Biological and Humanistic Approaches to Personality Essay

Burger (2008), says that there are many theories of personality and psychologists try to explain it with their own approaches. Discussed here will be the psychoanalytic approach, the trait approach, the biological approach the humanistic approach, the behavioural/social learning approach and the cognitive approach. They were devised to search for specific patterns in behaviour and ways of thinking about these

Humanistic conceptions of personality focus on our own natural progression towards achieving one’s full potential, having a holistic approach. Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) believes that growth and behaviour is motivated by a number of needs ranging from basic to psychological needs. He uses a hierarchy, commonly depicted as a five-tier pyramid in which the bottom 4 levels represent our deficit needs, shown in figure 1 below. Once the individual’s physiological needs are met, they may move to the next and so on. After all deficit needs have been met, an individual is capable of achieving self-actualisation. According to Maslow, fulfilling this need means reaching one’s highest potential and truly understanding one’s self.

I hereby will be focusing on Humanistic Perspectives by examining Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers’s theories. I will examine their theories, by starting with Carl Rogers’s theory then Abraham Maslow’s theory. I will also evaluate the human perspectives and apply Abraham Maslow’s theory to my own life.

Personality and how we behave have been of much interest to psychologists for a long time now and because of this there have been many theories and theorists that have been developed. Personality is defined as consistent behavior patterns and intrapersonal processes originating within and individual (Fritzley, 2012, p. 10). There are six main approaches to personality psychology they include: biological approach, humanistic approach, behaviorist approach, trait approach, psychoanalytic approach and cognitive approach. Each approach shines a little light onto why we behave the way we do and how our personalities are formed, the approaches contain many different theories from

Although the hierarchy of needs and Humanistic Psychology were innovative during it was and is still criticized today. One of such criticisms is self-actualization and that Maslow gave very ambiguous characteristics and examples of people he thought to be self-actualized. In addition, the hierarchy of needs is hard to prove scientifically. Self- actualization relies mostly on a person’s experience. Therefore, one can’t tell if an individual is self-actualized. However humanistic psychology changed the way human behavior was viewed during a time where behavioral psychology was more prevalent. This introduced a new way of

Humanistic theories emerged in 1950s. We have two types of humanistic theories, the first one is Person-centred theory by Carl Rogers which is based on how people see them-selves in relation to their personal experience and the second theory is Self-actualisation by Abraham Maslow which is based on the needs that motivate people. In this paper both theories will be described in detail and also they will be evaluated.

Through the use of this paper the agreement between Maslow and Rogers when it comes to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs will be shown. It will also focus on the humanistic and biological approaches to personality. According to Orana (2009), Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a theory that is considered to still be valid today in the areas of management training, personal development, and the understanding of the motivation of humans. This theory was first introduced in the book Personality and Motivation which was

Personality affects many aspects of life. It influences behavior and social relations. Erik Erikson is a theorist known for his stages of personality development. He explains that certain stages of development affect personality in separate ways. Abraham Maslow is a theorist known for his hierarchy of needs. He explains that fulfilling needs influences personality. This paper will discuss personality characteristics of both theories and how personality affects situational behavior and interpersonal relations.

Maslow’s Theory is separated into five different categories of needs. These include physiological needs, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. (“Maslow, Abraham”). Maslow categorized these needs into a pyramid structure. At the base of Maslow’s Pyramid are physiological needs which need to be met before a person can go higher up on the pyramid. Once these needs are met, then a person can begin fulfilling other needs such as safety, love and so on. Physiological needs include the basic needs of oxygen, food, water, sleep, proteins and minerals. Another part of these needs include being active, avoiding pain and removing waste from your body. As the physiological needs are meet, safety and security needs begin to dominate behavior (Boeree). Safety and security needs have to do with the natural desire for a predictable, orderly world that is somewhat within our control. This also includes protection, and safe

As stated further by Maslow, there are five levels in the need hierarchy, which are physiological, safety, love and belongingness, esteem, and self-actualization and they are very often of unconscious nature and can be at certain times reserved. Unfortunately, there are not too many who are capable of reaching self-actualization and the ones who will are very creative and acknowledge the world very accurately. An individual however is always aware of the fact that he or she has possesses a choice and therefore he or she has the ability to influence their behavior and personality at anytime (Cloninger, 2008).

Comparing and analyzing the biological and humanistic approaches to personality can be a difference of opinions. Abraham Maslow studied the development of personality. Maslow developed his own personality theory based on the basic human needs. His hierarchy of needs pyramid shows the influences of human needs to the formation of unique individual personality. There are biological factors that influence the formation of individual personality that play a factor. By reviewing the relationships between biological factors and Maslow 's theory of personality you will be able to see focused similarities and it’s upcoming. Analyzing the basic aspects of the humanistic theory with the biological explanations of personality will

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs depicts an individual’s needs in order of importance illustrating physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization as the most important. According to Maslow once a particular

Physiological needs are things we need to survive and things we need to flourish in our lives. Maslow, used the terms physiological, safety, belongingness and love, esteem, self-actualization, and self-transcendence to describe a "hierarchy" that he felt humans were motivated to go through in order to accomplish their needs. Maslow 's hierarchy of needs is often shown as a pyramid with the most fundamental levels of needs at the bottom and the need for self-actualization at the top. (McLeod, 2014)

Maslow classified the basic needs into 5 different levels, which are ranked from highest to lowest according to their level of influence on motivation as follows: The first level is made up of physiological needs, which are the first to importance and whose prolonged deprivation can be potentially fatal to humans. An example of the manifestation of these needs is the hunger and thirst that occur when the body needs food or fluids to maintain normal operation. The needs of second level are those related to security, such requirements are explained in the text by a number of examples in which the author uses the behavior of infants to show the way in which these needs influence the motivation of individuals. An observation of great importance made in the text in relation to the needs located on this level is the fact that people tend to protect themselves from the unknown (which is considered a potential source of threats) using routine, order or any element that provides them with a basis on which to stand and security threats of the environment; thus the adoption d is associated with the emergence of a variety of psychological disorders. The need for self-esteem and self-image form the fourth level, these are related to both the image that people have of themselves as to the image .The other individuals have of accomplishments, skills, respect others give the individuals are some ways in which these needs are met and as a result it produces feelings of confidence, strength,

There are many different modern perspectives of psychology. These modern perspectives are cognitive,psychoanalysis,humanistic-cultural,behavioral and evolutionary. Any change that happens in your life must come from you and your own efforts. Although a psychologist can guide you, no one can do the work for you. A small daily event can sometimes lay back a deep impact on your life. This is one such incident, where a normal routine incident taught me a very important principle of life. When thinking about a key event in regard to different personality theories, I felt that I could most relate that key event of my life to the humanistic and behavioral theory. I will mainly be emphasizing on these two modern perspectives. Moreover, I will