Mental Health: Humanistic Explanation Flashcards
What does humanistic psychology argue?
Sees the person as a unique individual engaged in unique life experiences.
Believes:
As individuals, we have FREEWILL and are SELF-DETERMINED to aspire to our full potential.
Optimistic stance:
focuses on what we can be in the here and now, rather than what happened in the past.
Emerged:
1950s / 60s
-> challenge the behaviourist perspective.
Who are the founders of the humanistic perspective?
What do they believe?
1- Abraham Maslow
2- Carl Rogers
Maintain that:
We are born with an innate propensity to grow and this motivates us to be the ‘best’ we can be in this life time.
What did Carl Rogers suggest?
1-
We are fundamentally an organism and like any other organism we SEEK OUT WHAT POVIDES THE BEST OPPORTUNITY FOR OUR GROWTH.
2-
Self-image that people create for themselves (their actual self) and how this differs from their ideal self (the concept of self, moulded by others).
-> Rogers suggests that our innate propensity to self-actualise (actualising tendency), which is present from birth, can be interrupted / thwarted by the demands society place upon us.
3-
Psychologically healthy people = ‘fully functioning person’.
What did Abraham Maslow suggest?
Our motivation to grow is influenced by:
1- Those that ensure survival by satisfying basic physical and psychological needs.
2- Those that promote the person’s SELF-ACTUALISATION.
Self-actualisation:
-> ‘Becoming everything that one is capable of becoming’.
The “Hierarchy of needs”:
-> a motivational model underpinning health.
-> Works on the basis of homeostasis: when one need is met, there is a natural motivation to ascend to the next stage.
- The pinnacle of human existence of self-realisation = only available to a few.
- Described factors that described self-actualisers.
Self-actualisation definition
Becoming everything that one is capable of becoming.
What are some examples of the factors Maslow identified as being ‘self-actualisers’?
1- They accept themselves, together with all their flaws
2- They are motivated by growth, not by the satisfaction of needs.
3- They share deep relationships with a few, but also feel identification and affection towards the entire human race.
4- They do not take their blessings for granted, and by doing so, maintain a fresh sense of wonder towards the universe.
Fully functioning people are…
(Carl Rogers)
1- Open to experience
2- Living in the here and now
3- Doing what’s good for them.
4- Experientially free.
5- Creative.
The actualising tendency definition
The tendency to rise to the next level of the hierarchy of needs.
(To fully realise their potential)
Conditions of worth definition
The expectations put upon you by those around you that make you feel only worthy when you meet them.
Actual / real self definition
The person someone truly is (not restricted by the conditions of worth).
Ideal self definition
Who someone believes they should be (false unattainable self)
-> Due to the expectations of those around you.
Incongruity definition
A gap between the ideal and actual self that grows according to how separate they are.
(State of being out of balance with actual / ideal self).
Defence mechanisms definition
Way they cope with the distortion of how the world around them sees them.
(Distortion and denial).
Evaluation
Reductionism / holistic?
Holistic.
Humanistic explanation is the most holistic -> takes the whole person into account.
Looks at all the factors that might affect an individual (as opposed to reductionist).
Evaluation
Freewill / determinism?
Freewill.
Believes individuals have freewill and are self-determined to aspire to our full potential.
(Focusses on what we can be in the here and now rather than the past. Implies it is possible to move forward and change).
