humanistic approach

free will

The notion that humans can make choices and are not determined by internal biological or external forces.

self-actualisation

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

hierarchy of needs

A five-levelled hierarchical 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.

self

The ideas and values that characterise ‘I’ and 'me' and includes perception and valuing of 'what I am' and 'what I can do'.

congruence

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

conditions of worth

when a parent places limits or boundaries on their love of their children. e.g. a parent saying to a child, ‘I will only love you if you study medicine’.

free will

humanistic psychology claims that human beings are self-determining and have free will. People are still affected by external and internal influences, but are also active agents who can determine their own development.

thus, humanistic psychologists such as Rogers and Maslow, reject more scientific models that attempt to establish general principles of human behaviour. As active agents we’re all unique, and psychology should concern itself with the study of subiective experience rather than general laws. This is often referred to as a person-centred approach in psychology.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Maslow was one of the founders of the humanistic movement in psychology. One of his main interests was in what motivates people. He described a hierachy of needs that motivate our behaviour. In order to achieve our primary goal of self-actualisation, a number of other deficiency needs must first be met.

physiological needs, then safety and security followed by love and belongingness and then self-esteem. A person is only able to progress through the hierarchy once the current need in the sequence has been met. At the top is self-actualisation.

self-actualisation

Most people have an innate desire to achieve their full potential - to become the best they can possibly be. Self-actualisation represents the uppermost level of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. All four lower levels of the hierarchy (‘deficiency needs’) must be met before the individual can work towards self-actualisation (a ‘growth need’) and fulfil their potential. this applies to early development when a baby is first focused on physiological needs and applies throughout life.

Humanistic psychologists regard personal growth as an essential part of what it is to be human. Personal growth is concerned with developing and changing as a person to become fulfilled, satisfied and goal-orientated. Not everyone will manage this, but, and there are important psychological barriers that may prevent a person from reaching their potential.

the self, congruence and conditions of worth

Rogers → 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). If too big a gap exists between the two 'selves' the person will experience a state of incongruence and self-actualisation won’t 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, Rogers developed client-centred therapy - also called 'counselling' to help people cope with the problems of everyday living. Rogers claimed that many of the issues we experience as adults, such as worthlessness and low self-esteem, have their roots in childhood and can often be explained by a lack of unconditional positive regard (or lack of unconditional love) from our parents. A parent who sets boundaries or limits on their love for their child (conditions of worth) by claiming 'I will only love you if..' is storing up psychological problems for that 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.

counselling psychology

Rogers' client-centred (or latterly, person-centred) therapy is an important form of modern-day psychotherapy. It led to the general approach of counselling which is applied in many settings today (e.g. Samaritans and other helplines). Rogers referred to those in therapy as 'clients' rather than 'patients' as he saw the individual as the expert on their own condition. Thus, therapy is not directed by the therapist (non-directive), and the client is just encouraged towards the discovery of their own solutions within a therapeutic atmosphere that is warm, supportive and non-judgemental.

For Rogers, an effective therapist should provide the client with 3 things: genuineness, empathy and unconditional positive regard. The aim of Rogerian therapy is to increase the person's feelings of self-worth, reduce the level of incongruence between the self-concept and the ideal self, and help the person become a more fully functioning person.

Rogers' work transformed psychotherapy and introduced a variety of counselling techniques. In the UK and the US, similar counselling skills are practised, not only in clinical settings, but throughout education, health, social work and industry.

Client-centred therapy has been praised as a forward-looking and effective approach that focuses on present problems rather than dwelling on the past. but, much like psychoanalysis, it is best applied to the treatment of 'mild' psychological conditions, such as anxiety and low self-worth.

AO3 - strength of humanistic approach: not reductionist

it rejects attempts to break up behaviour and experience into smaller components (reductionism).

Behaviourists explain human and animal learning in terms of simple stimulus-response connections. 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 3 things: Id, Ego and Superego. In contrast, humanistic psychologists advocate holism, the idea that subjective experience can only be understood by considering the whole person.

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

COUNTER: reductionist approaches may be more scientific. This is cuz the ideal of science is the experiment, and experiments reduce behaviour to IV and DVs. One issue with humanistic psychology is that, unlike behaviourism, there are relatively few concepts that can be broken down to single variables and measured.

This means that humanistic psychology lacks empirical evidence to support its claims.

AO3 - strength of the humanistic approach: positive/optimistic approach

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 that everyone existed somewhere between ‘common unhappiness and absolute despair’. In contrast, humanistic psychologists see all people as good, free to work towards the achievement of their potential and in control of their lives.

AO3 - limitation of the humanistic approach: cultural bias

many of the ideas that are central to humanistic psychology, such as individual freedom, autonomy and personal growth, would be more readily associated with countries that have more individualist tendencies (e.g. US). Countries with collectivist tendencies emphasise the needs of the group and interdependence. In such countries, the ideals of humanistic psychology may not be as important as in others (e.g. self-actualisation).

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