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Outline and evaluate the humanistic approach
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Outline and evaluate the humanistic approach (16 marks)The humanistic approach differs from all the other approaches in psychology as it focuses on
our conscious experience and views all human beings as having personal responsibility and
free will rather than our behaviour being beyond our control. The humanistic approach
accepts that’s we are subject to many other forces such as biological and societal influences;
however, we can make significant personal choices within the constraints imposed by these
other forces.
Maslow (1943) created a theory called the ‘hierarchy of needs’ to emphasise the
importance of personal growth and fulfilment as a drive for behaviour. Unlike other
psychologists who are concerned with what went wrong with people, Maslow was
interested in understanding what could go right for humans, if we were able to reach self-
actualisation. The hierarchy of needs is often represented as a pyramid with the most basic,
psychological needs, at the bottom and the most advanced needs at the top. To go up to the
next level, the current needs needed to be fulfilled. Maslow found that those who attained
the very highest of needs, self-actualisation, shared certain characteristics such as being
creative, accepting of others and having an accurate perception of the world around them.
The humanistic approach places an emphasis on the focus on the self. This refers to how we
perceive ourselves. Rogers claimed that people have two basic needs: positive regard from
other people and a feeling of self-worth. Feelings of self-worth develop from childhood and
are a result of an accumulation of interactions with parents and significant others. The
closer our self-concept and ideal self are to each other, the greater our psychological health.
A state of congruence exists when this occurs and the higher the congruence, the greater
our feelings of self-worth. When there is a difference between our ideal self and self-image,
there is a state of incongruence. Conditions of worth occurs when people experience
unconditional positive regard, and they are what they perceive significant others put on
them. This means that they are accepted for who they are or what they do. An individual
may only experience self-acceptance if they meet the expectations that others have set as
conditions of acceptance.
A strength of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is that it is strongly links to economic
development. Hagerty (1999) studied the relationship between economic growth and
measures of Maslow’s need levels in 88 countries over a 34-year period. He found that
developing countries were characterised by lower-level needs such as psychological needs.
Only those countries who were in the advanced stage of economic development found a
higher rate of esteem needs and self-actualisation. Higher levels and more thorough
education in these countries indicated the drive to self-actualise amongst these people. This
is because education is seen as a measure of people’s desire to better themselves.
Therefore, this research suggests that Maslow's hierarchy of needs may have relevance on a
much larger scale than individual growth.
A criticism of humanistic psychology is that it is too unrealistic. It represents an overly
idealised view of human nature. Critics point to the more self-destructive aspects of human
nature and that people are not inherently good and ‘growth-orientated’ as theorists
suggest. Humanism also tends to ignore peoples’ capacity for pessimism. The view that
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