Study sheet: Humanistic Approach in Psychology

📋 Course Outline

1. Origins and Core Principles
2. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
3. Self-Concept and Congruence
4. Conditions of Worth
5. The Fully Functioning Person
6. Person-Centred Therapy
7. Positive View of Human Behaviour

📖 1. Origins and Core Principles

★ Must-know

📌 The humanistic approach views people as self-determining active agents with free will, whereas deterministic approaches explain behaviour as shaped by forces outside the person’s control.

📌 Humanistic psychologists prioritise the subjective experience of the individual rather than seeking general laws of behaviour.

• The humanistic approach emerged in the 1950s and 1960s in response to dissatisfaction with behaviourism and psychodynamic psychology.

Further detail

• Rogers, Maslow and Kelly were the three main psychologists associated with the dissatisfaction that led to the humanistic approach.

💡 Memory Hook

Humanistic freedom contrasts with behaviourist control and psychodynamic conflict.

📖 2. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Maslow’s hierarchy of needs : Maslow — proposes that human needs are arranged from basic needs at the bottom to higher-order needs at the top
• Self-actualisation : the fulfilment of a person’s potential through personal growth, development, change and becoming fulfilled

📝 Essential Points

📌 The first four levels of Maslow’s hierarchy are deficiency needs, whereas self-actualisation is a being need.

• The five levels are:
  • physiological needs
  • safety needs
  • love and belonging needs
  • esteem needs
  • self-actualisation

💡 Memory Hook

Physiological → safety → belonging → esteem → self-actualisation.

📖 3. Self-Concept and Congruence

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Self-concept : Rogers — the way an individual sees themselves
• Ideal self : the person an individual wants to be
• Incongruence : Rogers — a state in which the self-concept and ideal self are not broadly equivalent, preventing self-actualisation and personal growth

💡 Memory Hook

The self-concept is how I am; the ideal self is how I want to be.

📖 4. Conditions of Worth

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Unconditional positive regard : Rogers — accepting and loving a person regardless of what they do
• Conditions of worth : Rogers — limits placed on parental love when approval depends on a child behaving or achieving in a particular way

📝 Essential Points

• 🔄 The proposed consequence is (Rogers):
  1. conditions of worth
  2. incongruence
  3. negative feelings of self-worth
  4. low self-esteem

💡 Memory Hook

Conditional parental approval → incongruence, low self-esteem and blocked growth.

📖 5. The Fully Functioning Person

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Fully functioning person : Rogers — A fully functioning person trusts their own judgement, remains open to experience, experiences positivity and lives in the present rather than being stuck in the past or preoccupied with the future.

💡 Memory Hook

OAL: open, accepting, living in the moment.

📖 6. Person-Centred Therapy

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Person-centred approach : a form of therapy that focuses on reducing the gap between the self-concept and ideal self

📝 Essential Points

• Person-centred therapists provide unconditional positive regard, reduce the gap between the client’s self-concept and ideal self, and help the client cope with everyday pressures.

💡 Memory Hook

Unconditional positive regard → a smaller self–ideal-self gap and personal growth.

📖 7. Positive View of Human Behaviour

📝 Essential Points

📌 The humanistic approach presents behaviour as changeable and under personal control rather than fixed, doomed or inevitably determined by external or internal forces.

• Humanistic psychologists argue that every person has an innate tendency and desire to achieve their full potential.

💡 Memory Hook

Humanistic psychology sees people as changeable agents, not powerless victims of forces.

📊 Synthesis Tables

Humanistic and Dominant Approaches

Approach	View of human nature	Explanation of behaviour
Humanistic	Positive and capable of growth	Free will and self-determination
Behaviourist	People as controlled by the environment	Environmental forces
Psychodynamic	People as conflicted and driven by unconscious instincts	Unconscious forces