Humanistic Approach

In the early 1960’s the humanistic movement was developed in America, this was termed ‘third force’ as it was aimed to replace the two main approaches such as behaviourism and psychoanalysis. Some theories are concerned with human experiences such as uniqueness, meaning, freedom and choice. Empathy is where you are putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and seeing how they feel.

Carl Rogers (1902-1987) was an American psychologist who believed that personality formed a result of our strivings to reach our full human potential. He is one of the pioneering founders of the humanistic approach, he moved away from traditional psychoanalysis and developed client- centred psychotherapy. To assess the effectiveness of psychotherapy, they measured

Incongruence is a mismatch between our actual self and our ideal self this leads to individuals becoming sad and unhappy. This affects you by the way you value yourself, this becomes linked to self-image, ego-ideal and self-esteem this is known as the Q- sort method used by humanistic psychologists. An individual’s ideal self may not be related to an experience or what is happening in actual life, but can occur because of an experience. Rogers believed that for a person to achieve self-actualization they must be in a state of congruence, which is when an individual’s ideal self and an experience are similar or repetitive which is when congruence

Human nature is fundamental which is a desire to grow and develop to achieve an individual’s full potential, which is known as ‘self-actualisation’. Maslow’s hierarchy needs are psychological, safety, love/belonging, esteem and self- actualisation. Psychological is breathing, food, water, sex, sleep, homeostasis and excretion. Safety is where you have a security of body, employment, resources, morality, the family, health and property. Love/belonging is where you have friendship, family and sexual intimacy. Esteem includes self-esteem, confidence, achievement, respect of others and respect by others. Lastly self-actualisation is where you have morality, creativity, spontaneity, problem solving, lack of prejudice and acceptance of facts. Maslow’s theory expresses motivational factors; survival or deficiency needs are engaged in because they are a means to an end. Self-actualisation is when something is internally satisfying, you have to reach all the factors on the bottom and work your way up (e.g. psychological, safety…). A higher level needs are needed for later evolutionary development. However, there are strengths and limitations of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, some strengths are that it emphasises choice such as free will and responsibility