Humanistic Psychology
•Stresses meaning of life and existence
•Self-development
•Stresses uniqueness of each individual’s
experience of the world, and the need to
understand that unique perspective if we are to
understand the individual (idiographic approach)
rather than assuming that we all see things the
same
•Very positive, stresses reaching of full potential
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The emergence of Humanistic
Psychology
• Behaviorism-the “first force”…mechanistic
beliefs
• Psychoanalysis and Neo-Freudians-the
“second force”…biological reductionism and
determinism
• Humanism-the “third force”…self, selfactualization, health, creativity, intrinsic
nature, being, becoming, individuality, and
meaning
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Core Principles of the Association of
Humanistic Psychology
• The primary study of psychology should be the
experiencing person.
• Choice, creativity, and self-realization are the
concerns of the humanistic psychologist.
• Only personally and socially significant problems
should be studied.
• The major concern of psychology should be the
dignity and enhancement of people.
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Humanistic Shift
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Determinism to self-determination
Causality to purpose
Manipulation to self-responsibility
Diagnosis to dialogue
Scientific prediction and control to empathy,
understanding and liberation
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Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
• Born in Brooklyn, New York to poorly educated
Russian Jewish immigrants
• Oldest of seven children
• Father was a womanizer and an alcoholic who
disappeared for long periods
• Mother was superstitious, overly punitive,
rejecting, and cruel
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Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
• He completed his Ph.D. at the University of
Wisconsin under Harry Harlow
• Initially a behaviorist
• Motivation and Personality (1954)
• President of APA in 1967
• In 2002, APA listed him as the 10th most
eminent psychologists of the 20th century
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Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs
“Instinctoids”-all motivations
are instinctive and inborn, but
they are not exactly like animal
instincts-can be modified,
changed, consciously controlled,
shaped by learning, culture, and
experience
•Phylogeny
•Ontogeny
•Biological Relevance
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Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs
Physiological-food,
water, warmth, sleep, sex
Safety-security, order,
predictability, and
structure
Belongingness and love
Esteem needs-selfesteem and recognition
from others
Behaviors are over-determined
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Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs
Additional Needs: related to Dmotives, do not emerge at any
particular time in life, differ in
degrees among individuals
Cognitive-curiosity, need to know
and understand (late infancy and
childhood, more than in adulthood)
Aesthetic-order, symmetry,
structure, completion in an artistic
or aesthetic sense rather than a
personal sense
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Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs:
exceptions
1. Esteem emerges before
belongingness and love
2. Need undervalued due to
consistent satisfaction
3. Profound deprivation
4. Social standards and moral
values exceed other drives
5. Creativity exceeds other
drives
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Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs
D-motives- (all but selfactualization needs)-involves Dperception or D-cognition
active perception-looking for
things we require to meet our
needs, active seeking, searchingstriving
narrow focus-we tend to only
focus or notice things that are
relevant to our current needs and to
ignore everything that isn’t
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Maslow’s Self-actualizing person
• Appears only if D-motives are satisfied
• The ongoing actualization (process) of the
individual’s potentials and capacities
• Feelings of fulfillment of life mission or
destiny
• A fuller acceptance of the individual’s true
inner nature---intrinsic growth
• A continuous trend towards unity and
integration within the person
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Maslow’s B-values (being-values,
metamotives, growth motives)
• B-cognition (B-perception)- way selfactualizing person interacts with the world
-less active, passive, relaxed and openletting the world come to you, full and open
experience of life
-lack of focus, open, aware of everything
Calm and still in the center of the world…
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Maslow’s B-values (being-values,
metamotives, growth motives)
• Moments of intense B-cognition that we
can all experience, but we can’t go out and
search for
-Peak experiences-likely to happen when
we are engaging in periods of excellencefeelings of ecstasy, wonder and awe, loss of
time and place
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Maslow’s B-values (being-values,
metamotives, growth motives)
Dichotomy
transcendence
Aliveness
Simplicity
Effortlessness
Playfulness
Self-sufficiency
Meaningfulness
Richness
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Maslow’s Eight-Fold Way
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Growth choices
Concentration
Self-development
Lack of ego defenses
Trusting our judgment
Honesty
Peak experiences
Self-awareness
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The Self-Actualized Individual
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Perceives reality fully and accurately
Accepts self and others; identifies with humanity
Spontaneity, simplicity, and naturalness
Concern for real-world problems
Need for privacy
Nonconformists; resists enculturation
Experience freshness of appreciation
May have periodic peak experiences
Identify with all of mankind
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The Self-Actualized Individual
• Accept democratic values
• Few but deep interpersonal
relationships
• Strongly developed sense of
personal ethics
• Non-destructive sense of humor
• Creative
• Problem-oriented rather than
self-oriented
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Barriers to Self-Actualization
• Inability to meet needs lower in the hierarchy
• Requires self-knowledge
• Norms and expectations of society and culture
(e.g., norms for male and female behavior)
• Growth choices are hard to make
• Set of specific environmental conditions must
exist
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Criticisms
• Subjective and non-scientific methods used to
develop theory
• His choice of criteria for self-actualization are
clearly personal
• Constructs difficult to evaluate empirically
• Doesn’t explain outliers
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