humanistic approach

Question 1

Which psychologists developed the Humanistic Approach?

Answer 1

Rogers and Maslow –> proposed a shift towards health and wellbeing - because Freud’s focus was too much on abnormality

Question 2

How does free will relate to the Humanistic Approach?

Answer 2

• only approach that is absolutely free of determinism
• all human beings are able to determine their own destinies, via their own free will
• we are active agents who can change the path of our lives

Question 3

Why is the Humanistic Approach subjective and ungeneralizable?

Answer 3

• it’s intentionally subjective
• Rogers and Maslow reject the scientific approach to explaining human behaviour
• Every individual is unique and so understanding their behaviour is not achieved by these methods
• It is a person-centred approach

Question 4

How does self-actualisation relate to the humanist approach?

Answer 4

• Every person has an innate tendency for self-actualisation ‒> to achieve their full potential and become the best that they can possibly be
• According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, this can only be achieved if other more basic needs are first in place
• Maslow noted that only one in a hundred (1/100) people become fully self-actualised because of psychological barriers that can prevent us achieving our potential

Question 5

What is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs? + order from bottom to top

Answer 5

• physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, self-actualisation
• Hierarchy is FLUID: Life experiences may cause an individual to move up and down between levels of the hierarchy (losing job, divorce etc)

Question 6

How does the self and congruence relate to the Humanistic Approach?

Answer 6

• Rogers believed that uncovering our true “self” is the key to happiness and to achieving self-actualisation.
• Happiness/psychological health can be achieved by working towards congruence

Question 7

What is congruence and why is it important in the Humanistic approach?

Answer 7

• congruence is when the person you want to be (ideal self) matches how you currently see yourself (self-concept)
• Congruence is the aim of all humanistic/person-centred therapy.

Question 8

How does incongruence affect self-actualisation in the humanistic approach?

Answer 8

Self actualisation is not possible until incongruence is resolved, because incongruence causes low-self-esteem which is paralysing.

Question 9

How does counselling psychology and conditions of worth relate to the humanistic approach?

Answer 9

• Rogers developed person-centred counselling in order to help his clients achieve congruence
• Rogers believed that issues we experience as adults could have their roots in conditions of worth (conditional love) put upon us by our parents (i.e. they will only love us if we get an A, keep our room tidy etc).
• Key to Rogers counselling Psychology is therefore to offer consistent unconditional positive regard to all clients whatever the circumstances.
• I.e. to provide his clients with the unconditional positive regard they failed to receive from their parents as children.

Question 10

What are the positives to the Humanistic approach?

Answer 10

• not determinist
• application

Question 11

expand on the +ve AO3 point, not determinist, for the humanistic approach

Answer 11

• the only approach which isn’t deterministic and advocates total free-will

Question 12

expand on the +ve AO3 point, application, for the humanistic approach

Answer 12

• This approach produced a revolutionary change in therapy.
• Freud saw people he worked with as patients that needed fixing. Rogers saw people he worked with as clients who needed guiding.
• Freud thought he was the expert, whereas Rogers saw the client themselves as the expert on their own condition.

Question 13

What are the negatives of the Humanistic Approach?

Answer 13

• Not reductionist/oversimplified
• Unscientific
• Self Actualisation

Question 14

expand on the -ve AO3 point, not reductionist/oversimplified, for the humanistic approach

Answer 14

• Humanists reject any attempt to break up behaviour and experience into smaller components.
• Humanists advocate holism- the idea that subjective experience can only ever be explained by understanding the whole person
• however, this could result in the Humanist Approach having the most validity as it considers meaningful behaviour in its actual context.

Question 15

expand on the -ve AO3 point, unscientific, for the humanistic approach

Answer 15

• Humanistic Psychology and Science are obviously incongruent! This is intentional on the behalf of its founders, however it poses an issue to us if we are to follow the decree that Psychology is a science.
• Humanistic psychology has very little empirical evidence (but a hell of a lot of anecdotal evidence) to support it.
• This is largely due to the fact that the key concepts of Humanistic Psych are untestable.

Question 16

expand on the -ve AO3 point, self-actualisation, for the humanistic approach

Answer 16

• How on earth can I know what I am capable of?
• Everyone has limitations (if you want to be an Olympic athlete and lets say you have a genetic condition that makes you obese. You can never achieve congruence and you are therefore paralysed at stage 3 of the hierarchy forever).
• culturally- some individuals (e.g. women in the East) are actively prevented from self-actualisation
• This suggests that Humanistic Psychology is only really relevant in the West (Where it was of course developed)