personality psych ch.11 the humanistic approach

Eight components of optimal experience

1) The activity is challenging and requires skill. 2) One's attention is competley absorbed by the activity. 3) The activity has clear goals. 4) There is clear feedback. 5) One can concentrate only on the task at hand. 6)One achieves a sense of personal control. 7) One loses self-consciousness. 8) One loses a sense of time.

key elements of humanistic approach

1) an emphasis on personal responsibility. 2) an emphasis on the "here and now". 3) a focus on the experience of the individual. 4) an emphasis on personal growth.

Growth needs (Abraham Maslow)

Are not satisfied simply by finding the object of out need. Rather, growth needs are satisfied by expressing the motive. Growth needs include the unselfish giving of love to others and the development of one's unique potential. Satisfying a growth need may even lead to an increase in, rather than a satiation of the need.

Conditional Positive Regard (Carl Rogers)

As children, our parents and caregivers provide love and support. However, they rarely do this unconditionally. Rather, most parents communicate affection for their children as long as the children do what is expected of them. When parents disapprove of their children's behavior, they withhold their admiration and love. the children get the message they are loved, but only when they do what their parents want.

Optimal experience explained Csikszentmihalyi's

Can people structure the events in their daily lives in a way that promotes a sense of personal fulfillment and self-worth? Csikszentmihalyi's participants talked about becoming so involved in what they were doing that nothing else seemed to matter. Whether it was climbing a mountain or performing surgery, the activity demanded all their attention. The task is always challenging and demand full concentration. Provides participants with a sense of mastery. Real pleasure comes from process rather than achievement.

"process of becoming"

Carl Rogers: therapist creates a therapeutic atmosphere that allows clients to overcome their problems and continue growing.

Peak experiences (Abraham Maslow)

During a peak experience, time and place are transcended. Anxieties disappear, replaced by a sense of unity with the universe and a momentary feeling of power and wonder. A visit to a personally defined heaven. they are growth experiences.

The fully functioning person (Carl Rogers)

Each of us naturally strive to reach an optimal sense of satisfaction with our lives. Characteristics: 1) Open to experiences 2) Rather than falling into familiar patterns, they look to see what life will throw their way. 3) try to live each moment as it comes (experience life, don't just pass through it). 4) learn to trust your feelings. Don't be insensitive to the needs of others, but don't be overly concerned with meeting the standards society sets for you.

Motivation and the Hierarchy of needs (Abraham Maslow)

Five basic categories of needs-both deficiency and growth. Some unsatisfied needs demand our attention more than others.

The experience of the individual (key elements of humanistic approach)

Humanistic therapists seek to understand what their clients are experiencing and try to provide a therapeutic atmosphere that allows clients to help themselves.

Esteem Needs (Maslow's hierarchy of needs)

Maslow divided esteem needs into two basic types: the need to perceive oneself as competent and achieving, and the need for admiration and respect. Satisfying one of these esteem needs often goes hand in hand with the other. It is difficult for others to admire you if you don't feel good about yourself. And knowing that you have earned the respect of people who are important to you most likely will contribute to your sense of personal esteem.

The study of psychologically healthy people (Abraham Maslow)

Maslow interviewed people he know who appeared to have satisfied their need for self-actualization. He also turned to records and documents to learn about historic figures who seemed to have lived a self-actualized life. (Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt) He used a method called "holistic analysis". from his impressions he created a list of healthy characteristics common to psychologically healthy people.

Optimal Experience

People typically describe a feeling of being caught up in a natural, almost effortless movement from one step to the next. Optimal experiences are intensely enjoyable, but they usually are not restful, relaxing moments.

Physiological needs (Maslow's hierarchy of needs)

Physiological needs, including hunger, thirst, air, and sleep, are the most demanding in that they typically must be satisfied before we can move to higher level needs.

Carl Rogers

Pioneered humanistic psychotherapy and was the first therapist to popularize a "person-centered" approach.

Deficiency motives (Abraham Maslow)

Result from a lack of some needed object. Basic needs such as hunger and thirst fall into this category. Once we obtain the needed object, deficiency motives are satisfied and for a period of time stop directing our behavior.

Criticisms of the humanistic approach

Some psychologists argue that humanism's reliance of free will renders the it unfit for scientific study. Also, many key concepts are poorly defined. Also criticized for making some overly naive assumptions about human nature.

Belongingness and love needs (Maslow's hierarchy of needs)

The need for friendship and love is likely to make itself known. ex: absence of friends, sweetheart, or a wife or children. We hunger for affectionate relations with people. Some adults remain slaves to the first two levels. Most people find work unsatisfying when they can't spend time with loved ones.

self-actualizing creativity

This type of creativity shows up in the way people approach routine tasks. A self-actualized teacher develops innovative ways to communicate ideas to students. A self-actualized business person thinks of clever ways to improve sales. Maslow compared it to a spontaneous way a child interacts with the world. Look at the world open-eyed way that helps them find new solutions to old problems.

Personal Growth (key elements of humanistic approach)

We are all motivated to progress toward some ultimately satisfying state of being. Carl Rogers referred to this state as becoming a fully functioning individual. Abraham Maslow used the term self-actualization.

Unconditional Positive regard (Carl Rogers)

We know we will be loved and accepted no matter what we say or do. Rodgers advised parents to communicate to their children that although they don't approve of a specific behavior, they will always love and accept them. Under these conditions, children no longer feel a need to deny thoughts ans feelings that might lead their parents to withdraw affection. They are free to incorporate faults and weaknesses into their self-concepts and thereby able to more fully experience life.

Needs for self-actualization (Maslow's hierarchy of needs)

When all of our lower level needs are satisfied, a new source of discontent often surfaces. We turn our attention inward and ask ourselves what we want out of life, where our lives are headed, and what we want to accomplish. the need for self-actualization is satisfied when we identify our true self and reach our full potential.

Safety Needs (Maslow's hierarchy of needs)

When physiological needs are met, we become increasingly motivated by our safety needs. These include the need for security, stability, protection, structure, order, and freedom from fear or chaos. These needs are likely to be prominent when the future is unpredictable or in locations where the political or social order is unstable. People motivated by safety needs may become obsessed about saving money for an uncertain future.

Self-actualized people

accept themselves for what they are. admit personal weaknesses. Work to improve themselves when they can. They don't spend a lot of time worrying about the bad things they have done. They are not perfect but they respect and feel good about themselves for what they are. They are less restricted by cultural norms and customs than the average person. they express their thoughts and desires in a way that suits them regardless of whether society approves.

Unlike the Freudian or behavioral descriptions of people at the mercy of forces they cannot control, humanistic psychologists see people as...

active sharpers of their own lives, with freedom to change limited only by physical constraints. Clients working with humanistic psychotherapists are often encouraged to accept that they have the power to do or to be whatever they desire. accepting fate is in our own hands is frightening. Taking responsibility means no more blaming others.

As a result of conditioned esteem...(Carl Rogers)

children learn to accept only the parts of themselves their parents deem appropriate. They deny or distort their weaknesses and faults and as a result become less and less aware of who they really are. This process continues when the child becomes an adult.

The Q-sort technique

consists of a deck of 100 cards. A self-descriptive phrases printed on each card, such as, "is a talkative individual", "seeks reassurance from others", or "has high aspiration level for self". The client is asked to place the cards in nine categories according to how much you believe the description on the card applies to you. Real self vs. Ideal self. See where you are, and where you want to go.

The roots of humanistic psychology

existential philosophy, Carl rogers and Abraham Maslow. Existential psychology focuses on existential anxiety-the feelings of dread and panic that follow the realization that there is no meaning ot one's life. Therapy emphasizes the freedom to choose and develop a lifestyle that reduces feelings of emptiness, anxiety, and boredom.

Personal Responsibility (key elements of humanistic approach)

humanistic psychologists argue that virtually all our behaviors represent personal choices. People choose to remain in relationships; they do not have to. We choose to act passively; we could decide to act forcefully. We choose to go to work, call our friends, leave a party, or send a Christmas present. We do not have to do any of these things. The price we pay for making some of these choices can be steep, but they are choices nonetheless. Unlike Freudian and behavioral descriptions where people are at the mercy of forces beyond their control.

Abraham Maslow

spent most of his time filling in the gaps he found in other approaches to personality. In a time preoccupied by psychological disorders, he wondered what psychology could do for the happy, healthy side of personality.

Strengths of the humanistic approach

the emphasis on the healthy side of personality. researchers are turning their attention to topics like creativity, happiness, and sense of well-being. Helped modify therapy. Helped influence other disciplines like education, communication, and business. employers try to seek out higher needs for employees.

Subception (Carl Rogers)

we initially process threatening information at a level below consciousness. When faced with threatening information, we rely on defenses to keep the information from entering consciousness. the most common defense is distortion.

Anxiety and Defense (Carl Rogers)

The world is full of disappointments and difficulties, all of which are potential sources of anxiety. Becoming a fully functioning person doesn't eliminate all our problems. But is does mean we acknowledge and deal with these problems directly rather than rely on psychological defenses to avoid them. anxiety often is the result of coming into contact with information that is inconsistent with the way we think of ourselves.

Job satisfaction and the hierarchy of needs

Think of three jobs you want. Ask yourself what you can get out of them that you can't get out of any other job. Then taking the answers and see where they fall on the hierarchy of needs scale. Your occupation can provide more than just a paycheck. Finding one's life work is a lot like finding one's mate. If you are unhappy with your work, you have lost one of the most important means of self-fulfillment.

Person centered therapy (carl rogers)

A therapist cannot possibly understand clients as well as clients understand themselves. Clients, rather than the therapist, are responsible for changing themselves. Rogers believed each of us grows and develops in a positive, self-actualizing fashion unless our progress is in some way impeded. The therapist allows the client to get back on that positive growth track.

The here and now (key elements of humanistic approach)

According to the humanistic perspective, we can't become fully functioning individuals until we learn to live our lives as they happen. Some reflection on the past or future can be helpful, but most people spend far too much time thinking about events that have already happened or planning those that might. Time spent on these activities is time lost, for you can live life fully only in the hear and now.