the humanistic approach

Question 1

what is the humanistic approach

Answer 1

• maslow and rogers (1950s)
• a perspective of uniqueness and the conscious experiences of an individual based on free will and self-actualization
• it uses discussion instead of experimental methods

Question 2

what is free will in the humanistic approach

Answer 2

• huma beings are self-determining and have free will
• people are still affected by external and internal influences but also active agents determining own development
• rejection of models establishing general principles of human behaviour and instead concerned with subjective experience (person-centred approach)

Question 3

what is maslow’s hierachy of needs?

Answer 3

• a hierachy of needs that motivate our behaviour
• in order to achieve the primary goal of self-actualisation number of other deficiency must be met first

Question 3

what is maslow’s hierachy of needs?

Answer 3

• a hierachy of needs that motivate our behaviour with emphasis on personal growth and fulfillment
• in order to achieve the primary goal of self-actualisation number of other deficiency must be met first

Question 4

describe what the hierachy of needs looks like

Answer 4

• at the bottom physiological needs food and water
  -next deficiency safety and security followed by love and belongingness
• self esteem
• can only progress through hierachy once current need in sequence met at top self-actualisation

Question 5

what is self-actualisation

Answer 5

• desire for self-fulfillment and achieve full potential
• personal growth essential of what it is to be human
• not all can manage this as psych barriers

Question 6

what is rogers 1951 theory

Answer 6

• a theory on how humans regard themselves
• 2 basic needs: positive regard of others and feelings of self worth
• our view can develop through parent-child interactions and spouses

Question 7

what is rogers 1951 theory

Answer 7

• a theory on how humans regard themselves
• 2 basic needs: positive regard of others and feelings of self worth
• our view can develop through parent-child interactions and spouses

Question 8

what is congruency

Answer 8

• to achieve personal growth ones ideal self and perspective of themselves must be broadly equivalent
• the bigger the difference the lower their psychological health
• defence mechanisms are used to feel lesss threatened by inconsistencies between how they would like to be and how they really are

Question 9

what is conditions of worth

Answer 9

• individuals may help/hinder process of self-actualisation:
• unconditional positive regard - peers accept you for who you are
• conditional positive regard - peers accept you if you do what they want you to do
• conditional regard can lead to conditions of worth and psychological issues

Question 10

what is counselling psychology

Answer 10

• client-centred (person-centred therapy which is non-directive and encourages the client towards discovery of their own solutions in therapeutic atmosphere
• the therapist provides genuiness, empathy and unconditional positive regard to try to increase the persons feelings of self-worth
• tries to reduce gap between self-concept and ideal self

Question 11

what did rogers claim that many of the issues we experience as adults is due to

Answer 11

many issues like worthlessness and low self esteem roots in childhood often explained by lack of unconditional positive regard from our parents (set boundaries or limits on love store up psych problems)

Question 12

evaluate humanistic approach

Question 13

how is not being reductionist a strength of the humanistic approach

Answer 13

• rejects attempts to break up behaviour and experience into smaller components
• behaviourists learning - stimulus-response and cognitive info-processing ‘machines’ and biological reduce behaviour to basic physiological processes and freud conflict id, ego, superego
• humanistic psychologists advocate holism so subjective experience can only be understood by considering the whole person

Question 14

why is the positivity of the humanistic approach an advantage

Answer 14

• promotes an optimistic view of human behaviour unlike other approaches
• eg. psychodynamic approach views humans as a prisoner to their past experiences and are therefore unable to escape
• psychodynamic approach rejects this and views that individuals have complete free will to work through and overcome their issues to achieve their full potential

Question 15

why does the humanistic evidence lack empirical evidence

Answer 15

• concepts in the humanistic approach are broad and vague so difficult to break down into single variables that can be manipulated and measured
• unscientific as experiments cannot be conducted to test its theories
• a cause-effect relationship cannot be established between concepts such as maslows hierarchy of needs and an individuals self-actualisation as it is difficult to measure and intervening variables like surrounding people can also play a part
• low internal validity

Question 16

how does the humanistic approach have a cultural bias

Answer 16

• humanistic approach emphasises individual freedom, autonomy and growth rather that group freedom and growth
• more applicable to individualistic societies who prioritise oneself rather than collectivist societies to prioritise community and the people around them
• approach is ethnocentric as its concepts show more value within individualistic societies therefore lacking population validity