Approaches: The Humanistic Approach Flashcards
What is free will in the behaviourist approach?
This approach humans are self-determining and have free will. They are still affected by external and internal influences, but are also active agents who can determine their own development.
- humanistic psychologists like Rogers and Maslow think all humans are unique and psychology should concern itself with the study of subjective experience rather than general laws - a person centred approach.
What is Maslows Hierarchy of Needs?
One of Maslows main interests was what motivates people. And this hierarchy motivates our behaviour. In order to achieve our primary goal of self-actualisation, a number of deficiency needs must be met. At the bottom, are physiological needs such as food and water, as everything will be hard if you are hungry or tired. Moving up the hierarchy, there is then safety and security followed by love and belongingness, then self esteem. Can only progress up the hierarchy once current need in the sequence has been met. At the top is self actualisation.
What is self-actualisation?
Most people have an innate desire to achieve their full potential - be the best they can be. This is at the top of the hierarchy of needs, as humanistic psychologists regard personal growth as an essential part of what it is to be human. Personal growth is changing as a person to become fulfilled, satisfied and goal-orientated. Not everyone can achieve this
Why does one need to focus on the self, congruence and conditions of worth?
Rogers argued that for personal growth to be achieved an individuals concept of self (they ways they see themselves) must be roughly equivalent to, or have congruence with their ideal self (the person they want to be). If too big a gap exists between the 2 ‘selves’ the person will experience a state of incongruence, and self actualisation will not be possible due to the negative feelings of self worth that arise from congruence.
What is conditions of worth?
When a parent places limits or boundaries on their love of their children. E.g. a parent saying to their child ‘I’ll only love you if you get top grades in your class’
What is Rogerian therapy/counselling?
Saw the individual an expert on their own condition - therapy is not directed by the therapist, and the client is just encouraged towards the discovery of their own solutions within a therapeutic atmosphere (warm, supportive, non-judgemental).
Provides clients with 3 things: genuineness, empathy and unconditional positive regard.
The aim is to increase the persons feelings of self-worth, reduce the level of incongruence between the self-concept and the ideal self, and help the person become a more fully functioning person.
This transferred psychotherapy and it practised all over the UK and USA, in schools, hospitals, etc.
What’s Gestalt therapy?
the aim is to help the client become a ‘whole’ (gestalt) person by getting them to accept every aspect of themselves. Techniques of gestalt therapy include confrontation, dream analysis, and role playing.
What was the Q-sort assessment?
The Q-Sort assessment was developed by Stephenson and it was quickly adopted into Client Centered Therapy by Rogers.
- The measurement of a person’s congruence/ incongruence is measured by a Q-SORT. A q-sort is a series of cards, each containing a personal statement.
- e.g. “needs recognition from others” or “is self-defeating” or “is personally charming”. The person sorts this statement into a forced distribution under two sets of conditions:
A) to describe their “real self ”, B) to describe their “ideal self ”.
What’s some strengths of the humanistic approach?
+ emphasises choice (free will and responsibility)
+ considers subjective conscious experience
+ values personal ideals and self-fulfilment
+ enabled psychologists to explore human existence with more sensitivity than the more scientific methods
+ contributed to psychological theories and has been shown to be effective in the treatment of some disorders such as depression and stress
What’s some limitations of the humanistic approach?
- less impact on mainstream psychology than the other approaches
- qualitative techniques has been questioned
- As the subject matter is individual experience it is not possible to formulate general laws of behaviour and as such is not a comprehensive theory but rather a loose set of abstract ideas - idiographic
- Due to the vagueness of such terms as ‘self-actualisation’ and fully-functioning person’, little empirical research has been carried out – untestable concepts
- Not all cultures share the assumption that individual achievement brings fulfilment
