • It sees all people as basically good, free to work towards the achievement of their potential and in control of their lives.
• • One limitation of humanistic psychology is that it includes a number of vague ideas that are difficult to test
  • For example, concepts such as self-actualisation and congruence would be difficult to assess under experimental conditions
  • Therefore, humanistic psychology is unscientific and does not have enough empirical evidence to support its claims.
• Humanistic Psychology's Limitation:

  • Many ideas associated with Western individualist cultures.

  • Individual freedom, autonomy, and personal growth are more associated with Western cultures.

  • Collectivist cultures, like Japan, emphasize group needs and interdependence.

  • Collectivist cultures may not relate to humanistic psychology's ideals and values.

  • Humanistic psychology is a product of the West's cultural context.
• • One limitation of the humanistic approach is that it represents an unrealistic view of human nature
  • It could be argued that people are not as ‘growth-orientated’ as humanism suggests and they do not always have an innate desire to achieve their full potential
  • This appears to show that the approach ignores people’s pessimism and times when they do not try to achieve their goals
  • Therefore, the view that people’s personality development is a result of their innate drive to want to be the best they can be is oversimplified