Approaches: Humanists Flashcards
1
Q
Humanism History.
A
- Emerged from US (1950s) largely as the result of Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow.
- Known as the ‘third force; in psychology, alongside behaviourism (second force) and the psychodynamic approach (first force).
- It challenges the other forces (first/second)/
- Rogers felt that Freud focused on the ‘sick half’ of psychology so humanistic approach concerned itself with explanations of ‘healthy’ growth in individuals _ focus on how to improve people.
2
Q
Humanists Assumptions.
A
- Humanists psychologist reject scientific models and don’t establish general principles of humans behaviour.
- Believe we are ‘active agents’ so we are all unique and psychology should be studying experience of individuals rather than looking at general laws.
- Referred to a person-centred approach.
3
Q
Define Self-Actualisation.
A
- The desire to grow psychologically and fulfil one’s full potential (you become what you are capable of which is different for each individual).
- Maslow and Rogers have different ideas on self-actualisation, Maslow believes in the hierarchy of needs, whereas Roger’s focuses on the self and congruence.
4
Q
What Are The Hierarchy Of Needs? (Maslow)
A
- It is a 5 levelled hierarchical sequence in which the basic needs must be fulfilled before higher psychological needs such as self-esteem and self-actualisation can be achieved.
- Since all 4 lower levels of the hierarchy (the deficiency of needs) must be met before the individual can work towards self-actualisation, not everyone is able to reach to self-actualisation.
5
Q
What Are The Components Of Self Actualisation?
A
Bottom Of The Hierarchy:
1) Physiological Needs - food, water, oxygen, sleep.
2) Safety Needs (different for each individual) - security, protection, stability, freedom of fear.
3) Belonging Needs - needs for friends, intimate relationships, love.
4) Self-esteem Needs - self-respect, perception of ability, status, recognition.
5) Self-actualisation Needs - realising full potential.
6
Q
What Is Personal Growth And Why Is It Important?
A
- Personal growth is concerned with developing and changing as persona to become fulfilled, satisfied and goal orientated.
- Humanistic psychologists regard personal growth as an essential part of what it is to be a human.
7
Q
What Is ‘The Self?’ (Rogers)
A
- The self refers to the ideas and values that characterise ‘I’ and ‘me’ and includes perception and valuing of ‘what I am’ and ‘what I can do.’
8
Q
What Is ‘Congruence?’ (Rogers)
A
- Congruence is when the self concept (who you think you are) and ideal self (who you want to be) are seen to broadly to match.
- Aim of Rogerian therapy.
9
Q
What Is ‘Condition Of Worth’? (Rogers)
A
- Conditions of worth are when a parent places limits or boundaries on their love of their children (conditioned love).
10
Q
Rogers’ Beliefs On The Self, Congruence And Conditions Of Worth
A
- Rogers argues that for personal growth to be achieved an individual’s concept of the self must be congruent with their ideal self.
- If gap between the two ‘selves’ are too big, the personal will experience a state of incongruence and self-actualisation will not be possible due to negative feelings of self-worth that arise from incongruence.
- Roger claims that many issues we face as adults such as worthlessness and low self-esteem can be traced back to childhood and can explained by a lack of positive regard (conditioned love from parents).
11
Q
Client Centred Therapy.
A
- Aim to reduce the gap between self-concept and the ideal self.
- Rogers develop client-centred therapy to help people cope with the problems of everyday living.
- Individuals are the expert of their own condition.
- Therapy is non-directive (no end goal) and the client is encouraged to discover their own solutions with a therapeutic atmosphere that is warm, supportive and non-judgemental.
- Effective therapist provide: genuineness, empathy and unconditioned positive love (rather than the parent).
- Rogerian therapy is trying to increase the person’s feelings of self worth, reduce level of incongruence between the self-concept and the ideal self and help the person become more fully functioning person.
12
Q
Limitation: Cultural Bias.
A
- Many of the ideas that are central to humanistic psychology, such as individual freedom, autonomy and personal growth, would be much more readily associated with individualist cultures.
- Collectivists culture such as India, which emphasises the needs of the group, community and interdependence, may not identify easily with the ideal and values of humanistic psychology.
- Therefore, it is possible that this approach is a product of the cultural context within which it was developed and not generalisable to other cultures.
13
Q
Weakness: Untestable Concepts.
A
- Humanistic psychology includes a number of vague ideas that are abstract and difficult to test.
- Concepts such as ‘self-actualisation’ and ‘congruence’ may be useful therapeutic tools but would be problematic tools to asses under experimental conditions.
- As the approach is anti-scientific, humanistic psychology is short on empirical evidence to support its claims (can’t be falsified therefore can’t be proved or disproved).
14
Q
Strength: Positive Approach.
A
- Humanistic psychologists have been praised for ‘bringing the person back into psychology’ and promoting a positive image of the human condition.
- Freud saw human beings as slaves to their past and claimed all of us existed somewhere between ‘common unhappiness’ and ‘absolute despair.’
- Humanistic psychology offers a refreshing and optimistic alternatives as it sees people as basically good, free to work towards the achievement of their potential and in control of their lives.
15
Q
Limitation: Limited Application.
A
- Humanistic psychology has relatively little real-world application.
- Although Rogerian therapy has revolutionised counselling techniques and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has been used to explain motivation, particularly in the work place, it remains the case that the approach has limited impact within the discipline of psychology as a whole.
- This may be due to the lack of sound evidence and the fact that the approach has been described as a loose set of abstract concepts.
