Existential and Humanistic approaches to personality

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Existential and Humanistic approaches to
personality

• Christine Simmonds-Moore

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What is existentialism?

• E.g., Sartres La Nausée
• Area of philosophy that is concerned with the
  meaning of human existence
• Ethical and spiritual matters are studied as part
  of being human
• Phenomenology
• Peoples perceptions and subjective realities are
  valid data for investigation
• Existentialist approaches represent the root of
  humanistic approaches to personality
• E.g, Rollo May Viktor Frankl

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Examples of some existential theorists

• Rollo May
• Introduced existential approach to USA
• Anxiety, dread and despair as core elements of
  the human experience
• Mays personal experiences ? consideration of
  personality from existential/humanist perspective
• Threats ? opportunity
• Viktor Frankl
• Logotherapy
• Meaning seeking
• Noögenic neurosis
• Existential vacuum ? triumph of the spirit
• Self transcendence

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The Humanistic Approach

• Limitations to how a natural science approach can
  fully deal with reality of human experience
• 3 considerations of this approach
• 1. significance of conscious experience
• 2. Human capacity for personal agency
• Personal growth
• 3. Holistic consideration of the many aspects of
  the self
• More emphasis on personal growth and spirituality
  than scientific investigation

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Abraham Maslow

• Humanistic psychology considered to be the Third
  Force
• Suggests that motivation is one of the central
  concepts of personality
• Motivation is organised according to a hierarchy
  of needs
• Two types of needs of the organism
• D needs
• B needs
• Until lower needs are satisfied we cannot be
  motivated by higher needs
• In his original theory, the most important motive
  was considered to be self actualisation

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Self actualisation

• This reflects the person seeking fulfillment of
  personal potential
• There is an innate drive for self actualisation
• Maslow studied people he considered to be self
  actualised Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt,
  Henry David Thoreau, Abraham Lincoln
• Features of self actualisation
• Self acceptance
• Focused on finding solutions to important
  cultural problems
• Open to others ideas
• Strong sense of privacy
• Few intimate friendships

• man has a higher and transcendent nature,
• and this is part of his essence,
• his biological nature as a member of a species
  which
• has evolved

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Healthy properties of self actualisation

• Deeper more profound interpersonal relations
• Democratic character
• Good and evil discrimination
• Philosophical
• Creativeness
• Transcendence of culture

• More efficient perception of reality
• Acceptance, self, others, nature
• Spontaneity
• Problem centring
• Need for privacy
• Autonomy
• Mystic/peak experience

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Later theory..

• Maslow later added that some individuals reach
  and go beyond self actualisation
• I am developing what might be called a fourth
  psychology of transcendence as well (Maslow,
  1969)
• Self transcendence was later added as the highest
  need in the hierarchy of needs
• Self transcendence is associated with a person
  seeking to further a cause beyond the self and to
  experience a communion beyond the boundaries of
  the self through peak experience (see
  Koltko-Rivera, 2006)
• Influential in the development of transpersonal
  psychology and positive psychology e.g., helped
  to found the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology

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Mihaly Csikszentmihalyis Flow

• being completely involved in an activity for
  its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies.
  Every action, movement, and thought follows
  inevitably from the previous one, like playing
  jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're
  using your skills to the utmost."

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Evaluation of Maslow

• Support for effects at lower levels, Sanford 1937
• Harder to prove at higher levels
• Individual differences in perceived importance of
  love and self esteem
• Maslow admits 3 and 4 can swap around
• Rowan (1988) D needs can be experienced as B
  needs and vice versa
• Cannot explain starving poet, anorexic
• Concept of self actualisation is
• Subjective
• Circular
• Support for the notion of self transcendence and
  its applications (e.g., Koltko-Rivera, 2006).

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Carl Rogers self theory I

• Influenced by Alfred Adler
• Helped to establish the American Association of
  Humanistic Psychology (alongside Gordon Allport,
  George Kelly, Abraham Maslow, Rollo May and
  others)
• Clinical approach
• Phenomenological perspective
• Drive to attain self actualisation
• All humans and other living organisms have a
  tendency to move toward positive development
• In stark opposition to Freud humans are
  fundamentally good

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Carl Rogers Self theory II

• Personality development is based on development
  of the self concept
• There is evaluation of ones own experiences in
  the organismic valuing process allows the
  organism to move toward actualisation
• What feels right
• Phenomenal reality we live in a subjective
  world
• Experience
• awareness
• ? Phenomenal field
• sum of all experiences

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Carl Rogers self theory III

• Development of the Self as one aspect of
  phenomenological field
• Self how one sees oneself
• 2 sources
• Childs experiences
• Evaluations of self by others
• Need for positive regard
• Need for self regard
• Problems of conditions of worth

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Incongruency and different selves

• Problems with the self structure lead to symptoms
  of anxiety
• There are two types of self structure
• Ideal self
• Actual self
• Discrepancies between these selves lead to
  anxiety..
• Congruity and incongruity
• Neurosis
• Anxiety
• Defence mechanisms
• Denial
• Perceptual distortion
• psychosis

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The fully functioning person

• Rogers described 2 broad personality types
• Functioning
• Non functioning
• Therapy can eliminate incongruity between
  experience and the self, and remove defences of
  denial and distortion ? a fully functioning
  person
• Being true to oneself self is congruent with
  experiences
• Openness to experience
• Existential living
• Organismic trusting
• Experiential freedom
• Creativity

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The Q sort methodology

• Developed by Stephenson (1953)
• The participant sorts a number of statements into
  categories ranging form most characteristic to
  least characteristic of the self
• Possible to address statements regarding to self
  and ideal self, discrepancies changes over time

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Criticisms of Rogers

• Little about course of growth and development
• Little specificity about innate potential for
  self actualization
• Rogers opinions on negative aspects of human
  nature
• Emphasis on subjective conscious experiences
• Exclusion of unconscious factors
• Exclusion of sex and aggression
• Little recognition of variation in symptoms
• Not all research supports client centered therapy

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Impact of humanistic/existential approach in the
modern era

• Continuing impact of therapeutic approaches
• Client centred therapy in particular (e.g.,
  Kirschenbaum Jourdan, 2005)
• Positive psychology (see Seligman
  Csikszentmihalyi, 2000) huge research
  literature
• Many areas in health and illness
• E.g., schewenzfeier, Rigdon, Hill, Anderson
  Seelert (2002) negative correlation between
  patient satisfaction and physician tendency to
  prescribe medications
• Transpersonal psychology-
• E.g., see Liverpool John Moores University,
  Institute for Transpersonal Psychology, etc.
• Spirituality is a valid area for research study

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Modern means of humanistic personality assessment

• Steger (2006) suggests that poor measurement has
  hampered research on meaning in life
• Developed The Meaning in Life questionnaire
  (e.g., Steger, 2006)
• Measures search for meaning, and has good
  validity.
• Walach, Buchheld, Buttenmuller, Kleinknecht,
  Schmidt (2006) developed a questionnaire to
  measure Mindfulness

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General Criticisms of Humanist theories

• Uninformative?
• Unavailable data
• Subjectivity
• Origins of personality
• Nature of self actualisation
• No room for emotion or biology
• Social context?
• Too much faith in personal agency?
• Insufficient evaluation of methods

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References and further reading

• Koltko-Rivera, M. (2006). Rediscovering the later
  version of Maslows Hierarchy of Needs Self
  Transcendence and opportunities for theory,
  research, and unification. Review of General
  Psychology, 10, 302-317.
• Kirschenbaum, H., Jourdan, A. (2005). The
  Current status of Carl Rogers and the person
  centred approach. Psychotherapy Theory,
  Research, Practice, Training, 42, 37-51. via
  psycharticles
• Seligman Csikszentmihalyi (2000) Positive
  psychology an introduction. American
  Psychologist, 55, 5-14. via psycharticles.
• Steger, M., Frazier, P., Oishi, S. Kaler, M.
  (2006). The meaning in life questionnaire
  Assessing the presence and search for meaning in
  life. Journal of Counselling Psychology, 53,
  80-93. Via psycharticles.
• Book on the Q sort method http//www.psychology.s
  unysb.edu/attachment/measures/content/Jack_Block_Q
  -sort_method_book.pdf