HUMANISTIC APPROACH TO
PSYCHOLOGY
Group 2
Team Members
Muhammad Nur Hanafi Bin Harolanuar (HB220095)
Nursyafiqah Binti Saifuddin (HB220028)
Rabiatul Adawiyah Binti Norhayat (HB220029)
Sukasih Binti Sugiman (HB220012)
Wong Goon Shek (HB220042)
Content Title
3.1 Definition, history, principles
3.2 The pioneers of humanistic approach (Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow)
3.3 Basic assumptions of humanistic psychology
3.4 The strengths and weaknesses of the approach
3.5 Implications to TVET
Humanistic Psychology
Humanistic psychology, also known as humanism or the
humanist perspective, is a movement that stresses the inherent
goodness in people.
Rather than focusing on what’s wrong with people, humanistic
psychology takes a more holistic approach, looking at the
individual as a whole and stressing the desire for selfactualization.
History
• Humanistic psychology emerged during the middle half of the twentieth century in direct
response to psychoanalysis and behaviorism.
• Psychoanalytic perspective was too negative and focused only on pathology. Behaviorism, on
the other hand, was too mechanistic and reduced human nature down to simple conditioned
responses.
• Carl Rogers was instead interested in understanding all of the things that helped people grow,
change, improve, and thrive.
• He believed that psychology was about much more than fixing problematic behaviors and also
about helping people live the best lives they can.
• This concept of the actualizing tendency (an innate need to strive to become their best
possible self) helped inspire psychologist Abraham Maslow to create a hierarchy of human
needs.
5 Principles of Humanistic Psychology
According to one early article written by two prominent psychologists, there are five key tenets of
humanistic psychology:
1
5
People are more than the sum of
their parts. He or she should be
viewed holistically, not reductively.
Human beings have intentional goals
and seek to create meaning in life.
4
2
Human beings have free will and make
conscious choices. They are not driven
by instinct or impulse alone.
A person's behavior is influenced by
his or her environment. Social
interactions are key in the
development of a human being.
3
People are aware of their existence,
that is, they are conscious of themselves
and their surroundings. They are aware of past
experiences and use them to their behavior
The Pioneers of Humanistic Approach
Abraham Maslow
(1908 – 1970)
• American Psychologist - developed a hierarchy of
needs, best known as theories of motivation.
• He suggested that people must satisfy their basic
needs before move up the hierarchy to pursue more
social, emotional, and self-actualizing needs.
Carl Rogers
(1902 – 1987)
• Rogers spent his early career identifying the
“necessary and sufficient conditions” that enable
humans to spontaneously grow and seek
fulfilment.
• Provided the central clinical framework for the
humanistic therapies: Client-Centered Therapy.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Desire to become everything that
one is capable of becoming
Respect, Self Esteem, Status,
Recognition, Strength, Freedom
Friendship, Intimacy, Family, Sense of Connection
Personal Security, Employment, Resources, Health, Property
Air, Water, Food, Shelter, Sleep, Clothing
Implications of Maslow’s Theory for Education
• The importance of Maslow’s theory for education is in the relationship
between deficiency needs and growth needs.
• If students’ physiological and safety needs are not met, learning will
suffer. For example, students who are very hungry or in physical danger
will have little psychological energy to put into learning.
• Love and self esteem needs also important, students who do not feel
that they are loved and that they are capable are unlikely to have a
strong motivation to achieve the higher-level growth objectives.
• In Maslow’s view, if students were put at ease and make them feel
accepted and respected as individuals, it will help them become eager to
learn for the sake of learning and willing to risk being creative and open
to new ideas.
Carls Roger : Client - Centered Therapy
The conditions that define the core of Carls Roger therapy are that:
Two persons are in Emotional Contact;
One of them, called the client, is troubled;
The other, called the therapist, shows Genuineness and
Congruence in the relationship;
The therapist experiences and displays Unconditional Positive
Regard for the client;
The therapist achieves and expresses an Empathic Understanding
of the client;
The client perceives the genuineness, positive regard, and
empathy of the therapist.
Client - Centered Therapy
Self-Actualization
Every person has a natural desire to
develop and fulfil their potential.
Congruence
People have their “ideal self” and “real
self”. When both were contradict, they
will be in a state of incongruence.
Congruence – the matching of experience
and awareness.
Incongruence – Having feelings not
aligned with your action.
Unconditional Positive Regard
Therapist needs to accept and allow
clients to express their positive and
negative feelings without judgement.
Fully Functioning Person
People who completely congruent and
living in the moment.
Characteristics of them:
• Flexible self concept
• Openness to experience
• Unconditional regards for the self
Implications of Carls Roger Theory for Education
• Carls Roger educational theory was based upon the philosophy of studentcentered learning.
• The facilitation of learning requires the interpersonal relationship between the
teacher and the learner.
• The relationship promotes student learning, which, student can only be
passionate when their statements were appreciated.
• Students can truly be educated and learn more through interpersonal relationship
which promoted students’ personal and intellectual growth.
A proper understanding of human
behavior can only be achieved by
studying humans – not animals.
Psychology should
study the individual
case (idiographic)
rather than the
average performance
of groups
(nomothetic).
Humans have free will; this
is called personal agency
Qualitative
research
Ideographic
approach
Subjective reality is the primary
guide for human behavior
Personal agency
All individuals
are unique and
have an innate
(inborn) drive
to achieve their
maximum
potential.
Basics Assumption
of Humanistic Self-actualization
Psychology
The goal of psychology is to
Subjective
experience
Holism
formulate a complete description
of what it means to be a human
being (e.g. the importance of
language, emotions, and how
humans seek to find meaning in
their lives).
Strength of Humanistic Approach
Not Reductionist
• Advocating that not all properties of a system can be explained in terms of its constituent parts and their
interactions. Individual is not seen as the product of neurons firing or stimulus-response links.
• Bring up human experience.
The least deterministic approach
Free will It's the only approach in psychology which places the individual's subjective experience and meanings
at the center
It is holistic
Use holism, focus on the overall development of an individual. It values personal ideals and self-fulfillment.
A positive approach
Focus on both the positive nature of humankind and the free will associated with change. Unlike Freud’s
theory and the biological approach, which focus on determinism or our lack of power over ourselves, Maslow
and others see the individual as very powerful.
Weaknesses of
Humanistic Approach
Lack of Empirical Evidence
Many researchers state that the theory
lacks empirical evidence.
Poor application
Other than counseling
It is too positive
It assumes individuals are intrinsically
good and will choose positive paths for
their lives- however free will and
choice is limited for some individuals
Unfalsifiable
Not testable. “Self-actualisation” and
“congruence” are hard to scientifically test.
Rogers argued against the scientific method
which makes assessing the theory or the
therapy difficult. Hard to show casual
relationship
Lack of concrete treatment
approaches aimed at specific issues
With the basic concept behind the theory
being free will, it is difficult to both develop
a treatment technique and study the
effectiveness of this technique.
Implications to TVET
Cultivating Emotional
Intelligence
Supporting
Lifelong Learning
The ability to understand
and manage one’s own
emotions and emotions
of others.
Continue learning
and growing
throughout life
Communication,
collaboration,
empathy, and
self-awareness
Short courses,
workshops,
training and
seminars
Encouraging Critical
Thinking and
Problem-solving
Ability to apply
knowledge and skills to
real-world situations
Technical
program task:
build a robotic
system, draw a
building plan, etc
Encouraging Selfreflection and Selfevaluation
Focusing on
Holistic
Development
Social, physical,
Emphasizes personal
emotional and spiritual
growth and
aspects of human life
development
Ask yourself
questions based
on 5W+1H
Eg: What is the
task progress?
Group project,
sport, etc