Humanistic

• Self, Congruence, Conditions of Worth - Rogers

  argued that for personal growth to be achieved an individual’s concept of self must be broadly equivalent to, or have congruence with their ideal self - who they want to be

  too big of a gap between two selves the person will experience a state of incongruence and self-actualisation will not be possible due to negative feelings of self-worth arise from congruence.
• • in order to reduce gap between self-concept and ideal self, Rogers developed client-centred therapy to help people cope with problem of everyday living 
  • Rogers claimed that many issues we experience as adults such as low self-esteem, derives from childhood roots and can be often explained by unconditional positive regard ( or lack of unconditional love )
  • Parents who sets out boundaries or limits on their love for their child ( conditions of worth ) by claiming ‘I will love you if’ is sorting up psychological problems for that child in the future 
• • Rogers sees it as important, for effective therapy, to provide clients with unconditional positive regard they failed to receive as children.
• Emphasis of free will and responsibility - largely ignored by other approaches

  • Considers subjective conscious experience
  • Values self-fulfillment and personal videos
  • Enabled psychologists to explore human existence with more sensitivity than the more scientific methods
  • Contributed to psychological theories and has been shown to be effective in treatment of some disorders - depression, stress
• • However, therapy may be inappropriate when it comes to schizophrenia
  • Less impact on mainstream psychology than other approaches 
  • Use of qualitative techniques have been questioned
  • Subject matter is individual experience, not possible to formulate general laws of behaviour and as such is not a comprehensive theory but rather a loose set of abstract ideas.
• • Due to vagueness of such terms as ‘self-actualisation’ and fully-functioning person, little empirical research has been carried out - untestable concepts
  • Not all cultures share assumption that individual achievement brings fulfilment
• Assumptions:

  Humans are self-determining and have free will

  Reject scientific methods that attempt to establish general principle of human bheaviour

  Active agents we are all unique, psychology should concern itself with study of subjective experiences rather than general laws

  Person-centered approach - idiographic - focusing on the individual
• Free will - notion that can make choices and are not determined by biological or external forces
• Self-Actualisation - Maslow

  • Uppermost level of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
  • Achieving personal goals, innate tendency
  • Ranges from basic needs to higher level psychological and actualisation needs
  • Emphasises uniquely human motivational factors - hierarchy level needs are evolutionary 
•  Self-Actualisation - morality, creativity, problem solving, acceptance 

              

           

  Esteem - self-esteem, confidence, achievement, respect

          

  Love/Belonging - friendships, family, sexual activity

  Safety - security of body, employment, resources, morality, family, health, property

  Physiological - breathing, food, water, sex, homeostasis, excretion