Humanistic psychology an evaluation

By Feena M. - Year 12

The humanistic approach to psychology begins from the premise that all humans are self-determining and therefore people have full conscious control over themselves, their choices and behavior. This differs from other approaches and suggests humans are all unique. The humanistic approach includes Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, a theoretical framework for understanding the various levels of need a person must satisfy before they can achieve “self-actualisation” – a state in which they reach their full potential.

In addition to this, Carl Rogers proposes a theory of congruence, arguing that the personal self and the ideal self should be congruent, and an equal match for each other. He argues that a large gap between these two entities causes incongruence, making self-actualisation impossible. For Rogers, many of these incongruences are rooted in childhood. Therefore, to try to close the gap between the personal self and the ideal self, Rogers created client-centered therapy, providing the unconditional positive regard many people fail to receive as children. This helps people to deal with everyday issues, as well as closing the gap between personal and ideal self, thus moving closer to selfactualisation.

Let us consider a case study: Tatiana has “low self-esteem”. This may be stopping her from moving up the hierarchy of needs, creating incongruence and thwarting self-actualisation. Furthermore, Tatiana only feels good about herself when she receives positive comments, suggesting incongruence and lack of self-worth and personal growth. This is starting to affect her achievement at school, moving Tatiana down the hierarchy of needs.

Therefore, Tatiana may benefit from counselling.

One strength of the humanistic approach is that it is not reductionist, as it doesn’t attempt to break complex human behaviour down into simpler forms. This contrasts with approaches such as behaviourism, which argues that all human behaviour fits a pattern of stimulus and response. The humanistic approach acknowledges free will and self-determination, and therefore gives a more complex explanation for human behaviour.

However, one limitation of the approach is that it can be culturally biased, as its reliance on ideas of individual freedom, autonomy and personal growth are all ideas associated with western individualistic cultures. This is controversial, as not all cultures share the same assumption that personal achievement brings fulfillment; collectivist cultures, in places such as India, value ideas such as togetherness and interdependence. These do not strongly resonate with the humanistic approach, which may reduce its validity outside the cultures in which it was developed.

The humanistic approach is also founded on vague ideas that are difficult to test, such as self-actualisation and congruence. These ideas are useful to therapists as tools, but lack reliability, as the findings cannot be tested. The impossibility of testing these concepts empirically means they cannot be deemed scientific. However, the anti-scientific character of the approach means the absence of empirical evidence to support its claims is to be expected.