humanistic approach

humanistic approach

Humanistic psychology emerged in the USA in the 1950s as a result of the work of Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. It became known as the third force in Psychology, alongside the behaviourist and psychodynamic approaches - and represented a challenge to both. Rogers felt that Freud dealt with the 'sick half of psychology so the humanistic approach concerned itself with explanations of 'healthy' growth in individuals.

The approach emphasises the importance of subjective experience and each person's capacity for self-determination.

humanistic approach - free will

All of the approaches considered so far are determinist because they all suggest, to some degree that our behaviour is shaped by forces outside our control. Humanism is quite different as it emphasises that individuals are self-determining and have freewill. This does not mean that people are not affected by external or internal influences but that we are active agents who have the ability to determine our own development.

Marlow’s Hierarchy of needs

Rather than focusing on what could go wrong with people Maslow was interested in finding out what could go right with them. His hierarchy of needs theory emphasised the importance of personal growth and fulfilment. He argued that every person has an innate tendency to achieve their full potential and become the best they can possibly be. He called this self-actualisation, and it represents the uppermost level of his Hierarchy of Needs. The most basic physiological needs are at the bottom of the hierarchy and the most advanced needs at the top. Each level must be fulfilled before a person can move up to a higher need. Maslow argued that personal growth is an essential part of what it is to be human, but not everyone will reach the top of the hierarchy as there are barriers that may prevent a person from reaching their potential. He claimed that only one person in fifty actually made it to self-actualisation. Maslow found that those who attained self-actualisation shared certain characteristics; they tend to be creative, accepting of others and have an accurate perception of the world around them.

stages of Maslow’s hierarchy

self-actualisation

esteem

love/belonging

safety

physiological

stages of Maslow’s hierarchy - self actualisation

morality, creativity, spontaneity, problem solving. lack of prejudice; acceptance of facts

stages of Maslow’s hierarchy - esteem

self-esteem, confidence, achievement,

respect of others, respect by others

stages of Maslow’s hierarchy - love/ belonging

friendship, family, sexual intimacy

stages of Maslow’s hierarchy - safety

security of body, of employment, of resources, or morality, of the family, of health, of property

stages of Maslow’s hierarchy - physiological

breathing, food, water, sex, sleep, homeostasis, excretion

Rogers - the self, congruence and conditions of worth

Rogers claimed that people have 2 basic needs:

a feeling of self worth

positive regard from others

Rogers - a feeling of self-worth

The self refers to how we perceive ourselves as a person.

Rogers believed how we think about ourselves is important in determining our psychological health. The closer together our self (the way we see ourselves) and our ideal self (the person we want to be) are to each other, the greater our feelings of self-worth and the better our psychological health. When there is a similarity between a person's ideal self and their self, it said that there is congruence (a match). The closer together the two are, the greater the congruence and the higher our feelings of self-worth.

On the other hand when there is a difference between the self and the ideal self, the person experiences a state of incongruence. It is rare for a complete state of congruence to exist, with most people experiencing some degree of incongruence.

Rogers - positive regard from other people

Feelings of self-worth develop in childhood and are formed as a result of the child's interactions with parents and significant others. Positive regard from other people is important for determining our self-worth and congruence.

Unconditional positive regard is when love and acceptance is unconditional, and a person is accepted for who they are. Whereas Conditional positive regard is when people are only accepted if they do what others want them to do (love and acceptance is conditional).

When people experience conditional positive regard they develop conditions of worth. Conditions of worth are the conditions that they perceive significant others put upon them, and which they believe have to be in place if they are to be accepted by others, receive positive regard and see themselves positively. An individual will only experience a sense of self-acceptance if they meet the 'conditions' that others have set. E.g. a parent may place limits on their love of their children 'I will only love you if you study medicine/split up with that boy'

the influence of counselling psychology

Rogers believed that an individual's psychological problems were a direct result of their conditions of worth and the conditional positive regard they receive from other people. He believed that, with counselling, people would be able to solve their own problems in constructive ways, and move towards becoming a more fully functioning person.

Instead of acting in a directive way humanistic therapists regard themselves as facilitators to help people understand themselves and to find ways to enable their potential for self-actualisation.

Therapists provide empathy and unconditional positive regard, expressing their acceptance and understanding, regardless of the feelings and attitudes the client expresses. By doing this the therapist is able to offer a supportive environment to help dissolve the client's conditions of worth.

This results in the client moving towards developing self-worth enabling them to behave true to the person they are, rather than how others want them to be.

humanistic approach evaluation summary

• positive approach

• supporting evidence

• not reductionist

• anti-scientific

• culturally biased

humanistic approach evaluation - positive approach

A strength is that it takes a positive approach to human behaviour and has been praised for promoting a positive image of humans. It gives a refreshing alternative to the psychodynamic approach and provides an optimistic view of all people as basically good, having freewill and being able to achieve their potential.

humanistic approach evaluation - supporting evidence

Supporting evidence has been found for conditions of worth. Harter et al. (1996) found that teenagers who feel that they have to fulfil certain conditions in order to gain their parent's approval frequently end up not liking themselves. Adolescents who created a 'false self', pretending to be the person their parents want them to be, are more likely to develop depression.

humanistic approach evaluation - not reductionist

A strength of the approach is that it is not reductionist. Humanists reject any attempts to break up behaviour and experience into smaller components. Instead, Humanists advocate holism; the idea that subjective experience can only be understood by considering the whole person. This approach may therefore have more validity than the other approaches by considering meaningful human behaviour within its real-life context.

humanistic approach evaluation - anti-scientific

A weakness of the approach is that it is based on vague and abstract ideas that are difficult to test. Concepts such as self-actualisation and congruence may be useful therapeutic tools but are problematic to test in experimental conditions. However, Rogers did attempt to introduce a more objective measure by developing the Q-sort, a measure of progress in therapy. Therefore, the approach is lacking in scientific evidence to support its claims, although this is to be expected of an approach that describes itself as anti-scientific.

humanistic approach evaluation - culturally biased

A criticism of humanism is that it is culturally biased. Many of the ideas that are central to the approach, such as individual freedom, autonomy and personal growth are associated with individualistic cultures in the western world such as the USA. Collectivist cultures such as India, whicl emphasise the needs of the group, community and interdependence, may not identify so easily with the ideals and values of humanistic psychology. Therefore it is possible that this approach would not generalise well and is a product of the cultural content in which it was developed.