4.2.1 HUMANISM

Question 1

what are the assumptions of the humanistic approach?

Answer 1

• all humans have free will and are unique
• choices aren’t determined by biological or other external factors
• they should be viewed holistically rather than only looking at small components (not reductionist)

Question 2

what does the humanistic approach believe in terms of free will?

Answer 2

• believes in free will
  -> that humans are self-determining
• rejects scientific models which aim for general laws of behaviour
• person centred approach
  -> idiographic - explanation is unique to each individual

Question 3

what does the humanistic approach:
concern itself with
what are its contrasts
what does it emphasise?

Answer 3

• concerns itself with explanations relating to healthy growth of people
• direct contrast to behaviourism (too mechanistic) and psychodynamic (too negative)
• emphasis subjective experience

Question 4

what are the humanistic approach features?

Answer 4

MASLOW
- refers to a hierarchy of needs, which humans need to work through

• he explains human motivation

Question 5

what did Maslow have to say about human motivation?

Answer 5

• achieving one’s full potential
• need to work through the hierarchy, can move backwards but cannot skip steps
• personal growth is essential
• development and change of the individual to allow them to feel fulfilled and satisfied
• not everyone manages it

Question 6

what are the humanistic approach’s thoughts on the self?

Answer 6

concepts of self develop during childhood
- ideal self = what one aspires to be
- real self = how the person actually is

• if the ideal self and real self are different then a state of discomfort or incongruence exists
• if there’s incongruence there can’t be self-actualisation

Question 7

how do you reduce the gap between incongruence and congruence?
APPLICATION

Answer 7

• client centred therapy
  -> aims to reduce the gap
  -> job is to provide unconditional positive regard
• Roger’s believed childhood was important and many of the reasons we’re incongruent are traced back to this
  (feelings of worthlessness, low self-esteem)
• caused by lack of unconditional positive regard from parents

Question 8

what are some pros of the humanistic approach?

Answer 8

1) very positive approach
- states people are striving to be better

2) free will is a major part of humanistic psychology
- is less restrictive than more deterministic approaches
- humanistic psychologists believe that a deterministic approach isn’t good for understanding complex nature of human behaviour

3) treats people as individuals and takes the whole person into account
- rather than reducing individual behaviour to cause and effect relationships

4) counselling techniques have shown to be effective

Question 9

what are some cons of the humanistic approach?

Answer 9

1) places less emphasis on factors like:
- role of genes etc than the biological approach

2) lacks objectivity
- largely based on feelings and subjective reports
- hard to test in a scientific way
- features things that are hard to measure like self-actualisation

3) is idiographic
- doesn’t create generalised laws which can be measured to everyone
- making it a less scientific approach