The Humanistic Approach

Key people: Abraham Maslow & Carl Rogers

Humanistic psychology describes understanding human experience from the position of the individual.

It focuses on the idea of free will and the belief that we are all capable of making choices.

What is the Humanistic Approach About?

 The humanistic approach sees people as individual humans who we might not understand but we ACCEPT. We accept that everyone is different

The Queen

How easy do you find it to accept these people?

Christopher Paul Neil Paedophile

Katie Price

Unconditional means without conditions. If you have unconditional positive regard for someone this means it is without conditions on their behaviour you have a positive regard for ALL humans no matter what they have done.

How difficult is it for you to have unconditional positive regard for Hitler?

The Humanistic approach says we should separate out someones behaviour from the fact that they are a human being.
It says that every human being deservers to be listened to without judgement.

Christopher Paul Neil Paedophile

How easy do you find it to be non-judgemental towards Christopher Neil?

The humanistic approach is dependent on ACTIVE LISTENING. When is it hard to listen to people? Get distracted Dont agree with what they are saying Prejudiced about their clothes/accent etc Not interested in what they are saying Other reasons?

How easy would you find it to actively listen to this woman?

The humanistic approach says that we have to seek to empathise with individuals. What is empathy? What is sympathy? Use handout PP11 and PP12 to explore empathy

Empathy requires you to put yourself in someone elses shoes

How do we see ourselves?

List how you see yourself in terms of your appearance and different roles in life

How we see ourselves and is made from: What we are told as children which is then internalised How we judge ourselves according to what we succeed and fail in Physical attributes am I fat, thin, blonde etc The Ideal Self represents a view of ourselves as we feel we should be & would like to be. If there is a mismatch between our actual self & the ideal self Rogers says we become troubled and unhappy
The humanistic approach is interested in self-concept because it believes it helps us to understand behaviour

 This refers to how much we feel we are valuable. Someone with high selfesteem will believe they are loved and lovable, important and valued. Someone with low selfesteem may feel worthless, of no value, unloved and unlovable. The humanistic approach believes everyone has the propensity to be loved and wishes to help improve a persons self-esteem.