humanistic approach

Question 1

main figures in the approach

Answer 1

carl rogers, abraham maslow

Question 2

when did the humanistic approach emerge?

Answer 2

in the 1950s

Question 3

what did the humanistic approach become known as?

Answer 3

the third force of psychology (alongside behaviourist and psychodynamic approaches)

Question 4

which part of psychology did roger’s want to address?

Answer 4

rogers felt that freud had dealt with the ‘sick half’ of psychology, so the humanistic approach concerned itself with explanations of ‘healthy’ growth in individuals

Question 5

assumptions of the humanistic approach

Answer 5

1) every individual is unique – there is no point in trying to generalise to groups as there are so many differences within each group (idiographic)

2) we have free will, though there may be constraints on our free will (social rules, laws)

3) people should be viewed holistically (all aspects) rather than break behaviour down to individual parts (reductionism)

4) the scientific method isn’t appropriate to measure behaviour – humanistic psychology rejects science and believes that humans cannot be studied objectively – we need to acknowledge the subjective experience of the individual

Question 6

what is self actualisation?

Answer 6

the innate desire to fulfil one’s potential - becoming what you are capable of

Question 7

what characteristics did maslow find that those who had self actualised had in common?

Answer 7

they tended to be creative, accepting of other people and had an accurate perception of the world around them

Question 8

what does self actualisation feel like when achieved?

Answer 8

the ultimate feeling of well-being and
seeing the world with awe and wonder

Question 9

does everyone achieve self actualisation?

Answer 9

no, but they have the drive to

Question 10

what are the hierarchy of needs?

Answer 10

the series of 5 stages that humans need to pass through to achieve self actualisation, basic needs have to be met before higher psychological needs

Question 11

is the state of self actualisation permanent?

Answer 11

no, if all the five needs do not remain in place, an individual can move out of the state until all the needs are back in place. so, being hungry or being tired,
even though it’s a temporary state, will mean that the person is not meeting their needs

Question 12

personal growth

Answer 12

the developing of a person to be fulfilled, & satisfied

Question 13

carl rogers believed that people could only fulfil their potential for personal growth if they had ______

Answer 13

positive self-regard

Question 14

what are the three selves that rogers proposed?

Answer 14

-self concept
-ideal self
-real self

Question 15

the self concept

Answer 15

the self you feel you are:

-similar to self-esteem and affected by it
-low self-esteem = poor self-concept

Question 16

the ideal self

Answer 16

the self you wish to be:
-aiming towards becoming or you are already there

Question 17

the real self

Answer 17

who you actually are, not who you think you are or wish you were:
-difficult to demonstrate as it is a subjective experience, everyone will perceive or judge a person as different

Question 18

what is congruence?

Answer 18

when the self-concept and ideal self match

Question 19

what is incongruence?

Answer 19

where there is a large gap between the ideal self and self concept

Question 20

how does congruence link to self actualisation?

Answer 20

-rogers said that for self-actualisation to be achieved there must be congruence
-incongruence will make self-actualisation impossible due to the negative feelings of self-worth that arise from the incongruence

Question 21

what did roger’s develop to reduce the gap between the ideal self and self concept?

Answer 21

client centred therapy (CCT) to provide his clients with the unconditional positive regard that they failed to receive as children

Question 22

what did roger’s think about many of the issues we experience as adults?

Answer 22

he claimed that many of the issues we experience as adults, have their roots in childhood and can sometimes be explained by a lack of unconditional positive regard from our parents

Question 23

what are conditions of worth?

Answer 23

requirements that the individual feels they need to meet to be loved

Question 24

are conditions of worth always real?

Answer 24

no, they can be perceived

Question 25

what can conditions of worth be referred to as?

Answer 25

conditional positive regard

Question 26

why is unconditional positive regard important?

Answer 26

it makes self actualisation & congruence easier

Question 27

if a child doesn’t receive unconditional positive regard, which issues can occur in the future?

Answer 27

-psychological problems
-a difficulty to self actualise

Question 28

what did roger’s believe that counselling people would be able to do?

Answer 28

help them solve their own problems and move towards to become a more fully functioning person

Question 29

what do humanistic therapists regard themselves as?

Answer 29

guides to help people understand themselves and to find ways to enable their potential for self actualisation

Question 30

how does CCT make clients feel?

Answer 30

comfortable and accepted

Question 31

the aim of CCT:

Answer 31

-to allow the individual to recognise both their psychological limits and their strengths, and achieve a realistic balance between them
-by taking a person-centred approach to counselling, an individual will be helped to make positive steps towards solving their issues, learn a deeper understanding of themselves and achieve self-actualisation

Question 32

what is to be provided in CCT and how?

Answer 32

unconditional positive regard by expressing acceptance, empathy and understanding of their condition

Question 33

ao3 / strength - major influence on psychological counselling

Answer 33

P - major influence on psychological counselling

E - contemporary therapists use rogers’ ideas of unconditional positive regard & empathy to help clients work toward self-awareness / it’s impossible to imagine modern client-centred therapy without its insights and techniques

L - useful theory with real-world applications

Question 34

ao3 / weakness - culturally biased

Answer 34

P - one weakness of humanistic psychology is that it may be culturally biased

E - many of the ideas that are central to humanistic psychology, such as individual freedom, and personal growth, would be much more readily associated with individualistic cultures in the western world / collectivist cultures (eg: India) emphasise the needs of the group, community and codependence

L - the ideas of humanistic psychology can’t be generalised as many cultures do not relate to it, it is a product of the cultural context within which it was developed -> credibility reduced

Question 35

ao3 / strength - holism

Answer 35

P - humanistic approach rejects attempts to break up behaviour and experience into smaller components (reductionism)

E - behaviourists explain human learning in terms of simple stimulus-response connections / biological psychologists reduce behaviour down to its basic physiological processes (e.g. neurotransmitters) / in contrast, humanistic psychologists promote holism to understand behaviour, the idea that subjective experience can only be understood by considering the whole person

L - this approach therefore has greater validity compared to other approaches by considering all elements of behaviour
(more comprehensive explanation)

Question 36

ao3 / limitation - not scientific

Answer 36

P - reductionist approaches are more scientific than the humanistic approach

E - the ideal of science is the experiment, experiments reduce behaviour to independent and dependent variables /humanistic psychology, unlike behaviourism, has few concepts that can be broken down to single variables and measured

L - humanistic psychology is short of empirical evidence to support its claims and considered an unscientific way to explain behaviour

Question 37

layers of hierarchy of needs:

Answer 37

5) physiological needs

4) safety needs

3) love & belonging

2) esteem

1) self actualisation