Overview: >free will, self actualisation, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, focus on the self, the influence on counselling psychology >emerged in the USA in the 1950's >Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow >Rogers said Freud focused on the sick half of psychology, so Rogers wanted to focus on the healthy >humans are self determining and have free will > doesn't mean we aren't affected by external agents BUT we are active and have the ability to determine our own development >For this, humanists reject the scientific models as they argued everyone is unique thus we cannot created general laws in regards to humans
Self actualisation: > this links to Maslow's hierarchy of needs >it is at the top of the triangle > all other needs must be met for a person to reach this stage >humanists regard persona growth as an essential part of what it is to be human > developing is about being satisfied and fulfilled > not everyone will reach this as their are many psychological barriers that can have an impact
The self, congruence and conditions of worth: >Carl Rogers >for personal growth to be achieved, an individuals concept of themselves must be broadly equivalent to their ideal self (what they want to be) >if the gap is too big, the person will experience a state of incongruence and self-actualisation will not be possible due to negative feelings of self-worth will arise >in order to reduce the gap, between the self=concept and ideal self, Rogers developed client-centred therapy to help people cope with problems of everyday life Aim of the therapy: increase self worth, reduce the level of incongruence and help the person become fully functioning > by looking at present problems instead of dwelling on the past >unconditional positive regard is v.important in the therapy (he created a list of things counsellors must do to ensure clients open up - so unconditional positive regard, was being unbiased to anything the person said which helped the person to open up) >Rogers claimed many issues we experience as adults, is due to problems within childhood due to lack of regard or love (i will only love you if....will cause problems when the child grows up)
EVALUATION: Not reductionist: -advocate holism - the idea that subjective experience can only be understood by considering the whole person -more valid than other approaches, as it considers humans in real life contexts
Limited application: -little real world application (its only really been seen in counselling techniques and that is it)
Positive approach: -promoting a positive image of the human condition -refreshing and optimistic approach in comparison to the other approaches
Pedagogy: > ask students what they believe is needed in order to be a 'whole person' - work in partners and feed back to the whole class >matching pairs for Maslow's Hierarchy of needs - concept and definition - students need to match them up >draw the hierarchy pyramid but interpret it in their own way >Rogers theory: ask students to describe how they wished they looked and then in pairs discuss if they meet their expectations > this can then lead in to an explanation of Rogers theory > AQA text book > apply it task (page 121) >Homework : Outline assumptions of humanistic psychology. Discuss how humanistic psychology is different from other approaches within psychology