Humanistic Psychology

Humanistic Psychology: An approach to understanding behaviour that emphasises the importance of subjective experience and each person’s capacity for self-determination. It rejects more scientific models that attempt to establish general principles of human behaviour.

Free Will: The notion that humans can make choices and are not determined by internal biological or external forces. People are still affected by external and internal influences, but are also active agents who can determine their own development.

Self-Actualisation: The desire to grow psychologically and fulfil one’s full potential becoming what you are capable of.

Hierarchy of Needs: A five-levelled hierarchical sequence in which basic physiological needs (such as hunger) must be satisfied before higher psychological needs (such as self-esteem and self-actualisation) can be achieved.

Order of Hierarchy of Needs: Psychological needs → safety and security → love and belongingness → self-esteem → self-actualisation

Self: The ideas and values that characterise ‘I’ and ‘me’ and includes perception and valuing of ‘what I am’ and ‘what I can do’

Congruence: The aim of Rogerian therapy, when the self-concept and ideal self are seen to broadly accord or match. If incongruence occurs, self-actualisation isn’t possible due to the negative feelings of self-worth that arise from incongruence.

Conditions of Worth: When a parent places limits or boundaries on their love of their children. For instance, a parent saying they’ll only love their child if they study medicine.

Client-Centred Therapy: Created by Rogers to help people cope with problems of everyday living. He claimed issues of low self-esteem had their roots in childhood and can often be explained by a lack of unconditional positive regard. Rogers believed an effective therapist should provide the client with genuineness, empathy and unconditional positive regard.

Not Reductionist: Humanistic psychologists advocate holism, the idea that subjective experience can only be understood by considering the whole person which may have more validity than its alternatives by considering meaningful human behaviour within its real-world context.

Positive Approach: Humanistic psychologists have been praised for bringing the person back into psychology and promoting a positive image of the human condition. This suggests that humanistic psychology offers a refreshing alternative to other approaches, such as the psychodynamic which saw all people as prisoners of their past.

Cultural Bias: Maybe culture biased as many of the ideas that are central to humanistic psychology would be much more readily associated with individualistic countries than collectivist countries and so the approach may not apply universally.