The Humanistic Approach*

Question 1

Give some of the main assumptions of the Humanistic Approach.

Answer 1

• Humans have free will - the ability to control and determine our behaviour.
• Self-Actualisation is the main motivation of the human organism.
• The scientific method is not an appropriate measure of behaviour - science is too objective.

Question 2

What did Maslow create to explain the requirements of all humans.

Answer 2

Maslow created the hierarchy of needs.

Question 3

List the five elements on the hierarchy of needs from the bottom to the top.

Answer 3

1) . Physiological needs
2) . Safety needs
3) . Love and Belonging
4) . Esteem
5) . Self-Actualisation.

Question 4

Define self-actualisation.

Answer 4

The desire to grow psychologically and to achieve one’s full potential.

Question 5

Define the self image.

Answer 5

How an individual perceives themselves.

Question 6

Define the ideal self.

Answer 6

How an individual would like to be perceived.

Question 7

Define congruence.

Answer 7

Congruence occurs when an individual’s self image equates to their ideal self. Rarely, does this ever exist.

Question 8

What are conditions of worth.

Answer 8

The requirements we believe we must meet for others to accept us.

Question 9

Give 2 advantages of the humanistic approach.

Answer 9

Advantages:
- Practical validity - led to various treatments e.g. Roger’s Client-centred therapy - it has been shown to complement CBT (Hayes, 2004) and Wampold suggested that all therapies should adopt a client-centred approach - also supporting evidence for humanistic therapies - Elliott - meta-analysis - 86 studies - ‘significant improvement’

• Supporting evidence for the conditions of worth - Harter et al - teenagers who feel they must meet certain requirements for their parents to approve them create a ‘false self’ - more likely to develop depression.

Question 10

Give 2 disadvantages of the humanistic approach.

Answer 10

Disadvantages:
- The concepts are hard to test scientifically - hard to support with empirical evidence - the approach itself recognises this and rejects it because all humans are unique - however it is beneficial as it acknowledges the effect of individual experience on behaviour.

• Culturally relative - Nevis found that, in China, self-actualisation is defined in terms of contributing to the community rather than the individual - only applicable to Western cultures - the approach has low cultural validity.

Question 11

What did Sheffield et al. find?

Answer 11

A positive correlation between an individual’s level of self-actualisation and their psychological health.

He studied 185 college undergraduates (biased).