Humanism

Basic assumptions

• Humans have free will and can shape our own behaviours

  • Psychology should focus on studying people’s experience not being scientific (interpretivism)

Self actualisation

The need for a person to reach their ultimate goal/become their ideal self

Maslow

Put forward the hierarchy of needs, at the bottom is basic physiological and survival needs and at the top is self actualisation

Congruence

For a person to reach self actualisation, their ideal self and concept of self must be the same

Counselling/Rogers

• A talking therapy put forward to help patients reach self actualisation by boosting their self esteem.

• Conditional love from parents leads to low self esteem so counselling provides clients with unconditional positive regard

Holism

Humanism is a holistic theory as it considers a person’s whole experience in life and what factors affect one another

Lack of objectivity

Humanism uses unscientific methods which leads to a lack of objectivity

Optimism

Humanism takes a positive approach to the psyche in an otherwise negativistic domain

Cultural bias

Humanism identifies self actualisation as the ultimate goal but more collectivist cultures may not be able to identify with this