HUMANISTIC APPROACH

B.BANDA
02/04/2024
GENERAL OBJECTIVE

• At the end of this lecture, students should gain knowledge in

Humanistic Psychology
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

• At the end of this lecture, students should be able to;

• Di sc uss the c o ntri b uti o ns m ad e b y so m e hum ani sti c
psychologists.
OVERVIEW OF HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

• This approach looks at a person as a whole and the uniqueness

of each individual.
• Humanistic approach is against behaviourism and
psychoanalytic psychology.
• This approach rejected the assumptions of behaviourism that
looked at reinforcement of stimulus – response affecting the
behaviour and also that it greatly depended on animal research.
• This approach also rejected the assumptions of psychoanalysis
because they focused on the unconsciousness.
OVERVIEW OF HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

• Humanistic perspective view people as human beings who are

born good but during their process of growth they might turn evil.
• This approach believes that humans can overcome hardship, pain
and despair.
• Humanistic psychologists believe that individuals have the ability
to control their lives rather than being manipulated by the
environment.
• They also feel that human beings have a great potential for self-
understanding and self-destiny and self- direction as they move
towards self –actualization.
OVERVIEW HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

• Humanistic psychologists strive to enhance the human qualities

of choice, creativity, the interaction of the body, mind and the
capacity to become more aware, free, responsible, and
trustworthy.
• Therapists who use this approach help people understand
themselves
• According to this approach, psychological disorders result from
the inability to f in d meaning in life and from feelings of
loneliness and a lack of connection to others.
• In addition, can result from change of roles such as divorce.
CARL ROGERS

• This approach puts emphasis on the fact that a human being

has the capacity for personal growth and freedom to choose his
own destiny.
• It also places emphasis on the need for the parents not to place
condition on their children but show unconditional love.
 CLIENT-CENTRED THERAPY

• Carl Rogers, introduced client-centred therapy, which relies on

clients’ capacity for self-direction, empathy, and acceptance to
promote clients’ development.
• He stated that human behaviour is as a result of the free will and
unconditional positive regard.
• This provides a supportive environment in which clients can re-
establish their true identity.
• The world is judgmental, and many people fear that if they share
with the world their true identity, it would judge them badly.
CLIENT-CENTRED THERAPY

• People are likely to suppress their beliefs, values, or opinions

because they are not supported, not socially acceptable, or
negatively judged.
• To re-establish a client’s true identity, the therapist relies on the
techniques of unconditional positive regard and empathy.
• These two techniques are central to client-centred therapy
because they build trust between the client and therapist by
creating a nonjudgmental and supportive environment for the
client.
ABRAHAM MASLOW

• Abrahams Maslow focused on hierarchy of needs where an

individual requires to achieve the basic needs before they can
move to the next level until they reach self-actualization.
• Maslow called the bottom four levels of the pyramid as deficiency
needs because a person does not feel anything if they are met,
but becomes anxious if they are not.
• Thus, physiological needs such as eating, drinking, and sleeping
are def ic iency needs, as are safety needs, social needs such as
friendship and sexual intimacy, and needs such as self-esteem
and recognition.
ABRAHAM MASLOW

• In contrast, Maslow called the fifth level of the pyramid a growth

need because it enables a person to self-actualize or reach his
or her fullest potential as a human being.
• Once a person has met the def ic iency needs, he or she can
attend to self-actualization; however, only few people are able to
self-actualize because self-actualization requires uncommon
qualities like honesty, independence, awareness, objectivity,
creativity, and originality.
Abraham Maslow’s
FREDERICK TAYLOR

• Frederick Taylor’s scientif ic management movement principles

focused on scientif ic study of productivity in the workplace
which fostered the development of motivation theory.
• To ensure that there is much productivity out of workers, it was
believed that a person must reward the desired behaviour
• He stated that all work consisted largely of simple, uninteresting
tasks, and that the only viable method to get people to
undertake these tasks was to provide incentives and monitor
them carefully.
EXISTENTIAL THERAPY

• Rollo May talked about existential therapy which states that

people have free will and are motivated to achieve their potential
and self – actualize
• This therapy focuses on free will, self-determination and the
search for meaning and mostly centering on the individual instead
of their symptoms.
• It states that everyone has the capacity for self-awareness,
anxiety is part of human condition.
• The client here accepts limitations in order to overcome anxieties
and view life as moments in which he or she is primarily free.
GESTALT THERAPY

• Gestalt therapy focuses on the skills and techniques that permit

an individual to be more aware of their feelings.
• According to this approach, it is much more important to
understand what patients are feeling and how they are feeling
instead of identifying what is causing their feelings.
• Supporters of gestalt therapy argued that earlier theories spent
an unnecessary amount of time making assumptions about
what causes behaviour.
• Instead, gestalt therapy focuses on the here and now.
GESTALT THERAPY

• It looks at present moment instead of past experience.

• It is based on the idea that people are inf luenced by the present
environment.
• This therapy focuses on the use of empathy and unconditional
acceptance.
• Therapists here can apply this concept by helping people to
concentrate on what is happening in their present life instead on
focusing on their past experiences.