• “It is not things in themselves that trouble
us, but our opinions of things.”
• “Change your thoughts and you change
your world."
• “I do not react to some absolute reality, but
to my perception of this reality. It is this
perception which for me is reality.”
Awareness is everything!
• Conscious experience is all that matters
• The past is only important if it affects your
thoughts and feelings now
• Even if “reality” exists, it doesn’t matter
• Note how different from other approaches
– Trait
– Genetic
– Psychodynamic
Humanistic Psychology
• The study of the mind is different than any
other science
• The mind is aware!
– The mind is attempting to understand the
mind
Awareness
• Existentialism
– The cs mind has a sense of “existence”
• Phenomenological
– The “phenomenon” of experience
• Humanistic
– This phenomenon is uniquely human
Phenomenological, Humanistic,
and Existentialism
• Free will
• Awareness
• Meaning
• Responsibilities of free will
• The object of study are human beings
Free Will
• Previous approaches
• CS experience is personality
• The UCS mind does not matter
• The past does not matter
• Only times these do matter is if you let them
– Gordon Liddy example
Awareness
• What does it feel like to exist?
• Umwelt
– Senses you feel as a biological organism
• Mitwelt
– Feelings related to social experiences
• Eigenwelt
– Feelings when you think of your own
existence
• What would you have been like if you. . .
• Were born to an extremely wealth family?
• Were born to an extremely poor family?
• Were born in North Dakota in 1952?
• Were born in England in 1500?
Thrown-ness
• The circumstances into which you
happened to be born
• What time period do you think it is most
difficult to find a sense of meaning?
Meaning
• Modern times
• Why are you here?
• What should you be doing?
• Angst
– Existential anxiety
What to do?
• “Lucky mud”
• Free choice – must not “blow” your chance to
find “meaning”
– Not a “true” meaning, but a personal “meaning”
Authentic Existence
• Come to terms with your existence
– Life is shot
– You will die
– You are in control of your choices – find meaning
• Still not a “happy” existence
– Life is shot
– Your will die
– Meaning is only an illusion
Bad Faith
• Avoid Angst
• Stop worrying about the problems of existence
Bad Faith
• Problems
• 1) Living a lie
– Might as well just be the “unlucky mud”
• 2) Still will not be happy
• 3) Still making a choice
– Chosen not to chose is a choice
– “Man is condemned to freedom”
Carl Rogers
Carl Rogers
. . . the most wonderful miracle in the world took place. .”
Subjective Experiences
• Inner reality more important than objective
reality
• Inner experiences
• Conscious experiences
– Experiences that can be verbalized or imagined
• Unconscious experiences
– Experiences that cannot be verbalized or imagined
Self-Actualizing Tendency
• Innate motive toward fulfillment of our
potentials
• Evidence
– Rat and human studies
– Evolution
• “Innate goodness”
So why do people do bad things?
• Infants perceive their experiences as reality
• Uninhibited by the evaluations of others
• All behavior directed toward satisfying need for
SA
• Organismic Valuing Process
– SA is the criterion used to make judgments of worth
• As we get older. . . .
• Start to experience a need for positive
regard
– Satisfying the needs for others satisfies this
need
True self
Social self
Created through
contact with others
True self
Social self
Prevents us from
getting into touch with
our true self
True self
Social self
Leads to “conditions of
worth”
True self
So why do people do bad things?
• Social self hinders movement toward SA
• Not behaving like true self causes anxiety
• Anxiety causes defense mechanisms
So why do people do bad things?
Psychotic
Positive Development
• Avoid conditions of worth
• Unconditional positive regard
• Congruence between true self and experiences
Fully Functioning Person
• Open to experience
• Characterized by existential living
• Trust their organisms
• Are creative
• Live rich lives
Abraham Maslow
Abraham Maslow
“She kissed back and then life began.”
Self-Actualizing Tendency
• Innate motive toward fulfillment of our
potentials
• Environment can cause problems
Needs
• Can be biological or instinctive
• A state of affairs which, if present, would
improve the well being of the person
• Example: food
Needs
• An unsatisfied need will dominate an
individual's thoughts and behaviors
• Once a need is satisfied it no longer has
as much influence on a person
Example
Have not eaten
Deficit
Need for food
Need
Hunger
Think about food, fantasizing
about a big meal
Thoughts
and
Fantasies
Motive
Behaviors
Go to store, buy food,
bring it home, cook it
Group Activity
Thoughts
and
Fantasies
Deficit
Need
Motive
Behaviors
Needs
• What needs are basic?
• Physical
– Food, water, air, etc.
• Safety
– freedom from threat, danger, etc.
Needs
• What needs are basic?
• Social / Belonging
– desire for affiliation, beloning, etc.
• Self-Esteem
– desire for self-confidence, recognition,
respect, etc.
Needs
• What needs are basic?
• Self-Actualization
– “to become everything one is capable of
becoming”
Needs
• Which needs are more salient to survival?
• There is an order that these needs
typically occur
– Evolutionary explanation
Need Hierarchy Theory
Physiological Needs
Need Hierarchy Theory
Safety Needs
Physiological Needs
Need Hierarchy Theory
Social Needs
Safety Needs
Physiological Needs
Need Hierarchy Theory
Self-Esteem Needs
Social Needs
Safety Needs
Physiological Needs
Need Hierarchy Theory
Self-Actualization Needs
Self-Esteem Needs
Social Needs
Safety Needs
Physiological Needs
Need Hierarchy Theory
• 1) Behavior is dominated by the needs
that are unfulfilled
• 2) Individuals will satisfy the most basic
needs first and move up the hierarchy
• 3) Basic needs have higher priority than
higher needs
Group Activity
Self-Actualization Needs
Self-Esteem Needs
Social Needs
Safety Needs
Physiological Needs
Where are you?
What are you
doing to achieve
the needs
associated with
this level?
Group Activity
• 1. I do not feel ashamed of any of my emotions.
• 2. I do not feel I must do what others expect of me.
• 3. I believe that people are essentially good and can be
trusted.
• 4. I feel free to be angry at those I love.
• 5. It is not necessary that others approve of what I do.
Group Activity
• 6. I accept my own weaknesses.
• 7. I can like people without having to approve of them.
• 8. I do not fear failure
• 9. I do not avoid attempts to analyze and simplify
complex domains.
• 10. It is better to be yourself than to be popular.
Group Activity
• 11. I have a mission in life to which I feel especially
dedicated.
• 12. I can express my feelings even when they result in
undesirable consequences.
• 13. I feel responsible to help others.
• 14. I am not bothered by fears of being inadequate.
• 15. I am loved because I give love
Scores
• Men
– M = 45.02 , SD = 4.95
– W = 46.07, SD = 4.79
Self-Actualization
• “Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time”
• What you are doing when you are not attempting
to satisfy another need
• Your “true” nature
– “to become everything one is capable of becoming”
What if. . . .
• You won a large sum of money?
• What would you do?
• Would this make you happy?
Are you happy?
Are you happy?
Why to we value material goods?
Stuff
Most common response to “what will improve your life”
More money!
Is this true?
• 1950 – present
•
•
•
•
•
•
Violent crime
Family breakdown
Psychosomatic complaints
Depression
Suicides
Happiness has stayed the same (30% very happy)
– Although income has doubled!
Is this true?
• Wealthiest vs. “average” incomes
• Very little difference in “happiness”
Is this true?
• Lottery winners vs. victims struck with severe
medical problems
• Happiness goes back to before
Why?
• Habituated to money
• How much money would you need to fulfill your
dreams?
• Under $30,000
– $50,000
• Over $100,000
– $250,000
• Makes evolutionary sense
Why?
• Energy gets focused on material goods
• Loses sense of other important aspects of
life
Need Hierarchy Theory
Self-Actualization Needs
Self-Esteem Needs
Social Needs
Safety Needs
Physiological Needs
Achieving Happiness
• Happiness is a mental state
• Achieving it can be done via cognitive
means
Questionnaire
Flow
• Self-Actualization and “Flow”
– Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• Optimal Experiences
– Doing something for its own sake, even though it may
have no consequences outside itself
• Moment-to-moment CS experience
• Examples?
Flow
• Engaged deeply in an activity
1) Know clearly what they have to do moment
by moment
2) Immediate feedback
3) Tremendous concentration
4) Little distractibility
5) Elevated mood
6) Time passes quickly
Flow
• How do you find flow?
• Engage in activates that are challenging
– Not too easy
– Not too hard
Flow
• Happiness
• Not felt while in flow
– Feel on reflection
• Important, but not sufficient for happiness
Need Hierarchy Theory
Self-Actualization Needs
Self-Esteem Needs
Social Needs
Safety Needs
Physiological Needs
Flow and Self-Actualization
• Self-Actualization
– What you do when you are not attempting to satisfy a
need
– “Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time”
– Peak Experiences
• Flow
– Optimal Experience
– Done for its own sake, even though it may have no
consequences outside itself
• Flow is what “self-actualization” feels like
George Kelly
Activity
• Questionnaire
• 1) Put names on the top
• 2) For row #1
• Look at the three people marked with a “O”. Determine how two of these
people are different than the third.
• Mark these two people with a check mark.
• Write how they are different (one or two words) in the “similarity pole” box.
Write how the third is different in the “contrast pole” box.
• 3) Repeat for each row
• 4) Score everyone else in each row with a check mark
• How do you describe people
• Commonly use Constructs that are learned
– Start to see the world a different way
Every Person is a Scientist
• We have our own theories about human
behavior
• We have constructs that we think are
important
– Not as “scientific” as traditional science
• It is our VIEW of reality that is important
– Not reality itself
Construct
• Our constructs determine how we interpret
an event
• Constructs are bipolar
– What is the other pole is also subjective
• Thus two people may see the same event
differently
s
• Charlie
Sincere
Insincere
• Willy
Sincere
Morally degenerate
• Charlie
Sincere
Insincere
• Willy
Sincere
Morally degenerate
• If they see Veruca Salt do something that is not
sincere
• If they see Veruca Salt do something that is not
sincere
Will think she is insincere
React with mild disapproval
• If they see Veruca Salt do something that is not
sincere
Will think she is morally
degenerate
Will be angry and upset
Constructive Alternativism
• All of us are capable of changing our
interpretation of events
– Our constructs
• Behavior is never determined
Research
• Using RCRT
• Can understand constructs person uses to see the world
• Can understand how a person sees self
– Look at the check marks (and missing check marks)
• How a person sees self in relation to others
– Who do you think you are most similar too?
– Are you similar to anyone?
• Look at number of check marks in the self column
Research
• Cognitive Complexity
• Did you use different constructs across all
people?
– Cognitive simplicity
• Do not differentiate how you perceive others
– Cognitive complexity
• Highly different views of others
Research
• Cognitive Complexity
• Differentiate among many different events
in the environments – should be able to
make more accurate judgments
Research
• Cognitive Complexity
• Better able to anticipate school stresses
• Make more realistic occupational choices
• Better able to predict the behavior of
others
Review
• Freud
• Key ideas
–
–
–
–
–
–
Psychic Determinism
Unconscious
Internal Structure
Psychic Conflict
Mental Energy
Doctrine of Opposites
• Parts of the mind
Review
• Freud
• Psychosexual stages
• Defense mechanisms
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Denial
Repression
Reaction Formation
Projection
Rationalization
Intellectualization
Regression
Sublimation
Review
• Freud
• Parapraxes
• Humor
Review
• Neo-Freudians
• Carl Jung
– Archetypes
– Collective Unconscious
• Alfred Adler
– Feelings of inferiority
– Striving for superiority
– Importance of birth order
Review
• Neo-Freudians
• Karen Horney
– Anxiety
– Coping with anxiety (types)
• Erick Erikson
– Eight stages of development
Review
• Existentialism
• Phenomenonological
• Humanistic
– Free will
– Awareness
– Meaning
Review
• Carl Rogers
–
–
–
–
Self-Actualization
True self vs. social self
Conditions of wroth
Unconditional positive regard
• Abraham Maslow
– Hierarchy of needs
• Flow
• George Kelly
– Constructs