Chapter 18-Humanistic or Third-Force Psychology Flashcards
According to third-force psychologists, what was missing from the other two forces in psychology?
Behaviorism and psychoanalysis neglected a number of important human attributes
Behaviorism like and humans to robots, lower animals, or computers, saying there was nothing unique about humans. The major argument against psychoanalysis was that a concentrated mainly on emotionally disturbed people and on developing techniques for making abnormal people normal.
What was missing, was information that would help already healthy individuals become healthier-that is, to reach their full potential. A model of humans that emphasized their uniqueness and they’re positive aspects rather than their negative aspects was needed
A persons consciousness
Subjective reality
Describe the role of the concept of subjective reality in third-force psychology
Contrasts vividly with other types because it does not assume determinism in explaining human being. Rather, it assumes that humans are free to choose their own type of existence. Instead of attributing the causes of behavior to stimuli, drive states, genetics, or early experience, third-force psychologists claim that the most important cause of behavior is subjective reality
Current science is not equipped to study, explain, or understand human nature and a new science is needed, a human science that would recognize humans as aware, choosing, valuing, emotional, and unique beings in the universe
The introspective study of intact, mental experiences
Phenomenology
The study of the nature of existence
Ontology
Expanded Husserl’s phenomenology to include an examination of the totality of human existence
Martin Heidegger
The brand of contemporary psychology that was influenced by existential philosophy. The key concepts include freedom, individuality, responsibility, anxiety, guilt, throwness, and authenticity
Existential psychology
Heidegger ‘s term for “being-in-the-world.” The world does not exist without humans, and humans do not exist without the world. Because humans exist in the world, it is there that they must exercise their free will. Being-in-the-world means existing in the world, and existing means interpreting and valuing one’s experiences and making choices regarding those experiences
Dasein
According to the existentialists, such as Heidigger, the type of life that is freely chosen and not dictated by the values of others. In such a life, one’s own feelings, values, and interpretations act as a guide for conduct
Authentic life
A characteristic of the authentic life because the authentic person is always becoming something other than what he or she was. It is normal, healthy psychological growth of a human being
Becoming
A life lived in accordance with values other than those freely and personally chosen. Such a life is characterized by guilt
Inauthentic life
According to Heidigger, The feeling that results most intensely from living an inauthentic life
Guilt
The feeling that results when one confronts the unknown, as when one contemplates death or when one’s choices carry one into new life circumstances. According to existentialists, one cannot live an authentic life without experiencing this
Anxiety
According to Heidigger and Binswanger, The circumstances that characterize a person’s existence that are beyond the person’s control
Throwness
Includes whether we are male or female, short or tall, attractive or unattractive, rich or poor, American or Russian, the time in human history that we are born, and so on
Binswanger’s method of psychotherapy that requires that the therapist understand the clients worldview. Examines a persons mode of being-in-the-world
Daseinanalysis
The abnormal fear of freedom that results in a person living a life that minimizes personal choice
Neurotic anxiety
Results from living an authentic life
Normal anxiety
Kierkegaard’s term for the type of life lived by a defensive, inauthentic person
Shut-upness
According to existentialists, the condition that results when people except values other than those that they attained freely and personally as guides for living
Self-alienation
Examines the stories by which people live and understand their lives and, where necessary, encourages the replacement of ineffective stories with effective ones
Narrative therapy
According to May, any human attribute or function that in moderation is positive but in excess is negative
Daimonic
Emphasized that it is always possible to construe one’s self and the world in a variety of ways. Psychological problems are essentially perceptual problems
George Kelly
According to Kelly, the collection of personal constructs with which people make predictions about future events
Construct systems
Kelly’s notion that it is always possible to view ourselves and the world in a variety of ways
Constructive alternativism
According to Kelly, the experimentation with ideas to see where they lead
Propositional thinking
Describe the similarities between the views of Kelly and Vaihinger
Both emphasized propositional thinking, or the experimentation with ideas to see where they lead
The self-description that Kelly required of many of his clients before beginning their therapeutic program
Self-characterization
Provided Kelly with information about how the client to do it himself or herself, the world, and other people
Kelly’s brand of therapy whereby he would assign a role for his clients to play that was distinctly different from the clients self-characterization. With this type of therapy, the therapist acts much like a supporting actor
Fixed-role therapy
Kelly’s approach to therapy reflected his belief that psychological problems are perceptual problems and that the job of the therapist is therefore to help the client view things differently
A humanistic psychologist who emphasized the inmate human tendency toward self-actualization. Contended that behaviorism and psychoanalysis provided only a partial understanding of human existence and that humanistic, or third-force, psychology needed to be added to complete our understanding
Abraham Maslow
Usually is recognized as the one most responsible for making humanistic psychology a formal branch of psychology
What are the basic features of humanistic psychology?
- Little of value can be learned about humans by studying nonhuman animals
- subjective reality is the primary guide for human behavior
- studying individuals is more informative than studying what groups of individuals have in common
- A major effort should be made to discover those things that expand and enrich human experience
- research should seek information that will help solve human problems
- The goal of psychology should be to formulate a complete description of what it means to be a human being. Such a description would include the importance of language, the valuing process, the full range of human emotions, and the ways humans seek and attain meaning in their lives
Maslow’s contention that human needs are arranged in a hierarchy and that lower needs in the hierarchy must be adequately satisfied before attention can be focused on lower needs. The most basic and powerful needs in the hierarchy are physiological needs, and then come safety needs, needs forbelonging and love, and the need for self-esteem. When all lower needs in the hierarchy are adequately satisfied, a person becomes self-actualizing
Hierarchy of needs
According to Rogers and Maslow, the innate human tendency toward wholeness. This person is open to experience and embraces the higher values of human existence
Self-actualization
According to Maslow, the fear of one’s own potential greatness
Jonah complex
Describe the characteristics of self-actualizing people
- they perceive reality accurately and fully
- they demonstrate a great acceptance of themselves and of others
- they exhibit spontaneity and naturalness
- they have a need for privacy
- they tend to be independent of their environment and culture
- they demonstrate a continuous freshness of appreciation
- they tend to have periodic mystic or peak experiences
- they are concerned with all humans instead of with only their friends, relatives, and acquaintances
- they tend to have only a few friends
- they have a strong ethical sense but do not necessarily accept conventional ethics
- they have a well-developed but not hostile sense of humor
- they are creative
Perception whose purpose is to locate things in the environment that will satisfy a need.
Need-directed perception. Also called deficiency perception or D-perception
According to Maslow, motivation that is directed toward the satisfaction of some specific need
Deficiency motivation. Also called D-motivation
For Maslow, the type of motivation that characterizes the self-actualizing person. Because it is not need-directed, it embraces the higher values of human existence, such as beauty, truth, and justice
Being motivation. Also called B-motivation
Perception that embraces fully “what is there” because it is not an attempt to locate specific items that will satisfy needs
Being perception. Also called B-perception
Maslow’s proposed fourth force in psychology that stresses the relationship between the individual and the cosmos, or universe, and in doing so focuses on the mystical and spiritual aspects of human nature
Transpersonal psychology
A humanist psychologist whose nondirective and then client-centered psychotherapy was seen by many as the first viable alternative to psychoanalysis as a method for treating troubled individual’s. Like Maslow’s, his theory of personality emphasized the innate tendency toward self-actualization. According to him, a person continues towards self-actualization unless his or her organismic valuing process is displaced by conditions of worth as a guide for living. The only way to avoid creating conditions of worth is to give a person unconditional regard
Carl Rogers
According to Rogers, the innate, internal guidance system that a person can use to stay on the track towards self-actualization
Organismic valuing process
According to Rogers, the need for positive responses from the relevant people in one’s life
Need for positive regard
According to Rogers, the conditions that the relevant people in our lives place on us and that we must meet before these people will give us a positive regard
Conditions of worth
According to Rogers, the giving of positive regard without any preconditions
Unconditional positive regard
Compare and contrast existential and humanistic psychology
Beliefs they share:
Humans have a free will and are therefore responsible for their actions
The most appropriate method by which to study humans is phenomenology, the study of the intact subjective experience
To be understood, the human must be studied as a whole. Elementism of any type gives a distorted view of human nature
Humans are unique, and therefore anything learned about other animals is irrelevant to the understanding of humans
Each human is unique, therefore, anything learned about one human is irrelevant to the understanding of others
Hedonism is not a major motive in human behavior. Instead of seeking pleasure and avoiding pain, humans seek meaningful lives characterized by personal growth
Living and authentic life is better than living and inauthentic one
Because they possess unique attributes such as free will, humans cannot be effectively studied using traditional scientific methodology. Perhaps humans can be studied objectively, but to do so would require the creation of a new, uniquely human science
Differences: the major difference lies in their assumptions about human nature. The humanists assume that humans are basically good, and therefore, if placed in a healthy environment, they will naturally live a life in harmony with other animals. For humanists, the major motivation in life is the actualizing tendency, which is innate and which continually drives a person toward those activities and events conducive to self-actualization.
The existentialists, on the other hand, you human nature as a sensually neutral. For them, the only thing we are born with is the freedom to choose the nature of our existence
Describe Sartre’s famous statement and explain its meaning
“Existence precedes essence”
For him and most existential philosophers, there is no human essence at birth. We are free to choose our own essence as a unique human being. We become our choices “man is nothing else but what he makes of himself. Such is the first principle of existentialism”
Describe Erich Fromm’s view of freedom
Said that often the first thing people do when they recognize their freedom is attempt to escape from it by affiliating themselves with someone or something that will reduce or eliminate their choices
Identify the commonly cited criticisms and contributions of humanistic psychology
Criticisms:
Equates behaviorism with the work of Watson and skinner. Other behaviorists stress both mental events and purpose in their analysis of behavior whereas Watson and skinner denied the importance of mental events
Overlooks the cumulative nature of science by insisting that scientific psychology does not care about the loftier human attributes
The description of humans that humanistic psychologists offer is like the more favorable ones found through the centuries in poetry, literature, or religion. It represents a type of wishful thinking that is not supported by the fact that more objective psychology has accumulated. We should not ignore facts just because they are not our liking
Criticizes behaviorism, psychoanalysis, and scientific psychology in general, but all three have made significant contributions to the betterment of The human condition
If it rejects traditional scientific methodology as a means for evaluating pro positions about humans, what is to be used in its place? Their approach to studying humans is often characterized as a throwback to psychologies prescientific past
By rejecting animal research, they are turning their backs on an extremely valuable source of knowledge about humans
Many of the terms and concepts that humanistic psychologists use are so nebulous that they defy clear definition and verification
Contributions: they do recognize the importance of behaviorism, psychoanalysis, and scientific psychology but say that the only tell a part of the story.
It’s a major contribution is the expansion of psychologies domain. There is now an increased tendency to study the whole person and we are concerned with not only help people learn, think, and which are biologically and intellectually but also help people formulate plans to attain future goals and why people laugh, cry, and create meaning in their lives
Field in contemporary psychology that explores the positive attributes of humans but does so in a more scientifically rigorous and less self-centered way than was often the case with traditional humanistic psychology
Positive psychology
The branch of psychology that is closely aligned with existential psychology. Unlike existential psychology, however, assumes that humans are basically good. That is, if negative environmental factors do not stifle human development, humans will live humane lives. Concerned with examining the more positive aspects of human nature that behaviorism and psychoanalysis had neglected
Also called third-force psychology
Humanistic psychology
