Humanistic Psychology
Optimistic Humanism
-Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow -people are basically good: they seek to relate to one another, and they have an innate need to improve themselves and the world -important to bare in mind that this is an assumption because there is no evidence that is relevant
Existentialism
-purpose of existential philosophy was to regain contact with the experience of being alive and aware -existential analysis begins with the concrete and specific experience of a human being existing at a particular moment in time and space -what is the nature of existence, how does it feel and what does it mean?
Bad Faith
-existentialists believe that your must face your own mortality and seek purpose for your existence--requires existential courage (optimistic toughness) -alternative is to avoid existential questions--living in bad faith -there is no way out and if there is it is temporary -do what is told to do by society, don't have to think for yourself and rather lead the unexamined life--living in bad faith
Rogerian Psychotherapy
-goal is to help the client become a fully functioning person--therapist develops a caring and genuine and caring relationship with the patient that has unconditional positive regard therapists job: -help the client perceive his or her own thoughts and feelings without the therapist seeking to change them in any way--listen and accept with no judgements or opinions -make the client feel appreciated no matter what he or she thinks, says or does
Evolutionary-Based Hierarchy of Human Motives
-immediate needs -self-protection -affiliation -status/esteem -mate acquisition -mate retention -parenting
Positive Psychology Cont'd
-investigates the traits, processes and social institutions that promote a happy and meaningful life -focuses on human strengths instead of faults -factors that come from happiness, and beyond a certain base level, appreciating in good in life instead of the bad
Deficiency vs. Growth Motives
-neurosis (anxiety) can be regarded as a deficiency disease -psychological health is associated with the pursuit of growth motives and actions that will help us realize our full potential -lower needs in the hierarchy reflect deficiency motives, where as self-actualization reflects growth motives
Phenomenology
-one's conscious experience of the world --is psychologically more important than the world itself -immediate, conscious experience is all that matters -the only place and time in which you exist is in your consciousness, here, right now -everything that has happened in the past, present and will in the future -only exist in the here and now
Two Basic Messages
-people are selfish and life is meaningless -people are good and that they achieve meaning by rising above their selfish concerns (more positive)
Angst
-unpleasant feelings or anxiety caused by contemplating questions about the meaning of life and whether you are spending yours the right way -involves 3 separate sensations: 1) anguish: because choices are never perfect 2) forlornness: your choices are yours alone 3) despair: realization that many outcomes are beyond your control, including some of the most important elements of life
Central Intrinsic Goals (universal)
autonomy--finding your own way in life and making your own decisions competence--finding something that you are good at and becoming better relatedness--being connected with others, caring of them and being cared for by them three goals are essential for well being, psychological rather than physiological you can survive without them but you can't survive without oxygen--mental health suffers without these 3 things
Self-Determination Theory
happiness can be south via two classic routes: hedonia: maximize pleasure, minimize pain; is dangerous, risk living life without depth, meaning and community eudaimonia: pursuing important goals, relationships, taking responsibility for choices; entails seeking goals that are valuable in their own right (intrinsic) rather than as means to an ed (extrinsic) -most commonly sought extrinsic goal is money -three central intrinsic goals (universal)
Applications of Maslow's Hierarchy Career Choice:
may be influenced by whether or not safety and stability are taken for granted or not
Wundt's Experiments
spent many years pursuing these ideas -hoped to describe exactly what went on in the mind when observing various objects, feeling other sensations, making simple decisions ex. an assistant pressed a button after hearing a tone under different conditions
Polliana
too positive, can find a positive spin on any situation
Introspection
-Wundt believed that the only way to study experience is to observe it closely --the way to observe the inner experience of the mind is introspection -requires training --the untrained person will confuse the learning meanings and associations about an object with perceptions of the object itself ---people can't look at other people and see their minds, only trained individuals could do this and it was only on themselves
Hardiness
-a lifestyle that embraces rather than avoids potential sources of stress--don't avoid stressful thing but rather have the adversity to withstand them -hardy people are generally healthier and better-adjusted psychologically, even under stressful circumstances
Carl Rogers
-a person can be understood only from the perspective of his or her phenomenal field--panarama of conscious experience--memories, hopes, goals, etc. -posited that people have a basic need to actualize --to maintain and enhance life --goal of existence is to satisfy this need--existence did not have an intrinsic goal
Factors on the Contingencies of Self-Worth Scale
-academic competence=doing well in school -appearance=how attractive you think you are -competition=feeling better because you preform better than others -others approval=can't respect myself if others don't -family support=not loved by family, self-esteem goes down -gods love=my self esteem would suffer without God's love -virtue=my self-esteem would suffer if i did something unethical
Positive Psychology
-ain is to correct a longstanding overemphasis within psychology or psychopathology and malfunction--a rebirth of humanistic psychology -usually argues that a satisfying and meaningful life involves happiness, and that true happiness comes from overcoming important challenges
Construals and Reality
-any pattern of experience can lead to numerous construals--you choose the ones that you use, they are not forced on you as others are able to do the same -constructive alternativism: you're personal reality does not simply exist apart from you; you construct it in your mind -important pat of psychotherapy was getting the patient to construe reality in a different way
Achieving Flow
-arises when your activity entails a balanced ratio of skills to challenges--too easy causes boredom and might also result in anxiety -secret for enhancing your quality of life -does not work for everyone -rather solitary experience -achieved when you find pleasure in something
Humanistic Psychology
-based on the premise that to understand a person you must understand his or her unique view of reality -focuses on phenomenology -emphasizes how people feel, think, experience and choose, and the ways that that these activities make the study of human mind unique -humans are not victims of the environment everyone has the capability to grow
*Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi*
-believes that your moment-to-moment experience is what really matters in life--concern is how to make the most out of it -the best way a person can spend time is in autotelic activities--enjoyable for their own sake, and gives flow
George Kelly: Personal Constructs
-chronically accessible constructs: those that are more readily brought to mind -kelly believed that constructs come from, but are not determined by, past experiences (ranging from good to bad, weak vs strong) --every person is a scientist --personal construct system is your freely chosen interpretation of past experience -choosing the theory to believe is based on a judgement call -theory is a personal construct that shapes your perception and your thoughts on the world
Core Virtues Identified by Positive Psychology
-courage--bravery, perseverance and honesty -justice--fairness, leadership and teamwork -humanity--love and kindness -temperance--forgiveness, humility, prudence and self-control -wisdom--creativity, curiosity, judgement and perspective -transcendence--gratitude, hope and spirituality
Authentic Existence
-entails being honest, insightful and morally correct -however, authentic existence will not relieve you from loneliness and unhappiness -the human being is the only animal that understands it must die -you face the facts, you are the master of your own death and destiny under these limits -life has no meaning beyond what you give it--humans are the only being that know they will die -death is inevitable, and is not for the faint of heart -tried to be realistic as well as optimistic
Rogerian Cont'd
-following therapy, patients real and ideal selves aligned more closely--requires lots of time, and the patient has to restrain their thoughts, feelings and emotions -but, critics have noted 2 problems: --results seem to be about equally due to the changes in clients self-views as to changes int their ideal views -describing oneself as highly similar to ones idea of a perfect person is not always a good measure of psychological adjustment
Wilhelm Wundt
-founded the first psychological laboratory -sought to establish psychology as a separate field precisely because he recognized the uniqueness of its topic--trained students how to study the human mind -conceived of psychology as the field that would examine conscious experience as an important phenomenon in its own right, beyond the physical stimuli that affect it
Achieving Self-Actualization
-only a fraction of 1% of the population achieve self-actualization (can get there but not stay there) -a person could reach a state of self-actualized but not stay self-actualized -motivation may also be a factor -environmental factors may determine whether a person can pursue higher needs -family, security, health and freedom are highly rated
Owning Our Decisions
-people who feel as if a decision is full their own are more likely to follow through and act on it effectively -people who feel that they are following this own desires are happier and more productive than those who feel that they are responding to social pressures -different cultures have different values and activities but if they choose to do them themselves they are more likely to be happy with their decisions
Chemistry of Mental Life
-phenomenologists sought to analyze any experience, feeling, or thought into its basic irreducible parts--ultimately this failed and its usefulness was unclear -problems: --usefulness was unclear --some complex perceptions, feelings and thoughts are irreducible --method of introspection itself
Thrown-ness
-refers to the time/place/circumstances into which you happen to be born -existence in modern society is difficult because your work seems to have no overarching meaning or purpose -fails to provide a worldview that can answer: why are you here? what should you be doing? --failure to answer these 2 questions ends in anxiety
The Fully Functioning Person
-someone who can perceive the world accurately and without neurotic distortion, and takes responsibility for their own choices -Rogers: only possible with unconditional positive regard -Maslow believed that anyone from any background could be successful
Conditions of Worth
-the criteria one believes they must meet for other people to value them -limit the freedom to act and think (free choice) --will instead act in a non-authentic way; displaying a mask -antidote is the experience unconditional positive regard for the significant other in our life
Humanistic Study of the Mind
-the mind is fundamentally different from other objects of study because the human mind is aware --psychology needs to address this awareness --self-awareness is associated with many uniquely human phenomena -humanistic psychologists seek to understand the aspects of the mind tat are uniquely human and that give life meaning -human mind is unique because it is aware that it is being studied -what is free will, self awareness, happiness, the meaning of life
Roger's Self-Actualization
-the process of becoming ones full self --ex. realizing ones dermas and capabilities -route to self-actualization will vary but must be self-chosen -rogers often compared self-actualization in humans to physical growth in plants -plant has to batter against a lot of other things and grows as best as it can under the circumstances that it is facing
Characteristics of Flow
-tremendous concentration, total lack of distractibility, and thoughts concerning only the activity at hand -ones mood is elevated slightly and time seems to pass very quickly -losing track of time is also a sign of experiencing flow ex. social network "being locked in" and they can't be distracted by anything else in the environment
Critiques
-very positive and optimistic approach to personality and behaviour -but, is it too positive? -the rebirth of humanism may be incomplete
Salvatore Maddi
-without stress, life would be boring and meaningless -people seek to avoid stress by developing a conformist lifestyle --vegetativeness--person feels that nothing has meaning and they become lifeless --nihilism--angry, disgust, and cynicism --adventurousness--extreme thrills gamer ones full attention--drug use, sex, and other activities--all working to conceal the emptiness of life
Problems with Living in Bad Faith
-you essentially give up your life if you refuse to examine the substance and meaning of your experience--you will be selling your soul for comfort -even if you manage to ignore troubling existential issues, you still will not be happy -choosing not to worry about the meaning of life and surrendering your choices to external authorities is still a choice -people come from earth and return to it -must experience your luck and not take it for granted -possessions mean more than happiness, money makes the world go round
Construals
-your particular experience of the world--based off goals, and things that you want to achieve --are interpretations rather than direct reflections of reality -can be freely chosen --by choosing how to interpret your experience, you can achieve free will--leaving this choice to others is how you lose your autonomy and your soul
3 Parts of Experience
1. Biological Experience (Umwelt): consists of the sensations you feel by virtue of being a biological organism ex. poking yourself with a pin 2. Social Experience (Mitwelt): consists of what you think and feel as a social being ex. emotion and thoughts about yourself and other people 3. Psychological Experience (Eigenwelt): consists of how you feel and think when you try to understand yourself, your own mind, and your own existence ex. introspection and the components of experience, thinking about what you are saying or what you are writing
Unique Contributions
1. Conscious experience is both an obvious fact and a basic mystery -awareness is a human experience, and science can neither credibly deny its existence nor explain just what it is or where it comes from -it is only natural, therefore, that phenomenological analysis sometimes expands into speculations that are not only philosophical, but also religious and spiritual
Unique Contributions Cont'd
2. To understand another person, you must understand his or her construals (understanding life from someone else's perspective) -discourage judgemental attitudes about other people -there is no way to prove your view of reality right or others wrong
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
basic safety, security, comfort belonging, social activity status, esteem self-actualization--people at this stage can experience ego transcendence, can come at any time but go away at any time also
Head in the Sand Approach
choosing to not know the meaning of life you are still choosing even if you try to food yourself into thinking that there is
Employee motivation:
employees will not show initiative and imagination unless they feel secure, an employees who feel secure want something besides more money
Carl Roger's Self Theory
self concept: the persons understanding of who he or she is --crucial part of a persons phenomenological reality --common goal is to discover or become the real self -important individual difference has to do with the degree to which a person feels in charge of his or her own life
Flow
the totally absorbing experience of engaging in an activity that is valuable for its own sake--something that you do of you because you enjoy it not because you have to
