Humanistic Approach
Carl Rogers1902-1987
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Taught at University of
Chicago
Taught at the University
of Wisconsin
Believes that a fully adjusted
person can symbolize any
experience in the conscious
verbalization.
Carl Rogers believes we are born with no self-concept,
and no self- but we do have an innate urge to become
fully functioning and actualized people.
At birth we have a confusing set of sensory impressions,
physiological processes, and motor activities. Rogers
calls this sum total of our experience the phenomenal
field. As we mature the outside world imposes a kind of
order or logic into this field. And, as we become aware to
this logic our self, our self emerges and differentiates
itself from the phenomenal field. The self is thus the
conscious portion of experience.
Abraham Maslow
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1908-1970
Attended University of
Wisconsin
Taught at Brooklyn College
1951 served as the chair of
the psychology dept.
Abraham Maslow (1954) attempted to synthesize a large
body of research related to human motivation. Prior to
Maslow, researchers generally focused separately on such
factors as biology, achievement, or power to explain what
energizes, directs, and sustains human behavior. Maslow
posited a hierarchy of human needs based on two
groupings: deficiency needs and growth needs. Within the
deficiency needs, each lower need must be met before
moving to the next higher level. Once each of these needs
has been satisfied, if at some future time a deficiency is
detected, the individual will act to remove the deficiency.
The first four levels are:
1) Physiological: hunger, thirst, bodily comforts, etc.;
2) Safety/security: out of danger;
3) Belonginess and Love: affiliate with others, be accepted;
and
4) Esteem: to achieve, be competent, gain approval and
recognition.
According to Maslow, an individual is ready to act upon the
growth needs if and only if the deficiency needs are met.
Maslow's initial conceptualization included only one growth
need--self-actualization. Self-actualized people are
characterized by: 1) being problem-focused; 2) incorporating
an ongoing freshness of appreciation of life; 3) a concern
about personal growth; and 4) the ability to have peak
experiences.
Maslow later differentiated the growth need of self-actualization,
specifically naming two lower-level growth needs prior to general level
of self-actualization (Maslow & Lowery, 1998) and one beyond that
level (Maslow, 1971). They are:
5) Cognitive: to know, to understand, and explore;
6) Aesthetic: symmetry, order, and beauty;
7) Self-actualization: to find self-fulfillment and realize one's potential;
and
8) Self-transcendence: to connect to something beyond the ego or to help
others find self-fulfillment and realize their potential.
Maslow's basic position is that as one becomes more self-actualized and
self-transcendent, one becomes more wise (develops wisdom) and
automatically knows what to do in a wide variety of situations. Daniels
(2001) suggests that Maslow's ultimate conclusion that the highest levels
of self-actualization are transcendent in their nature may be one of his
most important contributions to the study of human behavior and
motivation.
Evaluation&CRTICS
'' 1. Humanistic phenomenology is too concerned with immediate
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conscious experience and does not pay sufficient attention to unconscious
motivation, reinforcement contingencies, situational influences, and
biological factors.
2. The approach does not deal adequately with the development of human 
behavior. Postulating an innate tendency toward actualization can account
for development, but does not explain its processes. Saying that a child
develops because of an actualizing tendency is like saying that a person
eats because of hunger; this may be true, but it says little about what
hunger is or how it influences behavior.
More generally, though humanistic theories provide excellent 
descriptions of human behavior, they are not focused on the scientific
exploration of its causes. To suggest that people act as they do because
of their unique perceptions of reality may be personally satisfying, but not
very informative in terms of understanding the variables that promote,
maintain, and alter human behavior.
3. Humanistic concepts are vague and difficult to comprehend, let alone 
investigate. Although humanistic psychologists have been chided for being
unscientific, it may be more accurate to describe them as pursuing an
approach to science that violates Western traditions. Their research
methods are more qualitative than quantitative, and they approach
psychology as a human science, not as a natural science.
4. The clinical applicability of the humanistic approach is limited to those 
segments
Cont.
4. The clinical applicability of the humanistic approach is limited to
those segments
of the population whose intellectual and cultural background is 
compatible with its introspective nature. Further, the range of
problems addressed by the approach is limited. Humanistic
notions may be of great subjective value to the person struggling
with a crisis of identity or values, but these notions (like the
tenets of most other approaches) may not be very useful in
situations where human distress results from unmet needs near
the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy-needs for food, decent housing,
and a job, for example.
5. Finally, humanists' tendency to define ideal personality' 
development in terms of
personal growth, independence, and self-actualization fits closely
with certain value systems prevalent in North America and in
some Western cultures, but it may not apply to cultural traditions
that emphasize interrelatedness and community (Heine et al.,
1999).
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