Humanistic approach

Question 1

What does humanistic psychology claim we have

Answer 1

• Free will - not all behaviour is determined
• Born with desire to grow, create and love
• We are active agents who can determine their own development.

Question 2

Describe the process of Maslow’s hierachy of needs.

Answer 2

• In order to achieve our primary goal of self-actialisation, a number of other needs must be first met.
• A person is only able to progress through the hierachy, once the current need in the sequence has been met.

Question 3

What are 5 needs in Maslow’s hierarchy?

Provide an example with each if you can

Answer 3

• Physiological needs - food, water
• safety - employment
• love/belonging - friends & family
• esteem - confidence, achievements
• self-actualisation - creativity

Question 4

What is self-actualisation?

Answer 4

The desire to grow and fulfil one’s full potential.

Question 5

What is congruence?

also what happens if there is a big gap between two self selfs?

Answer 5

• When the self-concept and ideal self allign, leading to personal grownth. - Carl Rogers
• Big gap - leads to incongruence and self-actulisation is not possible.

Question 6

What did Rogers claim low self-esteem and worthlessness was caused by.

Answer 6

Lack of unconditional positive regard from parents during childhood.

Question 7

What did Rogers develop to reduce the gap between the self-concept and ideal self. (incongruence)

Answer 7

• Client-centred therapy to help people cope with problems of everyday living.
• Provides unconditional positive regard client failed to recieve during childhood.

Question 7

What are the evaluations of the humanistic approach?

Answer 7

• It is optimistic,
• It may be culturally-biased,
• Not reductionist
• Untestable and based on subjective concepts

Question 7

Evaluation: Optimistic

Answer 7

• Strength: It is optimistic.
• Humanistic psychologists have been praised for bringing the person back in psychology and promoting a positive image of the human condition.
• Frued saw human beings as ‘slaves to their past’ .
• In contrast humanistic psychologists see all people as free to work towards their full potential with full control of their lives.
• Humanistic psychology offers a refreshing and optimistic alternative to other approaches.

Question 8

Evaluation: culturally-biased

Answer 8

• Limitation: may be culturally-biased.
• Ideas such as personal grownth, would be much more associated with individualist cultures
• IC such as America support people striving towards self actualisation.
• Collectivist cultures, such as India, emphasise the needs of community and interdependence.
• Such cultures dont identify with values of humanstic psychology.
  Therefore it is possible that this approach does not apply universally

Question 9

Evaluation: Not reductionist

Answer 9

• Strength: Not reductionist.
• Freud described the whole personality as conflict between Id, Ego and Superego.
• Cognitive approach sees humans as information-processing machines.
• Humanistic psychlogists advocate holism, the idea that subjective experiences can only be understood by considering the whole person.
  Approach has more validity as it considers human behaviour in real-world context

Question 10

Evaluation: Untestable and based on subjective concepts

Answer 10

• Limitation: Untestable and based on subjective concepts.
• Suffers from a lack of empirical evidence
• and no possibility of systematically observing and measuring its concepts.
• Self actulisation and ideal self vary between people - up to personal judgement
• Cannot be objectively measured.
• Cannot generalise concepts to a large population as the approach is too idiographic.