Humanistic Approach Flashcards
Conditions of worth
Conditions imposed on an individual’s behaviour and development that are considered necessary to earn positive regard from significant others.
Congruence
If there is similarity between a person’s ideal self and self-image, a state of congruence exists. A difference represents a state of incongruence.
Hierarchy of need
A hierarchy of our personal needs, each need must be fulfilled to move onto the higher need and eventually reach self-actualisation
Self-actualisation
The innate tendency to grow psychologically and fulfill one’s potential by becoming what you are capable of
Holism
Understanding the individual as a whole rather than component parts.
Free will
Behaviour is not determined and is decided by the individual
Abraham Maslow beliefs
He believes humans are motivated by needs beyond those of basic biological survival.
It is human nature to want to grow, develop and reach self actualization.
His theory emphasises unique human motivational factors as higher level needs are a later evolutionary development of the human species.
Carl Rogers beliefs
Individuals strive to achieve their ideal selves.
Everybody is capable of understanding themselves, the way they are and how they behave.
Everybody can change themselves and make themselves better but they need people around them to enable to do what they want to do.
Self
The ideas and values that characterise ‘I’ and ‘me’ and includes perception and valuing of ‘what i am’ and ‘what i can do’
Ideal self
The person you would like to be
Actual self
The person who you really are
What can stop the self from growing and developing?
Defence mechanisms such as distortion, denial and blocking.
Unconditional positive regard
A child will be accepted no matter how they behave.
How can incongruence be reduced?
Rogers developed client centres therapy to reduce incongruence.
Issues we experience such as worthlessness come from childhood.
Humans have a basic need to feel nurtured and valued from significant people such as parents.
If unconditional positive regard is given then people will develop a healthy sense of self worth, recognising their abilities and difficulties.
Children who receive negative regard such as criticism, develop low self esteem.
To avoid this, the parent should blame the behaviour not the child.
Ideographic
Studying the individual case and taking into account their environmental context.
Name the stages in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, starting from the bottom
Physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, self-actualisation
Incongruence
Great gap between the ideal self and the real self
The influence of counselling psychology
Rogers developed client centered therapy, which revolutionized counselling techniques, e.g. therapists being able to provide patients with unconditional positive regard when they experience conditions of worth
Strengths of the humanistic approach
- Emphasis on choice (free will) which is largely ignored by other approaches
- Holds an optimistic view of people and their potential for growth
- Enabled psychologists to explore human experiences with more sensitivity than the more scientific methods
- Client-centered therapy has been shown to be effective in disorders such as depression and stress
Limitations of humanistic approach
Has had less of an impact on mainstream psychology than other approaches
- Not possible to formulate general laws of behaviour considering the subject matter is individual experience, so is more of a set of abstract ideas than a theory
- Unstable concepts as the idea of ‘self-actualization’ is vague and little empirical research has been carried out on it
- Cultural bias as not all cultures share the assumption that individual achievement brings fulfillment
Humanistic approach
emphasises the study of the whole person and sees people as being active in their own development. It is a person-centred approach, which views every individual as unique and regards personal growth and fulfilment in life as a basic human motive.
Key assumptions
To be psychologically healthy, the real self and ideal self must be congruent
Humans strive towards achieving self-actualisation
Humans are active agents - able to control and determine their own development
Humans should be viewed as a whole and not reduced to component parts
