Week 5: Humanistic theories Flashcards
What were the three concepts Marcia focused on?
Committing, identity, and crises
What is a crisis?
Experiencing conflicts, setbacks, and threats to the self that lead you to question your identity by exploring other pathways in life
What are some limitations of Marcia’s model?
- criticised for lack of empirical support and not following a sequence
- difficult model to study objectively
What is commitment?
Deciding on an identity as a framework for personality, roles, and values
What are the four identity statuses?
- identity achievement
- foreclosure
- moratorium
- identity diffusion
Commitment + crisis experienced
Identity achievement
Commitment + no crisis
Foreclosure
No commitment + crisis experienced
Moratorium
No commitment + no crisis
Identity diffusion
Identity diffusion
An attempt at an identity has not been made, or has failed. Associated with conflict, anxiety and depression.
Foreclosure
Latching on to an identity before you have really thought about it or other options. Acceptance without sufficient questioning.
Moratorium
The person is starting to question things and starting to experience things as a process of growth
Identity achievement
You’ve set on the identity and personality that can be genuine for you
List the assumptions of humanistic theories
- optimism, choice, creativity
- drive for self actualisation
- expressive needs
- free will
- people’s capacity to change themselves
- focus on present
What are the characteristics of humanistic psychology?
- focus on higher human functions
- humans are active
- here and now
- idiographic
- self determination
List Maslow’s needs
- physiological needs
- safety needs
- belongingness needs
- self esteem needs
- self actualisation
Physiological needs
Directly related to survival, including hunger, thirst, elimination and sleep
Safety needs
Need for structure, security and predictability
Belongingness needs
Need for friends and companions, supportive group, intimate relationships
Esteem needs
- recognition from other people: appreciation, prestige, reputation
- self esteem: desire for competency, mastery, achievement
Self actualisation need
The desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming
Characteristics of the self actualised
- acceptance of self
- admit weaknesses
- no excessive guilt
- feel good about self
- less restricted by social norms
- more peak experiences
Criteria for self actualisation
- absence of psychological disorders
- motivated by values
- fully exploited talents
- more basic needs satisfied
What is the consequence of having the need for self actualisation?
- devoid of values
- lack of fulfilment
- lose meaning in life
What are Roger’s core concepts?
- person centred approach
- empathy, reflection, unconditional positive regard
- people aim to fulfil potential
- everyone born with actualising tendency
Actual self
The way people actually see themselves
Ideal self
How people would like to see themselves
Self discrepancy theory
People with psychological problems see their actual selves as different from their ideal selves
Peak experiences
- feelings of joy or ecstasy in being alive
- realising that one is fully using their potential
- insight and completeness
Limitations of Maslow’s approach
- unscientific
- overly optimistic view of human nature
- concepts biased towards Western culture
Briefly describe Roger’s early life
- grew up in financially successful, highly religious family
- spent adolescent years on a farm which is where he became interested in science
- a trip to asia in college was highly influential
List Roger’s main concepts
- person centred approach
- empathy, unconditional positive regard and self actualisation
- people aim to become fully functioning humans
Describe the actualisation tendency
- we are all striving for self actualisation
- helps us progress toward development
- fosters personal growth
- guides people toward autonomy and self sufficiency
List some limitations to phenomenological approaches
- past relatively ignored
- gaps in coverage
- unconscious experienced is ignored
- romantic vision
- inadequate attention to nomothetic concerns
Phenomenology
Less about symptomology, more about thinking about things from the client’s perspective. Perception is interpretive and individuals move through the world according to their world view.
Characteristics of humanistic psychology
- people can only be understood through their frame of reference
- higher human function rather than biological drives
- idiographic over nomothetic
- human beings are seen as active
What was Roger’s approach to counselling?
Encouraging the client to take charge of the sessions, while the therapist responds to the client’s statements in a non-directive supportive manner
