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57.1 – Describe how humanistic psychologists viewed personality, and explain their goal in studying personality.
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57.1 – Describe how humanistic psychologists viewed personality, and explain their goal in studying personality. • The humanistic approach explains personality by describing how people differ in terms of self-awareness, creativity, decision making, and responsibility. A humanistic psychologist believes that all people have an innate, or inborn, drive that promotes and directs growth. This growth process influences how a person will go about achieving his or her full potential.
57.1 – Describe how humanistic psychologists viewed personality, and explain their goal in studying personality. 1) Abraham Maslow • Abraham Maslow believed that the way one tries to achieve self-actualization, the pursuit of fulfilling and realizing one’s potential, could define personality. According to Maslow, people may lose focus of the pursuit of self-actualization because they strive for materialistic, meaningless goals. He referred to this as “deficiency orientation”. “Growth orientation”, according to Maslow, occurs when people focus on what they have, how they perform, and the importance of their achievements. • Self-Transcendence – meaning, purpose, and communion beyond the self.
57.1 – Describe how humanistic psychologists viewed personality, and explain their goal in studying personality. 2) Carl Rogers • Carl Rogers developed his theory of the self based on a belief that people have an actualizing tendency, an innate drive that motivates a person to reach his or her full potential. For example, many athletic coaches have commented on how hard it can be to motivate players to try their best. Some coaches have concluded that this is something that they cannot teach, that the player either is born with self-motivation or isn’t. This is one example of an innate actualizing tendency.
57.1 – Describe how humanistic psychologists viewed personality, and explain their goal in studying personality. 2) Carl Rogers • Rogers believed that self-concept is how a person perceives him or herself. He said that unconditional positive regard could improve the self-concept. Unconditional positive regard is the acceptance of a person for who he or she is. When you unconditionally accept someone for who they are, you are accepting that person for what he or she represents, believes in, and characteristically displays. This, in turn, leads to congruence, which occurs when a person can be him or herself and not worry about trying to impress others with false beliefs or behavior. In other words, a person’s thoughts match, or are congruent with, his actions because he knows that other people are going to accept him as he is. Congruence then leads to a healthy self-concept because the person’s thoughts are validated through his behavior.
57.1 – Describe how humanistic psychologists viewed personality, and explain their goal in studying personality. 2) Carl Rogers • On the other hand, Rogers believed that conditional love (or conditioned positive regard) could lead to an unhealthy self-concept. This could occur if a person believed that only when certain conditions are met would she be shown approval and affection. For example, a child whose parents only show approval when she is successful in school may be more likely to lie when her parents inquire about school. In other words, this child understands that the only way to achieve approval from her parents is to meet the conditions the parents have set. Rogers believed that this understanding could lead to an unhealthy self-concept, since a person may distort the truth of who he or she is to achieve approval.
57.1 – Describe how humanistic psychologists viewed personality, and explain their goal in studying personality. 2) Carl Rogers • Think of adolescents eager to impress others and gain approval of a particular group. These individuals might pretend to have had certain experiences and admire certain behaviors in order to fit in and be accepted by the group. But even if the group believes these distortions, these young people will not feel good because what they said does not reflect who they really are. In other words, their self-concepts is incongruent because what they said does not match what they feel.
57.2 – Explain how humanistic psychologists assessed a person’s sense of self. • Ideal Versus Actual Self – how you would ideally like to be and as you actually are. • Assessing the Self -Carl Rogers’ person-centered perspective says that we grow in an environment that offers genuineness, acceptance, and empathy (growth promoting climate). -He said that unconditional positive regard is an attitude of acceptance of others despite their feelings.
57.3 – Describe how humanistic theories have influenced psychology, and discuss the criticisms they have faced. Evaluating the Humanistic Theories • The humanistic perspective sees people as unique; this uniqueness is based on the importance they place on events and situations. However, many researchers believe that the humanistic perspective is too naïve and optimistic. Researchers have a hard time believing that each person is inherently good, as held by the humanistic perspective. In addition, critics have noted that the humanistic perspective does not factor in the role played by the situation. For example, if people are all inherently good, as the humanistic perspective states, then why do some commit crimes and blame it on their surrounding and situations? • Positive self-concept, empathy, and the thought that people are basically good has had a pervasive impact on counseling, education, child-rearing, and management.
57.3 – Describe how humanistic theories have influenced psychology, and discuss the criticisms they have faced. Criticism of the Humanistic Perspective 1) Concepts are vague and subjective and lack scientific basis. 2) Encouraging individualism can lead to self-indulgence, selfishness, and an erosion of moral constraints. 3) Lacks adequate balance between realistic optimism and despair.
