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HUMANISTIC AND EXISTENTIAL PERSPECTIVES - Coggle Diagram
HUMANISTIC AND EXISTENTIAL PERSPECTIVES
what distinguishes humanistic and existential perspectives from others ?
share a focus on human existence as it is actually lived
addressing the self
implications for understanding personality
therapeutic and clinical applications
human and existential perspectives
indistinguishable - Rowan, 2015
Related yet distinct - Spinelli, 2015
3rd Force - humanistic psychology was a response to the two psychological theoretical perspectives that preceded it
Psycho dynamic
the unconscious
a focus on unknown internal states
ego copes with tension by creating defence mechanisms
a focus on the past in order to understand the present
knowledge based
BEHAVIOURIST
the mind is unknown-focus on objective measurement
any human can become conditioned - Watson, 1924
Skinner, 1971 - proposed re engineering society by a process of instrumental conditioning
FOUNDERS OF 3RD FORCE
Carl Rogers - 1951 - Client Centred Therapy
Abraham Maslow - 1954 - Motivation and Personality
Rollo May - 1958 - Existence
The Founders response to 1st / 2nd forces
Moss 2005
mainstream psychological schools
are reductionist
do not accurately reflect the experience of existence
give a diminished model of human nature
WHY
we share so much in common with other animals
96% of DNA is common to humans and chimps
but we are distinct in other ways
DASTUR 2012
how are we to confront death?
humans - the only animal that does not merely reproduce in terms of replaying the cycle of life from one generation to the next
we can continue the project of our parents, or create anew, reject, replicate, the way of the previous generation
for humans, there is a particular importance of meaning, reflection, inter-relatedness and temp-orality and finite life, so what we do with the that finite life?
THE FOUNDERS RESPONSE TO 1st and 2nd FORCES
mainstream psychological schools
give a diminished model of human nature
maslow investigated superior specimens - both living and dead, as a pathway to understanding the highest potentials of human and nature
MASLOWS HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
originally worked with monkeys in the Harlow Lab
Maslow noticed that some needs take precedence over others
4 layers of deficit needs
WHAT PROMOTES GROWTH?
Rogers provided the central clinical framework
psychology has contributed to our feelings that man is unfree
during the therapeutic process, the patient will become increasingly free through understanding the forces acting on them and the degree of choice that they have
THE SELF
the founders view of the self is that it is a pattern of change
rogers held that all living things have an essential pattern of dynamic change that serves to move them toward their full and mature development - Polkinghorne, 2005
RESURGENCE OF SELF
from 1980-1950s - little focus on self
SELF
people act out of their internal frame of reference - Rogers 1959
the unique way each of us perceives the world is called our phenomenal field
the phenomenal field encompasses all of our experiences, perceptions, meanings we give to our experiences and perception
the interplay between the actual self and self-concept is the key to understanding personality
SELF CONCEPT
experiences/ perceptions are available to awareness (primarily conscious) - Zahavi, 2006
my self-concept is the organised set of characteristics that I perceive to be peculiar to me
SELF OR SELVES ?
actual self - my actualising self
the ideal self - the self concept I would most like to processes
ought self - the self-concept I feel ought to possess through society or parents
we are motivated to seek congruence between these selves - Rogers 1961
Higgins 1987
when experience and self concepts differ
tension, anxiety arises
defence mechanisms are formed
two defence mechanisms - denial and distortion
psychological maladjustment results
Compare this to the psychoanalytic concept of defence mechanisms
DEFENCE MECHANISMS
Laing's view
freud showed us what 'shrivelled, desiccated fragments of human beings we are'' w
we talk of defence mechanisms as an impersonal process that can be observed - as such we are dissociated from them and suffer from them
we experience ourselves as a part person not a whole person
the first step is to be aware of the defence mechanisms
the next step is to regain the lost ground
ONE SELF OR MULTIPLE SELVES
our self understandings give meaning to experiences but also cover up other experiences that are inaccessible
our self concept can be introjected from others
we can then see ourselves as static, unchangeable
the humanistic view is that self is an entity that resides internally
THE AUTHENTIC PERSONALITY
congruence between
deeper internal states - conscious awareness
behaviours that are consistent with the person's conscious awareness and deeper underlying states
interactions with others that are resistant to external influences that may disrupt the congruence of behaviour, awareness and underlying states
self structure - sedimented rather than fluid
experience is a process, like flow
challenges of self-structure - self concept