2. what are the strengths of the humanistic theories in regard to their explanation of personality?

April 07, 2022 Post a Comment

Learning Outcomes

Draw the major concepts of humanistic theory (unconditional positive regard, the good life), equally developed by Carl Rogers
Explicate Maslow's hierarchy of needs

The Humanistic Perspective: A Focus on Uniquely Man Qualities

The humanistic perspective rose to prominence in the mid-20th century in response to psychoanalytic theory and behaviorism; this perspective focuses on how good for you people develop and emphasizes an individual's inherent drive towards self-actualization and creativity. Humanism emphasizes human potential and an individual'south power to change, and rejects the idea of biological determinism. Humanistic work and inquiry are sometimes criticized for existence qualitative (not measurement-based), but there exist a number of quantitative research strains inside humanistic psychology, including research on happiness, self-concept, meditation, and the outcomes of humanistic psychotherapy (Friedman, 2008).

Carl Rogers and Humanism

I pioneering humanistic theorist was Carl Rogers. He was an influential humanistic psychologist who developed a personality theory that emphasized the importance of the self-actualizing trend in shaping human personalities. He besides believed that humans are constantly reacting to stimuli with their subjective reality (phenomenal field), which changes continuously. Over time, a person develops a self-concept based on the feedback from this field of reality.

The Phenomenal Field. The self is at the center of the phenomenal field with the following items surrounding the self: objects, people, thoughts, images and behaviors. Individual and Environment are on the outside of the phenomenal field. The influence from an individual is motivation and the influence from the environment is learning.

Figure ane. The astounding field refers to a person's subjective reality, which includes external objects and people likewise as internal thoughts and emotions. The person's motivations and environments both act on their phenomenal field.

One of Rogers's principal ideas about personality regards self-concept, our thoughts and feelings virtually ourselves. How would you respond to the question, "Who am I?" Your answer tin can show how y'all see yourself. If your response is primarily positive, then you lot tend to experience good near who you are, and you probably see the world as a safe and positive identify. If your response is mainly negative, and so y'all may feel unhappy with who you are. Rogers further divided the cocky into ii categories: the ideal cocky and the real self. The ideal self is the person that you would similar to be; the real self is the person yous actually are. Rogers focused on the idea that we need to reach consistency betwixt these two selves.

Unconditional Positive Regard

Human beings develop an platonic self and a real self, based on the conditional status of positive regard. How closely one's real self matches up with their ideal self is called congruence. We experience congruence when our thoughts about our real cocky and ideal self are very similar—in other words when our self-concept is accurate.High congruence leads to a greater sense of self-worth and a healthy, productive life. Conversely, when in that location is a great discrepancy between our ideal and actual selves, we feel a state Rogers chosen incongruence, which can lead to maladjustment.

Co-ordinate to Rogers, parents tin can assistance their children achieve their platonic self by giving them unconditional positive regard, or unconditional love. In the evolution of self-concept, positive regard is central. Unconditional positive regard is an environment that is complimentary of preconceived notions of value. Conditional positive regard is full of atmospheric condition of worth that must be achieved to be considered successful. Rogers (1980) explained information technology this mode: "As persons are accepted and prized, they tend to develop a more caring attitude towards themselves" (p. 116).

The Good Life

Rogers described life in terms of principles rather than stages of evolution. These principles exist in fluid processes rather than static states. He claimed that a fully performance person would continually aim to fulfill his or her potential in each of these processes, achieving what he chosen "the good life." These people would permit personality and self-concept to emanate from experience. He found that fully performance individuals had several traits or tendencies in common:

A growing openness to experience–they move away from defensiveness.
An increasingly existential lifestyle–living each moment fully, rather than distorting the moment to fit personality or cocky-concept.
Increasing organismic trust–they trust their ain judgment and their ability to cull behavior that is appropriate for each moment.
Liberty of choice–they are not restricted by incongruence and are able to make a wide range of choices more fluently. They believe that they play a function in determining their own beliefs and then feel responsible for their own behavior.
College levels of inventiveness–they volition be more creative in the way they conform to their own circumstances without feeling a need to conform.
Reliability and constructiveness–they can be trusted to deed constructively. Fifty-fifty aggressive needs will be matched and balanced by intrinsic goodness in coinciding individuals.
A rich full life–they will experience joy and pain, love and heartbreak, fearfulness and courage more than intensely.

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Abraham Maslow'southward Hierarchy of Needs

Abraham Maslow (1908–1970) was an American psychologist who is best known for proposing a hierarchy of human needs in motivating behavior. Maslow described a blueprint through which human motivations generally movement, meaning that in gild for motivation to occur at the next level, each level must exist satisfied within the individual themselves. These stages include:

physiological needs: the main physical requirements for human survival, including homeostasis, food, water, sleep, shelter, and sexual practice.
safety needs: the need for personal, emotional, financial, and physical security. Once a person'southward physiological needs are relatively satisfied, their prophylactic needs take precedence and dominate behavior. In the absenteeism of physical prophylactic – due to state of war, natural disaster, family violence, childhood corruption, institutional racism, etc. – people may (re-)feel post-traumatic stress disorder or transgenerational trauma. In the absence of economical safety – due to an economic crisis and lack of work opportunities – these safe needs manifest themselves in means such as a preference for job security, grievance procedures for protecting the individual from unilateral authority, savings accounts, insurance policies, inability accommodations, etc. This level is more likely to predominate in children every bit they mostly have a greater demand to feel safe.
love and belonging: the need for friendships, intimacy, and belonging. This need is especially strong in childhood and information technology can override the need for safety as witnessed in children who cling to calumniating parents. Deficiencies within this level of Maslow's bureaucracy – due to hospitalism, neglect, shunning, ostracism, etc. – can adversely impact the private'southward power to form and maintain emotionally significant relationships in general.
esteem: the typical human desire to exist accepted and valued past others. People ofttimes engage in a profession or hobby to proceeds recognition. Esteem needs are ego needs or status needs. People develop a business concern with getting recognition, condition, importance, and respect from others. Virtually humans have a need to feel respected; this includes the demand to have self-esteem and self-respect.
self-actualization: Maslow describes this level as the desire to accomplish everything that one can, to get the most that one can be.Individuals may perceive or focus on this need very specifically. For example, one individual may have a strong want to become an ideal parent. In another, the want may be expressed athletically. For others, it may exist expressed in paintings, pictures, or inventions. Some examples of this include utilizing abilities and talents, pursuing goals, and seeking happiness.

Furthermore, this theory is a key foundation in understanding how bulldoze and motivation are correlated when discussing man beliefs. Each of these individual levels contains a certain amount of internal sensation that must be met in guild for an individual to complete their hierarchy. The goal in Maslow's theory is to reach the fifth level or phase ofself-actualization.

Figure ii. Diagram of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is often portrayed in the shape of a pyramid with the largest, near fundamental needs at the bottom and the need for self-appearing and transcendence at the height. In other words, the crux of the theory is that individuals' most basic needs must be met before they become motivated to attain college-level needs.

Watch It

Watch as Maslow'south hierarchy of needs comes to life in this quick video.

You can view the transcript for "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs" here (opens in new window).

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Glossary

congruence:: an case or indicate of agreement or correspondence betwixt the ideal cocky and the real self in Rogers' humanistic personality theory
humanism:: a psychological theory that emphasizes an individual's inherent drive towards self-actualization and contends that people have a natural capacity to make decisions about their lives and control their own behavior
Maslow's hierarchy of needs:: a motivational theory in psychology comprising a five-tier model of human being needs, ofttimes depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid. Needs lower down in the hierarchy must be satisfied earlier individuals are motivated to attend to needs college up
astounding field:: our subjective reality, all that we are aware of, including objects and people as well as our behaviors, thoughts, images, and ideas
cocky-actualization:: co-ordinate to humanistic theory, the realizing of one's full potential tin include creative expression, a quest for spiritual enlightenment, the pursuit of knowledge, or the desire to contribute to society. For Maslow, it is a country of cocky-fulfillment in which people attain their highest potential in their own unique way