The Humanistic Approach Flashcards
What makes the humanistic approach different to the other approaches?
It believes in free will.
What type of approach does the humanistic approach take? What does it favour instead?
- Rejects scientific approaches.
- Favours ‘person-centered’ approaches.
Why must out understanding of human behaviour be unique?
Everyone is unique.
Name the key element of the humanistic approach.
‘Healthy growing’.
According to the humanistic approach, what causes mental health issues to arise?
When an individual is missing something in their ‘healthy growth’.
Give the most important element of human behaviour, according to the humanistic approach.
Self-actualisation.
Define ‘self-actualisation’.
Where every individual has an innate tendency to achieve their full potential - to become the best they possible can.
What level does ‘self-actualisation’ come in Maslow’s heirarchy of needds?
Uppermost/top.
In order to achieve self actualisation, what do individuals need to do first?
Meet the lower levels of Maslow’s heirarchy of needs.
What is personal growth concerned with?
Developing and changing a person to become satisfied, fulfilled and goal-orientated.
Outline what Rogers believed?
- We have two selves: our sense of self and our ideal self.
What is meant by the term ‘our sense of self’?
How we see ourselves.
What is meant by the term ‘our ideal self’?
What we would like to be.
Outline the development of our actual self.
Starts to develop during childhood; continues to grow in complexity throughout our lives.
Outline the development of our ideal self.
Starts to develop from our learning of what a person should be like e.g from parents, peers, the media etc.
What is needed to achieve personal growth?
Congruence between the two selves.
What does a person experience if their two selves are too different?
A state of incongruence - self-actualisation is not possible due to negative feelings of self worth that occur.
According to Rogers, how can many of the issues experienced as adults be explained?
A lack of unconditional positive regard/unconditional love from parents.
Further developed: A parent who sets boundaries/a limit on their love for their child is causing problems for that child in the future.
What type of counselling did Rogers create to address incongruence?
Client-centred therapy.
What type of theraputic atmosphere did Rogers create?
- Warm
- Supportive
- Non-judgemental
How did Rogers summarise an effective therapist?
Provide the client with:
- Genuineness
- Empathy
- Unconditional positive regard
What is the aim of Rogers’ ‘person-centred’ therapy?
- To increase the person’s feelings of self-worth.
- To reduce the incongruence.
- To help the person bceome a more fully functioning individual.
List the 3 strengths of the humanistic approach.
- Application of Hierarchy
- Research Support
- Free Will
Summarise what is meant by the evaluation point ‘application of hierarchy’.
- Maslow’s hierarchy can be applied more broadly to economic development of countries + personal development.
- Evidence found that in the easrly stages of economic development, priority is on physiological/safety needs e.g food/reduction in murder and crime rates.
- Once these basic needs have been met, countries then focus on esteem needs and self-actualisation.
- Evidence from 88 countries over a 34 yr period supports the hierarchy of needs; strengthens the explanation.
Summarise the evaluation point ‘research support’.
- Evidence to support Rogers’ view that people who experience conditional positive regard display more ‘false self’ behaviour.
- Evidence found that teenagers who feel they have to fulfil certain conditions to gain parents’ approval frequently dislike themselves.
- Adolescents who create a ‘false self’, pretending to be the person their parents woild love, are more likely to develop depression.
- Supports ‘conditions of love/worth’.
Summarise the evaluation point ‘free will’.
- Free will approach; we choose how we act and have a choice in how we behave.
- Determinism removes freedom/dignity and devalues human behaviour.
- Free will acknowleges the uniqueness of human beings/their freedom to choose their own destiny.
- Preferable expansion of human behaviour to the behaviour approach, which suggests we are merely a product of reinforcers/punishements.
List the 3 limitations of the humanistic approach.
- Unscientific Methodology
- Unrealistic View
- Cultural Differences
Summarise the evaluation point ‘unscientific methodology’.
- Counselling cannot be tested experimentally due to the rigorous requirements of the experimental method.
- Rogers was an advocate of non-experimental reserach methods because he thought that human behaviour extended beyond the principles of science because we have free will.
- Studies have shown personal growth as a result of humanistic counselling BUT these don’t show that the therapy caused the changes.
- It’s difficult to evaluate the theories scientifically.
Summarise the evaluation point ‘unrealistic view’.
- Humanistic approach has an idealised view of human nature.
- Assumes that people are inherently growth-orientated, not recognising some people’s capacity for self-destructive behaviour.
- Assumes that all problems arise from blocked self-actualisation and ignores situational forces in society.
- Does not give a full description of human behaviour and development.
