humanistic approach ao3

Question 1

limitation -cultural bias

Answer 1

P: One major limitation of the humanistic approach is that it suffers from culture bias
E: eg its concepts of self actualisation and self esteem are a product of western society and cannot be applied to all cultures whereby their idea of self acc is individual success
E: in china (a collectivist culture) group success if of more importance than that of an individual even at the expense of indiv needs. this implies that a superiority of western individualistic norms, implying people in collectivist societies are less capable of self actualisation.
L: thus this theory may suggest negative implications for those of other cultures with a different notion of what success and self actualisation looks like.

Question 2

limitation - unscientific

Answer 2

P; humanistic psychology doesn’t meet the scientific criteria of falsifiability (karl popper - it cannot be proven wrong)
EE: subjective concepts within it are not operationalised eg self actualisation and congurence. these are very vague. thus not open to empirical testing in comparison with the behavourist approaches which allows for cause and effect to be established with observable stimulus and response variables.
L: so could be argued humanistic psychology is undermined in its explanation of human behaviour due to lack of scientific evidence.

Question 3

strength - free will

Answer 3

P; one strength of the humanistic approach is its emphasis on free will unlike many of the other approaches (deterministic) eg beh - en det, bio - bio det
E: thus a more optimistic view on human behaviour with an emphasis on personal growth. seeing humans as self determining active agents. who all have an innate need to become the best version of themselves (self actualise.) additonally, person centered therapy sees the person as discovering and choosing their own solutions to their problems
E: so it could be argued that humanistic psychology has value for offering an alternative positive view on human behaviour in contrast to other approaches with a negative deterministic view on beh.
L: strengthening the theory as a positive

Question 4

Research supporting Maslow

Answer 4

Hagerty-1999 - looked @ measures of maslows levels and compared economic growth in 88 countries over 34 years. Countries in early stages of economic focused development on lower needs whilst in countries Iwith high economic growth more focusedon self actualisation level.

Question 5

Research supporting Rodgers’

Answer 5

Harter et al 1996 - discovered that teenagers who feel they have to fufil certain conditions to gain parents approval frequently end up not liking themselves with a high chance of developing depression