The humanist approach

Question 1

What is the humanist approach?

Answer 1

-emphasises the importance of subjective experience and each persons capacity for self determination

Question 2

What is freewill?

Answer 2

-Humans can make choices and are not determined by biological or external factors and act as active agents
-reject scientific models that establish general principles of human behaviour as everyone is unique.

Question 3

What is self actualisation?

Answer 3

-Desire to grow psychologically and fulfills ones true potential
-On the pyramid all four levels have to be met in order to actually achieve self actualisation

Question 4

How do the self and congruence relate?

Answer 4

-Rogers argued that personal growth only occurs if the individuals self is in congruence with there ideal self
-If the gap is too big then the person will experience incongruence and negative feelings meaning that self actualisation cant be reached.

Question 5

What are conditions of worth?

Answer 5

When a parent places limits or boundaries on the love of their children.

Question 6

What are the strengths of the humanist approach?

Answer 6

Not reductionist-reject any attempt to break up behaviour and experience into smaller components instead have a holistic approach so has more validity than its alternatives by considering meaningful human behaviour within its real life context.

Question 7

What are the limitations of the humanist approach?

Answer 7

Cultural bias- the humanist approach would be applicable to individualist cultures more than collectivist cultures which may not easily identify with the ideas of humanistic psychology