a03 humanisitic approach

Why is it not being reductionist a strength in comparison to the other approaches

Behaviourists explain learning in terms of tumulus and response

Cognitive - human beings as little more than information processing machines

Biological - reduce behaviour to basic physiological processes

Freud- reduced it to the id superego and ego

HUMANISITC - holiest + subjective experience + may have more validity than the others by considering meaningful human behaviour within its real world context

What is the bad thing about it being reductionist

Not as scientific

Lots of experiments reduce behaviour to variables

But humanism unlike behaviours - relatively few concepts that can be broken down to single variables and measured

Meaning humanist psychology - in short of empirical evidence to support its claims.

What is another strength about the appraisal in terms of what its about

It’s a positive approach

Optimistic

Brings person back into psychology and promotes a positive image of human condition

Freud saw human beings as prisoners of their past and claimed all of us existed somewhere between ‘common unhappiness absolute despiar’

In contrast humanistic psychologists see all people as basically good. + free to work towards the achievement of their potential and in control of their lives.

This suggests that humanistic psychology offers a refreshing and optimistic alternative to other approaches.

What kind of bias does the approach have

Cultural bia

Many of ideas such as individual freedom + autonomy and prosnal growth - more associated with individualistic cultures rather than collectivists cultures which emphasise need of the group

Therefore in some countries the approach may lack importanccce - not a universal appproach and is a product of the cultural context within which it was developed.

How has Roger’s client centred therapy been effective

Proved effective in a wide range of settings and has helped clients deal with such issues as drug additicotn or break ups

Suggests that concepts such as congruence and conditions of worth have clinical validity

However critics such as Bruce have suggested that client centred therapy - a little more than good listening and relationship building and this explains its effectiveness. He argued there’s nothing unique about client centred therapy.

What type of data was the approach using

Qualitative data

E.g discussing case studies of individual clients in therapy

Goes along with the rejection of scientific approaches coming up with general laws

Roger’s and Maslow concerned with describing lived experiences in a holistic way rather than in a lab experiment

What method did Roger’s use

He used a systematic method to measure progress in therapy

Known as Q - SORT

At beginning - clients asked to catergorise 100 self statements into 9 categories based on how well the statements describe them

Then repeated after course of therapy

If therapy beneficial - there would be greater agreement (congruence) between the descriptions of the 2 selves

In general the approach deals with nature of subjective experience from clients pov

What has maslows hierarchy been linked to and what did harter find

How successful country is in terms of economics

Poorer countries are still trying to meet the lower levels while richer countries have progressed onto the higher levels of the hierarchy

Hierarchy also been found to work with different age groups

Harter et al - found that it worked with teenagers who feel depressed often report feeling they have struggled to meet their parents conditions of worth

What do scientists argue and what are some general weaknesses

Free will is an illusion

External influences are powerful

Cultural issues

Too abstract and untestable ideas such as congruence - unscientific