Humanistic Theory
Humanistic Approach
 It encompasses phenomenological and existential
approaches to human nature.
- Phenomenological- focuses on subjective experience.
- Existentialism - focuses on the authenticity, freedom,
responsibility, and choice of the individual confronted
with the threat of meaninglessness and non-existence.
 The height of its popularity was in the 1960s and 1970s,
but it continues to have an important influence on the
practice of clinical (and to a much lesser extent, academic)
psychology.
 Humanistic personality theorists
- Abraham Maslow
- Carl Rogers
- Rollo May
Humanistic Approach (con’t)
• The emphasis by Humanistic theorists such as Rollo
May, Carl Rogers, and Abraham Maslow are
different  but they all agreed on a few basic points.
• Unlike Freud, they believed in the inherent goodness
of human nature  i.e. If people could discover their
"true self" (Rogers); if they could "self-actualize"
(Maslow); if they had the "courage to be" (May)-then they would live whole, happy, worthwhile lives.
• These theorists focused on the here and now,(the
present) instead of the historical causes of behavior.
Humanistic Approach (con’t)
• This contrasts starkly with Freud's emphasis
on past experience as determinants of all
future behavior.
• The humanistic psychologists claimed that
people had responsibility, choice, and
freedom in determining their own behavior
(not the unconscious forces that control their
behavior).
• The humanistic psychologists believe that
people could only be understood holistically
(as wholes).
Abraham Maslow
 Maslow is best known for his "hierarchy of needs,“
- Described a series of needs that people need to satisfy
before they could reach their full potential.
 Maslow’s Humanist Pychology emphasizes personal
growth,resilience, & the achievement of human potential.
- Focuses on the whole person's subjective experience
of life & on the person's potential for self-actualization
(includes self- expression, creatively, connectedness,
meaning, purpose, and direction in life.)
• Maslow emphasized the particular needs that people
need to satisfy before they could become self-actualized.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (con’t)
• He organized these needs into a hierarchy, with the
more basic, fundamental needs at the bottom and the
more complex, self-actualizing needs at the top.
• The levels of needs, in ascending order, are as
follows:
– Physiological needs: food, water, sleep, etc.
– Safety needs: shelter, protection from attack, etc.
– Belongingness and love needs: establishing social
ties
– Esteem needs: self-respect and respect from
others
– Self-actualization needs: self-expression,
creativity, self-discovery, connectedness, and
purpose.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Self-Actualization
Esteem
Belongingness
Safety
Physiological
Figure 13.1 Abraham Maslow's
Hierarchy of Needs
What’s important is….
• Each of the lower stages needs to be relatively
satisfied first, before the individual can tackle the
needs of the next higher level.
• A person who has not satisfied basic physiological
needs will not be able to work on establishing selfrespect.
• According to Maslow satisfaction of each needs
was only relative (a person could be somewhat
hungry or sleep-deprived but still working towards
self-actualization)  and that multiple needs could
contribute to a single action.
Carl Rogers
• Influence highly on views of psychotherapy:
• He believe that the purpose of psychotherapy was to help
patients find their "true selves."
• For him, that meant helping patients discover & eliminate
(as much as possible) the differences between the ways
they thought, felt, and acted, & the ways they thought
they should think, feel, and act; i.e. emphasizing on:
– Unconditional Positive Regard
• A situation in which the acceptance and love one receives
from significant others is unqualified
– Conditional Positive Regard
• A situation in which the acceptance and love one receives
from significant others is contingent upon one’s behavior
• Rogers believed that human behavior and thoughts
originated in their social judgments  such as parents'
scolding of a child's behavior.
Carl Rogers (con’t)
• The focus of Rogers' personality theory was the self.
• As a psychotherapist, he repeatedly heard his patients talk about
discovering, or losing, their "true selves." – WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
• To make sense of this Roger differentiate between a
person's behavior, thoughts, and feelings, on one hand,
and their self-concept, on the other.
• The self-concept  consisted of a set of beliefs about
behaviors, thoughts, and feelings that could be more or
less discrepant, or incongruous, with the person's real
behaviors, thoughts, and feelings.
• A person whose self-concept was radically different from
his true self would always be confuse  constantly
running into situations in which his behavior surprised or
upset him.
But, Why would someone develop
such an inappropriate self- concept?
• Rogers argued that the self-concept was
strongly influenced by society.
• And Society disapproves of a wide range of
behaviors  so many choose to ignore those
behaviors in themselves -to leave them out of
their self- concept, instead of integrating them
into a holistic understanding of their behavior.
• Therefore, the goal of Rogerian therapy is to
help people discover their true selves  by
illuminating these "conditions of worth" and
facilitating integration of previously-ignored
aspects of the self.
Carl Rogers’ Personality Theory
The needs for self-actualization and positive regard create a
potential for conflict.
Rollo May
• The most important concept for May was the "courage
to be,"
– Meaning that each person need to take
responsibility for his or her own choices even though
constantly threatened by failure and, more
importantly…
– the possibility of non-being (death or dissolution).
• According to May, personal growth and selfactualization were the result of courageously facing
one's anxiety about non-being by choosing to act
responsibly in the world.
• Shared with humanists the belief in free will and
freedom of choice but also emphasized loneliness,
anxiety and alienation.
• Extistentialism Free will confers on us responsibility
for our actions.
Evaluating Humanists
• Difficulty in operationalizing define many of
the concepts.
• Humanists have added balance to the study
of personality.
• The approach has encouraged others to
focus on “positive psychology.”
• The argument that we have the power to
choose our own destiny has fostered a new
appreciation for resilience.