humanistic psychology Flashcards
what does the humanistic approach claim
- all human beings are essentially self-determining & have free-will
- still affected by external/internal influences, but active agents who determine own development
who created this approach
rogers & maslow
why is the humanistic approach a person-centred approach
as active agents we are unique, and psychology should concern itself with study of subjective experience (not general laws)
what did maslow create
maslow’s hierarchy of needs
describe maslow’s hierarchy of needs
- motivates our behaviour
- in order to achieve primary goal (self-actualisation), deficiency needs must be met first
name maslow’s hierarchy of needs (bottom to top)
- physiological needs
- safety & security
- love & belongingness
- self-esteem
- self-actualisation
describe self-actualisation
- innate desire to achieve full potential
- ‘deficiency needs’ must be met before they can work towards self-actualisation (‘growth need’) & fulfill potential
- personal growth is essential = developing/changing to become fulfilled, satisfied & goal-orientated
what did rogers propose
- personal growth is achieved when an individuals concept of ‘self’ is broadly equivalent to/have congruence with their ‘ideal self’
- if too big gap between two ‘selves’, the person will experience state of incongruence & self-actualisation isnt possible due to negative feelings of self-worth
what did rogers develop to reduce the gap between self & ideal self
= client-centred therapy (counselling)
–> provide clients with unconditional positive regard they failed to receive as children
what did rogers claim many of the adulthood issues we exercise arise from
- roots in childhood
- explained by lack of unconditional positive regard from parents
- conditions of worth (parents set boundaries/limits on love for child) creates future psychological problems for child (eg. ‘i will only love you if..’)
AO3 (+) rejects attempts to break up behaviour into smaller components (reductionism)
E:
- behaviourists explain learning in terms of simple stimulus-response units
- cognitive approach sees human beings as information-processing machines
- biological psychologists reduce behaviour to basic psychological processes
- freud described personality as conflict between id, ego & superego
- whereas, humanistic psychologists emphasise holism = subjective experience understood by considering whole person
T: approach may have more validity than alternatives as considers meaningful human behaviour in real-world context
AO3 (-) counterpoint to humanistic approach rejecting reductionism
E:
- reductionist approaches may be moe scientific
- ideal of science is experiments which reduce behaviour to independent/dependent variables
- humanistic psychology has relatively few concepts which can be broken down to single variables & measured (unlike behaviourism)
T: means humanistic psychology is short on empirical evidence to support claims
AO3 (+) optimistic approach
E:
- humanistic psychologists promote positive image of human condition
- freud saw humans as prisoner of their past & claimed all of us existed between ‘common unhappiness and absolute despair’
- alternatively, humanistic psychologists view people as mostly good, free to work towards achieving potential & in control of their lives
T: suggests humanistic psychology offers refreshing/optimistic alternative to other approaches
AO3 (-) approach may be culturally-biased
E:
- many of ideas central to humanistic psychology (eg. individual freedom, autonomy & personal growth) are more readily associated with individualist cultures (eg. US)
- collectivist cultures emphasise needs of group & interdependence, ideals of humanistic psychology may not be as important
T: possible that this approach doesnt apply universally & is product of cultural context it was developed in
