The humanistic approach Flashcards
What is the humanistic approach?
Focuses on the person as a whole and believes that people are inherently good and can be driven to their full potential.
Treats people uniquely.
Outline Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Psychological needs related to survival –> need for safety –> need for love and belonging –> need for esteem –> self-actualisation.
What characteristics do self actualised people have?
Strong sense of self-awareness.
Fully accepting view of themselves and others for who they are.
Ability to deal with uncertainty and the unknown.
Strong sense of creativity.
Outline Rogers view on self-actualisation.
All people are motivated to try to achieve self-actualisation as they are inherently good and want to achieve their fullest potential.
Route to self-actualisation isn’t as strict as Maslow’s theory.
People will develop in a ‘psychologically healthy’ way if their path to self-actualisation isn’t blocked.
Everyone wants to seek approval and be regarded in a good light from people.
What are the 2 parts of the self, suggested by Rogers.
Unconditional positive regard
Conditions of wealth.
What is unconditional positive regard?
Person gets affection and support no matter what their behaviour is like.
Need unconditional positive regard to have a positive self-concept.
What are the conditions of worth?
Approval and affection are given as a result of behaviour is a certain way.
Treatment can help people fit into the rules of social life but Rogers believed that it could stop them from reaching self-actualisation as they are focused on keeping people happy.
What is incongruence?
A mismatch between someone’s self-concept and their ideal-self.
What was the aim of Rogers therapy?
To remove the incongruence by making it possible for her person to become their ideal self.
Therapy also known as client centred therapy or person centred therapy.
What happens is client centred therapy?
Therapists job is to try and make the client aware of their thoughts, feelings and actions. They carefully rephrase the clients sentences and repeat them back to them. The theorist is supportive of the client and aim to get the client to value themselves.
Give strengths of humanistic psychology.
A positive approach.
Free will makes the approach less deterministic and good for understanding the complex nature of human behaviour.
Treats people as individuals and takes the whole person into account.
Give weaknesses of the humanistic approach.
Places less emphasis on factors such as genes when compared to the biological approach.
Lacks objectivity- based on feelings and subjective reports.
Is idiographic- it doesn’t generalise laws to everyone, making it less of a scientific approach.
