Humanistic Approach (AO1)

Question 1

Who are the Psychologists behind the Humanistic approach?

Answer 1

Maslow - hierarchy was one of the first few h concepts

Rogers - created concepts after that

Question 2

Key Ideas?

Answer 2

• free will, humans are self-determining & have free will
• self-centered approach (idiographic)
• Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
• Roger’s idea of the self congruence (self vs. ideal self) & conditions of love
• influence of counselling psychology

Question 3

What is Maslow’s Role of Free Will?

Answer 3

• humans are essentially self-determining & have free will, we are active agents who have the ability to determine our own development
• rogers & maslow reject scientific models that attempt to establish general principles of human behaviour
• instead focuses on subjective experiences
• we are all unique
• this is a person-centered approach

Question 4

What is the Theory behind Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?

Answer 4

• every person has an innate tendency to achieve their full potential, to become the best person they can possibly be
• self-actualisation represents the uppermost level
• all 4 lower levels must be met before the individual can work towards self-actualisation & fulfill their potential
• personal growth is an essential part of what it is to be human

Question 5

What are Steps to self-actualisation?

Answer 5

self-actualisation (top)
esteem
love/belonging
safety
physiological (bottom)

Question 6

What was Roger’s influence on Counselling Psychology

Answer 6

• psych problems were a direct result of their conditions of worth & that with counselling ppl would become more functional
• this led to CCT (client-centered therapy)
• CCT is where by the client is encouraged to develop positive self-regard & overcome incongruence
• CCT therapies provide clients with genuineness, empathy & unconditional positive regard
• aims to increase self-worth, reducing incongruence between self-concept & ideal self
• techniques still used today across different therapies

Question 7

What is Roger’s idea of the Self & Congruence?

Answer 7

the self refers to how we see ourselves

it develops in childhood and stems from:
-our personal experiences of the world
- evaluations from other significant ppl (parents, friends)
—————————————————————the closer our self-concept is to our ideal self, the greater our feelings of self worth = congruence
= more likely to self-actualise
vs.
the greater the gap between ideal self & the actual self = the greater the incongruence

incongruence can lead to low self-worth, self actualisation is IMPOSSIBLE here

Question 8

What is Roger’s Conditions of Worth?

Answer 8

• conditions that must be present in order for the child to be accepted by others & see themselves positively
• parents set conditions of worth by putting boundaries on their love “i will love you if…” = stores psych problems for the future
• low self-esteem has roots in childhood due to lack of this unconditional positive regard from our parents
• may lead to incongruence