Chapter 14: Humanistic Psychology A History of Psychology (3rd Edition) John G. Benjafield.

Chapter 14: Humanistic Psychology

A History of Psychology

(3rd Edition)

John G. Benjafield

Humanistic Psychology

• Both a movement within academic psychology and an essential part of cultural trends that characterized the 1960s– Founders became well-known by the general

public

• Combined influences from European existentialism and American optimism

• Distinguished themselves from psychoanalysis and behaviourism= The ‘Third Force’

Existentialism

• Existentialism: A doctrine that concentrates on the existence of the individual, who, being free and responsible, is held to be what he/she makes of him/herself

Søren Kierkgaard (1813–1855)

• Preoccupied with the nature of human choice

• Either/Or– Presented two ways of living one’s life:

• The aesthetic – Searching for sophisticated forms of pleasure

• The ethical– Living by a rigorous set of idealistic principles

– Both ways of living equally justifiable• One’s choices are one’s own• Subjective nature of human choice

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)

• Observed emergence of nihilism: notion that there are no absolute truths or values– Marked the end of Christianity

• Perspectivism: notion that there are any number of interpretations of reality, all of which are equally valid– Rejects the superiority of a scientific

understanding of the world

• Will to power

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980)

• Influenced by Edmund Husserl (student of Franz Brentano)– Adopted their concept of intentionality: consciousness

is always directed at something other than itself– Intentions are revealed by our choices

• Being and Nothingness (1943)• Refused the Nobel Prise for literature in 1964

– Attitude of disdain for established cultural institutions

Martin Heidegger (1899–1976)

• Existential psychotherapy: an alternative to the psychoanalytic psychotherapy provided by existentialism

• Student of Husserl’s; influenced Sartre

• Dasein: Being– A person is fundamentally concerned with the

fact that he or she is a being-in-the-world– Phenomenological method only way to

investigate nature of being-in-the-world

Ludwig Binswanger (1881–1966)

• Developed an existential approach to psychotherapy– Built on Heidegger’s basic ideas

• People are spiritual as well as biological creatures

• Psychotherapy requires a total commitment

The Emergence of Humanistic Psychology

• Rollo May

• Abraham Maslow

• Carl Rogers

• Symposium on existential psychology at the 1959 convention of the American Psychological Association

The Emergence ofHumanistic Psychology

1959 convention:1. American psychologists believed that

existentialism added important dimensions to psychology

2. American psychologists disagreed with the anti-scientific attitude expressed by many European existentialists

3. In general, the Americans believed that the Europeans had been too pessimistic

The Emergence of Humanistic Psychology

• First Invitational Conference on Humanistic Psychology (November 1964, Old Saybrook, Connecticut)

• Central question: Can the scientific functions of a humanistic psychological science be set forth?

• Theme of the papers:– Be critical of both behaviourist and

psychoanalytic approaches to psychology

Charlotte Malachowski Bühler (1893–1974)

Central characteristics of humanistic psychology:1. Humanistic psychology studies the person as a

whole

2. A person cannot be understood within a single time frame, but only by considering the person’s entire life history

3. Intentionality underlies the processes by which a person sets their goals and values

Rollo May (1909–1994)

• The Meaning of Anxiety – Elaborated on the nature and importance of

anxiety as a modern phenomenon– Neurotic vs. normal anxiety

• Love and Will– Conveys his approach to finding meaning in the

modern world– Love and will represent those aspects of

ourselves that have been pushed aside

Abraham H. Maslow (1908–1970)

• Studied with Harry Harlow at the University of Wisconsin

• Employed by E.L. Thorndike at Columbia Teacher’s College

• 1935–1940: New York– Studied with Adler, Horney, Goldstein,

Wertheimer, Koffka

• Influenced by anthropologist Ruth Benedict – Spent a summer doing fieldwork on a Northern

Blackfoot reservation in Alberta

Synergy

• Synergy: the degree to which the needs of the individual are consistent with the demands of the culture– High-synergy culture: being selfish also

promotes the welfare of others– Low-synergy culture: the needs of the individual

conflict with how the culture wants the individual to behave

The Hierarchy of Needs

• Needs may be organized hierarchically in the order in which they must be satisfied– Physiological needs– Safety needs– Love needs– Esteem needs– Self-actualization

The Self-actualizing Person

• Self-actualizing person: has managed to satisfy their basic needs to a very great extent

• Metamotivations: motives beyond or above ordinary motives

• Deficiency motives: that of which we are deprived

• Being values (B-values)

Peak Experiences

• Much in common with mystical experiences of a oneness with the world

• From peak experiences people become aware of the centrality of B-values in their lives

• Intrinsically valuable

• Similar to a childlike way of being-in-the-world

The Psychology of Science

• Response to his critics

• Critique of orthodox science

• Advocated a science with a number of features not always associated with scientific psychology– Taoistic science– Problem-centred approach– Experiential methods

Lightner Witmer (1867–1956)

• First person in the United States to define area of ‘Clinical Psychology’

• Developed conception of clinical psychology while working in schools– Was to be used to diagnose and treat

deficiencies

• 1896: founded the first psychological clinic

• Developed courses in clinical psychology

Clinical Psychology

• Clinical psychology: a scientific and professional field that seeks to increase our understanding of human behaviour and to promote the effective functioning of individuals– Not defined by any single approach

Carl R. Rogers (1902–1987)

• 1919–1924: University of Wisconsin– Originally in agriculture; graduated in history

• Union Theological Seminary, NY– Took some courses at Columbia University with Leta

Hollingworth

• 1940: Ohio State University– Established a practicum in counselling and

psychotherapy

• University of Chicago– Established a counselling centre

• 1947: elected president of APA

Client-Centred Therapy

= non-directive psychotherapy• Unconditional positive regard: openness and

receptiveness on the part of the therapist• Self-concept: view a person has of themselves• Ideal self: the way the person wishes to be• Discrepancy between the person’s self-concept

and their ideal self is a source of discomfort• Card sorting technique

Eugene T. Gendlin (1926–)

• Student of Carl Rogers

• First editor of the journal Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice

• Experiencing: the flow of feeling to which you can attend inwardly at every moment– Key concept

• Felt meanings: when we attend to our experiencing directly

Encounter Groups

• Lewin’s T-groups renamed encounter groups

• Vehicles for enabling people to realize their full human potential– Setting in which people discussed themselves

as freely and openly as possible

→ Human potential movement

What Happened to Humanistic Psychology?

• Fit well with Zeitgeist of American popular culture in 1960s and 1970s

• 1970s: increasing criticism

• Contributing factor to decline:– Leaders moved out of universities

• Theories left unstudied• No students

George A. Kelly (1905–1967)

• Approach shared some of the characteristics of humanistic psychology but was still distinctive

• Kelly’s psychology explored implications of notion that people are scientists

The Psychology of Personal Constructs

• People ultimately seek to anticipate real events

• To predict events, we need to be able to represent them– Constructs: a way in which two events are alike

but different from a third event– Personal constructs: dimensions that may be

unique to that individual

The Repertory Test

• Method of eliciting an individual’s personal constructs

• Allows one to get an idea of how a person thinks about her or his acquaintances

Research in Personal Construct Theory

• Kelly’s approach taken up by psychologists in Britain– Don Bannister

• Flexibility of repertory grid methodology made it broadly useful in applied setings