Humanistic Approach

Question 1

What is humanism?

Answer 1

A psychological approach that incorporates Holism which is seeing the whole person rather than certain aspects

Question 2

What does humanistic psychology reject?

Answer 2

Behavioural approach of the world (stimulus-response) and the deterministic view and instead states that human possess free will

Question 3

What would the humanistic psychologists argue?

Answer 3

To fully understand a person’s behaviour and mental processes you must appreciate the individuals perceptions , feelings and experiences

Question 4

What would the approach assume?

Answer 4

Humans are fundamentally different from animals due to the ability to consciously make decisions

Studying people’s behaviour and mental processes primarily by studying each individual’s uniqueness and their capacity to think and act

Question 5

What did Maslow’s hierarchy of needs focus on?

Answer 5

Focuses on the importance of personal growth and fulfillment of needs

Question 6

What is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?

Answer 6

Hierarchy of needs can be represented as a pyramid. The most basic physiological and safety needs are at a base, followed by love and belongingness and esteem needs. Then to advanced needs at the top

Each level must be fulfilled before a person can move up to the highest ‘growth need’ of self-actualisation

Question 7

What is self-actualization?

Answer 7

Maslow described as self-actualized being creative, accepting of others and accurate perceivers of the world around them

They have peak experiences

Roger used ‘self actualisation’ to describe a person’s ‘ideal self’ is congruent with their real self and they become a fully functioning person

Question 8

What is the focus on self?

Answer 8

Self refers to the ideas and the values that characterize ‘I’ and ‘me’ and includes perpcetion of ‘what I am’ and ‘what i can do’

spilt into self worth (from interactions from parents) and positive regard from others

This is the ‘ideal self’ we aspire to be

The closer the self-concept and our ideal self are , the greater our feelings of self-worth and greater our psychological health

Question 9

What is congruence?

Answer 9

Occurs when there is a similarity between a person’s ideal self and how they perceive themselves to be in real life - a state of congruence exists

A poor match of this leads to incongruence and lower self-worth

Complete congruence is rare and people may thus use defense mechanisms to protect themselves from the discomfort from incongruence

Question 10

What are conditions of worth?

Answer 10

These are requirements that were perceived significant others expect us to meet if we are to be seen positively by the - other people help self actualisation, Love and acceptance given by others and may be unconditional

Experience conditional positive regard develop conditions of self-worth

Rogers claimed that failure to meet conditions of worth results in incongruence and lower self-worth

Question 11

What is example of conditions of worth?

Answer 11

e.g parents impose this to prevent personal growth as setting boundaries of love for child e.g I will only love you if…. (setting psychological problems for that child in future)

Question 12

What is the influence of humanistic approach on counseling psychology?

Answer 12

In Roger’s client-centered therapy an effective therapist should provide the client with three things

• Genuine: provide supportive envnirnomet
• Empathy
• Unconditional positive regard : acceptance regardless of cilent’s attitudes

Aim to increase feelings of self-worth and reduce incongruence between self concept and ideal self

Transformed psychtherapy. ‘Non directive’ counselling techniques are practised in clincal settings but throughout education , social work and industry

Question 13

Structure

Answer 13

• What is humanism?
• What does humanistic psychology rejects?
• Humanistic psychologyists argue
• Approach assume
• Self actulisation
• Hierarchy of needs
• Congruence
• Self
• Conditions of self
• Influence on counselling psychology

Question 14

9Strength: Anti-reductionist which may make it more meaningful

Answer 14

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

Question 15

Limitation : Limited application to real-world

Answer 15

• True that Rogerian therapy has revolutionized counseling techniques and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has been used to explain motivation particularly in the workplace
• However, compared to other approaches, humanistic psychology has limited impact on psychology as a whole - lack an evidence base
• As a result, the approach has been described as not a comprehensive theory but as a rather loose set of abstract concepts

Question 16

Strength: Portrays a positive image of the human condition

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Limitation: Approach may be guilty of a Western cultural bias

Answer 17

• Many of the ideas as central to humanistic psychology, such as individual freedom, autonomy, and personal growth would be associated with individualist cultures in the Western world such as the United States.
• Collectivist cultures such as India, emphasize the needs of the group and interdependence may not identify so easily with the ideals and values of humanistic psychology,
• Therefore, it is possible that approach would not travel well as it is a product of cultural context within which it was developed,