HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE

Humanistic Psychology

Late 1950s-early 1960’s “make love, not war” era beginning. Doesn’t jive with:

Psychoanalysis: too pessimisticBehavioralism: too deterministicTrait: too objective

Along came psychologists wanted to focus on “healthy” people and how to help them strive to “be all that they can be”.

ABRAHAM MASLOWStudied healthy, creative people (not mentally ill)

Found in them a desire to self-actualize (fulfill their potential).

Self-actualizing people are: self aware, caring, open, spontaneous, loving, secure, problem-centered, have a few deep relationships, moved by peak experiences

Peak experience= sudden feelings of intense happiness and well-being, and possibly the awareness of "ultimate truth" and the unity of all things.

Who did Maslow study?

Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Deficiency needs (bottom four levels): Needs that are salient only when deficient.

Being need (self-actualization): a need that is always salient.

According to Maslow, only 2-3% of people are truly self-actualizing.

Neurosis

If you have significant difficulty fulfilling a need at some point in your life you may “fixate” at that level and develop neuroses.

Meredith Gray was abandoned by her father and raised by an emotionally cold mother, causing her to fixate at the belongingness stage. Now, she has difficulty accepting love from others.

Carl Rogers’s Person-Centered Perspective

People are basically GOOD.

•We are like acorns; we need a nurturing environment to grow.

Acorns need water, sun, and air to grow.We need genuineness, acceptance and empathy to grow.

Genuineness

Being open with your own feelings.

•Dropping your facade.

•Being transparent and self-disclosing.

Acceptance

Unconditional Positive Regard:

An attitude of acceptance regardless of circumstances.

Accepting yourself or others completely.

Empathy

Listening, sharing, understanding and mirroring feelings and reflecting their meanings.

…Unconditioned Positive Regard (UPR)

Assessing the Personality

Questionnaire to describe who you are and who you want to be.

Goal of therapy is to bring the two together. How????

Real self Ideal self

Client-centered therapy

Developed by Carl Rogers Therapist offers UPR

(genuineness, acceptance, and empathy).

Active listening Non-directive Patient gets in touch with

“real self” and is happy.

Is there evidence for humanism?

Some. Self-knowledge helps: Research shows that we perform better if we take time to set clear goals for ourselves.

Correlational studies show that people who feel good about themselves have fewer sleepless nights, resist pressure to conform, are less likely to use drugs, are more persistent at difficult tasks, are less shy and lonely, and are happier.(does high self-esteem causes these or is it the other way around?)

Experimental research has shown that low-self esteem can CAUSE people to act thin-skinned, judgmental, more prejudiced, and excessively critical.

Self-Serving Bias

A readiness to perceive oneself favorable.

•People accept more responsibility for successes than failures.

•Appears to be adaptive as it wards off extreme depression.

Does culture play a part in our personality (according to humanistic psychologists)?

Individualism: giving priority to one’s own goals over group goals. Defining your identity in terms of yourself. More privacy, more accepting of different lifestyles, people

feel free to switch jobs, churches, and homes. Collectivism: giving priority to the goals of a group

and defining your identity as part of that group. Less divorce, homicide, stress-related disease, and

loneliness

Criticisms of Humanism

Concepts are vague and subjective

Can lead to self-indulgence, selfishness, and erosion of morals

Fails to appreciate the human capacity for evil.