Approaches - Humanism Flashcards
Outline the beliefs of the humanistic approach.
- Humanistic psychology suggests that humans have free will over their actions. Therefore, it rejects the attempts by other approaches to establish general laws of behaviour, suggesting that human behaviour is unpredictable and that each person is unique, as everyone makes their own choices in life.
- Humanists therefore prefer qualitative methods over scientific methods, such as interviews.
Outline Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Maslow believed that humans have a ‘hierarchy of needs’ which need to be met in order to be satisfied, and develop as a person. The most basic needs are physiological (food, water and so on), followed by safety and security (having a home and family), love and belongingness, (having friends and positive relationships with family members), self-esteem (self-confidence and respect of others), and finally self-actualisation (creativity and spontaneity). Self-actualisation is the ability of humans to develop and achieve their potential. If the other, more basic needs are not met, then the person cannot self-actualise any may become unhappy or depressed as a result.
What did Rogers suggest about congruence?
Rogers suggested that in order to grow and develop, there must be congruence (equivalence) between a person’s concept of self- the person they perceive themselves as- and their ideal self- the person they would like to be. If there is too big a gap between these, the person experiences incongruence and will not be able to self-actualise, therefore possibly becoming anxious and depressed.
What is client centered therapy?
Developed by Rogers, this aims to achieve congruence in the client, who takes an active role in the therapy. The cause of incongruence may have been a lack of unconditional positive regard from parents- this means that the person’s parents attached ‘conditions of worth’ to them- setting conditions on their love. For example, telling them they will only love them if they achieve something (good exam results). This creates psychological problems for the person. In the therapy, the therapist provides the client with unconditional positive regard, along with empathy and genuineness, to try and reduce the incongruence between the client’s concept of self and ideal self.
Evalaute the humanist approach - holism
This approach is more holistic than many others, as it considers a range of influences on a person and does not try to explain behaviour in simplistic terms. This is a strength as it better represents the complexity of human behaviour.
Evaluate the humanist approach - scientific
The approach is not very scientifically rigorous, as concepts such as the self and congruence are hard to test empirically. This weakens the approach, as it lacks scientific credibility.
