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Humanist Approach (Self Actualisation (Every person has an innate tendency…
Humanist Approach
Self Actualisation
Every person has an innate tendency to achieve their full potential and this is the top level of Maslow's HON
All four of the lower levels (Deficiency needs) must be satisfied before the individual can work towards self actualisation (Growth need) and fulfil their potential
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Personal growth is concerned with developing and changing as a person to become fulfilled, satisfied and goal orientated
Not everyone will manage this however and there are important psychological barriers that may prevent a person from reaching their potential
Evaluation (AO3)
Not reductionist - Humanists reject any attempt to break up behaviour and experience into smaller components
Limited application - unlike other approaches humanistic psychology has relatively little real world application
Positive Approach - Humanistic psychologists have been praised for bringing the person back into psychology
Untestable concepts - Humanistic psychology does include a number of vague ideas that are abstract and difficult to test
The self, Congruence and conditions of worth
Rogers argued that for personal growth to be achieved an individuals concept of self (the way they see themselves) must have congruence with the ideal self (the person they want to be)
if to big of a gap exists between the two selves the person will experience a state of incongruence and self actualisation will not be possible due to the negative feelings of self worth that arise from incongruence
In order to reduce the gap between the self concept and the ideal self, Rogers developed client centred therapy to help people cope with the problems of everyday living such as worthlessness and low self esteem
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Free Will
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This does not mean that people are not affected by external or internal influences but we are active agents who have the ability to determine our own development
For this reason humanistic psychologists such as Rogers and Maslow, reject scientific models that attempt to establish general principles of human behaviour
We are all unique and psychology should concern itself with the study of subjective experience rather than general laws, its referred to as a people entered approach