Humanistic Psychology: Origins and Concepts

Humanistic Approach

• Least developed area in psychology
• Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow are key figures
• Positive psychology evolved from this approach
• Focus is on understanding happiness in healthy individuals
• Seeks to define psychological well-being

Roots of Humanistic Psychology

• Behaviorism and humanistic views share similar views on human psychology's place
• Psychoanalysis has a pessimistic outlook compared to the humanistic approach
• Understanding the humanistic view is easier by examining its origins
• In the mid-20th century, psychology had two main views of humanity: the Freudian and Behaviorist concepts
• Freudians considered people victims of unconscious sexual and aggressive drives
• Behaviorism viewed people as conditioned animals responding to their environment with no control
• People behave based on their circumstances, not personal choice
• Humanistic psychology emphasizes personal responsibility, distinguishing it from other personality theories
• People have the power to shape their destiny and make choices, even if influenced by unconscious impulses

Phenomenology

• Philosophical movement focused on studying consciousness from a first-person perspective
• Focuses on subjective experiences and interpretations to understand different perspectives
• Relates to the concept of "free will" as a form of motivated awareness
• Awareness is subjective, not an objective reality
• Subjective awareness drives how people interpret things
• The duck-rabbit illusion shows how one can see only one image at a time from their viewpoint

Existential Philosophy

• Explores the meaning of human existence
• Highlights the importance of personal choice and uniqueness
• Failing to find identity and meaning can lead to existential angst
• "I am the only person who can come to terms with the purpose of my own life"
• Client-Centered Therapy asserts clients can solve their own problems and the therapist is there to guide
• Existential philosophy addresses key humanistic questions, including free will and individual uniqueness
• Existential psychotherapy addresses existential anxiety, such as the dread from realizing life's meaninglessness
• Therapy emphasizes the freedom to choose a lifestyle that relieves boredom and anxiety

Key Elements of the Humanistic Approach: Personal Responsibility

• Individuals are responsible for creating their own lives
• Owning your story means you get to write the ending
• Each person has the power to direct their life's path

Personal Responsibility: Considerations

• Unlike Freudian and behavioral views, humanistic psychologists see people as active controllers of their lives, only limited by physical constraints
• Humanistic therapies encourage clients to believe they can achieve their desires
• The power of choice can be daunting
• Abstractly, the idea of freedom is appealing
• Personally accepting responsibility for one's fate can be intimidating
• Taking duty means avoiding self-pity and blaming others
• Changing requires personal action

Key Elements of the Humanistic Approach: The Here and Now

• Live in the present without being purely self-indulgent
• Every day is a new beginning
• A belief that motivated individuals build a motivated world
• seize the moment

The Here and Now: Considerations

• Fully functioning individuals live life as it unfolds, according to humanistic views
• While some past/future reflection is useful, dwelling on past events/future plans is not
• Humanists believe one shouldn't be a victim of the past
• Experiences shape individuals but do not dictate future potential
• The past is a guide but not a restraint

Key Elements of the Humanistic Approach: The Experience of the Individual

• How one experiences the world
• Consciousness is both simple and mysterious
• Positive psychology is a revival of humanistic psychology, which revolves around unique human capacity and the meaning of life
• Positive experiences include mindfulness, awe, and flow
• No one knows you better than You
• Therapists seek to comprehend a clients experiences, by creating an empathetic environment and helping clients understand themselves and cope

Positive Experience: AWE

• Encountering something grand produces reverence, wonder, and sometimes fear
• Some are naturally more open to awe

Positive Experience: MINDFULNESS

• Mindfulness is being conscious and aware
• A mental state achieved by focusing on the present, calmly noticing thoughts and sensations
• Mindfulness is used therapeutically

Monks and Meditation

• Neuroscience research has studied brain activity and wavelengths in meditating monks

Positive Experience: FLOW (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi)

• The book describes attaining peak performance
• Flow is a state of optimal performance
• Attention is fully absorbed in the present task
• Activity is challenging and requires skill
• Concentration is only on the current task
• This leads to the achievement of personal control
• There is a loss of self-consciousness and disrupted time perception

The Experience of the Individual: Personal Growth

• Carl Rogers: Fully Functioning Person aims to maximize potential
• Abraham Maslow: Self-Actualization
• Humanistic psychologists think there's more to life than just basic needs
• Happiness involves positive growth
• Humanistic approach says motivation comes from the desire to be in a satisfying state
• Carl Rogers called this state "fully functioning"
• Abraham Maslow called it "self-actualization", which defines one becoming everything that one is capable of

Carl Rogers

• Rogers saw the "becoming" process as one that leads to personal growth with help from a humanistic therapist
• Rogers believed each individual could lead a fulfilling and happy life
• The Fully Functioning Person strives for life satisfaction
• This person is independent and complete
• Person-Centered Therapy focuses on congruence in self-concept
• Ideal Self defines who we want to be
• True Self defines who we are in reality
• Rogers advocated for group therapy early on
• Rogers broadened his client work into a theory of personality
• In his later work, Rogers used the humanistic approach to address issues such as world peace and education

Fully Functioning Person

• Defined as someone striving for life satisfaction
• Has several common traits
• Open to new experiences
• Instead of sticking to familiar patterns, they are open to life
• Fully functioning persons live in the moment, experiencing life rather than just letting it pass
• They trust their feelings
• They are sensitive to others, but aren't trying to meet the standards society sets for them
• They experience emotions, both good and bad, more intensely than others

Anxiety and Defense

• Roger believed anxiety occurs when encountering things inconsistent with our self-perception
• An example would be thinking you're well-liked, but hearing someone call you unkind
• Lacking full functionality, this triggers anxiety
• If the information is too threatening, the anxiety can be difficult to manage
• Rogers adapts a Freudian concept, by proposing threatening info is initially processed below consciousness through "subception"
• Rogers says the common defense is distortion, where someone convinces themselves by bending reality
• When people see themselves negatively they distort and deny when encountering information to the contrary
• Example: Someone might dismiss admiration by saying the person is just being kind or wants something
• Eventually, the gap between reality and self-concept becomes too large for defenses to work
• Resulting in a state of disorganization
• When the defense mechanisms break down it results in extreme anxiety

Conditional Positive Regard

• Parents show affection only when the child meets expectations and disapprove witholding admiration for certain behaviors
• Children require and desire positive regard, which is conditional on behavior
• The child learns to only accept aspects deemed appropriate by parents
• Negative impacts continue into adulthood
• People add characteristics only if it ensures others approve of them
• Instead of recognizing and expressing aspects that others might disprove, they simply deny
• Losing touch with true self causes one to become less fully functional

Unconditional Positive Regard (UPR)

• The antidote to conditional love; being accepted no matter what
• Individuals know they're loved and approved regardless of actions/words
• Rogers advised to share that disapproval does not equate to lack of love
• This conditions removes the desire to hide certain thoughts or feelings
• One can be free to add faults and weaknesses to their self-concepts and thus better experience life

Application in Daily Life

• Friendships and relationships can be based on unconditional positive regard
• Psychologists can establish an atmosphere of UPR
• Rogers thought this type of accepting environment was key for effective treatment

Abraham Maslow: Motivation and Hierarchy of Needs

• Studied psychologically healthy people
• Identified deficiency and growth motives
• Deficiency Motives stem from lacking necessities and are satisfied when obtained
• Growth Motives stem from the pursuit of self-actualization, and aren't satisfied by attaining the object of need itself
• The Self-Actualized Person identifies with their true self and achieves full potential

Maslow: Self-Actualization

• Self-aware and accepting
• Open and spontaneous
• Not swayed by others' opinions
• Secure
• Enjoys work as a pursuit

Abraham Maslow: Focus

• He focused on the conscious aspects of personality
• Wanted to study the healthy side of personality positively

Maslow: Two Types of Motives Described

• Deficiency motives arise from a lack of needed objects
• Basic needs like hunger and thirst fall under deficiency motives
• Once obtained, deficiency motives are satisfied and no longer direct our behavior
• Growth motives are not satisfied by finding the object we desire
• Growth needs include expressing the given motive, for example, love or pursuit of unique potential
• Satisfying growth may increase motivation, rather than lessening

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

• He defined 5 basic categories, deficiency and growth, and arranged them in order of lowest to highest
• Lower levels are met before moving up to higher levels
• Physiological Needs include hunger, thirst, air, and sleep
• They must be fulfilled to move on to higher-level needs
• Safety Needs ensures security, stability, protection, order, and freedom
• These needs become strong when there's political instability or unpredictability
• Those motivated by safety needs might save obsessively

Belongingness and Love Needs

• Lower-level satisfaction doesn't guarantee happiness
• Friendship soon emerges
• Maslow identified two kinds of love: D-love and B-love
• D-love: Like hunger, stems from a need to satisfy one's emptiness
• D-love is selfless
• D-love is a step that is necessary for B-love to occur
• B-love: Is selfless and stems for growth needs rather than deficiency
• A relationship satisfies B-love through experience and growth

Esteem Needs

• Satisfying belongingness leads to pursuing esteem
• Maslow divided the needs into two types: competence/achievement and respect/admiration
• The two types can often happen in tandem
• Feeling good requires admiring the worth of someone who matters

Need for Self-Actualization

• Once lower-level needs are taken care of, discontent becomes prevalent
• People question the direction their lives should take and what they want to achieve
• Meeting the need for self-actualization means someone can identify their true selves and achieve full potential