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Personality - Humanism (Y1) - Coggle Diagram
Personality - Humanism (Y1)
Maslow - self actualisation and the hierarchy of needs
Self actualisation - humanistic approaches counter the Freudian perspective by focusing on the positive side of the human condition
Humanism - philosophical stance, human nature is inherently good, people have free will and there is an emphasis on personal growth
Maslow - self actualisation is the tendency towards growth (instinctoid tendencies) and self actualisation is the pinnacle of human growth
It is only pursued after all other needs are met
Self actualistion is a uniquely human need, and is a B-motive - it requires fulfilling potential, finding meaning and being at peace with oneself
Peak experiences.- one route to self actualisation, and is an experience in which the powers of the individual come together in an efficient and enjoyable way - take many forms and are unique to the individual
Flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1999) - a state of being in which we are so thoroughly engrossed in and enjoying the activity that the activity becomes worth doing just for the sake of doing it
Losing yourself in an activity - autotelic experience - pinnacle of human experience
One of the main routes to self actualisation
Immersion, effortless, just flows
Self actualisation exists temporarily in these moments of flow / peak experiences:
As these experiences are temporary, they are only a taste of self actualisation and it is in these moments that we are driven to do more
Some people are more prone to peak experiences and self actualisers are more creative in their everyday actions - able to repeat self actualisation experiences and reached best potential
Csikszentmihalyi - autotelic people find life more enjoyable and meaningful
Types of motives - these act as drives for our behaviours
Deficiency motives (D motives) - lack of something motivates us, and when we obtain it that motivation depletes
Being motives / growth motives (B motives) - unique to each individual, leads to happiness and fulfilment, and become stronger when met rather than disappearing
Baseline - D motives get us back to it, B motives move us beyond it
Leads to thriving and surviving
Hierarchy of needs
Basic needs - physiological needs that have to be satisfied before anything else
Satisfiers include D motives of food, water and sleep, and the B motive of sex
Safety needs - D motives of physical security, sense of order, freedom from stress, health
B motives of strength and improving physicality
Love/belonging needs - wanting to feel loved and accepted and connected with others (D motives) and then loving others as they are (B motives)
Esteem needs - esteem from others as a D motive, and self-esteem of wanting to feel competent, achieving and autonomous (B motive)
Self actualisation needs - higher order needs, all B motive - desire to fulfil potential, to be happy and to be at peace
Progression up the pyramid - Dominance and activation; the lowest of all unmet needs will dominate all the other motives
Physiological needs have the highest motivational drive
Drives our behavior towards satisfying needs; when one level of need is largely satisfied, next level of need is activated and the cycle continues until the self actualisation needs are activated
Prepotency - dominance of each unmet need decreases as we progress up the hierarchy
E.g. unmet physiological needs are much more prepotent and need solving before you can solve love and belonging needs
Self actualisation is the weakest of all motivational forces, and only becomes a motivator when all basic needs are met; even then, we still might not feel a strong pull towards self actualisation
All of the needs are constantly coexisting, but they take precedence of solution in the order of the hierarchy
Have to address basic needs in order to progress
ISSUE - where do certain needs go, and if we cannot define which needs require addressing we cannot progress
Maslow on personality - does not actually provide a personality theory, but rather a theory of personal motivation
Identifies and organises discrete types of motivation that drive our behaviour
If basic needs are unmet, this will determine our outward behaviour and thus personality
Our personality reflects whichever needs are dominant at that moment
People in peak experiences are closer to their true self
Testing, applying and evaluating Maslow
Testing the theory: Mathes - hierarchy is actually physiological -> belongingness -> self actualisation -> safety -> esteem
Mathes study - 100 university students and generated 5 satisfiers for each category in order to estimate the importance of satisfiers / needs
Created would you rather statements to compare the satisfiers across different levels of need
Physiological level only agreed level, Mathes argued that people feel self esteem needs were less important than all others
Maslow's original suggestion is not an accurate portrayal of human motives in different cultures and different times, or that each individual has their own hierarchy
Evaluation of Maslow's hierarchy - explanation of personality; better emphasises growth and achievement than Freudian approach, but does not acknowledge genes etc and so is simplistic
Empirical validity - organisational structures of hierarchy of needs not supported
Not systematic or scientific to focus on select, retrospective examples of self actualisers - subjective grouping
Legacy - hugely influential e.g. management and education
Carl Rogers and the theory of the self
Instinctive drive to develop and fulfil our potential through actualising ourselves
Two types of self - the real organismic self (true form) and the self concept (sense of who we are based on social contexts)
Self actualisation is the process in which the self concept and the organismic self match up, as self actualisation process requires optimal conditions - they overlap under optimal conditions
What typically happens is that people do not experience optimal conditions and as a result we lose sight of our real organismic self and we are distracted from the self actualisation as the self concept moves away from the process - fail to fulfil full potential
The optimal conditions -
self concept - our sense of self based on how others evaluate us
Unconditional positive regard - others' acceptance of us as we are
However, much positive regard is often conditional, and we are only then accepted if we meet certain conditions / people begin to think they are only worthwhile if they meet conditions
These conditions inform the self concept and drive us away from our true selves
We crave positive regard, and learn we are worth more to others when we can do things that please them
Conditions of worth - criteria we believe are needed to be met to achieve conditional positive regard, and give us a sense of who we think we should be- this stops us from accepting ourselves as we are, resulting in a lack of self actualisation
Focused on being a good person to others rather than self acceptance
These conditions of worth derail us and we do things that satisfy others, stopping us realising our own potential
Our need for positive regard leads us astray
Parents shape self actualisation - parents impose conditions of worth
However, it is often the same conditions of worth that they were subjected too
These determine the extent to which we are in touch with our self actualising tendencies
Parents, in an effort to make us good people, stop self acceptance
As we age, we move away from our true selves as we acquire more conditions of worth and so we are our truest selves when younger
Facilitating self actualisation - organismic valuing; an innate process of judging right or wrong
People must be trusted to apply this valuing process
Support from others often unintentionally imposes conditions of worth, inhibiting self actualisation
Children must be respected, trusted and given freedom to make their own choices
Applying and testing Rogers
Application to client centered therapy - goal is to provide an environment in which the client can:
Get back in touch with true self (congruence) - state of incongruence between organismic self and self concept
The closer the self concept and organismic self are, the more psychologically healthy you will be as you have realistic goals and expectations of your behaviour - also feel there are less conditions of worth
Accept themselves and emotions
Experience growth
Therapist must provide - unconditional positive regard, empathy, genuineness and allow the client to lead discussions
Application to education - effective education systems provide self worth and self acceptance
Traditional education imposes conditions of worth, stifles creativity and individuality; Montessori schooling is better
More opportunity to do as they wish and allows self actualisation
Person centered learning - accounting for individual needs, abilities and preferences
Rogers on personality - personality can be changed:
if people experience incongruence - therapist demonstrates unconditional positive regard and empathic understanding and genuoness, which client perceives, helping to solve their own conditions of worth and become more congruent
After this, the personality change towards organismic self is inevitable
You have a true personality and a socially constructed one - the closer they are, the happier and more self actualised you are (can only self actualise when congruent)
If not, the self concept drives personality, but this is not the true persona
Evidence for Roger's theory - Kirschenbaum and Jordan (2005) - generally positive correlations between presence of core conditions and positive client outcomes following therapy
But - assessment of techniques are not direct tests of Roger's theory and Roger's (1957) stated that is the core conditions are met, the specific therapeutic approach will not matter
Evaluation of Rogers: explanation of personality - overlooks unconscious role and overstates importance of the individual
Empirical validity - over realiance on evidence around therapy and people do not always know what is best for them
Legacy - hugely influential, especially in educational and therapy settings
All humanism theories are theories of MOTIVATION not PERSONALITY