Humanistic Personality

On the other hand, humanist psychologist Carl Rogers disagrees with the psychoanalytic theory and thought it was a ‘dehumanizing nature’. The main idea of the humanistic perspective is that people are all born with drives that encourage them to engage in things that will increase their personal satisfaction and their contributions to society. This idea is commonly known as the self-actualizing tendency. This tendency is within all individuals and is a motivation that occurs in each person to develop their potentials to the best of their ability.

In discussing two of the chosen theories, I made my decision to choose Humanistic and Behaviorist. In the Humanistic Theory, people are often looked upon as to handling their lives and actions, and they have the freedom and will to change their attitudes and behavior. Two important humanistic theorists and psychologists were, Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers.

The Humanistic Theory has a positive view of human nature, especially when compared to Freudian theory, and assumes that people are fundamentally good. The humanistic theory falls under the phenomenological theory and focuses on selfhood. The overarching goals of the humanistic theory are self-actualization, self-fulfillment and self-realization (Hill). This theory suggests that people should be viewed holistically and claims that the client has an innate motivation to reach her full potential. In addition, humanists believe that clients have the potential to determine their own destinies.

Theorists have invested years of research into learning the dynamics of one’s personality. Humanistic and Existential Personality Theories offered perspectives that have proved to be valuable to those researching and exploring how one’s personality develops and expands throughout life. From Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to Carl Rogers’s development of the formative tendency and the actualizing tendency, the range of perspectives is diverse. In this paper, we will analyze how humanistic and existential theories affect individual personalities and give explanation to how these

The humanistic-ontological perspective on personality given, as is natural, to ontological sphere, the primary etiological and structural role. After Rogers and Allport, the key and structural concept of humanistic-ontological theory of personality is the self. He says that the self is an important part of human experience and the goal of the personality training and development of everyone is to become truly himself by developing their potential,

Humanistic (also known as phenomenological) psychologists observe a person as a whole. They study a human’s behaviour from the individual point of view and not just theirs. There are four famous psychologists in the humanistic. Carl Rogers believed that the focus of psychology is not about behaviour. BF Skinner believed the best way to understand the way a person is behaving is it to look at the reason behind the action and its consequences. Sigmund Freud believed that our thoughts explained by the way we behave. Wilhelm Wundt believed the consciousness mind could be broken down or even reduced to the basic elements. In 1943, Abraham Maslow created a theory called, “A theory of Hierarchy needs.” Which tells us what humans are motivated by and what they need.

Humanistic Psychology arose in the 1950s; during this time psychologies such as psychoanalysis and behaviourism were the leading theories in the field of psychology. Abraham Maslow, an American psychologist believed that these theories lacked optimism and bypassed the appreciation of personal choice. With psychoanalysis focusing on “understanding the unconscious motivations that drive behaviour” and behaviourism focusing on “the conditioning process that produce behaviour” (Cherry, no date). Humanism took a more individual approach, dedicating itself to personal development and human potential; it trusts the fact that people are fundamentally born ‘good’ and that abnormalities in life’s ‘normal’ can cause mental and social difficulties. (Cherry, no date)

     Personality can best be described as “personal qualities of an individual”. No two people have the same personality, but yet all the different personalities in the world can be characterized into 4 main theories. The four psychologists that thought up the four theories are Sigmund Freud, Jean Piaget, Erik Erikson, and Abraham Maslow. (pg.64) Each man based his theory on a different part of a person’s personality development. The theory that best describes my personality is Maslow’s.

Humanistic theory in psychology is an approach that aims to study the whole person, with a special focus on what makes each individual person unique (McLeod, Humanism). An important term that all humanistic psychologists subscribe to is phenomenology. Phenomenology refers to how personality is studied through an individual’s subjective experience (McLeod, Humanism). In other words phenomenology is an individual’s conscious experience of the world. Humanistic psychology is a split from behavioral and psychodynamic psychology due to many limitations researchers felt those theories had. Humanist disagreed with the fundamental assumption of there being little to no free will that both behaviorist and psychodynamic psychologist made (McLeod, Humanism). Other problematic assumptions that behaviorists make is that behavior is dependent on punishment, negative and positive reinforcement, and that many of these theories were developed from experiments conducted on animals (McLeod, Behaviorist Approach). Problematic assumptions psychodynamic psychologist made include instinctive and unconscious thoughts being strong determiners of behavior (McLeod, Humanism). In response to these assumptions humanists make a few of their own. The first is that all humans have choices and the ability to exercise free will, a term coined personal agency. The second assumption is that humans, as a whole, are inherently good and want to better their world as well as themselves. (McLeod, Humanism)

Theories of personality, ones that have both differences and similarities among each other, are of significance for they offer comprehensive information about human nature. From Freud’s psychoanalysis to Bandura’s modeling theory, these theories are not necessarily rigid and firm as they may not enable one to understand the personality development of all individuals from various backgrounds, whether ethnic or socioeconomic. Abraham Maslow, a psychologist considered to be the founder of the humanistic psychological approach, focuses on positive human qualities and although he had what is described as a “miserable” childhood, full of inferiority feelings and compensation, he claimed that as a society, we underestimate human nature (Schultz, 2013). To Maslow, personality development is based on the hierarchy of five innate needs, ones arranged from strongest (the need for self-actualization), largely, higher motives of altruism and morality to weakest, such as the physiological need for food.

There are three main concepts of each theory to understand afore moving on. The humanistic theory offers incipient concepts to how personality works as well as the cognitive theory. Humanistic theory offers an incipient light of values when approaching the human nature and condition, opened a broader horizon in the construal of human nature in study, and it provides a wider range of efficacious methods in the practice and study of psychology. The convivial-cognitive theory edifies that people learn by mimicking other, identifies any internal possibilities for a certain demeanor, and it shines light on goal directed comportment. These are just some of the paramount aspects of each side of the story. (Phelps, 2015).

Humanistic psychology was developed from the many counter reactions towards psychoanalytic and behavioristic theories. In addition, it is considered the third force of psychology and it consists of theories that have a holistic approach to human nature. One of the most significant and establishing theorists of the humanistic force was Carl Rogers, as he developed the Person-Centered Theory. Over the years, his theory has deeply expanded and influenced the knowledge of many mental health professions.

Humanistic Psychology: is a psychological approach that emphases the personal worth of an individual, the centrality of human values and the creative, active nature of humans. Focusing on everyone’s potential and stressing the importance of growth and self-actualization. Humanistic psychology, often referred to humanism was developed by one of the eminent psychologists of the 20th century Carl Rogers. Rogers believed that every person can achieve their targets, dreams and desires in life when that person fulfils their highest potential, this is known

Many theories of personality have been formulated in an attempt to give a valid, reliable, and thorough explanation concerning the influences on a personality and the variety of personalities that are known. All of these theories that will be mentioned all hold pertinent information worth stating and hold interesting views and approaches, however, some may be out-dated, yet useful and others may have been accepted and later rejected due to new discoveries. Among all the theories regarding personality, four

Personality Theories: Of the many varieties of personality theory on offer, do you think any offer distinct advantages over the others, and if so, why?