Approaches in Psychology - Humanistic Approach Flashcards
What are the key assumptions of the humanistic approach?
- The concept of free will is central.
- Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has self-actualisation at the top.
- Focus on the self.
- The aim of therapy is to establish congruence between the self-concept and the ideal self.
- Parents who impose conditions of worth may prevent personal growth.
- The humanistic approach has had a lasting influence on counselling psychology.
What is the centre of the humanistic approach?
The humanistic approach rejects attempts to establish scientific principles of human behaviour.
We are all unique, and psychology should concern itself with the study of subjective experience rather than general laws - a person-centred approach.
What is self-actualisation and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?
Self-actualisation refers to the innate tendency that each of us has to want to achieve our full potential and become the best we can possibly be.
In Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the four lower levels (deficiency needs) must be met before the individual can work towards self-actualisation - a growth need.
What is the self?
The self refers to the ideas and values that characterise “I” and “me” and includes perception of “what I am” and “what I can do”.
What is the aim of client-centred therapy?
Carl Rogers argued that personal growth requires an individual’s concept of self to be congruent with their ideal self (the person they want to be).
If the gap is too big, the person will experience a state of incongruence and self-actualisation isn’t possible.
How do parents who impose conditions of worth prevent a child’s personal growth?
Issues such as worthlessness and low self-esteem have their roots in childhood and are due to a lack of unconditional positive regard from our parents.
A parent who sets boundaries on their love for their child (conditions of worth) by claiming “I will only love you if…” is storing up psychological problems for that child in future.
How has the humanistic approach had a lasting influence on counselling psychology?
In Rogers’ client-centred therapy an effective therapist should provide the client with three things:
- genuineness
- empathy
- unconditional positive regard
The aim is to increase feelings of self-worth and reduce incongruence between the self-concept and the ideal self.
Rogers’ work transformed psychotherapy. “Non-directive” counselling techniques are practised not only in clinical settings but throughout education, health, social work and industry.
What are the strengths of the humanistic approach?
- it’s anti-reductionist
- it’s positive
What are the weaknesses of the humanistic approach?
- limited application in the real world
- includes untestable concepts
- may have a Western cultural bias
How is the humanistic psychology anti-reductionist?
Humanistic psychologists reject any attempt to break up behaviour and experience into smaller components.
They advocate holism - an idea that subjective experience can only be understood by considering the whole person (their relationships, past, present and future, etc.).
This approach may have more validity than its alternatives by considering meaningful human behaviour within its real-life context.
How is the humanistic approach positive?
Humanistic psychologists have been praised for promoting a positive image of the human condition - seeing people as in control of their lives and having the freedom to change.
Freud saw human beings as slaves to their past and claimed all of us existed somewhere between “common unhappiness and absolute despair”.
Humanistic psychology offers a refreshing and optimistic alternative.
How does the humanistic approach have limited application in the real world?
It is true that Rogerian therapy has revolutionised counselling techniques and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has been used to explain motivation, particularly in the workplace.
However, compared to other approaches, humanistic psychology has had limited impact within psychology as a whole - perhaps because it lacks a sound evidence base.
As a result, the approach has been described not as a comprehensive theory but as a rather loose set of abstract concepts.
How does the humanistic approach include untestable concepts?
Humanistic psychology includes a number of vague ideas that are abstract and difficult to test, such as “self-actualisation” and “congruence”.
Rogers did attempt to introduce more rigour into his work by developing the Q-sort - an objective measure of progress in therapy.
As would be expected of an approach that is anti-scientific, humanistic psychology is short on empirical evidence.
How does the humanistic approach have a Western cultural bias?
Many of the ideas that are central to humanistic psychology, such as individual freedom, autonomy and personal growth, would be more readily associated with individualistic cultures in the Western world.
Collectivist cultures, which emphasise the needs of the group and interdependence, may not identify so easily with the ideals and values of humanistic psychology.
Therefore it is possible that the approach would not travel well and is a product of the cultural context within which it was developed.
