L5: Humanistic Perspectives

Learning Objectives

By the end of this lecture, you should have an understanding of:

  • The basic philosophy underlying the Humanist Perspective

    • (phenomenology, existentialism, counterculture roots)

  • Carl Rogers’ explanation of how psychological problems develop, including the key concepts of:

    • self-actualisation

    • unconditional positive regard

    • conditions of worth

  • Key Elements of Carl Rogers’ client-centred approach to therapy, including unconditional positive regard, empathy and genuineness.

  • Current therapies associated with the Humanistic approach (Motivational Interviewing, Emotion-Focused Therapy)

  • The Strengths and Weaknesses of Humanism

→ Humanism is the ‘third force’ within psychology

  • The reaction against the determinism of psychoanalysis, as well as the mechanistic reductionism of behaviourism.

  • Humanism emphasises freedom, agency, growth and meaning; concepts often neglected, over-medicalised, or ignored in structural models.

Lucy: Case Study

  • 23yrs old, seeking therapy,

  • feels lost, hopeless, cannot find the energy to get up or do anything.

  • lacks her passion; everything feels numbing.

  • Been a high achiever her entire life. When she got to uni, she kept this focus and placed her worth in it. She did well in her first year & got into law.

  • Tough keeping up with demands, she has graduated and secured an internship with a law firm.

  • now angry with herself, beacuse she has this incredible law firm role- but cannot help but feel empty, hopeless, and burnt-out.

→ Lucy left the law firm, and is seeking therapy to regain energy, her passion for life & what she actually loves to do (not just what expectations/she can push herself to do).

→ Origins of Humanism in Psychology

  • Rooted in phenomenology (study of lived, subjective experiences), as well as existentialism (freedom, authenticity, responsibility).

  • shaped by 1960s counter-culture (liberation movements); a pushback against rigid authority & medicalised psychiatry.

    • celebrates individual freedom

  • Disillusionment with psychoanalysis ( negative, deterministic, drives pathology), and Behaviourism (too mechanistic, dehumanising).

  • How do YOU interpret the world: YOUR POTENTIAL + GROWTH.

    → Thus, humanism becomes ‘third force’ in psychology

Key Features of the Humanistic Approach

  • subjective, holistic, and contextual.

  • Emphasises individual experience and personal growth; people strive towards self-actualisation (realising one’s true potential)

  • Recognises the uniqueness of individuals (individuality is special, no one-size-fits-all model will work)

    • effective therapy models are contextual to each individual journey, experience and client.

  • Assumes everyone has the capacity for inner freeedom; people can choose how they live, and respectfully must make their own decisions in accordance with their values and beliefs, fostering a sense of agency and responsibility in the process.

  • being aware and accepting the entire human experience: fundemental towards development & growth.

  • Centrality of relationships: Growth happens through genuine human connection

Carol Rogers

  • felt that what was needed within therapy was to genuinely listen to people & the sharing of their experience:

    • People can discover what they need/what they have to do to grow, by having a safe space to express their thoughts and feelings without judgment.

  • FIXING PATHOLOGY → FACILITATING GROWTH

  • intention was to recognise a much more equal relationship; a client and a therpist are no more or less people of the same standing. Both are human.

    • → client centered approach

Innate Potential for Self-Actualisation

  • Rogers believed people have vast inner resources for growth, but only if provided with the right psychological climate.

  • “Everyone has vast resources for self-understanding, for altering his or her self-concept, attitudes, and self-directed beehaviour— and that these resources can be tapped only if a defineable climate of facilitativce psychological attitudes can be provided” (Rogers, 1986)

    → you have the capacity within yourself to understand & be yourself

    a psychologist must only provide an environment that is safe, and permits the comfortable growth/self-explorations/self-actualisation of the client.

  • Importance: Roger’s take on therapy/humanism was a radically optimistic view of human nature; psychological problems are not signs of inherent defect, but blockages in natural growth.

Becoming yourself: Self-actualisation

  • the single innate, motivating desire/drive for self-actualisation; a wish to truly be your fullest self

  • People rely on organismic experience (deep, non-conscious wisdom) to guide & facilitate their growth: you become to know yourself by attending to your experiences in the world

  • This process involves recognizing and embracing one’s feelings, intuitions, and personal experiences, ultimately leading to greater authenticity and fulfillment. what feels nice, what and who we love, feeling comfortable in our skin, our traits, the sun or preferences we have, the growth/ambitions we seek, what we feel loved by (in return), etc,.

  • this non-conscious organismic experience creates a ‘self’, the true actual self.

    • this the ‘true self’ emerges when experience and self-concept align.

    • e.g., a child naturally drawn to music will continune to persue it, unless blocked by external ‘conditions of worth’.

→ Conditions of worth can stem from societal expectations, parental pressures, or personal insecurities, which can hinder the individual from fully realizing their potential.

Unconditional Positive Regard

→ We are very suseptible to the ideas of the people around us, their expectations, beliefs, and ideas they also have about us (and the things we experience).

→ Unconditional positive regard= I accept your experience in the world, your experience is valid; recognising & validate a child’s experiences in the world.

Children need unconditional positive regard; this allows them to develop confidence and self-esteem, essential components for achieving their full potential without the constraints of conditional approval.

Conditional Worth

Conditions of worth refers to the expectations and standards that individuals believe they must meet to receive love and approval from significant others, leading to feelings of inadequacy when they fail to do so.

  • Our need for positive regard means we are vulnerable towards internalsing these conditions of worth

  • our self-concept becomes deeply influenced by these external influences [conditions of worth], rather than our organismic experiences

    → what is felt to be the ‘self’ is really the needs of others

Examples:

  • “You’re a big brave boy, that wasn’t sore” → bravery is valued, vulnerability is dismissed.

  • “You know love to dance” → parent imposes preference on child

» Lucy’s parents likely made law sound like an honourable profession when she was younger, e.g.,, ‘You know, there’s always money in law- it’s a stable & successful career’

→ this is a ‘condition of worth’ : the idea that a child feels they must meet certain expectations set by their parents/people in their lives in order to feel valued and loved

» Instead, Lucy’s parents could have fostered a sense of unconditional positive regard by acknowledging her feelings and experiences without judgment, allowing her to develop a healthy self-concept

    > GIVEN LUCY HER OWN CHANCE TO EXPERIENCE THE WORLD

Rogers’ Explanation of Lucy

  • Lucy’s difficulties likely stem from:

    • Lack of unconditional positive regard; her experiences as a child were liked not accepted, recognised, or validated.

      » Lucy’s organismic experience of the world was not recognised in the way it should have been. Her authentic feelings, desires and values have been subconciously shaped by external demands, acceptence/validation feels conditional.

    • Internalised conditions of worth: Her self-concept has been expotentially shaped more so by conditions of worth [imposed form parents?]. E.g., Law was likely phrased as a successful career/life, and careers/’futures’ that align more with Lucy’s true organismic experiences, seen as lesser.

      • Creates supression of true desires/passions » internal conflict» anxiety, low-self-esteem, burn-out, hopelessness etc.

    • Rogers’ perspective, Lucy’s distress is not a sign of pathology or disorder, but rather of being cut off from her own organismic experiencing.

      » living by others’ expectations perpetuates this incongruence between authentic self and imposed sel.

Therapeutic task: Therapy is Aimed at Finding Yourself

  • Humanistic therapy = self-discovery, self-awareness, personal growth, empowerment.

  • The goal is not “symptom reduction,” but helping the client become themselves.

    • Help Lucy reconnect with herself through organismic experience/unconditional positive regard;

    • listen, validate and recognise her experiences, feelings, ideas and potential.

    • Encourage her, so that she discovers her true self [Self-actualisation], and her own definitions of success, joy, worth, happiness, & growth-etc.

Six Conditions for Therapeutic Change:

→ Therapy must provide a facilitating environment, beyond this there are 6 conditions that Roger’s has laid out for therapeutic change.

six conditions for therapeutic change:

  1. Two people in psychological contact.

  2. Client is in psychological incongruence (anxious, vulnerable).

  3. Therapist is congruent (authentic).

  4. Therapist offers unconditional positive regard.

  5. Therapist empathically understands the client’s internal frame of reference.

  6. Therapist communicates this empathy and regard effectively.

KEY QUALITIES OF A THERAPIST:

Empathy: To walk in anothers shoes, seek to undertsand- but not share their experience (for it is not your own experience, you cannot live it- but you must seek to recognise, understand, listen and accept it).

Genuineness/congruenece: To be yourself (The therapist should be as real of a person as they can be)

Unconditional positive regard: to ‘prize’ unoiiqueness & humanity of each individual, providing them with the acceptance and support they need to grow and develop without judgment.

Dimensions of empathy:

→ observing/listening (tune in mindfully)

→ resonating (listen to the emotional sense of someone, let it register, feel it)

→ communicating (reflecting; show you recognise their experience, their tone)

→ summarising (big-level summary, reaffirm and double check you got the picture right, allow the client the re-adjsut adn explain continuously)

Approaches Inspired by Humanism

  • Motivational Interviewing (Miller & Rollnick):

    • Express empathy through Reflective listening

    • explore discrepency between clients goals or values & current behaviour

    • avoid argument and direct confrontation

    • adjust to client resistence, rather than opposing it

    • support self-efficacy & optimism

    • Non-confrontational style helps clients resolve ambivalence about change.

      → e.g., use a humanistic appraoch, a kind approach, create a kind space for the person to express their feelings,e xpereinces and choices- listen to why, do you utmost humankind best to understand & kindly reflect thosse back to them, spotting discrepencies.

  • Emotion-Focused Therapy (Greenberg): [is more short-term]

    • Emotions is an important guide for action

    • emotional change most important [rather than cognitive or behaviour change/intervention]

    • help clients to identify emotions; ‘you cannot leave a place until you have arrived at it’

      • e.g., you cannot get over the greif of x event, if you do not know the greif. You cannot jump over or skip the pain, but you can understand and work through it.

    • Uses techniques to help clients to explore and express emotions, e.g., empty chair technique [talking to an empty chair as if a person is there, talk to them]..

Strengths of Humanistic Approaches:

  • Positive view of humanity, of uniqueness, individuality

  • Reminds us of the importance of being human; creativity, passion, relationships, emotions, thoughts, expereinces etc,.

  • Strongly influenced other psychotherapy approaches, like Beck’s CBT, Psychodynamic apporahces, inter-personal therapy

  • Just as strong evidence for effiacy/empirical support; virtually no difference between humanistic therapies being ‘different’ or foreign to other therapies.

Weaknesses of Humanistic Approaches:

  • a little less research than CBT; thought evidence base IS growing)

  • Preference for qualitative/subjective methods, created tension with RCT standards- which are now used [but struggle to capture the workings * depth of Humanistic therapies)

  • Allowing unfolding process, rather than a targeted change/goal

  • less able to define/measure concepts, progress etc

  • can be too idealistic/utopian: is humanistic therapy actually good? or are we just too hopeful?