The Humanistic approach
Free will
- Humans are self-determining and have free will
- This means we are active agents and who have the ability to determine our own development
and we are not a ected by external or internal in uences
- Humanistic psychologists Rogers and Maslow reject scienti c models that attempt to establish
general principles of human behaviour
- As active agents, we are all unique and psychology should concern itself with the study of
subjective experience rather than general laws
- Person centred approach
Self actualisation
- Every person has an innate tendency to achieve their full potential
- Self-actualisation represents the uppermost level of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
- All four lower levels of the hierarchy must be met before the individual can work towards self-
actualisation
- Humanistic psychologists regard personal growth as an essential part of what it is to be human
- Personal growth- concerned with developing and changing as a person to become ful lled,
satis ed and goal orientated
- Not everyone will manage this
The self, congruence and conditions of worth
- Roger’s argued that for personal growth to be achieved an individual’s concept of self (the way
they see themselves) must have congruence with their ideal self (the person they want to be).
- If the gap is too big, the person will experience in a state of incongruence and self actualisation
will not be possible due to the negative feelings of self-worth that arise from incongruence
- To reduce the gap, Rogers developed client centred therapy help people cope with the
problems of every day living
- Rogers claims that many of the issues we experience as adults, such as worthlessness and low
self-esteem, have their roots in childhood and can often be explained by a lack of unconditional
positive regard or lack of unconditional love from our parents
- A parent who sets boundaries or limits on their love for their child (conditions of worth) by
claiming I will only love you if… is storing up psychological problems for that child in the future
- Rogers saw one of his roles as an e ective therapist as being able to provide his clients with
the unconditional positive regard they had failed to receive as children.
Evaluation
Not reductionist
- Humanists reject any attempt to break up behaviour and experience into smaller components
- Humanistic psychologists advocate holism, idea that subjective experience can only be
understood by considering the whole person
- This approach may have more validity than it's alternatives by considering meaningful human
behaviour within its real life context
Limited application
- Humanistic psychology has relatively little real-world application
- Rogers therapy has revolutionised counselling techniques and Maslow's hierarchy of needs has
been used to explain motivation particularly in the workplace
- However it remains the case that the approach has had limited impact within the discipline
- This may be due to humanistic psychology lacking a sound evidence base and also because it
is a loose set of rather abstract concepts
Positive approach
- 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 the past and claimed all of us existed somewhere
between common unhappiness and absolute despair
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Free will
- Humans are self-determining and have free will
- This means we are active agents and who have the ability to determine our own development
and we are not a ected by external or internal in uences
- Humanistic psychologists Rogers and Maslow reject scienti c models that attempt to establish
general principles of human behaviour
- As active agents, we are all unique and psychology should concern itself with the study of
subjective experience rather than general laws
- Person centred approach
Self actualisation
- Every person has an innate tendency to achieve their full potential
- Self-actualisation represents the uppermost level of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
- All four lower levels of the hierarchy must be met before the individual can work towards self-
actualisation
- Humanistic psychologists regard personal growth as an essential part of what it is to be human
- Personal growth- concerned with developing and changing as a person to become ful lled,
satis ed and goal orientated
- Not everyone will manage this
The self, congruence and conditions of worth
- Roger’s argued that for personal growth to be achieved an individual’s concept of self (the way
they see themselves) must have congruence with their ideal self (the person they want to be).
- If the gap is too big, the person will experience in a state of incongruence and self actualisation
will not be possible due to the negative feelings of self-worth that arise from incongruence
- To reduce the gap, Rogers developed client centred therapy help people cope with the
problems of every day living
- Rogers claims that many of the issues we experience as adults, such as worthlessness and low
self-esteem, have their roots in childhood and can often be explained by a lack of unconditional
positive regard or lack of unconditional love from our parents
- A parent who sets boundaries or limits on their love for their child (conditions of worth) by
claiming I will only love you if… is storing up psychological problems for that child in the future
- Rogers saw one of his roles as an e ective therapist as being able to provide his clients with
the unconditional positive regard they had failed to receive as children.
Evaluation
Not reductionist
- Humanists reject any attempt to break up behaviour and experience into smaller components
- Humanistic psychologists advocate holism, idea that subjective experience can only be
understood by considering the whole person
- This approach may have more validity than it's alternatives by considering meaningful human
behaviour within its real life context
Limited application
- Humanistic psychology has relatively little real-world application
- Rogers therapy has revolutionised counselling techniques and Maslow's hierarchy of needs has
been used to explain motivation particularly in the workplace
- However it remains the case that the approach has had limited impact within the discipline
- This may be due to humanistic psychology lacking a sound evidence base and also because it
is a loose set of rather abstract concepts
Positive approach
- 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 the past and claimed all of us existed somewhere
between common unhappiness and absolute despair
fi ff ff fl fi fi
