Humanistic approach

What is Free will

• Approach says humans are self determining and have free will

• People still affected by internal and external factors but are active agents who determine their own development

• Rejects scientific models as humans are unique so psychology should study off of subjective experience instead of general laws

What is Maslows hierarchy of needs

• He wanted to know what motivates people so described a hierarchy of needs that motivate our behaviour

• To get to our goal of self-actualisation, number of deficiency needs need it be met

• Bottom is needs like food,water. Then It’s safety and security, then love and belongingness then self esteem.

• Person can only progress through hierarchy once current need in sequence is met

What is self-actualisation

Desire to grow and reach your full potential

• It’s the highest level of hierarchy of needs

• Psychologists say personal growth is important part of being human

• Personal growth can be prevented by psychological barriers for a person to reach their potential

What is self

way they see themselves and ideal self is what they want to be

What is congruence

Self concept and ideal self are seen to match

How is potential growth achieved by Carl Rodger’s

Persons concept of self must be equivalent or have congruence with their ideal self

What happens if the gap between self and ideal self is too big

• Person will experience state of incongruence and self actualisation won’t happen

• This is because of negative feelings of self worth arising from incongruence

Weakness of humanistic approach- cultural bias

Ideas in the approach like personal growth, individual freedom more associated with individualistic countries e.g. US

Collectivist countries emphasise needs of group and interdependence. Ideas in humanistic approach aren’t as important

So approach dosent apply universally.

Strength of humanistic approach- not reductionist

Compared to other approaches, humanistic advocates holism (subjective experience only understood by considering whole person)

It rejects attempt to break up behaviour and experience into smaller components

Has more validity than others as it considers meaningful human behaviour within real life context

Strength of humanistic approach- its optimistic

Humanistic psychologists praised for promoting positive image of human condition

They see all people as good, free to work towards achievement of their potential.

Suggest approach offers a refreshing and optimistic alternative than other approaches

Counselling

Roger’s developed counselling as modern day psychotherapy

Therapy should increase person selfworth, decrease congruence levels between self concept and ideal self.

Effective therapist should provide empathy, unconditional positive regard.

However can only be used with mild conditions.