HUMANISTIC APPROACH
● Focuses on conscious experience rather than behaviour
● Personal responsibility and free will rather than on determinism
● Discussion of experience rather than the use of experimental methods
● Developed by Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow
Free Will
● Emphasis that people have full conscious control over their own destiny
● Humans are able to make significant personal choices within the constraints imposed by other forces
○ Biological and societal influences
Maslow's Theory 1943
● Positive psychology
● Hierarchy of needs emphasised the importance of personal growth and fulfilment
○ Most basic, physiological needs are represented at the bottom and most advanced at the top
○ Each level must be fulfilled before advancing to the next
● The more basic the need, the more powerful it is to experience and the more difficult it is to ignore
● Top of the pyramid = self actualisation
○ Found that most people that attained this level shared certain characteristics - creative,
accepting of others, and had an accurate perception of the world around them
○ Form of peak experience
○ Moments of extreme inspiration and ecstasy during which they felt able to leave behind all
doubts, fears, and inhibition.
Focus on the self
● The self refers to how we perceive ourselves as a person
● Rogers (1951) claimed that people have 2 basic needs
○ Positive regard from other people
○ Feeling of self-worth
● Self-worth: develops in childhood and are formed as a result of the child's interaction with the parents.
Further interactions (friends, spouse, etc) also influence the person's feelings of self-worth
● Rogers believed that how we think about ourselves + feelings of self worth = important in determining
our psychological health
● The closer our self-concept and our ideal self are to each other, the greater our feelings of self-worth
and the greater our psychological health
Congruence
● state of congruence
○ Similarity between a person's ideal self and how they perceive themselves to be in real life
● State of incongruence
○ Difference between a person's ideal self and how they perceive themselves to be in real life
● The closer our self image and ideal self are to each other the greater the congruence and the higher
our feelings of self worth
● Rare for complete congruence
● Most people experience some degree of incongruence
● Most people prefer to see themselves in ways that are consistent with their self image
● Defence mechanisms are sometimes used in order to feel less threatened by inconsistencies between
how they would like to be and how they really are
Conditions of worth
● Although other people may help the process of self-actualisation, Rogers believed that more often they
hindered it.
● The love and acceptance given by others may be unconditional, when a person is accepted for who
they are or what they do
● Focuses on conscious experience rather than behaviour
● Personal responsibility and free will rather than on determinism
● Discussion of experience rather than the use of experimental methods
● Developed by Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow
Free Will
● Emphasis that people have full conscious control over their own destiny
● Humans are able to make significant personal choices within the constraints imposed by other forces
○ Biological and societal influences
Maslow's Theory 1943
● Positive psychology
● Hierarchy of needs emphasised the importance of personal growth and fulfilment
○ Most basic, physiological needs are represented at the bottom and most advanced at the top
○ Each level must be fulfilled before advancing to the next
● The more basic the need, the more powerful it is to experience and the more difficult it is to ignore
● Top of the pyramid = self actualisation
○ Found that most people that attained this level shared certain characteristics - creative,
accepting of others, and had an accurate perception of the world around them
○ Form of peak experience
○ Moments of extreme inspiration and ecstasy during which they felt able to leave behind all
doubts, fears, and inhibition.
Focus on the self
● The self refers to how we perceive ourselves as a person
● Rogers (1951) claimed that people have 2 basic needs
○ Positive regard from other people
○ Feeling of self-worth
● Self-worth: develops in childhood and are formed as a result of the child's interaction with the parents.
Further interactions (friends, spouse, etc) also influence the person's feelings of self-worth
● Rogers believed that how we think about ourselves + feelings of self worth = important in determining
our psychological health
● The closer our self-concept and our ideal self are to each other, the greater our feelings of self-worth
and the greater our psychological health
Congruence
● state of congruence
○ Similarity between a person's ideal self and how they perceive themselves to be in real life
● State of incongruence
○ Difference between a person's ideal self and how they perceive themselves to be in real life
● The closer our self image and ideal self are to each other the greater the congruence and the higher
our feelings of self worth
● Rare for complete congruence
● Most people experience some degree of incongruence
● Most people prefer to see themselves in ways that are consistent with their self image
● Defence mechanisms are sometimes used in order to feel less threatened by inconsistencies between
how they would like to be and how they really are
Conditions of worth
● Although other people may help the process of self-actualisation, Rogers believed that more often they
hindered it.
● The love and acceptance given by others may be unconditional, when a person is accepted for who
they are or what they do
