The humanistic approach

• Humanistic psychology emerged in the US in the 1950s as a result of the work of Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow
• Humanistic psychology is also known as the 'third force' in psychology alongside the behaviourist and psychodynamic approaches
• Humanistic psychology is an approach to understanding behaviour that emphasises the importance of subjective experience and each person's capacity for self-determination
• The humanistic approach is the only approach that is based entirely on free will
• Rogers and Maslow rejected more scientific models that attempted to establish more general principles of human behaviour
• The humanistic approach theorises that psychology should be based on the study of subjective experience rather than general laws. This is known as a person-centred approach
• Maslow described a hierarchy of needs that motivate human behaviour
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs:

  • Self-actualisation
  • Self-esteem
  • Love and belonging
  • Safety and security
  • Physiological needs
• Self-actualisation is a person's desire to grow psychologically and fulfil their full potential
• The hierarchy of needs requires the needs at the bottom of the pyramid to be satisfied before higher psychological needs can be met
• Rogers argued that an individual's concept of self must be broadly equivalent (congruent) to their ideal self
• If there is a large gap between an individual's concept of self and their ideal self, a person will experience a state of incongruence and self-actualisation will not be possible as the individual will experience negative feels of self-worth
• Rogers developed client-centred therapy (counselling) to reduce the gap between people's concept of self and their ideal self
• The aim of Rogers' client-centred therapy is congruence - where the concept of self and ideal self are broadly similar
• Rogers theorised that issues experienced in adulthood such as low self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness are rooted in childhood and a lack of unconditional positive regard from a parental figure
• Conditions of worth are when a parent places restrictions or conditions on their love for their children
• Rogers saw the goal of CCT to be providing his clients with the unconditional positive regard that they did not receive as children
• One strength of the humanistic approach is that is rejects reductionism and advocates for holism, which is the view that subjective experience can only be understood by considering the whole person
• The humanistic approach is not considered scientific as there are relatively fre concepts that can be investigated as a scientific experiment. This means that it lacks empirical evidence to support its theories