Chapter 2 - Humanistic/Existential paradigm Flashcards
Client-Centered / Person-centered therapy: what is the premise?
Our lives are guided by an innate tendency towards self-actualization, thus focusing on positive factors
Self-actualization
Tendency to meet one’s potential, one’s path towards fullfilment
Assumptions of Rogers therapy (4)
- PPl can be understood only from the vantage point of their own perceptions/feelings (phennomenological world)
- Healthy ppl = aware of their behaviour, good and effective, purposive and self-directed, while unhealthy = opposite
- Therapist shouldnt manipulate events for the indiviudals (no advice) - only create conditions that will facilitate independent decision-making by the client
- When ppl are not concerned with the needs/wants of others, they are pushed towards self-actualization - related to positive psychology
When does anxiety occurs according to humanistic (rogers) paradigm?
When there is a discrepancy between one’s self-perceptions and one’s ideal self
When does anxiety occurs according to existential paradigm?
when what the individual does, does not bring meaning into their life
What is central to human condition according to existential paradigm?
Fear of dying
How do we deal with fear of dying? (2)
Fusion: ppl gathering together in groups
Specialness: believeing that “it won’t happen to me”
What is the person’s most important characteristic?
Free-will and freedom of choice
Exercising it takes courage and can make great pain
Roger’s unconditional positive regard
Therapeutic atmosphere must be warm/empathetic
Primary empathy
understanding/accepting what the client is thinking/feeling
Advanced empathy
inference by the therapist of the meaning of those thoughts/feelings (offers new perspective) - may be linked with the application of theory to understand roots of behaviour, even though it’s not explicitly cited
What is the difference between psychodynamic theory and existential/humanistic paradigms?
Psychodynamic: assumes that human nature is something in need of restraint
Humanistic/existential: places emphasis on the person’s freedom of choice - free will is the person’s most important characteristic (seldom focuses on the cause of problems, but rather on one’s exercise of their freedom)
Why do we say that humanistic therapies are insight-focused?
They assume that disordered behaviour stems from a lack of insight - the main influence is not on the roots of the problem, but on the actions that can be taken right now to remedy it
Evaluate the humanistic paradigm
Evidence supports its efficiency
Rogers insisted that therapy focuses on its outcomes
