THE HUMANISTIC APPROACH

~BASIC ASSUMPTIONS~

• Humans have free will over their behaviour

• Humans are motivated to fulfil their potential

Self-Actualisation - The purpose of life. Fulfilling your potential.

~MASLOW (1943)~

• Focuses on the positive elements of humans.

• Developed the Hierarchy of Needs - Deficiency Needs (at the bottom) must be met before progression into the Growth Needs (at the top) can start.

(top)

Transcendence (helping others to self-actualise)

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Self-Actualisation (fulfilment)

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Aesthetic Needs (appreciating beauty)

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Cognitive Needs (knowledge)

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Self-Esteem Needs (confidence)

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Need For Belonging And Love (family)

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Safety Needs (laws)

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Physiological Needs (food)

(bottom)

*Phil Said No Sir, Can Andy See That*

~ROGERS (1961)~

• Also believed in self-actualisation (which is dependent on our childhood experiences)

Unconditional Positive Regard (UPR) - feelings we want from others: love, approval. Being fully accepted regardless of who you are/what you have done.

Society gives us ‘conditional love’ (conditions of worth) which develops our ‘self’

CONGRUENCE

• When our self-image and ideal-self match. We are able to self-actualise when our self-worth is high.

• Congruence is hard to achieve due to conditions of worth.

INCONGRUENCE

• When our self-image and ideal-self are not closely matched.

• Not capable of self-actualisation.

• Can create negative self-worth, so we may start to use defence mechanisms to hide the ‘gap’ between the two.

• Defence mechanisms reduce negative self-worth.

Self-Worth - How we think about ourselves

Self-Image - How we see ourselves

Ideal-Self - Who we would like to be

EVALUATION

→ IGNORES THE INFLUENCE OF NATURE ON BEHAVIOUR

• One limitation of the humanistic approach, is that it places too much emphasis on nurture, while ignoring the influence of nature on behaviour.

• For example, humanistic psychologists believed that the ability to self-actualise is shaped by the environment.

• Research today argues that behaviour can best be explained using both nature and nurture together.

• Therefore, as this approach only focuses on nurture, it lacks ecological validity.

→ OPTIMISTIC VIEW OF HUMAN BEHAVIOUR (FREE-WILL)

• The humanistic approach is based on the principle of free-will.

• For example, humanistic psychologists believe that humans are motivated to fulfil their potential, and reach self-actualisation.

• This provides a more optimistic view of psychology, where they see each person as active agents able to make choices that shape their future.

→ IT IS HOLISTIC

• It views behaviour as being more than the sum of its parts.

• For example, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs incorporates many aspects of social and environmental influences, to outline motivation.

• They argue that by breaking down behaviour into separate components, you lose the richness that comes from its real-life context.

• Therefore, the humanistic approach (as its holistic) provides a more nuanced understanding of human behaviour in real-world situations.

→ BOTH NOMOTHETIC

• One limitation of the humanistic approach, is that it overlooks the richness of human experience.

• This is due to general laws being created from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which apply to everyone.

• The lab studies used to conduct this research lack external validity, and make it difficult to generalise the findings outside of the research environment.