Humanistic Flashcards
Free Will
The ability to act at ones own discretion, without influence from external forces
Maslow (1943), hierarchy of needs order
Top- Self actualisation
- Esteem
- Love and belonging
- Safety- (security of job, body, family)
- Physiological (Breath, sex, food, sleep)
Self-actualisation
Those that attained this level shared certain characteristics (creative, accepting and accurate perception of life)
Rogers (1951), Focus on the self
People have 2 basic needs: positive regard fro others and a feeling of self worth, these achieve greater psychological health and are developed in childhood.
Congruence
When there is a similarity between peoples ideal self and how they perceive themselves to be in real life.
(increases feeling of self-worth)
Incongruence
When there is a difference between the self and the ideal self.
Unconditional positive regard
When a person is accepted for who they are and what they do. E.g a mother loving their son no matter what they do
Conditional positive regard
When a person is accepted only if they do what someone else wants them to do. e.g a mother says i will love you if you pass your a-levels.
Strength 1 (Maslows hierarchy linked to economic development)
Hagerty (1999)- Countries in early stages of economic development, characterised by lower level needs (physiological) demonstrated by high murder rates.
Only countries in advance stages of economic development did esteem and self actualisation become important.
- Showed educational enrolment rates is a good indication into the drive towards self actualisation.
Strength 2 (research supports conditions of worth)
- Individuals experiencing conditioned positive regard, are more likely to display a ‘false behaviour’
- Harter et al (1996)- teens who feel they need to fulfill conditions to gain parents approval end up not liking themselves.
- Those that create a ‘false self’ are more likely to develop depression.
Weakness 1 (research methods)
- Cannot be evaluated scientifically due to most of the evidence failing to establish a casual relationship between variables.
- Rodgers argues experimental methods make it impossible to verify results of counselling
- Despite some studies showing personal growth as a result of humanistic counselling, but these do not show that therapy caused the changes.
Weakness 2 (unrealistic)
- People are not as good and ‘growth orientated’ as the theory suggests.
- The view that personality development is only directed by innate potential for growth is seen a an over simplification.
- Encouraging people to only focus on their own self development rather than situational forces is not realistic for the modern society.