Ch. 11

THE ROOTS OF HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

• Existential philosophy

  • Carl Rogers and Maslow

• Existential anxiety: the feelings of dread and panic that follow the realization that there is no meaning to ones life

• There is definitive spokesperson for the humanistic perspective

• no clearly agreed upon definition of what constitutes a humanistic personality theory

KEY ELEMENTS OF THE HUMANISTIC APPROACH

(1) An emphasis on personal responsibility

(2) An emphasis on the "here and now"

(3) A focus on the experience of the individual

(4) An emphasis on personal growth

(1) PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY

• We are ultimately responsible for what happens to us

• Borrowed from existential philosophers

• " I have to"

• we don't have to do things

• All of our behaviors represent personal choices

• We choose to go to work

  • The price we pay for making some of these choices can be steep, but their choices nonetheless

• People are active shapers of their own lives

  • Unlike the Freudian perspective, we are at the mercy of forces we cannot control

• Accepting our fate is in our own hands is often quite frightening

(2) THE HERE AND NOW

• We can't become fully functioning individuals until we learn to live our lives as they happen

• Reflection can be helpful, but most people spend far too much time thinking about events that have already happened/planning those that might

• Time spent on these activities is time lost

• " Today is the first day of the rest of your life"

• Past experiences shape and influence us, but they should not dictate what we become

(3) THE EXPERIENCE OF THE INDIVIDUAL

• No one knows you better than yourself

• It's absurd for therapists to listen to clients and decide what their problems are

• Humanistic therapists seek to understand what their clients are experiencing and try to provide a therapeutic atmosphere that allows clients to help themselves

• You can consider advice in come to a decision on your own

(4) PERSONAL GROWTH

• There is more to life than simply taking care of all our immediate needs

• Happiness requires that we grow in a positive direction

• We are all motivated to progress towards some ultimately satisfying state of being

• Call Rogers fully functioning individual/Abraham Maslow's self actualization

CARL ROGERS

• The first to popularize a "person-centred" approach and advocate of using groups as a form of therapy

The Fully Functioning Person

• Each of us naturally strives to reach an optimal sense of satisfaction with our lives

• People who reach this goal are fully functioning

  • Open to new experiences

  • Try to live each moment as it comes

  • The idea of experiencing life, not passing through it

  • Trust their feelings (e.g., if something feels right or wrong)

  • Sensitive to the needs of others

  • Aren't overly concerned with meeting the standards society sets for them

  • Experience emotions more deeply and intensely than most people

Anxiety and Defense

• The world is full of disappointments and difficulties

  • All of which are potential sources of anxiety

• Becoming fully functioning doesn't eliminate our problems

  • We acknowledge and deal with these problems directly rather than rely on psychological defences to avoid them

• Anxiety results from encountering information that is inconsistent with the way we think of ourselves

• Those who are not fully functioning feel anxiety when hearing information that threatens our self concept

  • If that information is successively threatening, the anxiety will be difficult to manage

• We initially process this threatening information at a levels somewhere below consciousness, subception

• Rogers called most of our common defence distortion

  • Rather than acknowledging shortcomings and trying to learn from mistakes, people may distort the situation (e.g., she always overreacts) or deny the situation

• Distortion and denial succeed in the short run by reducing anxiety

  • But takes us away from experiencing life fully

• When the gap between self concept and reality become so large that our defences are inadequate, people experience a state of disorganization

  • The protective barrier against threatening information collapses, and the result is extreme anxiety

Conditions of Worth and Unconditional Positive Regard

Conditional Positive regard: most parents communicate affection for their children as long as the children do what is expected of them

• When parents disapprove, they withhold their admiration and love

• The children get the message that they are loved but only when they do what their parents want

• The positive regard children need is conditional upon their behavior

Conditioned esteem results, children learn to accept only the parts of themselves their parents deem appropriate

• They deny or distort their weaknesses and faults becoming less aware of who they really are

• This process continues into adulthood

• We incorporate characteristics that are likely to win the approval of significant people in our lives into our self concept

• We simply deny that we possess unflattering characteristics

• As we lose touch with our real self, we become less fully functioning

Unconditional positive regard: when we experience this, we know we will be accepted in love no matter what we say or do

• Rogers advised parents to communicate to their children that although they don't approve of a specific behavior, they will always love and accept the child

• Children no longer feel a need to deny thoughts and feelings that might lead their appearance to withdraw affection

• They are free to incorporate faults and weaknesses into their self concepts

• Thereby better able to experience life

• Parents are not the only source of unconditional positive regard

  • adult friendships and relationships

• Psychologists can create an atmosphere of unconditional positive regard during psychotherapy

  • This is required for effective treatment

ABRAHAM MASLOW

• Maslow replaced Freud's pessimistic and dismal view of human nature with an optimistic and uplifting portrayal

• Although he acknowledged the existence of unconscious motives, Maslow focused on conscious aspects of personality

Motivation and the Hierarchy

• Which needs a factor behavior depends on the circumstances in our lives

• Two types of motives:

Deficiency motives: result from a lack of some needed object

• E.g., basic needs such as hunger and thirst

• Once obtained, deficiency motives are satisfied, and for a period of time, stop directing our behavior

Growth needs: are not satisfied simply by finding the object we desire; they are satisfied by expressing the motive

• Satisfying a growth Need may lead to an increase, rather than satiation, of motivation

Hierarchy of Needs

• Five basic categories of needs (both deficiency and growth

• Some needs demand more attention than others

• We typically attend to need the lower level before turning to higher level needs

  • E.g., if you're hungry, you'll be concerned about obtaining food. Until this is met, you won't be very concerned about making new friends

Physiological Needs

• Hunger, thirst, air, sleep

• The most demanding and must be satisfied before we move to higher level needs

  • E.g., finding enough food and water for survival takes priority over concerns like developing your potential as an artist

Safety Needs

• Security, stability, protection, structure, order, and freedom from fear or chaos

• Dominate our thoughts and actions when the future is unpredictable or living in an area where political or social order is unstable

• Seek arrangements that provide stability and a sense of security

Belongingness and Love Needs

• The need for friendship and love

• Hunger for affectionate relations with people/a place in his group or family

Two kinds of love:

D-love: Like hunger, based on the deficiency

• We need this love to satisfy the emptiness we experience without it

• It is selfish

• Concerned with taking, not giving

• It is a necessary step in the development of the second type of love

B-love: a non possessive, unselfish love based on a growth need rather than a deficiency

• Not satisfied once a relationship is established

• B-love is experienced and grows as a result of being in the relationship

Esteem Needs

Two types:

1. The need to perceive oneself as competent and achieving 

2. The need for admiration and respect

• They go hand in hand

  • E.g., It is difficult for others to admire you if you don't feel good about yourself

Need for Self-Actualization

• When all our lower level needs are satisfied, we turn our attention inward and ask ourselves what we want out of life, where our lives are headed, and what we want to accomplish

• The need for self actualization is satisfied when we identify our true self and reached our full potential

  • E.g., A painter must paint, a poet must write

Misconceptions about Maslow's Need Hierarchy

• Acknowledged that the hierarchy is an oversimplification

• The arrangement makes sense most of the time, but there are exceptions

  • E.g., Some have to satisfy their needs for self esteem and respect before they enter a romantic relationship

  • E.g., artists become so intent they forego basic needs

• Basic needs do not need to be satisfied 100% before return to higher needs

• At any given moment our behavior is potentially influenced by needs from all 5 levels

• We rarely satisfied the any of the five needs true very long

The Study of Psychologically Healthy People

• Instead of studying people who suffer from traumatic experiences or psychological disorders, he looked at psychologically healthy individuals

• By learning what self actualized people are like, we can better understand how individuals reach their true potential

• Relied on holistic analysis

  • Considered all the information he collected and arrived at his own general impressions

• Self actualized people are similar to fully functioning individuals

  • Accept themselves for what they are

  • Admit to personal weaknesses

  • Improve themselves where they can

  • Don't spend a lot of time worrying about things they might have done

  • Respect and feel good about themselves for what they are

  • Have relatively few friends

  • Friendships are deep and rewarding

  • "philosophical, unhostile" sense of humor

    • Poke fun at the human condition and at themselves but not of specific individuals or groups

  • Strong need for solitude

• Psychologically healthy people are less restricted by cultural norms and customs

• They understand how they are "supposed" to act, but feel little need to structure their lives like everyone elses

• Every psychologically healthy person he studied was in some way quite creative, expressed through novel approaches

Self actualizing creativity: novel approaches to the way they approach routine tasks

• E.g., a self actualized teacher might develop innovative ways to communicate ideas to students

• Healthy people have peak experiences

  • Time and place are transcended during the peak experience

  • Anxieties and fears are replaced by a sense of unity with the universe and a momentary feeling of power and wonder

  • These experiences differ from person to person

  • They are growth experiences

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF OPTIMAL EXPERIENCE

• What sorts of activities make us happy

• How should we spend our time to increase our well-being and happiness

• Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi proposed that opportunities for happiness lie all around us in many of the everyday, routine activities that fill our lives

Optimal Experience

• Csikszentmihalyi ask people to provide activities that made them happy

• Times you felt alive and totally engaged in an activity

• People used surprisingly similar terms to describe a wide set of experiences

• Participants talked about becoming so involved in what they were doing that nothing else seemed to matter, the activity demands all of their attention

• The task was almost always challenging and demanded full concentration

• Reaching their goal provides participants with a sense of mastery

• Pleasure came from the process rather than the achievement

• These moments are optimal experiences

  • Times referred to as flow

  • They are intensely enjoyable but not restful or relaxing

Characteristics of Flow:

1. Challenging and requires skill

2. Attention is completely absorbed

3. Activity has clear goals

4. There is clear feedback

5. Concentrate only on the task at hand

6. Achieves a sense of personal control

7. Loses self consciousness

8. Loses a sense of time

Finding Happiness in Everyday Activities

• One are people more likely to experience flow?

  • At work or at leisure?

• More likely to occur during work hours

• rather than thinking of every job as something we have to do or something others expect us to do, we can approach daily tasks by asking what we can get out of them

• Flow experiences embrace elements of humanistic personality psychology

  • Require us to live in the present and get the most out of our lives in the here and now

  • Achieving the goal is not the point, it is the journey

  • Happiness comes from taking control of our own lives rather than caving in to conventional standards

  • Intensely in touch with their experiences and often feel a sense of personal mastery

• Similar to peak experiences Maslow described, flow experiences are occasions for personal growth

APPLICATION: PERSON-CENTERED THERAPY

• Carl Rogers approach to counseling

• A therapist cannot possibly understand clients as well as clients understand themselves

  • They are responsible for changing themselves

• Therapists provide an atmosphere within which clients are able to help themselves

• Each individual naturally grows in a positive, self actualising direction unless that person's progress is in some way impeded

• The therapist simply allows the client to get back on track

• Clients should be more open to personal experience, more able to accept all aspects of themselves, therefore less likely to use defences when encountering information that threatens their self concept

• The therapist must first create a proper relationship with the client

  • Must be open and genuine

• Therapist should be themselves rather than play the role of the therapist

  • Must be honest with the client

• Requires unconditional positive regard from the therapist

  • Clients must feel free to express and accept all of their thoughts and feelings without fear of rejection

• Therapists can help clients understand their own thoughts and feelings through process of reflection

  • Rather than interpret what the client means (as a Freudian therapist would), Rogerian therapists help clients listen to what they're saying

• Never tell clients what the client really means to say

  • Therapists restate what they believe their hearing

  • These restatements are something for the client to agree with or reject

ASSESSMENT: THE Q-SORT TECHNIQUE

• The Q-sort technique allows psychologists to demonstrate that clients are more fully functioning or closer to self actualization

• Materials consist of a deck of 100 cards

  • A self descriptive phrase is printed on each card

  • On the first sort, the client is asked to place cards into 9 categories according to how much you believe the description of the card applies to you

  • Category 9 = most descriptive

  • Category 1 = least descriptive

• You would then be asked to shuffle the deck and take the test again

  • The client is then asked to distribute the cards according to your "ideal" self

  • The therapist compares the two profiles

• This technique fits nicely with Rogers theory:

  • The client knows themselves best

  • Allowed to describe themselves however they please

  • If the therapist doesn't agree, they help the client see themselves in the more realistic light

• Now a correlation coefficient is calculated

  • For a psychologically healthy person, the two should be similar

STRENGTHS AND CRITICISMS OF THE HUMANISTIC APPROACH

Strengths

• Emphasize the healthy side of personality

• Direct interest to positive psychology

• Many therapists include Rogerian techniques

• The promotion of job satisfaction by taking care of employees higher needs

• Teachers and parents have adopted or modified some of Roger's suggestions for education and child rearing

Criticisms

• The reliance of free will to explain human behavior

  • Some psychologists argue that this reliance renders the humanistic approach unfit for scientific study

    • Free will cannot be explored through scientific inquiry

  • Because we can explain any behavior as caused by "free will", no investigation will ever fail to support a free will interpretation

  • Humanistic psychologists argue that we can identify patterns that allow us to predict the likelihood that a person will act a certain way in a certain situation

    • This perspective is called statistical determinism

    • People may freely make choices about how they will behave, but those choices are still based on factors that scientists can often observe, measure, and perhaps manipulate

• Many key concepts are poorly defined

  • What is "self actualization", "fully functioning", or "becoming"?

• Lack of scientific rigor

• Limited applicability of humanistic psychotherapy techniques

• Overly naive assumptions about human nature

• The pre deterministic nature of Maslow's theory

  • E.g., you're destined to be a Carpenter, but you need to discover the true self bottled up inside in order to develop it

  • This contradicts the general freewill emphasis