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Running head: HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

Humanistic Psychology
Bryan Card
Psychology 335, Theories of Personality
University of Maryland, University College

HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

Table of Contents
Theoretical perspective of the approach

Theorists who have contributed to this approach

Compare and contrast two theorists perspectives within this


approach

Identify and describe measurement and assessment instruments

Clinical application of the approach

10

Conclusion

12

References

14

HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

Theoretical perspective of the approach

Humanistic psychology is an approach that was developed in


the wake of World War II as an alternative to the psychoanalytic
theory of Sigmund Freud and the subsequent rise of behaviorism
(Benjafield, 2010).

Described by David Funder as the approach

to personality that emphasizes aspects of psychology that are


distinctly human, humanistic psychology views the field through
a uniquely positive lens(Funder, 2010).
Humanistic psychology has been summarized in five
postulates, which were first ensconced in an article in the
Journal of Humanistic Psychology (Bugental, 1964).
1. Human beings, as human, supersede the sum of their parts.
They cannot be reduced to components.
2. Human beings have their existence in a uniquely human
context, as well as in a cosmic ecology.
3. Human beings are aware and are aware of being aware i.e.,
they are conscious.

Human consciousness always includes an

awareness of oneself in the context of other people.


4. Human beings have the ability to make choices and therefore
have responsibility.

HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY
5.

Human beings are intentional, aim at goals, are

aware that they cause future events, and seek meaning,


value, and creativity.
The fundamental understanding of humanistic psychology is
the importance of each individuals conscious experience of
life, known as their phenomenology.

Far from a novel idea,

phenomenology draws on precepts dating back as far as Greek


philosophers, Roman emperors and even the Talmud.

According to

this view the past, future, other places, even other people are
no more than ideals or illusions (Funder, 2010).
According to humanistic psychology, the sum of your
individual experiences is referred to as your construal (Funder,
2010).

These construals influence every part of your life, from

your goals to the obstacles you perceive.

Every choice holds

both possibilities and risks; the beginning of a new


relationship can lead to happiness or misery; a new job can lead
to success and fulfilment or to failure and rejection; a new
hobby can lead to accomplishment or frustration.
Further, humanistic psychology holds that by leaving this
choice to others, or even to society, you lose your autonomy
(Boss, 1963).

It is only by choosing your construal, or how you

view your experiences, that you influence your life through free
will.

HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

In the early 1950s, American psychologists Carl Rogers and


Abraham Maslow established similar approaches to humanistic
psychology.

These visionaries started with the core

philosophies of phenomenology and free will, then added the


assumption that all people are basically good, that is they
seek to relate closely with one another, and they have an innate
need to improve themselves and the world (Funder, 2010).

While

it is important to note that this optimistic outlook is an


assumption that humanists believe, but cannot prove, so also is
it imperative to acknowledge that all theories begin with
similarly unproven assumptions.

Theorists who have contributed to this approach

Regarded as the founder of the humanistic approach to


psychology, Carl Rogers is regarded by the American
Psychological Association as the 6th most eminent psychologist of
the 20th century (Eminent psychologists, 2002).

Born January

8, 1902 near Chicago Illinois, Rogers received his Ph. D. in


Psychology from the Teachers College, Columbia University.
Afterwards, he worked as a professor of Clinical
Psychology at Ohio University starting in 1940 until he was
invited to set up the counseling center at the University of
Chicago in 1945.

Also in 1945, Rogers became president of the

HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

American Psychological Association, and in 1956 he was named


president of the American Academy of Psychotherapists (Former
presidents, 2015).

In 1961, he was elected as a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Science.


A prolific author, Rogers published sixteen books between
1939 and 1987 along with more than 200 professional articles.
His best known works include:

On Becoming a Person, Client

Centered Therapy, Freedom to Learn, A way of Being, Carl Rogers


on Personal Power, and Becoming Partners:
Alternatives.

Marriage and Its

His final book On Becoming an Effective Teacher

Person-centered Teaching, Psychology, Philosophy, and Dialogues


was written with Harold Lyon and Reinhardt Tausch and published
in 2013, twenty-six years after his death.
Sharing credit for founding humanistic psychology is
Abraham Maslow.

Born on April fools day, April 1, 1908 in

Brooklyn New York, Maslow was the oldest of seven children.


Despite a difficult childhood, he went on to graduate first from
City College of New York, then from the University of Wisconsin
where he studied psychology.

In 1937, Maslow worked on the

faculty of Brooklyn College, where he began to study selfactualizing people, or those who strive to realize fully
[their] potential (Merriam-Webster, 2015).

Starting with Ruth

Benedict, an anthropologist, and Max Wertheimer, a Gestalt


psychologist, Maslow began to observe and write about successful

HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY
individuals.

These observations shaped his views about mental

health and human potential (Hoffman, 2008).


Maslow continued his tenure at Brooklyn College until 1951
when he moved to Massachusetts to work as a professor at
Brandeis University where he remained until 1969 when he became
a resident fellow of the Laughlin Institute in California.
In addition to founding the Journal of Humanistic
Psychology in 1961, Maslow is credited with developing the
influential concepts of a hierarchy of needs, metaneeds,
metamotivation, self-actualizing persons, and peak experiences
(Greening, 2008).

Due to his tremendous contributions to the

field of psychology, he is considered to be the 14th most eminent


psychologist of the 20th century by the American Psychological
Association (Eminent psychologists, 2002).

Compare and contrast two theorists perspectives within this


approach

As the two most prominent members of the humanistic


approach to psychology, both Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow were
critical to the development of this profoundly influential
discipline.

During the early 1950s, in the wake of the last

World War, both psychologists developed their groundbreaking


theories and while there are many common threads in their work,

HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

both made significant but unique contributions to the nascent


field.
Both Maslow and Rogers understood that mindful living was
the key becoming a self-actualized individual and ultimately to
happiness.

In The Personality Puzzle, David Funder writes:

If you can perceive the world accurately and without


neurotic distortion, and if you take responsibility for
your choices, then you become what Rogers called a fully
functioning person, who lives what the existentialists
would call an authentic existenceexcept that the fully
functioning person is happy.

(Funder, 2010)

Rogers theories focused on the experiences of the


individual, which he referred to as their phenomenal field.
This field was the cumulative sum of unconscious conflicts,
environmental influences, memories, hopes, and so on (Funder,
2010).

To this, he added the idea that every person has the

innate desire to actualize, or as he put it, to maintain and


enhance life.

Much like Freuds libido, in Rogers mind, the

goal of human existence is to satisfy this desire.

This

addition marked Rogers approach as radically different from


traditional existentialism which holds that existence has no
goal.

HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

Maslow approached humanistic psychology from the same view;


that A persons ultimate need or motive is to self-actualize
(Funder, 2010).

However his approach differed from Rogers in

that he claimed that this motive only becomes a priority after


an individuals basic needs are first met.

Accordingly, he

developed a hierarchy of needs to describe human motivation.


Maslows Hierarchy of Needs is likely his biggest contribution
to the field of psychology and is still widely used in such
disparate fields as education and business!
On the most basic level of his hierarch of needs, Maslow
assigned an individuals basic physiological needs such as food
and water.

Once those needs have been met, Maslow opined the

individual will seek to satisfy the next strata of the hierarchy


of Needs, the need for safety, security, comfort, and sex.
Next, humans seek to satisfy their need for belonging and social
activity.

After meeting those needs, they will act on their

motivation to achieve status and esteem.

Finally, after meeting

all the previously discussed needs, an individual is capable of


pursuing self-actualization.

Identify and describe measurement and assessment instruments

Funder discusses the difficulties of measuring the results


of psychotherapy, but notes some of the techniques that Rogers

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and other humanistic psychologists documented.

In a series of

studies, a group of individuals about to undergo psychotherapy


was asked to describe first themselves, then their ideal self.
This process was repeated with a control group of individuals
uninterested in psychotherapy.

When their answers were

compared, these studies indicated that the group that felt they
needed to participate in psychotherapy experienced greater
disparity between these two selves than those who did not seek
therapy (Funder, 2010).
When participants were asked to repeat this exercise after
undergoing a program of humanistic psychotherapy treatment, the
results showed that their real self and their ideal self were
more closely aligned then before.

It is important to note that

critics, such as Dr. Rudikoff, have observed that patients not


only change their self-image, they also make adjustments to
their ideal self.

Additionally, it has been observed that

individuals suffering from mental illnesses, such as paranoid


schizophrenia consider themselves to be close to ideal, limiting
the value of looking solely at the disparity between the real
and ideal self as an assessment of mental health.

Clinical application of the approach

HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

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The aim of humanistic, or Rogerian psychotherapy, in


general is to help the client to become a fully functioning
person (Funder, 2010).

In pursuit of this goal, the therapist

must develop a sincere and compassionate relationship with the


patient and must provide unconditional positive regard (Levine,
2006).

While this approach is sometimes viewed controversially,

it is important to remember that the humanistic approach to


psychotherapy is just that, an approach to psychotherapy.

The

therapist is not required to agree on condone the patients


actions or thoughts, but to provide a safe and positive
environment for their discussion in order to facilitate
treatment.
Through this two way trust, the therapist helps the client
identify and perceive his or her feelings and thoughts without
trying to change them or demonize them.

In comparison to other

approaches, this person-centered psychotherapy requires a


colossal investment of time on the part of both therapist and
patient.

This is due to the fact that client-centered therapy

is non-directive, or in other words the therapist allows the


patient to talk without judgement and facilitates them to come
to key insights by themselves (Meyers, 2010).
Several other approaches to psychotherapy exist under the
umbrella of humanistic psychotherapy, including existential
psychotherapy, gestalt psychotherapy, encounter groups, depth

HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

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therapy, sensitivity training, holistic health, body work,


family and marital therapy, and positive psychology. Of these,
positive psychology is particularly interesting in its approach
to psychotherapy.
Humanistic psychotherapists view traditional psychotherapy
as inherently flawed because it treats people almost as
inanimate objects of study, tends to ignore uniquely human
capacities for creativity, love wisdom, and free will (Funder,
2010).

Of particular interest is that unlike their traditional

colleagues who ignore the question of lifes purpose, the


positive psychotherapist establishes this question as the basis
for their program.

Maintaining that a satisfying and

meaningful life involves happiness, and that true happiness


comes from overcoming important challenges, a positive
psychotherapist explores his clients ideal self and helps them
to work towards self-actualization (Ryff & Singer, 2003).

Conclusion

While each of the officially recognized approaches to


psychology has merit, humanistic therapy is exceptional in its
focus on achieving a happy and meaningful life though working to
bring your self-image in line with your ideal self (Different
Approaches, 2015).

Elegantly simple, this focus on optimism

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and mindfulness has the capacity to enact powerful changes in


the lives of those who practice it.

Due to this unique

viewpoint, humanistic psychology offers not only benefits for


psychotherapy, but has the capacity to shape the very fabric of
society.

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References
Benjafield, John G. (2010). A History of Psychology: Third
Edition. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press. pp. 357
362. ISBN 978-0-19-543021-9.
Boss, M. (1963).
Basic Books

Psychoanalysis and daseinsanalysis.

New York:

Bugental, J. (1964). The third force in psychology. Journal of


Humanistic Psychology, 4(1), 19-26.
doi:10.1177/002216786400400102
Churchill, S. D., & Mruk, C. J. (2014). Practicing what we
preach in humanistic and positive psychology. American
Psychologist, 69(1), 90-92. doi:10.1037/a0034868
Different approaches to psychotherapy. (2015). Retrieved May 7,
2015, from http://www.apa.org/topics/therapy/psychotherapyapproaches.aspx
Eminent psychologists of the 20th century. (2002, July 1).
Retrieved May 3, 2015, from
http://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug02/eminent.aspx
Former APA Presidents. (2015). Retrieved May 11, 2015, from
http://www.apa.org/about/governance/president/pastpresidents.aspx
Greening, Tom (2008). "Abraham Maslow: A Brief Reminiscence.
Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 48(4)"(PDF).
Haggbloom, S.J. et al. (2002). The 100 Most Eminent
Psychologists of the 20th Century. Review of General
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Hoffman, Edward (2008). "Abraham Maslow: a biographer's
reflections". Journal of Humanistic Psychology 48 (4): 439
443.doi:10.1177/0022167808320534.

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Levine, M. (2006). Humanism in psychology. Unpublished


manuscript, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH.
McDonald, M. S. (2013). A Reconceptualization of the Self in
Humanistic Psychology: Heidegger, Foucault and the
Sociocultural Turn. Journal Of Phenomenological
Psychology, 44(1), 37-59.
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York, NY: Worth Publishers
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the concepts of the self, the ordinary person, and the
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(Eds), Psychotherapy and personality change: Co-ordinated
studies in the client-centered approach (pp.85-98).
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Ryff, C. D., & Singer, B. (2003). Flourishing under fire:
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M. Keyes & J. Haidt (Eds.), Flourishing: Positive
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Waterman, A. S. (2013). The humanistic psychologypositive
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Williams, P. (2012). Looking back to see the future: The
influence of humanistic and transpersonal psychology on
coaching psychology today. International Coaching
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