The Humanistic Theory 's Theory Of Personality And Client Centered Therapy

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.

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.

Humanistic perspective is a psychological perspective popularized by Carlo Rogers and Abraham Maslow that emphasizes the human capacity for choice and growth. This perspective offers a very positive viewpoint of human nature and potential. It suggests that we are each responsible for our own happiness and well-being as humans. “The humanistic approach emphasizes the personal worth of the individual, the centrality of human

Humanistic therapy aims to help client develop a stronger, and healthier sense of self. It

Within Humanistic therapy the potential is there for the re integration of self and organism, thus

Abraham Maslow was an American theorist that was one of the advocates of humanistic psychology. He believed that self-actualization is “a situation that exists when a person is acting in accordance with his or her full potential” (Hergenhahn & Olson, 2011). I will illustrate the key concepts of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs of humans, research the methodologies of his concept, and address how self-actualization has conceptualized on this type of personality development. His contribution

Looking at the underlying theory (self-actualisation, organismic self, conditions of worth etc), and the originators of it, namely Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers, I shall consider its strengths and weaknesses and look at the way in which Rogers explains and responds to psychological disorders to explore to

The humanistic perspective on personality deals exclusively with human behavior. Humanistic psychologists believe that human nature includes a natural drive towards personal growth, that humans have the freedom to choose what they do regardless of environmental factors, and humans are mostly conscious beings and are not controlled by unconscious needs and conflicts. They also believe that a person's subjective view of the world is more important than objective reality. Two of the humanistic theorists that have made an impact of humanism are Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow.

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).

The humanistic approach to psychology is an organization of different thoughts in which the interests of humans and their values and/or beliefs are of main importance (Schultz & Schultz, 2009). The term humanistic relays the notion that all human beings have the potential for growth and that no one is purposely bad or unworthy (Carver & Scheier, 2012). In contrast to psychoanalytical psychologists, humanistic psychologists tend to focus on the strengths of human behavior and not the aspects that make an individual’s

The therapeutic approach I have chosen to help Maggie overcome her depression is humanistic therapy. I chose humanistic therapy because first, I like the idea of creating a relationship with your client to enhance their self-worth. Second, I like how the therapist genuinely cares about the patient and doesn’t necessarily have to prescribe medications or just see their patient as another dollar sign. The humanistic approach is different than the psychodynamic approach because humanist tend to listen to what their patients have to say and the patient will direct where the therapy session will lead. However, a psychodynamic therapist already has a conversation thought out and he or she will determine where the therapy session will go.

Psychotherapy is any type of treatment that uses psychological rather than biological means to treat psychological disorders. For example, cognitive, humanistic, and behavioral are all different types of psychotherapy. Each of these methods have their own unique techniques to treat psychological disorders.

Humanism is based around authenticity, positivity, and love in order to value all individuals to whom it is applied. This theory follows the Gestalt principle which states that the whole person is greater than the sum of each person’s individual characteristics (Winston, 2015). It also states that labels only harm an individual and should not be used on people. An individual’s experiences cannot be fully captured by a label. According to humanist theorists, the goal for a successful life is to attain self-actualization, which occurs when one fully accepts one’s whole self, not just certain characteristics of oneself, and is accepted by others as

Both Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers are two of the founders of humanistic psychology who felt that people need certain conditions to be in place so as to reach their full potential and have contented life (“Maslow vs. Rogers,” 2014). “While Maslow fully acknowledges the self-actualization of individuals to their very self, Rogers takes this a step further by emphasizing on the necessity of the surrounding, which assists a person to be self-actualized” (“Maslow vs. Rogers,” 2014, par.1). Maslow is well known for his Hierarchy of Needs where an individual must meet the needs at the lower levels in order to move up to the next level even though there is little research evidence to support this theory (“Abraham Maslow,” 2015). He believed that