Humanistic Theories of Personality

Lecture 7

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

lower level needs must be satisfied before satisfaction of higher needs are attempted.

physiological (lowest) → breathing, food, water, sex, sleep, etc

safety → security of body, employment, resources, health, etc

love/belonging → friendship, family, intimacy

esteem → self-esteem, confidence, respect of and by others

self-actualisation (highest) → morality, creativity, acceptance. leads to transcendence.

Human Motivation - Deficiency Motives

basic need met → ceases being motivator. motivation changes to next need requiring satisfaction.

motivation stronger longer satisfaction denied.

behaviour motivated by both deficiency and growth needs.

Human Motivation - Growth Motives

unique to individuals (psychologically). natural drive to develop intensifies as needs met.

reasonably satisfied = progress to self-actualisation. lower-level needs unmet = progress disrupted.

movement in hierarchy not one-directional.

Characteristics of Self-Actualizers

• creative

• perceive reality efficiently

• tolerate uncertainty

• higher self-acceptance

• strong moral/ethical standards

based on interviews with apparent ‘self-actualised’ individuals - data does not meet scientific standards of reliability/validity.

Criticism of Maslow

lack of scientific rigor; focus on subjective experiences does not explain impact of society on personality development.

hierarchy of needs cultural bias - mainly reflects Western values/ideologies.

Application of Maslow

Orpen (1998) - respondents to survey - job satisfaction greater when more opportunity for decision-making related to higher needs

Sheldon & Kasser (2001) - striving for authentic, self-concordant reasoning yields greater goal attainment + enhanced wellbeing.

Carl Rogers - Person-Centred Approach 

believe all individuals have ability to develop inner resources to grow into physically/psychologically healthy beings.

hypothesised conditions by which therapist facilitates personality change - based on principles:-

• unconditional positive regard

• congruence

• empathy

Unconditional Positive Regard (UPR) - Pros

Swarra et al. (2017) - teacher UPR toward students important for growth+interactions

Roth et al. (2016) - UPR enhances effectiveness of parental provision of rationale+choices to child’s autonomous academic motivation. unconditional acceptance enhances effectiveness of parenting.

Murphy et al. (2017) - UPR a path towards psychological wellbeing.

Unconditional Positive Regard (UPR) - Cons

Kanat-Maymon et al. (2016) - conditional positive regard has maladaptive correlates when used by parents. associated with poor relationship quality, mediated by dissatisfaction of autonomy.

Congruence/Incongruence

experience congruent with self-concept → harmony.

experiences incongruent (deny organismic self) → psychological tension.

organismic self = authentic, free from societal conditions of worth

organismic valuing process = innate tendency towards experiences/choices aligned with organismic self.

Empathy

ability to sense other’s private world as own, without losing ‘as if’ quality.

Muro et al. (2016) - therapy can improve empathic responding

Human Infant Development

sees self as centre of reality. attracted to positively valued experiences; avoids/rejects negatively valued.

• actualising tendency; strives to maintain + enhance self

• organismic valuing process - tendency to value experiences which maintain/enhance self positively

The Development of Personality

infant self-concept develops as result of being with others/being evaluated by them.

infant seeks positive regard from others to self-actualise.

need for positive regard from others can be more important than organismic valuing process.

Rogers’ Theory of Self

motivation = striving for growth/self-actualisation. two aspects:-

• biological - basic needs

• psychological - development of potential (crucial for remaining psychologically healthy)

organismic self regulates physiological/psychological growth. organismic valuing process = instinct to know what is best for us.

Locus of Evaluation (Merry, 1999)

external - rely on evaluations of self by others for acceptance and self-esteem

internal - self-esteem generated from within with reference to own value system

infants take evals. from others into self-concept (introjected values). accepts/avoids self-experience due to others’ pos. regard = self-discrepancies.

Locus of Evaluation - Fully-Functioning Person

• open, not defensive

• trusts own internal value system

• clear actualising tendency

• maintain close relationships

• organismic valuing process

• accepts responsibility

• concerned for others, not just self