Humanistic Approach

Question 1

What does humanistic psychology involve?

Answer 1

An approach to understanding behaviour that emphasises the importance of subjective experience and each person’s capacity for self-determinism

Question 2

Explain how the concept of free will is central to the humanistic approach

Answer 2

• humanistic psychologists reject models that attempt to establish scientific principles of human behaviour
• they claim that as action agents, we are all unique and psychology should concern itself with the study of subjective experience rather than general laws = person-centred approach

Question 3

Explain how humanistic psychologists see everyone as working towards self-actualisation- the top of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Answer 3

• claim that every person has an innate tendency to achieve their full potential and become the best they possibly can be = self-actualisation
• the uppermost level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Question 4

Summarise Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Answer 4

• five-levelled hierarchical sequence in which basic needs such as hunger, must be satisfied before higher psychological needs such as esteem and self-actualisation can be achieved

Question 5

Explain how the focus on the self is an important feature of the approach and therapy

Answer 5

• the self refers to the ideas and values that characterise ‘i’ and ‘me’ and includes perceptions of ‘what I am’ and ‘what I can do’
• self is crucial component of humanistic therapy

Question 6

Explain how the aim of therapy is to establish congruence between the self concept and ideal self

Answer 6

• Rogers argued that for personal growth to be achieved, an individual’s perception of self must be broadly equivalent to, or have congruence with their ideal self (the person they want to be)
• if too big a gap between the two ‘selves’ exists, the person will experience a state of incongruence and self-actualisation will not be possible due to negative feelings of self esteem

Question 7

What is self-actualisation?

Answer 7

Fulfilling one’s potential-becoming what you are capable of

Question 8

Explain how parents who impose conditions of worth may prevent personal growth

Answer 8

• many of the issue we experience as adults such as worthlessness and low self-esteem, have their roots in childhood and can often be explained by a lack of unconditional positive regard from our parents
• a parent who sets limits or boundaries on their love for their child (conditions of worth) by claiming “I will only love you if…” is storing up psychological problems for that child in the future

Question 9

Explain how the humanistic approach has had a lasting influence on counselling

Answer 9

• Rogers’ client-centred therapy (method of treatment for mental disorders where the focus is on the problem from the client’s viewpoint rather than any diagnosis from the therapist ) is an important form of modern-day psychotherapy
• an effective therapist should provide 3 things: genuineness, empathy and unconditional positive regard

Question 10

What is the aim of Rogerian therapy?

Answer 10

Increase feelings of self-esteem and reduce incongruence between self-concept and ideal self

Question 11

Explain how Rogers’ work transformed psychotherapy

Answer 11

In the UK and US, similar ‘non-directive’ counselling techniques are practiced not only in clinical settings, but throughout education, health, social work and industry

Question 12

What are the evaluation points for the humanistic approach?

Answer 12

✅ anti-reductionist making explanation more meaningful
❌ humanistic psychology has limited application within the field of psychology
✅humanistic psychology portrays a positive image of the human condition
❌ humanistic psychology includes untestable concepts
❌ humanistic psychology may be guilty of a Western culture bias

Question 13

Explain how humanistic approach is anti-reductionist making explanation more meaningful

Answer 13

• humanistic psychologists reject any attempt to break up behaviour and experience into smaller components
• they advocate holism, the idea that subjective experience can only be understood by considering the whole person (their relationships, past, present and future etc)
• this approach may have more validity than its alternatives by considering meaningful human behaviour within its real-life context

Question 14

Explain how humanistic psychology has limited application within the field of psychology

Answer 14

• it is true that Rogerian therapy has revolutionised counselling techniques along with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs being utilised to explain motivation, particularly in the workplace
• however, compared to other approaches such as behaviourist approach, perhaps because it lacks a sound evidence-base
• as a result, humanistic approach has been described as not as a comprehensive theory, but rather as a loose set of abstract concepts

Question 15

Explain how humanistic psychology portrays a positive image of the human condition

Answer 15

• humanistic psychologists have been praised for bringing the person back into psychology and promoting a positive image of the human condition- seeing people as in control of their lives and having the freedom to change I.e. non-deterministic
• Freud saw human beings as slaves to their past and claimed all of us existed somewhere between ‘common unhappiness and absolute despair’
• so humanistic psychology offers a refreshing and optimistic alternative

Question 16

Explain how humanistic psychology includes untestable concepts

Answer 16

• humanistic psychology includes a number of vague ideas that are abstract and difficult to test
• concepts such as self-actualisation and congruence may be useful in therapy but difficult to test under experimental conditions
• Rogers did attempt to introduce more rigour into his work by developing the Q-sort: a technique that attempts to provide an objective measure of progress in therapy by assessing congruence
• nevertheless, as would be expected of an approach that describes itself as ‘anti-scientific’, humanistic psychology is short on empirical evidence to support its claims

Question 17

Explain how humanistic psychology may be guilty of a Western culture bias

Answer 17

• many ideas central to humanistic psychology such as individual freedom, autonomy and personal growth would be more readily associated with individualistic cultures in the western world such as the United States (Carl Rogers himself was American)
• collectivist cultures such as those in India, which emphasise the needs of the group and interdependence may not identify so easily with the ideals and values of humanistic psychology, particularly self-actualisation
• therefore, the approach is a product of the cultural context within which it was developed