humanistic Flashcards
What are the assumptions of the humanistic approach?
-Humans are still affected by external and internal influences but are overall self-determining and have free will
Which approach is more person-centered?
Humanistic
Who created the Hierarchy of Needs?
Maslow
What is the top of the Hierarchy of Needs?
Self Actualization
How many levels are there to the Hierarchy of Needs?
5
How does one move through the Hierarchy of Needs?
They must complete the level they are on before they can move onto the next.
What are the deficiency needs?
Physiological, Safety, Belongingness and love, Esteem,
What is the growth need?
Self Actualization
What are the levels of the hierarchy of needs? (from bottom to top)
Physiological, Safety, Belongingness and love, esteem, self actualization
What is Self Actualization?
Achieving your full potential
What is needed before one can achieve personal growth?
An individual’s concept of self must have congruence with ideal self.
What happens if there is too big of a gap between the real self and the ideal self?
-The person will be in a state of incongruence and SA will not be possible
Who created client centered therapy?
Rogers
What did Rogers explain that most poor self esteem in adulthood can be caused by?
-lack of unconditional positive regard from our parents/ conditions of worth
What are conditions of worth?
-boundaries on love for someone, mainly in parent child relationships ‘I will only love you if…’
What were people that used Rogers’ therapy referred to as?
Clients rather than patients
In client centered therapy, who is the expert to the clients own condition?
-The client
How are problems solved in client centered therapy?
-The client is encouraged towards their own solutions within a therapeutic atmosphere that is warm, supportive and non-judgmental
What is the role of the therapist in client centered therapy?
-Therapist should provide genuineness, empathy and unconditional positive regard
What is the aim of client centered therapy?
Aim is to increase the persons feeling of self-worth, reduce the level of incongruence and help the client become a fully functioning person
What are the limitations of the humanistic approach?
-culturally biased
-limited applications
What are the strengths of the humanistic approach?
-a positive approach
-not reductionist
Explain the limitation of the humanistic approach that it is culturally biased?
-Many of the ideas that are central to Humanistic Psychology, such as individual freedom, autonomy and personal growth, would be more readily associated with individualistic cultures in
the west like USA.
-Collectivist cultures emphasize the needs of the group and interdependence, so may not identify so easily with the ideals and values of humanistic psychology.
Explain the limitation of the humanistic approach that it has limited applications?
-Although Rogers’ therapy has revolutionized counseling techniques and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has been used to explain motivation, the approach still has limited impact on the discipline of Psychology as a whole.
-Has been described not as a comprehensive theory, but a loose set of abstract ideas.
Explain the strength of the humanistic approach that it is a positive approach?
-Humanists have been praised for ‘bringing the person back into Psychology’ and promoting the positive image of the human condition.
-Freud (the man who championed the Psychodynamic approach) saw humans as ‘prisoners of our past’- that we are determined by childhood so have no control over our behavior.
-This approach offers a refreshing optimistic alternative; it sees all people as being good, free to work towards the achievement of
their potential and in control of their lives.
Explain the strength of the humanistic approach that it is not reductionist?
-Humanists reject any attempt to break up behavior into smaller components, therefore this approach, unlike other approaches isn’t reductionist.
-For example, behaviourist explain human learning in terms of a simple stimulus-response (e.g Pavlov), cognitive supporters see humans as information processing machines, and biological psychologists reduce behavior to simple physiological procedures.
-Holism is the idea that subjective experience can only understood by understanding the whole person.
