The Humanistic Approach

What do humanistic psychologists believe humans are influenced by?

External and internal influences but are still self determining

What do they believe psychology should concern itself with and why?

Subjective experience rather than general laws because were all unique

What kind of approach is the humanistic approach?

A person-centered approach

Draw and describe Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

What does self actualisation refer too?

The innate tendency each of us have to want to achieve our full potential and become the best we can possible be

What does the self refer to?

Ideas and values that characterise ‘I’ and ‘me’ and includes perception of ‘what I am’ and ‘what I can do’.

What does personal growth require?

An individuals concept of self to be congruent with their ideal self

Who argued this?

Rogers

What happens if the gap between an individual’s concept of self and their ideal self is too big?

Person will experience a state of incongruence and self actualisation won’t be possible

Where do issues e.g worthlessness and low self esteem come from?

Childhood

Why does it come from childhood?

Due to a lack of unconditional positive regard from parents

What are conditions of worth?

When parents set boundaries on their love for their child

What should an effective therapist provide their client with during counselling?

Genuineness

Empathy

Unconditional positive regard

What is the aim of a therapist providing a client with these characteristics during counselling?

To increase feelings of self worth

To reduce incongruence between the self concept and the ideal self

A03 Strength: It’s anti-reductionist

Rejects any attempt to break up behaviour into smaller components

Advocate holism (subjective experience can only be understood by considering the whole person)

More validity than other approaches as it considers behaviour within its real world context

A03 Strength: It’s a positive approach

Have been praised for seeing humans as in control of their lives and have the freedom to change

In comparison, Freud saw humans as prisoners of their past

Humanistic approach offers a refreshing, optimistic alternative

A03 Limitation: Approach may be guilty of a cultural bias

Humanistic ideas associated with individualistic cultures e.g the US

Collectivist cultures e.g India emphasise the needs of the group so wont identify qith humanistic values

Approach can’t be applied universally and is a product of the cultural context it was developed in

A03 Strength/Limitation: Limited application

Critics say this approach has had limited impact on psychology compared to other approaches

However, Rogers revolutionised counselling techniques and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has been used to explain motivation

Approach does have value despite it being ‘anti-scientific’