Humanistic approach

Question 1

What are the key assumptions of the humanistic approach

Answer 1

• every person is unique
• each person is a rational and conscious being- people have free will
• humans should be viewed as a whole and not reduced to component parts. must be looked at from a holistic perspective
• scientific methods isnt a valid way to study human behaviour as it is too objective - humans are subjective

Question 2

What is freewill

Answer 2

our ability to choose how to behave
- a person is responsible for their own behaviour

Question 3

What is self actualisation?

Answer 3

every person has an innate tendency to try to self actualise
- the attempt to achieve their full potential
- feeling of satisfaction and completeness

Question 4

What is personal growth

Answer 4

developing and changing to become fulfilled
- essential and is the path to self actualise

Question 5

Why may everyone not achieve self actualisation

Answer 5

process is unique to each individual and there may be physical and psychological factors that prevent them

Question 6

What did Rodger suggest to achieve self actualisation

Answer 6

you must be fully functioning and overcome any barriers

Question 7

What are the characteristic of a fully functioning person

Answer 7

• open to experience
• lives existentially
• trusts feelings
• creative
• fulfilled life

Question 8

Why did Maslow suggest a hierarchy of needs?

Answer 8

he thought in order to reach self actualisation a number of other needs must be met first
each stage mist be successfully achieved before moving onto the next

Question 9

What happened if only of the lower levels on the hierarchy are no longer met

Answer 9

an individual will cease to be self-actualise
- self actualisation isn’t permanent

Question 10

What is the order of the heirarchy of needs

Answer 10

1. Phycological needs
2. Safety needs
3. Belongingness and love
4. Esteem
5. Self actualisation

Question 11

What are the 3 selves

Answer 11

• self concept
• ideal self
• real self

Question 12

Why do we have 3 selves

Answer 12

Rodger suggested we must integrate our 3 selves in order to self actualise

Question 13

What is the self concept

Answer 13

the person you perceive yourself to be
- based on life experiences and whether you’ve experiences conditions of worth and unconditional positive regard

Question 14

What is the ideal self?

Answer 14

The person you wish to be (goals ambitions etc)

Question 15

The real self

Answer 15

the person you actually are
- your actual skills and abilities as well as your limitations

Question 16

What is Rodgers theory of congruence

Answer 16

in order to self actualise a person must be congruent
this means your 3 selves should all be similar

Question 17

How can you achieve congruence

Answer 17

close the gap between your self concept ideal self and real self

Question 18

What was Rodgers theory of conditions of worth

Answer 18

assumed all individuals needs unconditional positive regard as its essential to the development of a well adjusted adult

Question 19

What is conditional positive regard

Answer 19

a parent who limits their love for their child
- this can encourage an individual to have a negative self-concept

Question 20

What is person centred therapy

Answer 20

non directive and client is encouraged to discover their own solutions in a non judgemental therapeutic setting

Question 21

How do therapist help patients become congruent in therapy

Answer 21

by treating them with unconditional positive regard they didn’t receive in childhood to help them gain self worth

Question 22

What are strengths of the humanist approach

Answer 22

• contribution to psychology
• practical applications

Question 23

What are limitations of the humanist approach

Answer 23

• no scientific method
• exaggerates free will

Question 24

Evaluate its contribution to psychology as a strength of the humanistic approach

Answer 24

P: Made a significant contribution to psychology.

E: The humanist approach put forward an alternative viewpoint to other approaches in psychology by suggesting that people are active agents who are able to change and determine their own development.
Humanistic psychology has had a great influence on psychology by promoting the idea of personal responsibility, and concepts such as self-actualisation have been widely accepted. Furthermore, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has been very influential both within and outside of the world of psychology.

E: Strength because without the contribution of this approach to psychology our knowledge of human behaviour would be limited

Question 25

Evaluate practical applications as a strength of the humanistic approach

Answer 25

P: Produced a successful treatment. E: There is evidence to suggest that client-centered therapy and other therapies developed from the approach are effective and its popularity has increased in recent years. For example, Sexton & Whiston found that client-centered therapies were successful in treating anxiety for some people. E: Strength because the approach clearly has a practical application and, as the treatment is based on the assumptions of the approach, its effectiveness indicates that the approach must have at least some validity.

Question 26

Evaluate no scientific method as a limitation of the Humanistic approach

Answer 26

P: Criticised for rejecting the scientific approach and its failure to use the experimental method. E: As the humanistic approach maintains that it is more informative to study subjective human experience there is little objective evidence to support its assumptions. This is a limitation because the subjective experience of an individual is difficult to test so the approach lacks scientific rigour. E: However, humanistic psychologists reject scientific methodology and do not try to be objective. Humanists believe that subjective methods are a more appropriate and valid means of studying the reality of human experience

Question 27

Evaluate the exaggeration of free will as a limitation of the Humanistic approach

Answer 27

P: Exaggerates the significance of freewill. E: Humanists believe that each person can exercise freewill as they are a rational and conscious being who is not dominated by unconscious primitive forces. E: Limitation because many psychologists disagree with this assumption as they adopt an essentially determinist perspective. For example, Freud believed that abnormality is rooted in childhood conflict that is stored in an individual’s unconscious and it is therefore out of the individual’s control; the biological approach suggests that our behaviour is determined by our genes that we cannot control; and the behaviourist approach views humans as passively responding to stimuli in the environment. Many psychologists therefore question the validity of the assumption that humans have freewill in any meaningful sense.