ATP: Social Psychology: Lecture 22, Humanism Tom Farsides (SOC)

Humanistic Approaches to Personality: Rogers & Maslow

Tom Farsides:

03-10-02

Tom Farsides:

03-10-02

ATP: Social Psychology: Lecture 22, Humanism Tom Farsides (SOC)

Lecture contents

StructureThe self

Measures of the self-concept

ProcessSelf-actualization

Self-congruence

Positive regard

Maslow

ATP: Social Psychology: Lecture 22, Humanism Tom Farsides (SOC)

Structure: The self

Phenomenological foundation. Changing self, but with some stable patterned, organised

integrity.

The “self”, “me”, and “I” parts of the phenomenal field comprise the self-concept. Self-concept is essentially conscious.

Ideal self, Undesired self, etc..

ATP: Social Psychology: Lecture 22, Humanism Tom Farsides (SOC)

Measures of the self-concept

Q-sort

Adjective checklist

Semantic differential

Each can be used to measure actual and ‘possible’ selves.

Actual-Ideal discrepancy indicates ‘incongruence’

ATP: Social Psychology: Lecture 22, Humanism Tom Farsides (SOC)

“The 3 faces of Eve”

Osgood & Luria (1954)

Jane Normal, slightly on the good side of average.

Eve White Normal, but a little bad, passive, and weak.

Eve Black World idiosyncratically perceived to maintain ‘perfect’ self-

concept. Thus, hatred and fraud as positive values.

ATP: Social Psychology: Lecture 22, Humanism Tom Farsides (SOC)

Process: Self-actualization

The fundamental motivation for humans “to actualise, maintain, and enhance the experiencing organism” (i.e., the self).

Rogers (1951, p. 487)

Involves moving from: Simplicity to complexity. Dependence to independence. Solitude to socialisation. Rigidity to flexibility and freedom of expression.

ATP: Social Psychology: Lecture 22, Humanism Tom Farsides (SOC)

Process: Self-consistency

Lecky (1945) Rather than seeking pleasure and the avoidance of pain, Organisms strive to maintain self-structure. Organisms develop value systems, With valuation of the self at the centre. Self-consistency more important than utilitarian self-

reward. People with a poor self-concept will prefer others who

validate their view to others that provide positive feedback (inconsistent with self-concept).

ATP: Social Psychology: Lecture 22, Humanism Tom Farsides (SOC)

Process: Self-congruence

People actively strive for congruence between their self-concept and their perceived experience.

Incongruence leads to tension, experienced as anxiety.

Subception allows pre-conscious awareness of incongruent experiences, making defence possible, e.g., distortion, denial, rationalisation, fantasy, projection.

ATP: Social Psychology: Lecture 22, Humanism Tom Farsides (SOC)

Research on self-congruence

Chodorkoff (1954) People, particularly poorly adjusted ones, were slower to

recognise personally threatening than neutral words.

Cartwright (1956) People, particularly poorly adjusted ones, were poorer at

remembering self-inconsistent descriptors than self-consistent ones.

Aronson & Mettee (1968) People low in self-esteem were more willing to cheat than

people with more positive self-concepts.

ATP: Social Psychology: Lecture 22, Humanism Tom Farsides (SOC)

Process: The need for positive regard

A need for positive regard underlies anxiety from incongruence.

Unconditional positive regard brings security to accept all aspects of perceived experience.

Conditions of worth bring the need to deny part of one’s own experience.

ATP: Social Psychology: Lecture 22, Humanism Tom Farsides (SOC)

Growth and development

Coopersmith (1967)

High self-esteem kids more assertive, independent, creative, flexible, imaginative, and willing to reject experience-inconsistent social definitions of reality.

Esteem not related to ‘external indicators of prestige’, such as wealth, education, or occupation.

Esteem apparently influenced by important others’ reflected appraisal.

Parents typically high in (i) degree of unconditional acceptance and interest; (ii) explicit demands, firmly enforced; and (iii) democratic practices and respect within parameters set.

ATP: Social Psychology: Lecture 22, Humanism Tom Farsides (SOC)

Psychopathology

Occurs when the need for positive regard from others becomes stronger than a desire to strive for self-actualisation.

Historically, Rogers championed non-directive reflection, then client-centred therapy, then something akin to ‘positive reflected appraisals’ (my term).

Latter involves (i) congruence/genuineness, (ii) unconditional positive regard, and (iii) empathic understanding.

ATP: Social Psychology: Lecture 22, Humanism Tom Farsides (SOC)

Abraham Maslow

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Salience in the hierarchy

ATP: Social Psychology: Lecture 22, Humanism Tom Farsides (SOC)

Evaluation

Four key criticisms (second and fourth ‘mine’):

(1) What of processes beyond the conscious phenomenal field?

(ii) Why confer the monopoly of validity on phenomenology? “On what basis are you so convinced that you have understood your client better

than Mr. Freud has understood his patient?” (MacLeod, 1964, p. 138)

(iii) How possible is it to study others’ phenomenology without bias?

(iv) On what basis must/may we assume the model of man borrowed from Rousseau?