Humanistic Psychology

What is humanistic psychology?

An approach to understanding behaviour that emphasises the importance of subjective experience and each person’s capacity for self-determination.

What does humanistic psychology claim?

That human beings are essentially self-determining and have free will. People are still effected by external and internal influences, but are also active agents who can determine their own development.

What do humanistic psychologists reject?

More scientific models that attempt to establish general principles of human behavior. As active agents are all unique, and psychology should concern itself with the study of subjective human experience. This is often referred to as a person-centered approach in psychology.

What did Maslow describe?

A hierarchy of needs that motivate our behaviour.

What is a hierarchy of needs?

A five-levelled hierarchal sequence in which basic physiological needs such as hunger must be satisfied before higher psychological needs such as self-esteem and self-actualisation can be achieved.

What are the levels of the hierarchy of needs?

1. Self actualisation.

2. Self-esteem.

3. Love and belongingness.

4. Safety and security.

5. Physiological needs.

What is at the top of the hierarchy of needs?

Self-actualisation.

What is self actualisation?

The desire to grow psychologically and fulfill one’s full potential - becoming what you are capable of.

When is a person able to progress through the needs hierarchy?

Once the current need in the sequence has been met.

What do most people have an innate desire to achieve?

Their full potential - to become the best they can possibly be.

In order to achieve our primary goal of self-actualisation, what needs must first be met?

The rest of the hierarchy of needs.

What do humanistic psychologists regard personal growth as?

As essential part of what it is to be human.

What is personal growth concerned with?

Developing and changing as a person to become fulfilled, satisfied and goal oriented. Not everyone will manage this, however, and there are important psychological barriers that may prevent a person from reaching their potential.

What did Rogers argue?

That for personal growth to be achieved, an individual’s concept of self (the way they see themselves) must be broadly equivalent to, or have congruence with their ideal self (the person they want to be).

What is congruence?

The aim of Rogerian therapy, when the self-concept and ideal self are seen to broadly accord or match.

What happens if too big a gap exists between the two ‘selves‘?

The person will experience a state of incongruence and self-actualisation will not be possible due to the negative feelings of self-worth that arise from incongruence.

In order to reduce the gap between the self concept and the ideal self, what did Rogers develop?

Child-centred therapy - also called ‘counselling‘ to help people cope with the problems of everyday living.

What did Rogers claim that many of the issues we experience as adults (such as worthlessness and low self-esteem) can be explained by?

A lack of unconditional positive regard (or lack of unconditional love) from parents.

What does a parent who sets boundaries or limits on their love for their child (conditions of worth) do?

Store up psychological problems for their child in the future. Thus, Rogers saw one of his roles as an effective therapist as being able to provide his clients with the unconditional positive regard that they had failed to receive as children.

What are conditions of worth?

When a parent places limits of boundaries on their love of their children.

What are the strengths of humanistic psychology?

• Not reductionist.

• Positive approach.

How is humanistic psychology not being reductionist a strength?

It rejects attempts to break up behaviour and experience into smaller components. Behaviourists explain human and animal learning in terms of simple stimulus-response units. Supporters of the cognitive approach see human beings as little more than information processing ‘machines‘. Biological psychologists reduce behaviour to its basic physiological processes. Freud described the whole of personality as a conflict between the Id, Ego and Superego In contrast, humanistic psychologists advocate holism; the idea that subjective experience can only be understood by considering the whole person.

What does the anti-reductionist nature of humanistic psychology mean for humanistic psychology?

This approach may have more validity than its alternatives by considering meaningful human behaviour within its real-world context.

What is the counterpoint to humanistic psychology not being reductionist?

Reductionist approaches may be more scientific. This is because the ideal of science is the experiment, and experiments reduce behaviour to independent and dependent variables. One issue with humanistic psychology is that, unlike behaviourism, there are relatively few concepts that can be broken down to single variables and measured.

What does the counterpoint to humanistic psychology not being reductionist mean?

That humanistic psychology in general is short on empirical evidence to support its claims.

How is humanistic psychology being a positive approach a strength?

It is optimistic; humanistic psychologists have been praised for bringing the person back into psychology and promoting a positive image of the human condition. Freud saw human beings as prisoners of their past and claimed all of us existed between ‘common unhappiness and absolute despair‘. 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.

What does humanistic psychology being a positive strength mean?

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

What is the limitation of humanistic psychology?

Cultural bias.

How is cultural bias a strength of humanistic psychology?

Many of the ideas that are central to humanistic psychology, such as individual freedom, autonomy and personal growth, would be much readily associated with countries that have more individualist tendencies, like the US. Countries with collectivist tendencies emphasise more the needs of the group and interdependence. In such countries, the ideals of humanistic psychology may not be as important as in others.

What does humanistic psychology being culturally biased mean?

That therefore, it is possible that this approach does not apply universally and is a product of the cultural context within which it was developed.