Father of Humanistic Psychology - Case Study Example

Humanistic Psychology Humanistic psychology adopts a holistic approach to human personality viewing the human condition as one integrate unity, something more than a mere sum of physical, social, and psychological characteristics. Humanistic psychology is often referred to as the ‘third force’ in contrast to two major psychological schools that dominated in American psychology throughout the first half of 20th century, behaviorism (the first force) and psychoanalysis (the second force) (Vander-Zanden, 1993). This school focused mainly upon human consciousness that they considered to be the main determinant of behavior and the core distinction between human being and animals. The return to human consciousness as a legitimate field of psychological inquiry advocated by the founding father of humanistic psychology, coupled with the explicit concern about the human dimension of the psychological science expressed by this representatives of the humanistic approach reflected the intellectual climate of the time. Humanistic psychology emerged in the 1950s, the time marked by profound social changes, the onset of global movements, emergence of new scholarly paradigms questioning the traditional empiricist and positivist conceptions of the world and human being, the change in physics which “discarded the requirement of total objectivity and the complete separation of external world from observer”, etc (Schultz and Schultz, 2004: 483). In psychology, these transformations took shape of the rise of cognitive and humanistic perspectives that actively criticized psychoanalytic theory for portraying people as being directed only by their unconscious wishes and irrational forces. They also did not support the behaviorist school because the latter viewed people as biological robots “…who are mechanically programmed by the conditioning force of external stimuli” (Vander Zanden, 1993: 45). James Bugental (1964) summarized the core principles of humanistic psychology as follows: 1. Human beings cannot be reduced to components. 2. Human beings have in them a uniquely human context. 3. Human consciousness includes an awareness of oneself in the context of other people. 4. Human beings have choices and responsibilities. 5. Human beings are intentional and seek meaning, value and creativity (p.24). These principles rely almost exclusively on the research and findings of two American psychologists Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers, the brightest and most proliferate representatives of humanistic psychology. The essence of Maslow’s theory is the hierarchy of needs and “self-actualization” – development and self-improvement of personality. Human have a complex hierarchy of needs that emerge at the moment of birth (food, drink, shelter) and continue throughout life (social security, status attainment, etc). Visually, these needs are organized in the form of the famous ‘pyramid of need’ with physiological needs being at the bottom and self-actualization being at the top. Maslow believes that the lower layers of needs must be fulfilled first before passing over to the upper layers. However, it does not mean that each person must follow the same template: fulfilling the non-basic needs depends entirely upon the individual. Musicians must make music, artists must paint, and poets must write if they want to be ultimately at peace with themselves. What humans can be, they must be: they must be true to their own nature and if they are it is called “self-actualization”. This category is less a need than a final development stage for the person (Maslow, 1987). Poor amenability to being quantified and lack of predictive power is perhaps the most often mentioned drawback of Maslow’s model: it is a general idea or shape that is descriptive and represents a great analytic interest. Maslow's theory is also weak on the exact points of transition. Thus, for illustrative purposes one may speak of someone’s needs being 85% satisfied, but there is absolutely no possibility available to quantify the true measure of gratification across the hierarchy of needs (Schultz and Schultz, 2004). Rogers’ theory developed as an offshoot of his method of client-centered (later called person-centered) therapy. The fundamental of personality is psychological reality, the subjective experience according to which the reality is interpreted, and any person is an integrate unity that can never be divided into separate part: Rogers’ view of human behavior is ‘exquisitely rational’ (Pescitelli, 2002). Rogers believes that an individual has the ‘field of experience’ which comprises the whole range of experiences, both conscious and unconscious, available at the given moment. During the process of personality development, one portion of this field separates and transforms into the individual’s ‘self’. The construct of ‘self’ is the core of Rogers’ theory. The ‘self’ can be described as: “the organized, consistent, conceptual gestalt composed of perceptions of the characteristics of the ‘I’ or ‘me’ and the perceptions of the relationships of the ‘I’ or ‘me’ to others and to various aspects of life, together with the values attached to these perceptions” (Rogers, 1959: 192). The self-concept remains relatively stable in any situations. Theoretically, an individual may develop optimally and avoid negative outcomes if he experiences only ‘unconditional positive regard’. The needs for positive regard from others and positive self-regard would match persons evaluation and there would be congruence between self and experience, with full psychological adjustment as a result. This ideal human condition is embodied in the ‘fully functioning person’ that lives existentially, trusts her organism, expresses feelings freely, and acts independently. The ‘maladjusted person’ – defensive, feeling manipulated, and conforming – is the polar opposite of the fully functioning individual. feels manipulated rather than free, and is conforming rather than creative. Rogers believes that for majority of people therapy is the only hope for change and development toward the fully functioning mode (Rogers, 1959). The main point for criticism is Rogers’ belief in positive potential of human nature: many accuse Rogers of disguising the negative sides of human’s nature. The basics of humanistic psychology formulated by Maslow and Rogers differed greatly from the principles underlying behaviorism and psychoanalysis. Behaviorism did not distinguish between humans and animals while the humanistic approach avoided biologization and primitivization of human behavior highlighting uniqueness of the human condition. The psychoanalytic school founded by Sigmund Freud emphasized the process of constant struggle between conscious and unconscious (i.e. between social norms and the instinctual drives associated with sex and inborn aggression) and neglected the positive potential of human (Vander Zanden, 1993). Although modern psychological thought tends to integrate the best features of different schools, the influence of humanistic psychology is perhaps the strongest. The main concern of humanists is to help people achieve freedom and self-fulfillment, realize their positive potential, and though humanistic psychology fails to provide a flawless research-oriented approach, it shows the way of thinking and lifestyle for people to live contented life and feel happy. As a result, all modern theories of human development rely to some or other extent of the concepts of Maslow’s theory (Fedorko, 1985). Positive psychology that is becoming increasingly popular in Western psychology is largely based on the ideas of Rogers and his followers. References Bugental, J.F.T (1964). The Third Force in Psychology. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 19-25 Fedorko, L. (ed) (1986). Understanding Psychology, Forth Edition. Random House Maddi, S. R. (1966). Personality theories: A comparative analysis (6th ed.). Toronto: Brooks/Cole Publishing Co Rogers, C. (1959). “A Theory of therapy, personality, and interpersonal relationships as developed in the client-centered framework” in: Koch, Sigmund (ed.), Psychology. A study of science. Vol. III. Formulations of the Person and the Social Context. New York: McGraw Hill, pp. 184-256 Pescitelli, D. (1996). An Analysis of Carl Rogers’ Theory of Personality in Personality & Consciousness. Retrieved March 1, 2007 from http://www.medicine.utas.edu.au/teaching/year2/cam207/pdf/pescitelli.pdf. Schultz, D. P. and Schultz, S. E. (2004). A History of Modern Psychology (8th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth Vander-Zanden, J. W. and Wilfrid, J. (1993). Human development, 5th edition. McGraw-Hill Inc. Read More