humanistic psychology

Question 1

free will

Answer 1

• humanistic psychology claims that human beings are essentially self-determining and have free will
• people are still affected by external and internal influences, but are also active agents who and determine own development
• humanistic psychologists such as Rogers and Maslow reject more scientific models that attempt to establish general principles of human behaviour
• as active agents we are all unique, psychology should concern itself with the study of subjective experience rather than general laws
• person-centred approach, ideographic (we are all unique and have subjective experiences), acknowledges individual differences

Question 2

maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Answer 2

• one of main interests was what motivates people, described a hierarchy of needs that motivate our behaviour
• in order to achieve primary goal of self-actualisation, a number of other deficiency needs must be first met
• at the bottom are physiological needs such as food and water
• next is safety and security (money, safe house), followed by love and belongingness (meaningful relationships, family and friends) and then self-esteem (confidence, respect of and by others, achievement)
• a person can only progress through the hierarchy once the current need is met
• at the top is self-actualisation (morality, creativity, problem solving, acceptance of facts, spontaneity)

Question 3

self-actualisation

Answer 3

• most people have innate desire to achieve full potential, or to become the best they possibly can
• self-actualisation is the uppermost level of maslow’s hierarchy, and all four lower needs must be met before the individual can work toward fulfilling their potential
• this applies to early development when a baby is first focused on physiological needs and carries on throughout life
• humanistic psychologists regard personal growth as an essential part of what it is to be human
• concerned with developing and changing as a person to become fulfilled, satisfied and goal-orientated
• not everyone will manage this and there are important psychological barriers which may prevent someone from reaching their full potential

Question 4

the self, congruence and conditions of worth

Answer 4

• rogers argued that for personal growth to be achieved, someone’s concept of self must be mostly equal to (congruence) their ideal self
• if too big a gap exists, the person will experience a state of incongruence and self-actualisation wont be possible due to negative feelings of self-worth
• in order to reduce this gap, rogers developed client-centred therapy (counselling), to help people cope with everyday problems
• rogers claimed that many issues experienced as adults have roots in childhood and can often be explained by lack of unconditional positive regard from parents
• parents who set boundaries and give conditional love stores up psychological problems for the child in the future
• therefore rogers saw one of his roles as a therapist to be to provide his clients with the unconditional positive regard they had previously not received

Question 5

evaluation - not reductionist

Answer 5

• strength is it rejects attempts to break up behaviour into smaller components
• behaviourists expain human and animal learning in terms of simple stimulus-response connections
• supporters of cognitive approach see humans as no more than info processing machines
• biological psychologists reduce behaviour to basic processes
• whereas humanistic psychologists advocate holism, idea that subjective experience can only be understood by considering whole person
• increases validity and real-world context

Question 6

evaluation - counterpoint to not reductionist

Answer 6

• reductionist approaches may be more scientific
• ideal of science is the experiment, which reduce behaviour to independent and dependent variables
• issue with humanistic psychology is that there are few concepts that can be broken down and measured as single variables
• short on empirical evidence to support claims
• lots of evidence is untestable, can’t scientifically test self-actualisation and congruence

Question 7

evaluation - positive approach

Answer 7

• strength is that it is optimistic
• been praised for bringing the person back into psychology and promoting a positive image of the human condition
• freud saw humans as being slaves to their pasts, claimed we all existed somewhere between ‘common unhappiness and absolute despair’
• whereas humanistic approach sees all people as god, free to work towards the achievement of their potential, and in control of their lives
• offers refreshing and optimistic alternative to other approaches

Question 8

evaluation - western cultural bias

Answer 8

• limitation is it may be culturally-biased
• many central ideas closely associated with individualist cultures such as the US
• collectivist cultures such as india emphasise the needs of the group, community and interdependence
• possible that this approach does not apply universally and is a product of the cultural context within which it was developed
• self-actualisation is likely to look very different in different cultures and countries

Question 9

evaluation - problems with lower levels of maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Answer 9

• some environments will mean that the lower levels of the hierarchy can’t be satisfied, but this doesn’t always mean these people won’t have meaninful relationships, love and belongingness
• for example, someone living in a war-torn environment will still be capable of having healthy relationships, family life etc.