Humanistic Flashcards
Self actualisation
Refers to the desire to grow psychologically and fulfil one’s full potential
Example: An elite footballer may be self actualising if he is scoring 20+ goals for his club per season, receiving 10 man of the matches in a season and gets selected to represent his country at the World Cup.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
- Self actualisation
- Esteem needs
- Belongingness and love
- Physiological needs
- Safety needs
Congruence
The actual self equals the ideal self
This results in self actualising
The actual self
The person they perceive themselves as
The ideal self
The person they would like to be
Incongruence
There’s a difference between the actual self and the ideal self
Can potentially lead to mental health problems such as anxiety and depression
Conditional positive regard
Refers to the parents valuing an individual only when they meet specific criteria
Example: A parent may only provide for their child when they achieve good grades while neglecting their love and support when their children makes a mistake or fails an exam
Conditions of worth
Children have to meet the criteria to receive this positive regard
Example: the conditions are ‘achieving academically’ or ‘achieving A’s. If the child does not get an A their parent rejects them and refuses to show love.
RWA - Client centred therapy
-aims to reduce incongruence
-therapist provides unconditional positive regard to client
-reduce the gap between the self and the ideal self
-allowing you to achieve self actualisation
Increase QOL leading to less time off work due to ill health and less reliance on Government funded incapacity benefit.
NHS will save money if treatments are successful as fewer incidents of relapse, requiring medical attention, are likely to occur.
Free will
Humanistic psychologists believe that behaviour is a choice, rather than being determined by external forces. An individual can directly control and influence their own destiny.
A positive approach
The focus on SA and free will is a refreshingly positive approach to explaining human behaviour.
However, this overemphasis on SA, which only 1% of us achieve, means it overlooks our ability to self destruct.
Examples of self destructing:
Suicide, addiction, criminality
The humanistic approach is therefore an incomplete explanation as it can’t account for these examples of human behaviour.
Subjective
based on personal opinions
Objective
based on facts that are free from bias
Lack of scientific rigour
The idea of SA is subjective, as it means different things to different people.
We also can’t measure SA, meaning it’s not open to scientific testing.
Culture bias
It can only be applied to individualist cultures.
For example, SA is a focus of individualistic cultures as they value independence and puts the needs of the self before the needs of the group. However, in a collectivist cultures,
