Humanistic Psychology

Humanistic psychology focuses on the individual:

1. Humanistic psychology focuses on the person as a whole

2. Humanistic psychologists believe that all people are inherently good and that they’re driven to achieve their full potential

3. Unlike other types of psychology, it takes into account the feelings of the individual rather than just their observable behaviour. It treats every person as being unique

4. Because of this, it has an idiographic approach rather than a nomothetic approach- it focuses on studying the individual rather than producing general rules which come from summarising a group of people

5. Humanistic psychology assumes that a person’s behaviour is caused by their subjective feelings and their thoughts about themselves (their self-concept), especially about how they can become better people and learn new things

6. It disagrees with the strictly deterministic ideas of other approaches, which assume that human behaviour occurs in cause-and-effect relationships. Instead, it believes that human behaviour is determined by free will. People can choose how to behave- and their behaviour isn’t caused by external or biological factors or even the past

Maslow developed a hierarchy of needs:

1. Humanistic psychology suggests that people are motivated to use their own free will to allow them to reach their fullest potential

2. People can be motivated by lots of things- some needs are shared, others are individual. For example, we’re all motivated to find food and water, but we differ in whether we’re motivated to do things like learn a new language or become a football star

3. Maslow (1943) came up with a ‘need theory’ of motivation- he devised a hierarchy to show how human needs can be categorised and prioritised. This is known as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs:

   5. Self-actualisation: At this level, you realise your fullest potential- you’ve become the best you’re capable of being

   4. Need for esteem: At this level, you’re focused on achievement and gaining respect from others

   3. Need for love and belonging: At this level, you consider affection, acceptance and belonging to be the most important

   2. Need for safety: At this level, you strive to feel safe physically, psychologically and economically

   1. Physiological needs related to survival: At this level, you source the food, water, shelter and sleep you need to stay alive (as well as sex to reproduce)

4. In a nice change from psychologists trying to explain what happens when something has gone wrong with someone, Maslow was more interested in explaining how people try to make themselves the best that they can be. He believed that we spend our lives trying to reach the top of the hierarchy, but that hardly anyone ever gets there. He also stated that until lower-level needs are met, you can’t attempt to satisfy higher-level needs

5. This seems to make sense in some cases of real life- e.g. who’d be interested in reading a psychology book if they were extremely hungry or in immediate physical danger

6. However, humanistic psychology is quite a Westernised concept, i.e. western culture encourages individual growth, rather than prioritising the needs of the social group

7. Also, humanistic psychology assumes that everyone can self-actualise. But this could be incorrect, as self-actualisation may be limited to the most intelligent, well-educated people

Self-actualised people have certain characteristics:

• According to Maslow, once people have achieved all their previous needs in the hierarchy, they are ready for self-actualisation. He came up with a list of characteristics that a self-actualised person might show. These include:

  1. A strong sense of self-awareness

  2. A fully accepting view of themselves and others for who they are

  3. The ability to deal with uncertainty and the unknown

  4. A strong sense of creativity

• Maslow believed that self-actualisation could be measured using what he called ‘peak experiences’. These are times when the person feels wonder and euphoria towards the world around them. After these experiences, people often feel inspired, with a renewed sense of self-awareness

Rogers also talked about self-actualisation:

1. Like Maslow, Rogers believed that all people try to achieve self-actualisation. He also claimed that all people are inherently good and that they’re motivated to achieve their fullest potential

2. However, Rogers didn’t believe the route to self-actualisation was as strict as Maslow had designed. Instead of working their way up a hierarchy of needs, Rogers thought that people move towards self-actualisation depending on their own thoughts about themselves and the way that they’re treated by others

3. From this, he believed that you’ll develop a psychologically healthy way if your path to self-actualisation is not blocked. Blockages (e.g. being raised in a difficult environment) can lead to psychological problems

4. Rogers believed that everyone has a need to be regarded by others in a good light, and to be shown love, affection and respect. This is particularly important for children, who want to seek approval from their parents. They’ll be more psychologically happy if they get this approval, or unhappy if they feel that their parents are disappointed or displeased with them

Rogers described two parts of the self:

1. Rogers outlined the differences between how someone sees themselves (their self-concept) and how they would like to be (their ideal self)

2. He suggested their self-concept is created and develops in a way which depends on whether they receive unconditional positive regard or whether conditions of worth are set for them

   • Unconditional positive regard:

     • This is where the person gets affection and support no matter what their behaviour is like

     • We need conditional positive regard to have a positive self-concept

   • Conditions of worth:

     • This is where approval and affection are given as a result of behaving in a certain way

     • Although this treatment can help someone learn to fit in with the rules of social life, Rogers believed that it could stop them from reaching self-actualisation. This is because the person may focus on keeping other people happy rather than developing their own personality

3. If they have unconditional positive regard and then receive love and acceptance for their behaviour, they will experience congruence- and become a fully-functioning person

4. However, if they are set conditions of worth then their ideal self becomes something different to the self-concept, and the person will experience incongruence

Rogers developed his ideas into a form of theory:

1. Rogers believed that many people’s psychological problems were caused by incongruence

2. This is where there is a mismatch between someone’s self-concept and their ideal self. His therapy aimed to remove this incongruence by making it possible for the person to become their ideal self

3. His therapy was known as client-centred therapy, also known as person-centred therapy

4. As the name suggests, the therapy focuses on the client- they’re in charge of what is talked about, and it’s their responsibility to eventually solve their own problems

5. The therapist’s job is to try and make the client aware of their thoughts, actions and behaviours. They can do this by carefully rephrasing the client’s sentences and repeating them back

6. Unconditional positive regard (i.e. not judging), genuineness and empathy are really important in person-centred therapy. The therapist is supportive of the client no matter what they do or say with the aim that the client will come to value themselves

Humanistic psychology has strengths and weaknesses:

Strengths:

1. Humanistic psychology is a very positive approach, which states that people are striving to be better

2. Free will is a major part of humanistic psychology, which is less restrictive than more deterministic approaches. Humanistic psychologists believe that a deterministic approach is no good for understanding the complex nature of human behaviour

3. The approach treats people as individuals and takes the whole person into account, rather than reducing individual behaviours to cause-and-effect responses

4. Research in this approach gathers qualitative data which is rich in detail. Rogers recorded many of his therapy sessions so they could be analysed, making it possible to observe the successes as a result of the therapy

5. The counselling techniques which have come from the approach are effective

Weaknesses:

1. The approach places less emphasis on factors such as the role of genes, etc. than the biological approach

2. The humanistic approach lacks objectivity- it’s largely based on feelings and subjective reports, and so it’s hard to test in a scientific way. It also features things that are hard to measure, such as self-actualisation

3. The approach is idiographic, which means it doesn’t create generalised laws which can be applied to everyone, making it a less scientific approach