Humanistic approach

Question 1

What are the assumptions of the humanistic approach?

Answer 1

• behaviour is under our conscious control
• people should be viewed holistically (everyone is unique)
• scientific method not appropriate for the study of human behaviour focus on the study of subjective experiences
• everyone has an innate drive to reach self-actualisation

Question 2

What is the humanistic view of Free will?

Answer 2

• Humanists psychologists claim that humans are basically self determining & have free will
• active agents who can determine own development
• person-centred approach

Question 3

Describe Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Answer 3

Question 4

What happens if the first stageof the hierachy is not met?

Answer 4

All the other needs cannot be fulfilled

Question 5

What did Roger say must happen if personal growth was to be achieved?

Answer 5

• an individuals concept of the self and ideal self must be in congruence for personal growth to occur
• (match between two is congruence)

Question 6

What happens if there is a too big of a gap between the two selves?

Answer 6

• person experiences a state of incongruence
• self actualisation can not be achieved due to negative feelings of self worth

Question 7

What did Roger develop in order to reduce gap between the two selves?

Answer 7

• Client-centred therapy (counselling) to help people cope with everyday living

Question 8

What are many issues experienced in adulthood the result of according Roger?

Answer 8

• roots in childhood and can be explained by a lack of unconditional positive regard from parents
• conditions of worth - parents places limits or boundaries on the love for their child e.g. ‘I will only love you if..’

Question 9

What did Roger see his role as a therapists?

Answer 9

• provide his clients with unconditional positive regard that they had failed to receive as children

Question 10

What was Roger’s Influence on counselling psychology?

Answer 10

• Roger referred to those in therapy as ‘clients’ rather than ‘patients’ >saw individual as expert of own condition
• effective therapist must provide client with three things:
  unconditional positive regard, empathy, genuineness

Question 11

What is the aim of Rogerian therapy?

Answer 11

increase the person self worth, reduce level of incongruence

Question 12

What is a strength of the humanistic approach? (reductionism)

Answer 12

• rejects attempts to break down human behaviour into small components (reductionism)
  > unlike other approaches such as behaviourist, biological, & psychodynamic
• humanistic approach advocates holism- the idea that a person can be viewed as a whole rather than its constituent parts
• has more validity

Question 13

Counterpoint for strength (reductionism) of humanistic approach

Answer 13

• reductionists approaches are more scientific
• the humanistic approach not scientific & made of abstract concepts that are difficult to test
• concepts such as congruence may be useful tools but problematic to test under experimental conditions
• short of empirical evidence

Question 14

What is a another strength of the humanistic approach?

Answer 14

• it is optimistic
• humanistic psychology praised for bringing the person back into psychology
• focuses on the present & see humans as in control of own lives (unlike psychodynamic which sees us as prisoners of past)
• refreshing & optimistic view

Question 15

What is a weakness of the humanistic approach?

Answer 15

• culturally biased
• many of the ideas that are central to humanistic psychology e.g. individual freedom, personal growth & self-actualisation associated with western (UK, USA) individualistic cultures
• collectivist countries emphasise more the needs of the group
• self-actualisation not as important
  approach not applied universally