Humanistic Psychology Humanistic Psychology Humanistic psychology emerged in

Humanistic Psychology

Humanistic Psychology • Humanistic psychology emerged in the US in the 1950’s as the result of the work by Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers. It was formed as many psychologists noted the limitations of the behaviourist and psychodynamic approaches- therefore it is often known as the ‘third’ force in psychology. • It represents a challenge to both behaviourism and psychodynamic psychology as unlike most other approaches which are deterministic, the humanistic approach looks at free will and the individual as a whole (holism). • It emphasises the importance of the individual striving towards personal growth and fulfilment.

Free Will vs Determinism • Determinism proposes that all behaviour has an internal or external cause and is thus predictable. This means that we have no choice (free will) over how we act. • Humanistic psychology, however, emphasises that people have full conscious control over their own destiny. • Although it accepts that we are subject to many forces i. e. biological and societal influences, humanism believes human beings are still able to make significant personal choices within these constraints.

Abraham Maslow (1943) • Unlike many other approaches, Maslow was not concerned with what was wrong with people, but finding out what could go right with them. • His hierarchy of needs emphasised the importance of personal growth and fulfilment. Maslow didn’t actually include the visual idea of a pyramid, however it is often used to represent his hierarchy of needs.

Your Task! Arrange the following needs into a hierarchy… Have the most essential, necessary needs at the bottom and work your way up! Safety & security of: Body, employment, resources, morality, family, health & property Self Esteem: confidence, achievement, respect of others, respect by others Morality, creativity, spontaneity, problem solving, lack of prejudice, reaching personal goals. Needs for oxygen, food, water, sleep, sex and homeostasis. Friendship, family, relationships, intimacy

Abraham Maslow (1943) The most basic, physiological needs are represented at the bottom and the most advanced needs at the top. Each level must be fulfilled before a person can move up to a higher need.

SA Esteem Love/Belonging Safety Physiological

SA Esteem Love/Belonging Safety Physiological Can you make a hierarchy of needs for dogs? !

Self- Actualisation • Every person has an innate tendency or need to want to fulfil their full potential (to become the best they could possibly be). • Self- actualisation represents the uppermost level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Where a person achieves their full potential and had become the best they can possibly be! • All 4 other levels must be met before the individual can work towards selfactualisation- however not everyone will achieve SA. • Maslow found that most people who did achieve it shared similar characteristics- they were creative, accepting of other people, independent, appreciative, happy, caring and held and accurate perception of the world around them. • He defined peak moments of self-actualisation as moments of extreme inspiration and ecstasy during which a person feels able to leave behind all doubts, fears and inhibitions.

Do all stages apply to people of different ages? Do you think it applies to you? Can you think of any people in the media, or anyone who know personally, who might be a selfactualiser? June is an elderly woman living in a nursing home. All her basic needs are met- she is fed, has a nice room, is in good health and feels safe. However she is not happy and has not achieved self-actualisation. When she was younger she used to love playing the piano and painting pictures. What would you suggest the nursing home could do to help promote her self actualisation?

Abraham Maslow (1908 -1970) was born to a very poor family in a New York slum, the child of immigrant Russian Jews. As a child he was the victim of anti. Semitism. Despite having an IQ of 195 (with anything over 136 being the top 1% of the population) he still flunked some of his undergraduate courses and found it difficult to focus on his studies. He eventually became an intellectual whose influence stretched far beyond academic psychology, into the world of business and popular culture. Using the information above and the hierarchy of needs- can you explain why Maslow struggled to achieve at university?

A 03 - Evaluation Maslow’s Hierarchy is Linked to Economic Development • Hagerty (1999) looked at the relationship between economic growth and Maslow’s needs in 88 countries over 34 years. • He found countries in early stages of economic development were characterised by lower levels of need (physiological needs e. g. food and safetyhigh murder rates) • Only in the advanced stages of economic development did self-esteem needs (e. g. female emancipation) and self-actualisation (e. g. levels of educational enrolment) become important. • Educational enrolment is a significant indication of the drive to self-actualise as education is seen as a way for people to better themselves.

A 03 - Evaluation Cultural Differences in the Hierarchy of Needs • In a later development to his hierarchy Maslow acknowledged that for some people, needs may appear in different orders or some may not be present at all. • A study carried out in China by Nevis (1983) found that belongingness needs were more fundamental than physiological needs and that self-actualisation was defined more in terms of contribution to the community rather than in terms of individual development. • Many studies have confirmed that Europeans and Americans focus more on personal identity whereas Asian cultures define self-concept more in terms of social relationships.

• Imagine you meet someone on a date, in the pitch black, for the first time! • You have 30 seconds to describe yourself to them (can be physical and/or personality. ) • What do you say? !

60 Second Challenge 1. Pair up 2. One of the partners needs a stop watch 3. The other person has to try to talk continuously about the humanistic approach for 1 minute! • Assumptions • Comparisons with other approaches • Maslow • Hierarchy of Needs • Rogers and the selves • Congruence (No long umms, errs or off topic randomness) 4. Swap and give the other person a go!

Carl Rogers (1951) Ø Rogers believed that in order for personal growth and SA to occur, an individual must have good self esteem. Ø He suggested we had 2 ‘selves’ which need to integrate to achieve selfactualisation. The two selves are your self- concept and your ideal self.

Carl Rogers (1951) Focus on the Self The 2 ‘Selves’ 1. The Self-Concept (the self you feel you are- this is affected by our self esteem. Our self-concept develops in childhood as a result of interactions with parents. , and later, peers. If you have a poor self concept you may underestimate how capable you are). 2. The Ideal Self- (the self you wish to be. It is who you are aiming to become e. g. “I wish I was more…/ I wish I was able to…”. It is not who you think you are but who you wish to be.

Carl Rogers (1951) Congruence • Definition: “in agreement or harmony”. • Rogers believed that in order to achieve self- actualisation a person needs to be congruent. • This means that their perceived self must be the same or very similar to their ideal self. • This is very difficult to achieve and most people suffer from some degree of incongruence. • To fix incongruence a person needs to develop a more healthy view of themselves or have a more achievable and realistic ideal self. • Rogers believed that people may use defence mechanisms in order to feel less threatened by inconsistencies between who they would like to be and who they really are. – Can you apply this to any of Freud’s defence mechanisms?

Carl Rogers (1951) Conditions of Worth • Conditions of worth are requirements that the individual feels they need to meet in order to be loved. (These can be real or perceived) • This is also called conditional positive regard (when people are only accepted by others if they do or act as they want them to). • It is the opposite of unconditional positive regard (being loved regardless of who you are or what you do). • An example: a child feeling they need to get high grades in school in order for their parents to love and accept them. (This could be from directly being told by the parents or witnessing the treatment of an older sibling). • Can you think of any other examples?

A 03 - Evaluation Research Support for Conditions of Worth • Research has shown that individuals who receive conditional positive regard are likely to display more ‘false self behaviour’ e. g. doing things to meet others’ expectations, even when they do not want to. • Harter et al (1996) found teenagers who have to do certain things to meet parents approval often end up not liking themselves. • Individuals who create a ‘false self’, pretending to be someone their parents would love are more likely to develop depression.

Carl Rogers (1951) The Influence of Counselling Psychology https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=m 30 js. Zx_Ngs • Rogers claimed that an individual’s psychological problems were a direct result of their conditions of worth and the conditional positive regard they received from others. • He believed that counselling would enable people to solve their problems in constructive ways; allowing the person to move towards self-actualisation. • He believed that the client-therapist relationship was very important and that it is key that therapists give unconditional positive regard- showing acceptance and understanding. • By doing this therapist is providing an environment where a client can be honest and therefore this will help dissolve their conditions of worth. • This enables the client to act in a way true to themselves rather than as other people want them to.

Carl Rogers (1951) A 03 The Influence of Counselling Psychology Research by Elliott (2002) showed that in a meta-analysis of 86 studies, humanistic therapies prompted a significant improvement in clients when compared to people who were not receiving treatment. This effectiveness helps to increase the influence of therapy and consequently lends support to the ideas of the humanistic approach.

A 03 - Evaluation Humanistic Research Methods • Scientifically evaluating the Humanistic approach is hard as most of the evidence fails to establish cause an effect between variables. • For example some studies have shown personal growth as a result of receiving humanistic counselling, however they do not show that therapy caused the changes. This is a fundamental requirement of scientific psychology. • It is also very difficult to measure subjective concepts such as ‘self-worth’.

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