The humanistic approach Flashcards
What does the humanistic approach assume?
That we all have free will and are masters of our own development, so we can ignore the influence of internal and external factors on our own behaviour.
It sees self-actualisation, as achieved by being the top level of Maslow’s hierarchy.
Due to having free will, we also have the ability to progress through this hierarchy of needs and better ourselves.
Who developed the humanistic approach?
Maslow and Rogers.
What are Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?
It is a five-levelled hierarchical sequence in which basic psychological needs must be satisfied before higher psychological needs can be achieved.
Self actualisation
Esteem needs
Belongingness and love needs
Safety needs
Physiological needs
What is self-actualisation?
The desire to grow psychologically and fulfil ones’s full potential- becoming what you are capable of.
What is the self, congruence and conditions of worth according to Carl Rogers?
He argued that for personal growth to be achieved an individual’s concept of the self must be broadly equivalent, or have congruence with, their ideal self.
If the gap between the two selves is too big the the person will experience a state of incongruence and not reach self-actualisation.
What concept did Rogers developed to reduce the gap between the self-concept and the ideal self?
Client- centred therapy (counselling) to help people cope with the problems with everyday life.
Rogers claimed that many of the issues we experience as adults have their roots in childhood and can often be explained by a lack of unconditional positive regard from our parents.
What are conditions of worth?
When parents place limits or boundaries on their love of their children.
Evaluation: One strength of the humanistic approach.
It’s not reductionist.
This approach may have more validity than its alternatives by considering meaningful human behaviour within its real-world concept.
Behaviourists- explain human behaviour and animal learning in terms of simple stimulus.
Biological psychologists- Reduce behaviour to its basic physiological processes.
Freud- described the whole personality as a conflict between three things- Id, ego, superego.
Evaluation: What is another strength of the humanistic approach?
It is optimistic.
Humanistic psychologists have been praised for bringing the person back into psychology and promoting a positive image of the human condition.
This suggest the humanistic psychology offers a refreshing and optimistic alternative to other approaches.
Evaluation: One limitation of the humanistic approach.
It may be culturally biased.
Many of the ideas that are centred to humanistic psychology would be more readily associated with countries that have more individualistic tendencies.
Collectivist countries emphasise more the needs of the group and interdependence.
Therefore, it is possible that this approach does not apply universally and is a product of the cultural context within which was developed.
