The humanistic approach

What are the main focuses of humanistic psychology?

Focuses on:

Conscious experience, rather than behavioural approach

Personal responsibility and free will, rather than determinism

Discussion of experience rather than the use of the experimental method.

Developed in the 1950s, humanistic psyhology is concerned with topics that are meaningful to human beings, and emphasises the importance of the individual’s striving towards personal growth and fulfilment.

What is the difference between Idiographic and Nomothetic studies?

Idiographic - studying individuals (humanistic)

Nomothetic - Interviews and case studies

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

1. Self-actualisation - Achieving one’s full potential, including creative activities

2. Esteem needs - Prestige and feeling of accomplishment

3. Love + belonging needs - Intimate relationships, friends

4. Safety needs - health, family, security of body

5. Physiological needs - Food, water, warmth

   Could be looked at in terms of age, levels of life.

   The hierarchy is idealistic as there are factors holding people back.

Congruence and incongruence

Congruence - when there is a similarity between a person’s ideal self and how they perceive themselves to be in real life

Incongruence - when there is a difference between the self and ideal self

What are conditions of worth?

When people experience conditional positive regard, they develop conditions of worth.

These are the conditions that they perceive others put upon them, and which they believe have to be in place if they are to be accepted by others and see themselves positively.

What is conditional and unconditional positive regard?

Conditional positive regard - to be accepted only if you do what others want you to do

Unconditional positive regard - to be accepted for who you are no matter what you do

Humanistic influence on counselling

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

These therapists use empathy and unconditional positive regard to express understanding and acceptance of the client.

This helps to dissolve the client’s conditions of worth by making them more authentic and true to self.

Focus on the self

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

Rogers claimed that people have 2 basic needs: positive regard from other people and a feeling of self-worth.

Self-worth

Feelings of self-worth are developed in childhood from parents.

Further interactions with significant others also influence a person’s feelings of self worth.

This determines our psychological health.

Positive evaluation

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs links to economic growth - countries in the early stages of economic development were characterised by lower level needs (physiological and safety). Self-actualisation is only important in the advanced stages of economic development.

Research with adolescents is consistent with Rogers’ view - a study discovered that teenagers who frequently try to gain their parents’ approval end up not liking themselves. So individuals who experience conditional positive regard are more likely to display more ‘false self behaviour’.

What is ‘false self behaviour’?

Doing things to meet others’ expectations even when they clash with their own values

Negative evaluation

The humanistic approach is not scientific - no evidence so unreliable. No proof that humanistic counselling causes changes, could have been other factors.

The humanistic approach is unrealistic - not all people are inherently good people in modern society. This approach represents an overly idealised and oversimplified view of human nature.

Maslow’s hierarchy doesn’t apply to all cultures - Some needs may appear in a different order or may be absent altogether. Also, different cultures have different ideas of fulfilling their full potential.