The Humanistic Approach in Psychology: Study Notes
The Humanistic Approach
Ines Tchienga, PhD
Objectives
This unit addresses the following:
Understanding of Maslow and Rogers’ Humanistic approach.
Explanation of Maslow and Rogers’ theories.
Description of the important aspects of Maslow’s theory of personality.
Understanding of the concept of self-actualization.
Humanistic Approach of Personality
Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
Regarded as one of the pioneers of the Humanistic Approach.
Maslow’s theory is based on various simple assumptions about the concept of motivation:
Holistic approach to motivation: The whole individual, not just one part or function, is motivated.
Multifaceted motivation: An individual’s behavior can result from numerous distinct motives.
Constant motivation: Humans are constantly motivated by one or more needs at any given moment.
Hierarchical needs: Various individuals’ needs can be organized in a hierarchical structure.
The Hierarchy of Needs
The hierarchy consists of five innate needs arranged from strongest to weakest, which activate and direct behaviors.
Instinctoid needs: Maslow’s term for the innate needs in his needs hierarchy theory.
Need for self-actualization
Aesthetic needs
Cognitive needs
Esteem needs
Belongingness and love needs
Safety and security needs
Physiological needs
Characteristics of Needs
The strength, potency, and priority of needs diminishes as one moves up the hierarchy:
Lower needs (physiological and safety) are stronger and arise in infancy.
Higher needs (belonging, esteem, self-actualization) appear later in life.
Deficit (deficiency) needs: The lower needs that, if unmet, produce a deficiency in the body.
Growth (being) needs: The higher needs that involve the realization and fulfillment of human potential, though they are less necessary for survival.
Gratification of Needs
Gratification of higher needs requires better external social, economic, and political circumstances than lower needs.
A need does not have to be fully satisfied before the next need becomes important. Maslow proposed a declining percentage of satisfaction for each need:
Example:
85% of physiological needs
70% of safety needs
50% of belongingness and love needs
40% of esteem needs
10% of self-actualization need
Physiological Needs
Basic survival needs, including:
Food
Water
Shelter
Sex
Sleep
Positioned at the bottom of the hierarchy; fulfillment activates safety needs.
If unmet, physiological needs dominate an individual’s life.
Safety and Security Needs
Important drives for infants and neurotic adults.
Children show preference for structure, routine, and predictability indicating their safety needs.
Emotionally healthy adults have generally satisfied their safety needs, which include:
Stability
Security
Freedom from fear and anxiety
Satisfaction of safety needs assures the individual that they live in a danger-free environment.
Belongingness and Love Needs
Post fulfillment of physiological and safety needs, individuals seek belongingness and love.
Expressed through close relationships (friends, lovers) or within social groups.
D-love and B-love:
D-love: Based on deficiency; selfish inclination to take rather than give.
B-love: Unselfish love based on growth needs.
Esteem Needs
Include:
Need for self-esteem
Need to maintain esteem in others’ eyes
Aspects of esteem needs:
Need for admiration and respect.
Need to regard oneself as competent and successful.
Fulfilling esteem needs prevents feelings of incompetence and inferiority.
Cognitive and Aesthetic Needs
Cognitive Needs
Maslow proposed innate cognitive needs to know and to understand, existing outside the previously described hierarchy.
The need to know is stronger than the need to understand and must be partially satisfied before understanding emerges.
Aesthetic Needs
Order and beauty serve as dominant motivators for aesthetic needs.
Satisfaction of aesthetic needs leads to advanced psychological functioning, making the individual more efficient.
The Self-Actualization Need
An innate drive within individuals to realize their full potential and become their best selves.
Maslow emphasizes that self-actualization is a continuous striving for greater personal growth.
Associated characteristics of self-actualized individuals include:
Freedom
Need for privacy
Confrontation with cultural influences
Empathy
Deep personal relationships
Conditions for Achieving Self-Actualization
Necessary conditions include:
Freedom from societal and self-imposed constraints.
Absence of distractions from lower-order needs.
Security in self-image and relationships, alongside mutual love.
Realistic understanding of strengths, weaknesses, virtues, and vices.
Achieving Self-Actualization in Non-Traditional Ways
Some individuals may focus on ideals, sacrificing everything for a cause:
Fasting for beliefs
Religious figures renouncing worldly goods
Artists risking health for creativity.
A shift can occur when esteem takes priority over love, leading individuals to feel confident before addressing belongingness needs.
The Study of Self-Actualizers
Self-actualizers are motivated by:
Meta-motivation: Driving factors to maximize personal potential rather than particular goals.
Concern with fulfilling potential and environmental understanding.
Goals focused on enriching life through stimulating experiences.
Meta-needs include states of being—such as goodness, uniqueness, and perfection—which influence personality development.
Failure to meet metaneeds results in metapathology, obstructing personality growth.
Characteristics of Self-Actualizers
Include traits such as:
Clear perception of reality.
Acceptance of self, others, and nature.
Freshness of appreciation.
Dedication to a cause.
Independence and need for privacy.
Deep interpersonal relationships.
Creativity and originality.
Failure to Become Self-Actualizing
Less than 1% of the population achieves this state due to:
Self-actualization being the weakest need, easily inhibited.
Environmental factors, such as hostile or rejecting parenting, affecting love and esteem needs.
Poor economic conditions can hinder fulfilling lower needs, decreasing the importance of self-actualization.
The Importance of Childhood in Self-Actualization
Factors impeding adulthood self-actualization include:
Inadequate education and improper child-rearing practices.
Overprotection preventing exploration and skill practice.