The Humanistic Approach

Question 1

What are the sections of the humanistic approach?

Answer 1

• Free will, Self-actualisation and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
• The self, congruence and conditions of worth
• The influence of the approach on counselling therapy

Question 2

What are the assumptions of the humanistic approach?

Answer 2

• argues that people are born with free will and a wish to grow and fulfil their potential (the need to self actualise)
• believes that people are basically good, and have an innate need to make themselves and the world better
• less scientific and holistic

Question 3

What is free will?

Answer 3

• Ultimately, we control our own behaviour. Acknowledges there are constraints of free will (e.g laws)
• ignore criticism that it cannot be objectively measured
• it doesn’t really matter if an individual really does have free will, what is important is that people perceive that they have some choice over happens to them in their lives

Question 4

What is self actualisation?

Answer 4

• everyone has an innate drive to achieve their full potential. The state we achieve when we reach our full potential. The state we achieve when we reach our full potential is self actualisation
• it is a peak state of existence that any individual can attain, ultimate feeling of well-being and satisfaction - although we are all driven to achieve not all us do

Question 5

What are the 5 stages of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?

Answer 5

• Physiological (food, water, sleep)
• Safety (home, sweet home)
• Love/Belonging (achieving deeper, more meaningful relationships)
• Esteem (you’ve acquired the skills that lead to honour and recognition)
• Self (you are living to your highest potential)

Question 6

What is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Answer 6

• In order to achieve self actualisation we must satisfy different levels of need
• we all start at the bottom with most basic biological/physiological needs
• once we are satisfied we can move on to the next level until we reach self actualisation at the top of the hierarchy

Question 7

What pneumonic can be used to remember Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Answer 7

S - some - Self Actualisation 
E - elephants - Esteem
L - love - Love/Belonging
S - sexy - Safety
P - pandas - Physiological

Question 8

Summarise evaluations of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Answer 8

• Describing self actualisation as a concept is difficult - hard to measure and test - too subjective
• widely accepted- has been very influential (e.g. in sport and business psych) - positive contribution to society
• culture specific - relates well to individualistic cultures (focus on the self) but not collectivist cultures - theory is culturally relative

Question 9

Who came up with the self, congruence and the role of conditions of worth?

What are these features of?

Answer 9

• Carl Rogers

- Personal growth

Question 10

Describe :
The Self (or self concept)

Answer 10

• how you perceive yourself, influences perception world/ourselves
• 3 key elements :
• 1- The ideal self - this is who we want/wish to be.
• 2- The actual self - this is who we really are. This is a difficult self to demonstrate as the subjective experience that is so important in humanistic psychology means that everyone will report this differently.
• 3- The perceived self - this is how we see ourselves. This is similar to self-esteem, and can distort how capable someone feels they are. Many people may have a distorted view of themselves

Question 11

Describe :

Congruence

Answer 11

• the psychological state when the elements of our self concept are in agreement.
• For example - we want to be confident (ideal self), we are confident (actual self) and we see ourselves as confident (perceived self).
• Congruence is important for psychological health.
• However, if elements of the self concept are not in agreement, it creates a state of incongruence which can cause psychological distress. The greater the gap between the components, especially between the ideal self and the actual self, the greater the incongruence.

Question 12

Describe:

Conditions of worth

Answer 12

• what we feel we must do or how we should be to be seen as worthy of love
• ideally the key people in our lives provide us with unconditional positive regard, meaning that that they love us unconditionally - there are no strings attached, their love/regard is not conditional upon us behaving in a particular way or achieving particular things
• if we believe that the regard from these people is conditional it is very damaging to our psychological health
• these conditions can be real or perceived

Question 13

Influence of this on counselling…

Answer 13

The three core conditions that are required in counselling to enable the client to bring about change are:

1. Congruence - The counsellor must be completely genuine
2. Unconditional positive regard - The counsellor must be non-judgemental and valuing of the client
3. Empathy - The counsellor must strive to understand the client’s experience

Question 14

summarise evaluations of the humanistic approach

Answer 14

• good practical applications - world of counselling and therapy
• hard to test scientifically + support with empirical evidence - lack of scientific rigour
• acknowledges effect of subjective experiences on life’s - praised for ‘bringing the person back into psychology’
• evidence support - Harter looked at conditions of self worth in adolescents
• culture specific - relates well to individualistic cultures (focus on the self) but not collectivist cultures - theory is culturally relative