The humanistic approach

Question 1

A01

Assumptions of humanistic approach

• Sees self-actualisation, as achieved by being the top level of Maslow’s hierarchy of
  needs, as a crucial part of being human.
• Due to having free will, we also have to ability to progress through this hierarchy of
  needs and better ourselves

Answer 1

• Assumes that humans self determining & have free will,
• ppl are still affected by internal & external influences but are active agents who can determine their own development
• every person is unique & ppl should be viewed holistically

Humanists like Maslow & Rogers reject scientific models that attempt to establish general laws of behaviour argue psycholgists should concern itself with the study of subjective experiences rather than general laws

Question 2

A01

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Answer 2

Maslows described a hierarchy of needs that motivate our behaviour
in order to achieve our primary goal of self actualisation:

.1.psychological needs (food,water)
2. Safety needs (protection & security)
3. Belongingness & love needs (family,relationships)
4. Self esteem needs (achievement,status)
in order to meet self actualisation-achieving full potential

Question 3

Self actualisation

Answer 3

inate desire to meet our full potential- self actualisation represents the uppermost level of maslows hierarchy of needs
* Due to having free will, we also have to ability to progress through this hierarchy of
needs and better ourselves
all four lower levels need to be met to reach self actualisation

Question 4

A01

The self,congruence & conditions of worth

Rogers

Answer 4

Rogers argues that for personal growth to be achieved:
an individual concept of self (how they see themselves) must have congurance (equivalance) with ideal self (person they want to be)
if two big a gap exists between two selves the person will develop a state of incongurance & self actualisation will not be possible due to feelings of low self worth of incongruence

Question 5

A01

Outline Rogers client centured therapy

Answer 5

Designed to reduce the gap between the self concept & ideal self
Rogers claimed feelings of low self-esteem/worth experienced in adults have originate in childhood, where adults restrict the love they show towards children, by imposing conditions of worth e.g. “I will be proud of you only if you achieve top grades”. This represents a lack of unconditional positive regard.
Thus Roger saw effective therapy as being able to provide unconditional positve regard that ppl failed to recieve as children

Question 6

A03

a strength of humanistic approach is that it is optimistic

strength

Answer 6

humanitsic psycholgists have been praised for bringing the person back into psychology & promoting a positive self image of humans condition

Question 7

A03

Holistic approach

Strength

Answer 7

+ The humanistic approach is unique as adopts holism, by ,focusing on individual’s subjective experiences as a whole, as a method of investigating behaviour.
This is in contrast with the cognitive, biological , behaviourism ,psychodynamic(freud describes whole personality as in conflict between ID,ego ,superego
Thus by advocating holism, humanist approach has more validty than others

In exam make sure to outline

In exam-compulsory to answer the question by explain how i.g say humanist appraoch contrasts to cognitve,behavioural,bio because of what they all state about explaing behavoir i.g bio explains behaviour interns of genetic inheritance & neaural fucntions only etc

Question 8

A03

Maslows approach is culture bound

Limitation

Answer 8

Maslow’s ideas of self-actualisation, need to improve oneself, congruence mostly viewed as attitudes associated with Western, individualist cultures where needs of the individual are greater than needs of group.
as opposed to
collectivist cultures,where desire for personal growth may be seen as
selfish considering needs of the group are greater than of the individual.
thus maslows approach culturally biased

Question 9

A03

Humanist approach lacks empirical evidence

Answer 9

HUmanistic approach suffers from a lack of empirical evidence & its not possible to systematicallyy observe and measure processes which it describes. Self actualisation cannot be objectively measured ,due to individual differences and lack of universal measuring scales,similalry congurence may be up to personal judgement