Chapter 11 / The Humanistic Approach PDF

274 Chapter 11 / The Humanistic Approach If this phrase describes you only slightly, you might place it in Category 6. If you think you are a very quiet person, you might put the card in Category 1 or 2. A key difference between the Q-Sort and other assessment procedures is that the Q-Sort sets li...

274 Chapter 11 / The Humanistic Approach If this phrase describes you only slightly, you might place it in Category 6. If you think you are a very quiet person, you might put the card in Category 1 or 2. A key difference between the Q-Sort and other assessment procedures is that the Q-Sort sets limits on how many cards can be placed in each category. Indecisive test takers are forced, for example, to select only a few cards that are most descriptive of them. When all the cards are sorted, you have a neatly arranged profile of your self-concept. After recording which cards you placed into which categories, you would then be asked to shuffle the deck and take the test again. However, this time you would distribute the cards according to your “ideal” self. Thus, if “is a talkative individual” does not describe you very well, but you want to become more talkative, you would move this card to a higher category than you used during the first sort. After you have laid out descriptions of your “real” and “ideal” selves, you and the therapist can compare the two profiles. The Q-Sort technique fits very nicely with Rogers’ theory for several reasons. Consistent with Rogers’ assumption that clients know themselves best, clients are allowed to describe themselves however they please. Of course, a therapist will not always agree with a client’s placement of the cards. A client might describe herself as socially aware, polite, and sensitive to the needs of others when a perceptive therapist sees right away that her crude insensitivity may be part of her problem. The task for the therapist in this case is to help the client come to see herself in a more realistic light. By assigning each card a number from 1 to 9 according to its category, we can compute a correlation coefficient (Chapter 2) between a client’s real self and his or her ideal self. For a psychologically healthy person, the two should be very similar. If category values are identical for both profiles, a perfect 1.0 correlation would be obtained, although it is difficult to imagine people being just like their ideal selves in every way. The further the correlation is from 1.0, the less accepting people are of themselves and the less fully functioning. Clients whose real and ideal selves are completely unrelated would have a zero correlation. Clients’ profiles can also be negatively correlated if their real and ideal selves are at opposite sides of the distribution on many of the descriptions. Consistent with Rogers’ assumption, researchers find that a high correlation between a person’s real and ideal self is related to positive well-being (Gough, Fioravanti, & Lazzari, 1983; Gough, Lazzari, & Fioravanti, 1978). Other studies find that real and ideal self correlations increase as clients move through client-centered psychotherapy (Butler, 1968). To illustrate how the Q-Sort can be used to track therapeutic progress, let’s look at one of Rogers’ clients ­(Rogers, 1961). This 40-year-old woman came to Rogers with problems that included an unhappy marriage and guilt about her daughter’s psychological problems. The woman attended 40 therapy sessions over the course of 5 1/2 months and returned a few months later for some additional sessions. She completed the real and ideal self Q-Sorts at the beginning and at various stages during her treatment. She also completed the Q-Sort at two follow-up sessions, 7 and 12 months after her therapy. The correlations among the various Q-Sorts are presented in Figure 11.3. Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Assessment: The Q-Sort Technique 275 0.72 0.75 0.78 Self-Ideal 0.21 0.47 0.45 0.69 0.71 0.79 Self 0.39 0.65 0.30 51/2 months Before Therapy Figure 11.3 7 months After Therapy 5 months First Follow-Up Second Follow-Up Changing Real and Ideal Self Q-Sorts for a 40-Year-Old Female Client Source: From Rogers, C. (June 1995). International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 1, 31–41. Copyright © 1955. Reprinted by Permission of SAGE. Several important changes in the way the woman viewed her real self and her ideal self occurred during her treatment. The similarity between the two sorts increased significantly over the course of the therapy and continued to grow even after she discontinued the sessions. At the beginning of her treatment, her real and ideal self Q-Sorts were quite discrepant, correlating at only .21. In other words, when she first entered Carl Rogers’ office, she did not see herself at all as the kind of person she wanted to be. However, as therapy progressed, the two descriptions became more and more alike. In particular, the client changed the way she viewed herself. We can tell this from the low correlation (.30) between the way she described herself at the beginning of the therapy and the way she described herself at the end. By exploring her feelings in these person-centered sessions, the client came to see herself in very different and presumably more accurate terms. There also were some noticeable but less dramatic changes in the way the woman described her ideal self. Clients sometimes enter therapy expecting near perfection of themselves and consider themselves failures when they fall short of impossible goals. When these individuals adopt more realistic expectations—that is, change their ideal selves—they come closer to accepting themselves for who they are. Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 276 Chapter 11 / The Humanistic Approach Strengths and Criticisms of the Humanistic Approach T he humanistic movement hit psychology like a storm in the 1960s. Therapists from every perspective were converted to the person-centered approach, and humanistic-oriented encounter groups and workshops sprang up everywhere. Then, almost as quickly as it arrived, the third force movement seemed to fade in the late 1970s. Many converts became disenchanted, some humanistic-oriented programs in education and the workplace were declared failures, and the number of popular paperbacks capitalizing on the movement dwindled. But, also like a storm, the humanistic approach to personality left reminders of its presence. Today a large number of practicing psychotherapists identify themselves as humanistic in their orientation, and many others have adopted various Rogerian techniques in their practice. Humanistic psychologists enjoy an active division in the American Psychological Association and publish their own journal. Although the movement never replaced the well-­e ntrenched psychoanalytic or behavioral approaches, it remains an appealing alternative for many people inside and outside of the discipline. This ebb and flow of popularity suggests that the humanistic approach, like other approaches to personality, has both strengths and points for criticism. Strengths Because personality theorists often dwell on psychological problems, the humanists’ positive approach offers a welcome alternative. The writings of Rogers and Maslow remain popular with each new generation of students. One enduring contribution of humanistic psychology is its emphasis on the healthy side of personality. Recently, we have seen a huge interest in what has been called positive psychology (Lopez, 2009; Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005). That is, an increasing number of researchers are turning their attention to such topics as creativity, happiness, and sense of well-being. Not surprisingly, humanistic psychology has had a huge impact on the way psychologists and counselors approach therapy. Many therapists identify themselves as “humanistic” (Cook et al., 2010). More important, several aspects of the humanistic approach to therapy have been adopted or modified in some form by a large number of therapists from other theoretical perspectives (Cain & Seeman, 2002). Many therapists embrace Rogers’ suggestion to make their clients the center of therapy. In addition, many therapists include in their practices such Rogerian techniques as therapist empathy, positive regard for clients, giving clients responsibility for change, and self-disclosure by client and therapist. Humanistic psychology’s influence has not been limited to psychology and psychotherapy. Students in education, communication, and business are often introduced to Rogers’ and Maslow’s writings. Many employers and organizational psychologists are concerned about promoting job satisfaction by taking care of employees’ higher needs. And many teachers and parents have adopted or modified some of Rogers’ Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Strengths and Criticisms of the Humanistic Approach 277 suggestions for education and child rearing. Because they focus on issues that many of us address in our lives—fulfilling personal potential, living in the here and now, finding happiness and meaning—books by Maslow, Rogers, and other humanistic psychologists can still be found in popular bookstores. One team of researchers went to the Internet to get an idea of humanistic psychology’s popularity (Peterson & Park, 2010). A Google search for Maslow’s hierarchy of needs produced more than 3,800,000 website hits. The researchers also located more than 766,000 images of the hierarchy of need pyramid, which is more than the number of Internet images for either The Last Supper or the Mona Lisa. Criticisms Like all influential personality theories, the humanistic approach has its critics. One area of controversy concerns humanistic psychology’s reliance on the concept of free will to explain human behavior. Some psychologists argue that this reliance renders the humanistic approach unfit for scientific study. Science relies on the notion that events are determined by other events, and psychology relies on the assumption that behavior is determined and therefore predictable. However, if we accept the idea that behavior is sometimes caused by free will, which is not subject to these laws of determination, the assumption falls apart. Because we can explain any behavior as caused by “free will,” no investigation will ever fail to support a free will interpretation. In response to this criticism, humanistic psychologists and others have argued that, whereas we may not be able to predict any specific behavior with 100% certainty, we can identify patterns that allow us to predict the likelihood that a person will act a certain way in a certain situation. Some philosophers refer to this perspective as statistical determinism. That is, people may freely make choices about how they will behave, but those choices are still based on factors that scientists can often observe, measure, and perhaps manipulate. We should also point out that critics of humanistic psychology’s emphasis on free will typically do not argue that free will does not exist—only that it cannot be explored through scientific inquiry. Another criticism of the humanistic approach is that many key concepts are poorly defined. What exactly is “self-actualization,” “fully functioning,” or “becoming”? How do we know if we’re having a “peak experience” or just a particularly pleasant time? Maslow argued that we simply don’t know enough about self-actualization and personal growth to provide clear definitions. But this defense is far from satisfying for most researchers. How can we investigate self-actualization if we can’t decide who’s got it and who hasn’t? Because most psychologists are trained as researchers, the inability to pin down humanistic concepts causes many to challenge the usefulness of the approach. Some psychologists have criticized the humanistic approach for its lack of scientific rigor. Although Rogers is to be commended for his efforts to assess the effectiveness of person-centered therapy, he nonetheless often relied on intuition when developing his ideas about personality. Similarly, Maslow selected people for his list of “self-actualized” individuals based on his own subjective impressions. Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 278 Chapter 11 / The Humanistic Approach Other psychologists point to the limited applicability of humanistic psychotherapy techniques. These critics argue that humanistic psychotherapy may be limited to a narrow band of problems. Creating the proper atmosphere for personal growth may be of little help to someone with an extreme psychological disorder. Similarly, reflecting on one’s values and direction in life might prove beneficial for well-­educated, middle-class clients, but these questions might be irrelevant to someone from a different background. Humanistic psychologists have also been criticized for making some overly naive assumptions about human nature. For example, most humanistic theorists assume that all people are basically good. Although this is more a theological than an empirical question, many people find the premise hard to accept. Another assumption many find difficult to swallow is that each of us has a desire to fulfill some hidden potential. Maslow’s description of self-actualization implies that each individual is somehow destined to become, for example, a painter, a poet, or a carpenter. For Maslow, the key is discovering which of these true selves lies bottled up inside waiting to be developed. But whether this bottled-up self really exists in all people is questionable. The predeterministic nature of this part of Maslow’s theory also seems to contradict the general free will emphasis of the humanistic approach. Summary 1. The humanistic approach to personality grew out of discontent with the psychoanalytic and behavioral descriptions of human nature prominent in the 1950s and 1960s. Humanistic psychology has its roots in European existential philosophy and the works of some American ­psychologists, most notably Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. 2. Although many approaches to psychotherapy have been described as humanistic, four criteria seem important for classifying a theory under this label. These criteria are an emphasis on personal responsibility, an emphasis on the here and now, focusing on the experience of the individual, and an emphasis on personal growth. 3. Carl Rogers introduced the notion of a fully functioning person. According to his theory, we all progress toward a state of fulfillment and happiness unless derailed by life’s obstacles. People who encounter evidence that contradicts their self-concept often rely on distortion and denial to avoid anxiety. People who grow up in families that give only conditional positive regard may come to deny certain aspects of themselves. Rogers advocated the use of unconditional positive regard by parents and therapists to overcome this denial. 4. Abraham Maslow introduced a hierarchy of human needs. According to this concept, people progress up the hierarchy as lower needs are satisfied. Maslow also examined psychologically healthy people. He found several characteristics typical of these self-actualized individuals, including the tendency by some to have frequent peak experiences. Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Summary 279 5. One recent outgrowth of the humanistic approach to personality is presented by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. He finds people describe the happiest and most rewarding moments in their lives in terms of a “flow” experience. Csikszentmihalyi argues that turning one’s life into a series of challenging and absorbing tasks, what he calls optimal experiences, increases happiness and personal fulfillment. 6. One of Rogers’ contributions to psychology is the person-centered approach to psychotherapy. Rogers said the therapist’s job is to create the proper atmosphere for clients’ growth. This is accomplished by entering a genuine relationship with clients, providing unconditional positive regard, and helping clients hear what they are saying. 7. Many person-centered therapists have adopted the Q-Sort assessment procedure. This procedure allows therapists and clients to see discrepancies between clients’ images of themselves and the person they would like to be. Therapists can administer the Q-Sort at various points during treatment to measure therapy progress. Improvement is seen when ­clients close the gap between their real and ideal selves. 8. Among the strengths found in the humanistic approach to personality are the attention given to the positive side of personality and the influence this approach has had on psychotherapy and other areas. Criticisms include the unscientific reliance on free will to explain behavior and the difficulty in dealing with many of the poorly defined constructs used by humanistic theorists. Some therapists have challenged the usefulness of person-centered therapy for many types of psychological problems. The humanistic approach has also been criticized for making many naive assumptions about human nature. Key Terms conditional positive regard (p. 260) hierarchy of needs (p. 263) self-actualization (p. 264) optimal experience (p. 268) fully functioning (p. 257) Q-Sort (p. 272) unconditional positive regard (p. 261) Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.