Week 5 | Day 3 | PSYA02

FINISH

Week 5 | Day 3 | PSYA02

Humanistic Approach

• Humanistic Perspective: Personality is motivated by the internal desire for self-improvement and self-enchancement, which operate at the conscious level of awareness
• Humanistic theories have positive, optimistic view of human natureh, believe that humans have free will
  • Free will separates the humanistic approach from the psychodynamic and the trait approaches
• Influential Theoriests * Theories:

1. Carl Roger’s Self-Theory
2. Abraham Maslow’s Needs Hieracrhy
3. Carl Roger’s Self-Theory

• Assumption that people consciously make decisions and take selfs for self-improvement
• Believed that the core element of personality is the self-concept
• Self-esteem is high when positive self-evaluation is consistent with thoughts and actions
• Assesssed an individual’s actual self against the ideal self
  • If the difference between these wo measurements increases, self-esteem and self-wirth decreases
• Unconditional positive regard can help facilitate personal growth

1. Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy

• Maslow argued that the motifavtional core of personality is the desire for individuals to seek a state of self-actualization
• Maslows (1943) proposed a Needs Hierarchy: only when all other needs are met can a person achieve self-actualiaztion
• Personality difference arise from our ability to satisfy these needs

Humanistic Approahc Strengths & Contributions

• Strengths:
  • Positive view of human nature that is consistent with the current focus of positive psychology
  • Evidence for the concept of unconditional positive regard
• Contribution of Psychology:
  • Personality operates at a conscious level of awareness
  • Positve set of motives for personality

Trait Approach

• Trait: A relatively stable disposition to behave in a particular and consistent way
• What are some of these traits? The list is endless
• Researchers use factor analysis to reduce this list to the lowest possible set of traits:
  • Individuals rate themselves on hundreds of traits
  • Traits that are highly correlated are combined into factors
  • Traits with no correlation to one another are considered parts of separate factors

The Five-Factor Model (aka The Big Five)

• Today, most researchers agree upon a give-factor model of personality
• The Big Five personality traits are not correlated with each other