Humanistic Approach Flashcards
Assumptions of the approach
- Each person can exercise free will
- Each person is a rational and conscious being and not dominated by unconscious primitive instincts
- Humans should be viewed as a whole and not reduced to component parts
- Humans strive towards achieving self-actualisation
Free will
- The humanistic approach is different in this respect, as it claims that human beings are essentially self-determining and have free will.
- This does not mean that people are not affected by external or internal influences, but we are active agents who have the ability to determine our own development
Methodology for investigating
Prefer qualitative methods:
- Unstructured interviewing- This allows access to other people’s views and experiences without imposing on them the researcher’s ideas about what is important
- Participant observation- This is where the researcher takes part in what the participants are studying in order to understand how their participants perceive
- Diaries, letters and biographical material- Analysis of all sorts of qualitative materials that allow them insight into how people understand their world
Abraham Malslow
- He believes humans are motivated by needs beyond those of basic biological survival
Fundamental to human nature is the desire to grow and develop to achieve our full potential- referred to as ‘self-actualisation’
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
1) Physiological e.g breathing, food, water, sleep etc
2) Safety e.g security of body, of employment, of resources, of morality, of the family, or health, of property
3) Love/belonging e.g friendship, family
4) Esteem e.g self-esteem, confidence, achievement, respect of others, respect by others
5) Self-actualisation e.g morality, creativity, spontaneity, problem solving, lack of prejudice, acceptance of facts
Self-actualisation
Self-actualisation represents the uppermost level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It is essential a person’s full potential
Carl Rogers
- He focused on the concept of self and self acceptance
- He pointed out that individuals strive to achieve their ideal selves because they are motivated towards self-improvement
Roger’s self theory
- The self is my immediate experience of all that is me
- It is made up of two selves: Real self and Ideal self
A sense of wellbeing
- A healthy sense of well-being is established if an individual maintains a reasonable consistency between ideal self and actual behaviour. This is known as congruence
- The greater the gap between the ideal self and the actual self, the greater the incongruence
- Incongruence can lead to low self-worth and maladjustment
- Defence mechanisms can stop the self from growing and changing, and widen the gulf between our ideal self and true self
Unconditional positive regard
- This is where the person gets affection and support no matter what their behaviour
- We need this to have a positive self-concept
Conditions of worth
- This is where approval and affection is given as a result of behaving in a certain way
- Although this treatment can help someone fit in with the rules of social life, Rogers believed that it could stop them from reaching self-actualisation. This is because the person may focus on keeping other people happy rather than developing their own personality
Rogers developed his ideas into a form of therapy (CCT)
- Rogers believed that many people’s psychological problems were caused by incongruence
- His therapy aimed to remove this incongruence by making it possible for the person to become their ideal self
- His therapy was known as client-centred therapy
- The therapy focuses on the client, with them being in charge of what is talked about, and it’s their responsibility to eventually solve their problems
- The therapists job is to try and make the client aware of their thoughts, actions and behaviours. They can do this by carefully rephrasing the client’s sentences and repeating them back
Gibbard and Hanley- support for CBT success
- They studied almost 700 people over 5 years
- A questionnaire was used to measure the extent of their condition before and after therapy
- It was found that nearly 70% of the participants showed a significant improvement in their mental health after taking part in CBT
Evaluation of humanistic approach
Strengths:
- Free will is a major part of the approach, which is less restrictive than more deterministic approaches
- The approach treats people as individuals and takes the whole person into account, rather than reducing individual behaviours to cause and effect
- The humanistic approach’s primary application has been to therapeutic treatment. This will positively impact society
Weaknesses:
- It lacks objectivity as it is largely based on feelings and subjective reports, and so it’s hard to test in a scientific way. It also features things that are hard to measure e.g self actualisation
- As the subject matter is individual experience it is not possible to formulate general laws of behaviour and as such is not a comprehensive theory but rather a loose set of abstract ideas.
- Not all cultures share the assumption that individual achievement brings fulfilment
- The basis of therapy assumes a person’s problems are all about congruence/conditions of worth etc. but ignores biological explanations e.g. role of serotonin in depression.
