Humanism (Assumptions and Rogers)

Question 1

What does humanistic psychology place over riding importance on?

Answer 1

The unique aspects of individual human experience. It values the subjective feelings and conscious thoughts of a person

Question 2

What are the three assumptions of humanistic psychology?

Answer 2

1) each person can exercise free will and has control over what they think and feel and how they behave
2) each person is a rational and conscious being and is not dominated by unconscious and primitive instincts
3) a persons subjective view and experience of the world is of greater importance to understanding the person than objective reality

Question 3

What is at the centre of the humanistic approach?

Answer 3

A persons subjective experience and point of view

Question 4

Where does the humanist approach come from?

Answer 4

Traced back over 200 years to the philosophical works of Rousseau and Nietzsche - they developed a type of philosophy called existentialism and were concerned with personal responsibility for actions and the need for people to exert free individual choice

Question 5

What did Heidegger develop in the 20th century?

Answer 5

Phenomenology - a method used to examine human experience and how people live their lives.
Phenomenologists state that each person has to find the meaning of their life within themselves rather than the external world

Question 6

What is Carl Rogers background?

Answer 6

After spending time in religious training he qualified as a clinical psychologist and founded the centre for studies of the person in California 1968 - where he devised person - centred therapy which stems from his idea of what makes a fully functioning person (self-worth, positive regard, self-concept etc)

Question 7

What was Rogers main belief?

Answer 7

That every person could achieve their goals, wishes and desires in life - this is self-actualisation

Question 8

What does Rogers believe that people who are able to fully self-actualise are?

Answer 8

Fully- functioning people
Meaning they are in touch with the here and now, their subjective experiences and feelings whilst they are continually growing and changing

Question 9

What did Rogers regard the fully functioning person as?

Answer 9

An idea and one that people ultimately don’t achieve - it is not the achieving that is important but the process of always becoming and changing

Question 10

What five characteristics of a fully functioning person did Rogers identify?

Answer 10

1. Open to experience - accepting of both positive and negative emotions
2. Existential living- in touch with the here and now
3. Trust their own feelings - pay attention to their gut feelings
4. Creative - doesn’t play it safe all the time
5. Fulfilled - satisfied with life but still looks for new experiences

Question 11

From Rogers perspective what are fully functioning people?

Answer 11

Well-adjusted, well- balanced and interesting to talk to - in many ways society values such people

Question 12

What do Rogers critics claim?

Answer 12

The fully functioning person is a product of western society and represents an individualistic and selfish approach to what humans are about - in other cultures the achievement of the group may be valued more highly than the achievements of the individual

Question 13

For Rogers what is the difference between a person with high self worth and low self worth?

Answer 13

A person with high self-worth = has confidence and positive feelings about themselves, can face challenges that life throws at them, accepts failure and unhappiness at times and is open with people

A person with low self worth = may avoid challenges, does not accept that life will be painful and unhappy at times and will be defensive with others

Question 14

When did Rogers believe that self worth developed?

Answer 14

In early childhood and were formed from the interactions with others, especially their parents
As the child grows, interactions with others affect feelings of self-worth

Question 15

What can early influences of a child’s feelings influence?

Answer 15

How future interactions with people and achievements are perceived
e.g a person with low self worth Who does well in an exam will blame it on the exam being full of easy questions rather than their own effort - the consequence of this subjective perception is that the feelings of low self-worth are perpetuated

Question 16

What two basic needs did Rogers view a young child as having?

Answer 16

Positive regard from others and positive self worth

Question 17

What is positive regard?

Answer 17

To do with how other people evaluate and judge us in social interactions

Question 18

What did Rogers make a distinction between?

Answer 18

Unconditional positive regard and conditional positive regard

Question 19

What is unconditional positive regard?

Answer 19

Where significant others love and accept the person for what they are. Positive regard is not withdrawn when the person does something wrong or makes a mistake. Consequently the person feels free to try new things and makes mistakes. Those able to self-actualise are more likely to have received UPC as a child

Question 20

What is conditional positive regard?

Answer 20

Where positive regard and approval depends on the child acting in a way thought of as being correct and proper. The child is no loved for the person they are but on the condition that they behave in the way that their parents expect them to. At the extreme, a person constantly seeking approval is likely to have only experienced CPR

Question 21

In most people’s lives what type of positive regard is likely to have been experienced?

Answer 21

Usually both types - it is the relative balance between the two that determines the extent of a person’s negative or positive view of their self -worth. However both types of positive regard is preferential to negative regard.

Question 22

What is negative regard?

Answer 22

Where the person can do nothing right from another person’s view. If a person has experience considerable UPR they may avoid developing a friendship with someone showing only CPR

Question 23

What were ‘conditions of worth’ according to Rogers?

Answer 23

Arises when the positive regard of a significant other is conditional, when an individual feels that in some respects he is prized and in others he is not (people only love hem if act in certain ways, achieve certain things etc)

Question 24

What are the consequences of ‘conditions of worth’?

Answer 24

Lead to people pursuing the wrong goals, prevents growth and self-actualisation and to meet the conditions people may run up huge debt or exhaust themselves chasing high status positions and possessions

Question 25

What two aspects does the self have?

Answer 25

1) self worth

2) ideal self

Question 26

What is our ideal self?

Answer 26

Our idea of how we should be in all aspects of our life - may not be consistent with the actual experience of the person

Question 27

What is incongruence?

Answer 27

When there is a discrepancy between ideal self and actual experience (everyone will experience some incongruence)

Question 28

What is congruence?

Answer 28

When a person’s ideal self and actual experience are consistent or very closely aligned

Question 29

What happens when incongruence is high?

Answer 29

The person may find it difficult to adjust and live a happy life, some will suffer psychological distress - there will be a large difference from ideal self
Someone with low self-worth and high incongruence may have developed this state of mind because of the absence of UPR

Question 30

What happens when incongruence is low?

Answer 30

Congruence is high - a person is likely to be satisfied and fulfilled with life

Question 31

What is the difference between incongruent and congruent individuals?

Answer 31

incongruent = self image different to ideal self, little overlap, self-actualisation will be difficult
congruent= self image is similar to ideal self, more overlap, can self-actualisation

Question 32

What did Rogers call his therapeutic approach and why?

Answer 32

Client-centred because of the focus on the person’s subjective view of the world

Question 33

What three basic principles (reflecting the attitude of the therapist to the client) does the person-centred therapy operate according to?

Answer 33

The therapist is congruent with the client
The therapist provides the client with UPR
The therapist shows empathetic understanding with the client

Question 34

What is the role of the therapist?

Answer 34

To increase the client’s feelings of self-worth, reduce the levels of incongruence between ideal and actual self and help the client become a more fully-functioning person

Question 35

What did Rogers later develop and what were they?

Answer 35

‘Encounter groups’ - in which people could feel safe and express their feelings so they could explore the problems in their lives - foundations of this were three principles from person-centred therapy

Question 36

Is Rogerian therapy effective?

Answer 36

Sexton and Whiston reviewed studies into its effectiveness and found it was successful in he short term but was inevitably unsuccessful
Effectiveness is based on what a person says rather than an objective measure and there is not usually a long-term follow up with clients

Question 37

What is the key concept of individual experience?

Answer 37

Individual experience is unique and can’t be repeated - to understand a person and in what ways a person is well-adjusted and poorly adjusted to life, humanistic psychologists need to try and see things from the persons perspective (empathetic)

Question 38

What is important for humanistic psychologists surrounding individual experience?

Answer 38

The individual experience of a person which involves subjective perceptions and feelings is to be seen as valid - the experience of a person is not questioned or challenged but attempts are made to understand it.

Question 39

What do humanistic psychologists regard person growth as?

Answer 39

An essential part of what it is to be human, (With Rogers is occurs in a fully functioning person and with Maslow satisfaction of deficiency needs allows growth

Question 40

Who are more likely to recognise peak experience and use such experience to promote personal growth?

Answer 40

Self-actualisers and some situations promote personal growth ( absence of psychological disorders, relationship difficulties and drug dependence helps self actualisation and hence personal growth)

Question 41

What did Rogers believe about defensive processes such as denial or distortion?

Answer 41

A threat to how we think of ourselves may occur at the death of a loved one, loss of a job etc and they are employed to ward off anxiety resulting from a threat to our self-concept and feelings of self worth / self esteem this may prevent personal growth

Question 42

What is Czikszentmilhalyi’s theory of flow?

Answer 42

Flow is where a person becomes so involved in an activity that nothing else matters or intrudes on consciousness - occurs during physical and mental activities

Question 43

What did Stein et al show about flow?

Answer 43

Students that played sport and were in a flow experience showed more enjoyment, concentration and satisfaction than students who were in a bored on anxious state. Flow experiences led to personal growth because the person will want to improve at the activity and increase the challenge

Question 44

What is the humanist view of free will?

Answer 44

Rejects the deterministic approaches of psychoanalysis and behaviour as humanists regards individuals as possessing free will - free will has to be considered alongside persons responsibility and the rules of society

Question 45

What two consequences may a person’s decisions to behave antisocially have?

Answer 45

External consequences including punishments from the law

Internal consequences including guilt

Question 46

How is free will still limited?

Answer 46

A person may be free to think about engaging in any kind of behaviour, there are constraints operating internally and externally which stop most people behaving in undesirable ways- humanistic psychologists place great emphasis on the acceptance of responsibility for our actions

Question 47

What is holism?

Answer 47

The belief that ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’. The humanistic psychology adopts a holistic approach to personality and behaviour and was influenced by the Gestalt school of psychology

Question 48

What does holism avoid attempts to do?

Answer 48

Reduce personality into smaller elements and regards it as essential to consider the person and their behaviour in a holistic way

Question 49

What was the Organismic theory they influenced humanism?

Answer 49

(Goldstein) It treats the person in terms of both mind and body as a unified and organised whole so to understand a person both biological and mental processes have to be taken together in a holistic way
The theory assumes that each person is motivated by one over-riding drive (self-actualisation) - this provides purpose and unity to the whole person