YOUR COMPARISON POINT IS BASED ON HOW THE HUMANISTIC AND PSYCHODYNAMIC
DIFFER BASED ON THEIR FOCUS ON THE PRESENT VS THE PAST
HUMANISTIC APPROACH
PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH
Psychodynamic therapies focus on an individual’s past.
Adult problems, Freud believed, all come from an
individual’s childhood and arise either from traumatic
early childhood experiences or fixation at a particular
stage of psychosexual development (all in the
Rogers said that for an individual to achieve growth and unconscious mind)
be psychologically healthy they had to become
‘congruent’ (in a state of agreement) with their sense of Freud believed that for an individual to be
self.
psychologically healthy these unconscious childhood
experiences needed to be brought to the surface through
An effective therapist has to show the client
the analysis of dreams.
‘unconditional positive regard’ or unconditional love in
order to help them work towards, in the future,
If someone is depressed psychodynamic theorists would
achieving their full potential.
focus on the person’s fixation in the oral stage of
psychosexual development during childhood and speak
If someone is depressed in order to make them feel
to them about it.
better a humanistic therapist would try to show a client
this unconditional positive regard and get them to think
of their ideal self and how this differs to them now.
Rogers developed person-centred therapy in order to
focus on a client’s immediate situation and how they
could help themselves and use the therapy to achieve a
more ideal sense of self.
YOUR COMPARISON POINT IS BASED ON HOW THE HUMANISTIC AND PSYCHODYNAMIC
DIFFER BASED ON THEIR FOCUS ON THE CONSCIOUS OR UNCONSCIOUS MIND
HUMANISTIC APPROACH
Humanism studies the conscious mind and how our
thoughts influence our behaviour.
PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH
The psychodynamic approach mainly focuses on the
unconscious mind and how this influences our
behaviour.
Humanism focuses on the fact that human beings are
intentional, this means that they seek meaning, value The psychodynamic approach believes that the
and creativity.
majority of our behaviour is determined by things
which we are unaware of e.g. repressed childhood
Rogers believed that an individual is capable of
experiences in our unconscious mind, our fixations
thinking about their sense of self and how that could through the psychosexual development.
change in the future to be more like their ‘ideal’ self.
Freud believed that an individual is incapable of
Rogers said that individuals are aware of and able to accessing these unconscious thoughts without
speak about the lack of positive regard that they
therapy. We are unaware of what is in our
received from mothers as children. If people were
unconscious mind and how it influences our
brought up under ‘conditions of worth’ then they
behaviour as adults e.g. we don’t know if some
may not feel worthy as an adult.
traumatic event in our unconscious mind influences
our behaviour because we cannot access it.
YOUR COMPARISON POINT IS BASED ON HOW THE HUMANISTIC AND PSYCHODYNAMIC
DIFFER BASED ON THE IDEA OF INTERNAL DRIVES
HUMANISTIC APPROACH
Humanistic psychologists believe that we have an
innate (built-in) drive to reach self-actualisation.
Self actualisation is the motive to achieve one’s
potential and it occurs once an individual has met all
of their deficiency needs (these are the lower levels
in the hierarchy – esteem, love, safety and
physiological needs). Self-actualisation is at the top
of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Maslow said that progression through the hierarchy
depended on an individual’s situation. For example,
if an individual had reached self-actualisation but
then lost their job so that one of the deficiency needs
was unsatisfied e.g. physiological because they
couldn’t afford food they would move back down the
hierarchy.
PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH
Psychodynamic psychologists believe that we have
an innate (built-in) drive to progress through the
psychosexual stages of development.
The psychosexual stages of development represent
the different stages an individual gets pleasure from
at the different stages of their childhood. E.g. the oral
stage is where an individual gains pleasure from
between 0-18 months of age.
Freud said that progression through the stages
depends on how much pleasure an individual
receives at a stage. Too much or too little pleasure
results in fixation (this is where part of the person’s
personality remains at this stage) which can have an
effect on personality. For example, fixation at the
anal stage of development may lead to an individual
who is very tidy.
YOUR COMPARISON POINT IS BASED ON HOW THE HUMANISTIC AND PSYCHODYNAMIC
DIFFER BASED ON THE APPROACH THEY TAKE TO THERAPY
HUMANISTIC APPROACH
Humanistic therapy is described as being ‘person
centred’.
PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH
Psychodynamic therapy is described as being
‘directive’.
Rogers believed that the therapist should develop a
personal relationship with the client in order to help
them to improve. The therapist encourages the client
to discuss their inner feelings and perceptions.
Psychodynamic theorists believe that the therapists
main role was to uncover unconscious childhood
trauma, breaking through defence mechanisms to
force the person to confront the contents of their
unconscious mind.
Rather than suggesting how the client might wish to
change the therapist becomes a ‘mirror’ listening and
reflecting back a client’s thoughts and feelings. This
way the client has free will to decide what changes
they would like in order for them to achieve personal
growth.
Psychodynamic theorists believe that in order to
achieve psychological health, the contents of the
unconscious mind must be experienced consciously
so that the individual can go through the traumatic
experiences again and begin to resolve any conflicts
they have with the therapist.
EXTENSION – A2 level evaluation
A comparison can be drawn between the psychodynamic and humanistic approach based on the debate of
free will and determinism.
Below is some information on free will and determinism. Can you produce an exemplified evaluative point
about how the approaches differ on their stances to this debate?
Free will
Determinism
 People have the ability to choose their own course of action,  Behaviour is determined by external events or stimuli or by
to determine their own lives - we have the freedom to choose
internal events such as hormones or unconscious drives
our behaviour.
 People are passive responders - therefore we do not have
 People have responsibility for their actions - they are the
freedom to choose
cause of what they do
 Behaviour occurs in a regular, orderly manner which is totally
predictable (in principle)
EXTENSION (II)
A2 level evaluation
A comparison can be drawn between the humanistic approach and psychodynamic approach in terms of
their stance on the holism and reductionist debate. The humanistic approach is clearly holistic. You need to
assess in an exemplified A02 point the extent to which the psychodynamic approach is reductionist.
Reductionism
 Behaviour can be reduced to minute units of analysis such as
stimulus-response connections, neuron activity, muscle movements
and any larger units of analysis are pointless.
 Explanations of complex wholes in terms of the units of which
those “wholes” are composed are the only explanations that are
worthwhile
Holism
 Thorough knowledge of organisms cannot be gained
through knowledge of nerve activity and muscle
movement or through knowledge of stimulus-response
connections.
 There is a hierarchy of levels of explanation, from the
sociological to the psychological down, eventually, to the
physical and chemical. No one level can account for the
whole of behaviour and all levels are needed for a
complete explanation
 A human cannot be reduced to stimulus-response
connections. The whole is greater than the sum of its
parts.
HELPSHEET
This sheet will help you to start off your perfect evaluation point!
A similarity / difference is……
This is because…. (explain both humanism and psychodynamic)
For example… (give an example for both humanism and psychodynamic)
HELPSHEET
This sheet will help you to start off your perfect evaluation point!
A similarity / difference is……
This is because…. (explain both humanism and psychodynamic)
For example… (give an example for both humanism and psychodynamic)
HELPSHEET
This sheet will help you to start off your perfect evaluation point!
A similarity / difference is……
This is because…. (explain both humanism and psychodynamic)
For example… (give an example for both humanism and psychodynamic)