PERSONALITY PSY234 Lecture 4: Humanistic Theories

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PERSONALITY PSY234 Lecture 4Humanistic
Theories

• Dr Simon Boag
• Email simon.boag_at_psy.mq.edu.au

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Readings

• Carver, C. S. Scheier, M. F. (2004).
  Perspectives on Personality. (pp. 382-411)
• Additional (non-assessable)
• Rogers, C. R. (1961). On Becoming a Person.
  Boston Houghton Mifflin.
• Maslow, A. H. (1962). Towards a Psychology of
  Being. New York Van Nostrand.

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Lecture Outline

• I. Introduction to Humanistic Psychology
• II. Carl Rogers theory
• The Actualising tendency the Fully-functioning
  person
• Evaluation
• III. Abraham Maslows theory
• The Hierarchy of needs Self-actualisation
• Evaluation

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Learning Outcomes

• After this lecture you should be able to
• Outline what distinguishes humanistic psychology
  as the third force
• Explain describe Rogers theory of the
  fully-functioning person the development of
  psychopathology
• Explain describe Maslows hierarchy of needs
  its relationship to self-actualisation

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I. Humanistic Psychology

• Third force in psychology
• (Cf. psychoanalysis behaviourism)
• Focus on higher end of human experience
• eg. creativity, human potential
• Phenomenological (subjectivity)
• Introspective
• Values unique person (idiographic)
• Non-deterministic advocates free-will

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II. Carl Rogers theory

• Carl Rogers (1902-1987)

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The Actualising Tendency

• the directional trend which is evident in all
  organic human lifethe urge to expand, extend,
  develop, maturethe tendency to express
  activate all capacities of the organism, or the
  self
• (Rogers, 1961, p. 351).
• Acorn to oaktree model
• Human motivation is fundamentally growth-directed
  healthy

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The Core of Personality is Positive

• One of the most revolutionary concepts to grow
  out of our clinical experience is the growing
  recognition that the innermost core of mans
  nature, the deepest layers of his personality,
  the base of his animal nature, is positive in
  natureis basically socialised, forward-moving,
  rational and realistic
• (Rogers, 1961, p. 91).

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Why Human Problems?

• Negative socialisation
• Conditional positive regard
• Children accepted by parents when good
  rejected when bad
• We develop the view I ought to be good, I
  have to be good
• We lose touch with our true nature (real self
  actualising tendency)
• Develop an Ideal self Who we feel we should be
  (cf. superego)

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Incongruity

• Conflict between real ideal self
• I am this but I should be that
• Real self evaluated as a threat
• Psychopathology defence mechanisms
• Defensive masks (False selves)
• Repression/denial denying awareness to ourselves
  of who we really are
• Therapy reconnecting with who we really are

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Defensive Living Unsatisfying

• It seems to me that at bottom each person is
  asking, Who am I, really? How can I get in touch
  with this real self, underlying all my surface
  behaviour? How can I become myself?
• (Rogers, 1961, p. 108).

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Unconditional Positive Regard

• Healthy/positive socialisation
• Parent etc. regards the person positively
  irrespective of their behaviour
• Person distinct from behaviour
• Allows child/client to explore their experience
  potentials
• OutcomeFully functioning person

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the therapist feels this client to be a person
of unconditional self-worth of value, no matter
what his condition, his behaviour, or his
feelings (Rogers, 1961, p. 185)
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Fully-Functioning Person

• (1) Openness to experience
• Non-censoring/non-defensive attitude
• Receptive to both subjective/objective experience
• (2) Existential living
• an increasing tendency to live fully in each
  moment (Rogers, 1961, p. 188)
• Living in the present not past or future
• Non-static, constant process of becoming
• a direction, not a destination (p. 186)

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Fully-Functioning Person (cont).

• (3) Organismic trusting
• Trusting oneself not relying on others
• doing what feels right (Rogers, 1961, p.
  189)
• (4) Experiential freedom
• Subjective freedom of choice in each moment
• (5) Creativity
• Creative products eg. arts, science
• Creative living living non-habitually

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Evaluation of Rogers Theory

• It has been my experience that persons have a
  basically positive direction (Rogers, 1961, p.
  26).
• Naïve, overly-optimistic view of human nature?
• What of wars, brutality etc?

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Rogers Response

• I am quite aware that out of defensiveness
  inner fear individuals can and do behave in ways
  which are incredibly cruel, horribly destructive
  anti-social, hurtful. Yet one of the most
  refreshing and invigorating parts of my
  experience is to work with such individuals and
  to discover the strongly positive directional
  tendencies which exist in them, as in all of us,
  at the deepest levels
• (Rogers, 1961, p. 27).

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Evaluation of Rogers Theory

• Unconditional positive regard irresponsible
• eg. Greater drug experimentation in children
• Client-centered Therapy
• Contributed therapeutic techniques
• eg. uncond. pos. regard
• Testable therapeutic concepts
• eg. measurement of self-perception, ideal-self,
  and therapeutic effectiveness

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Abraham Maslows Theory

• Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

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Maslows Approach

• Rejection of mainstream psychology scientific
  method
• Science too limited for studying human nature
• Scientific attitude pathological (eg.
  Skinners)
• Began psychology career studying dominance in
  monkeys
• Psychopathology of the average

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Psychopathology of the Average

• Certainly it seems more more clear that what
  we call normal in psychology is really a
  psychopathology of the average, so undramatic
  so widely spread that we dont even notice it
  ordinarily
• (Maslow, 1968, p. 21)

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Maslows Approach

• We need to study psychologically healthy people
  to understand human nature, not
  psychopathological ones (cf. Freud)
• Identified colleagues historical figures that
  he considered psychologically healthy (reaching
  full potential)
• eg. George Washington, Albert Einstein
• Looked for common elements identified
  self-actualising qualities

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Self-Actualisation the Hierarchy of Needs

• Self-actualisation to become everything that
  one is capable of becoming (Maslow, 1968, p.46).
• Persons must pass through various lower levels
  before attaining this highest stage
• Each level has a basic need that must be met
  before moving up the hierarchy
• If lower needs are not met then growth stops

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Hierarchy of Needs

• Self-actualisation
• ?
• Esteem needs
• ?
• Love belongingness needs
• ?
• Safety needs
• ?
• Physiological needs

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Deficiency Motivation

• Each need involves overcoming deficiency
• (1) Physiological needs
• Food, water, sleep, sex etc.
• (2) Safety needs
• Safe environment
• (3) Belongingness love needs
• Love, friendship, social life
• (4) Esteem needs
• Respect from others self-respect

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Frustration Anti-social Behaviour

• Like Rogers, humans are basically good natured
  growth directed
• Human problems arise not simply from
  socialisation (ie. Rogers theory)
• Frustration of deficiency needs leads to
  anti-social emotions (eg. hostility, jealousy
  etc)
• Choice b/w safety growth (free-will)
• Jonah Complex belief that we cannot achieve
  anything important

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Being Motivation

• (5) Need for Self-actualisation
• Requires first meeting deficiency needs
• Pinnacle of development
• Person needs to actualise their potential
• Aesthetic truth potentials
• Maslow (1968) 1 in 3000 uni students
• gt1 of population
• Metapathologies depression, alienation, cynicism

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Self-Actualisers

• (1) Efficient perception of reality
• Seeing the world accurately
• Judging people accurately/detecting deception
• (2) More accepting
• More accepting of themselves others
• (3) Spontaneous
• (4) Problem-centred
• Not self-centred focus on problems outside of
  themselves eg. environmental concerns

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Self-Actualisers (cont).

• (5) Need privacy (solitude)
• (6) Enjoy intimate relationships
• (7) Act Independently of culture
• Non-conformists
• (8) Peak experiences
• Intense experiential states of harmony, joy,
  beauty
• (9) Creative
• (10) Humour

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Evaluation of Maslows Theory

• Maslows methodology identified self-actualisers
  based on his own personal preference/bias
• Hierarchy of needs some empirical support that
  lower level needs are stronger than high-level
  when deprived (eg. Wicker et al, 1993 Hagerty,
  1999)
• Exceptions to the hierarchy of needs
• eg. starving artist

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Summary

• Humanistic psychology is the third force in
  psychology
• Emphasises mental health fully-functioning
  (Rogers) self-actualising (Maslow)
• In Rogers theory, negative socialisation
  (conditional positive regard) prevents mental
  health
• Maslows hierarchy of needs proposes that lower
  needs must be met before higher levels are
  obtained