Unit 3.

Humanistic-Existential Approaches I

Maslow

1) Historical Context
- Abraham Maslow is considered the founder and spiritual leader of the
humanistic psychology movement. He was strongly critical of behaviorism and
of psychoanalysis, particularly Sigmund Freud’s approach to personality.
According to Maslow, when psychologists study only abnormal, emotionally
disturbed examples of humanity, they ignore positive human qualities such as
happiness, contentment, and peace of mind. A frequently quoted statement
sums up Maslow’s position: “The study of crippled, stunted, immature, and
unhealthy specimens can yield only a cripple psychology”
- Maslow’s personality theory does not derive from case histories of clinical
patients but from research on creative, independent, self-sufficient, fulfilled
adults. Maslow concluded that each person is born with the same instinctive
needs that enable us to grow, develop, and fulfill our potential.
- Maslow proposed a hierarchy of five innate needs that activate and direct
human behavior

2) Theoretical Principles

i) A hierarchy of five innate needs

- They are the physiological, safety, belongingness and love, esteem, and
self-actualization needs.
- Maslow described these needs as instinctoid, by which he meant that they have
a hereditary component. However, these needs can be affected or overridden by
learning, social expectations, and fear of disapproval.
- Although we come equipped with these needs at birth, the behaviors we use to
satisfy them are learned and therefore subject to variation from one person to
another. The needs are arranged in order from strongest to weakest. Lower
needs must be at least partially satisfied before higher needs become
influential. For example, hungry people feel no urge to satisfy the higher need
for esteem. They are preoccupied with satisfying the physiological need for
food, not with obtaining approval and esteem from other people. It is only
- when people have adequate food and shelter, and when the rest of the lower
 needs are satisfied, they are motivated by needs that rank higher in the
hierarchy.

ii) Characteristics of of needs

- The lower the need is in the hierarchy, the greater are its strength, potency, and priority. The
higher needs are weaker needs.
- Higher needs appear later in life. Physiological and safety needs arise in infancy.
Belongingness and esteem needs arise in adolescence. The need for self actualization does
not arise until midlife.
- Because higher needs are less necessary for actual survival, their gratification can be
postponed. Failure to satisfy a higher need does not produce a crisis. Failure to satisfy a
lower need does produce a crisis. For this reason, Maslow called lower needs deficit, or
deficiency, needs; failure to satisfy them produces a deficit or lack in the individual.
- Although higher needs are less necessary for survival, they contribute to survival and
growth. Satisfaction of higher needs leads to improved health and longevity. For this reason,
Maslow called higher needs growth, or being, needs.
- Satisfaction of higher needs is also beneficial psychologically. Satisfaction of higher needs
leads to contentment, happiness, and fulfillment.
- Gratification of higher needs requires better external circumstances (social, economic, and
political) than does gratification of lower needs. For example, pursuing self-actualization
requires greater freedom of expression and opportunity than pursuing safety needs.
- A need does not have to be satisfied fully before the next need in the hierarchy becomes
important. Maslow proposed a declining percentage of satisfaction for each need. Offering a
hypothetical example, he described a person who satisfied, in turn, 85 percent of the
physiological needs, 70 percent of the safety needs, 50 percent of the belongingness and love
needs, 40 percent of the esteem needs, and 10 percent of the self-actualization needs.

EXPLAIN THE NEEDS

 Rogers

1) Historical context
- Carl Rogers originated a popular approach to psychotherapy known initially as
nondirective or client-centered therapy and later as person-centered therapy. This form
of psychotherapy has generated an enormous amount of research and is widely applied
in the treatment of emotional disturbances.
- Roger's personality theory, like Maslow’s, is rooted in humanistic psychology, which
Rogers made his framework for the patient–therapist relationship. Rogers developed
his theory not from experimental laboratory research but from his experiences
working with clients. Thus, his formulations on the structure and dynamics of
personality derive from his therapeutic approach.
- Rogers’s view of the therapeutic situation tells much about his view of human nature.
Consider the phrase person-centered therapy. It suggests that the ability to change and
improve personality is centered within the person. In other words, it is the person and
not the therapist who directs such change. The therapist’s role is to assist or facilitate
the change.
- Rogers believed that we are rational beings ruled by a conscious perception of our
selves and our experiential world. Rogers did not ascribe much importance to
unconscious forces or other Freudian explanations. He also rejected the notion that
past events exert a controlling influence on present behavior. Although he recognized
that childhood experiences affect the way we perceive our environment, and
ourselves, Rogers insisted that current feelings and emotions have a greater impact on
personality. Because of this emphasis on the conscious and the present, Rogers
suggested that personality could only be understood from our own viewpoint, that is,
based on our subjective experiences. Rogers dealt with reality as consciously
perceived by each of us, and he noted that this perception did not always coincide with
objective reality. Rogers proposed a single, innate, overriding motivation: the inborn
tendency to actualize, to develop our abilities and potentials, from the strictly
biological to the most sophisticated psychological aspects of our being. This ultimate
goal is to actualize the self, to become what Rogers called a fully functioning person.
His approach to therapy and theory, and the optimistic and humanistic picture he
painted, received enthusiastic acceptance in psychology, education, and family-life
research.
 2) Theoretical principles
- Theory of personality

i) Self-theory

The person centered theory of personality is essentially a self-theory (Bankart, 1997). Rogers
postulated that every person exists within an ever-changing world in which he or she is the center. In
addition, he believed that the self is not a fixed structure, but a structure in process, capable of both
stability and change. Rogers used the term organism to refer to the locus of all psychological
experience. The organism is the entire realm of an individual’s experience, while the self is the “me”
portion of the organism. Rogers’s self has both conscious and unconscious components. The
distinction between organism and self leaves open the possibility that an individual’s self can be
inconsistent with its overall psychological experience. This potential discrepancy is referred to as
incongruence. In contrast, when the self’s experiences and perceptions are consistent with the
organism’s total experience, there is congruence. Congruence between self and organism is highly
desirable; it leads to adjustment, maturity, and a fully functioning individual.

ii) Phenomenology and the Valuing of Experience

Rogers summarizes his personality theory by stating, “This theory is basically phenomenological in
character and relies heavily upon the concept of self as an explanatory concept” Person-centered
theory places a premium on direct personal experience. As it turns out, close observation of Carl
Rogers doing therapy has shown that he did occasionally guide clients toward talking about
particular issues. Just by choosing when to say “Uh-huh” or choosing when to nod your head, you
will also subtly influence what clients say.

iii) Conditions of Worth

The main two learned needs are the need for positive regard and the need for self-regard.Rogers also
believed that individuals are capable of perception without awareness. This is called subception.
Subception occurs when a person unconsciously perceives a threatening object or situation. The
object or situation is generally threatening because it represents an inner conflict between real
desires and introjected desires. Further, subception is likely to result in visceral reactions (e.g.,
increased heart rate, high blood pressure, rapid respiration, and other anxiety sensations). To
summarize, Roger's personality theory emphasizes several concepts. It is a theory of self, of
experience, of striving for maintenance and enhancement of the self, and of learned needs for
positive regard. It is also a theory of discrepancy, because it is the discrepancy between self and
organismic experience, between what the caretakers value and what the organism values, that
creates or determines psychopathology.

iv) Theory of Psychopathology

The failure to learn from experience best characterizes person-centered psychopathology. This is
why person-centered therapists work so hard to help clients become more open to learning from
new experiences. This is also why rigidity is considered the antithesis of psychological health.
Rigidity impairs learning. Psychopathology occurs when clients hang on to introjected parental
conditions of worth instead of modifying their self-concept based on moment-by-moment,
day-by-day personal experience. Since every moment is an opportunity for new learning, closing
down and avoiding or ignoring these moments is pathological. Importance of openness to emotional
processing in normal human functioning in their process-experiential psychotherapy approach.
When clients are unaware of or unable to access important emotional information, dysfunctional
behavior or interpersonal interactions result.

v) Theory of Psychotherapy

Rogers’s theory of psychotherapy is very directly related to the tenets just noted. If psychopathology
originally stems from the individual’s experience of judgment or invalidation of the self by
significant others, then it logically follows that a nonjudgmental atmosphere might facilitate
psychological health. This premise is the foundation of Rogers’s theory of psychotherapy. Overall,
the success of person-centered therapy hinges on two fundamental factors:

• The therapist must trust the client.

• The therapist must establish a certain type of relationship with the client.

- Congruency - Congruence is defined as authenticity and is sometimes referred to as

transparency as well. The congruent therapist is real, open, and honest. Rogers claimed, “The
more that I can be genuine in the relationship, the more helpful it will be” Rogers was very
specific about why therapist congruence is essential. He stated, “It is only by providing the
genuine reality which is in me, that the other person can successfully seek . . . the reality in
him”. Counselor congruence provides a sort of grounding or reality so that clients’ real selves
have something to interact with. Congruence implies that therapists should acknowledge and
express both positive and negative feelings within the context of the therapy relationship.
Rogers emphasized the importance of expressing less positive feelings when he wrote, “I
have found this to be true even when the attitudes I feel are not attitudes with which I am
pleased, or attitudes which seem conducive to a good relationship. It seems extremely
important to be real”.
- Unconditional positive regard is also referred to as acceptance, respect, or prizing. It involves
an emphasis on valuing the client as a separate person or organism whose thoughts, feelings,
beliefs, and entire being are openly accepted, without any conditions. Person-centered theory
holds that if the therapist can accept clients completely, then clients can begin exploring who
they really are and what they really want. By accepting all of who clients are, therapists lead
clients to begin accepting themselves. Rogers goes on to say that this acceptance should
extend to the moment-to-moment changes and inconsistencies manifested by clients during
sessions. He takes a stand against more directive interventions, such as confrontation and
interpretation. It matters not whether clients claim to have a change of heart halfway through
a session. At one moment they may identify only feelings of love and kindness toward
someone, and at the next they may rage about the same person. To the person-centered
therapist, both love and rage are important, valid, and equally worthy of attention. By simply
listening and reflecting back the depth of both feelings, the therapist allows the clients to
accept or modify what’s been expressed. Even further, Rogers believed that complete
acceptance combined with accurate empathy could lead clients to an expanding awareness or
insight into previously unknown parts of the self

- Accurate empathy is the therapeutic condition that professionals most directly link to Carl
Rogers and person-centered therapy. Of the three core conditions, empathy has been most
widely discussed and researched. Many theorists from many different theoretical orientations
acknowledge the importance of empathy to psychotherapy. For example, it has been referred
to as a prerequisite for therapy, a necessary condition , and an enabling factor. It is also
considered to have a variety of functions. Some say it is the basis for forming a
patient-therapist bond, others claim it dissolves client fear and denial, and still others
promote it as a factor that provides clients with safety. Even behavioral, cognitive, solution
oriented, and reality therapists acknowledge the importance of empathy to positive
therapeutic outcomes.

• Intellectual empathy involves seeing the world from the client’s perspective in a distant or
intellectual way.

• Emotional empathy occurs when you naturally or spontaneously begin feeling an emotion
in response to the client’s words or emotional state.

• Imaginative empathy involves asking yourself the empathy question: “How would I feel if
I were in my client’s situation?”
3) THE PRACTICE OF PERSON-CENTERED THERAPY
- Generally speaking, there are two different types of person-centered therapists. The
first type is the pure or traditional person-centered therapist. The traditional person
centered therapist is highly nondirective, does not use assessment procedures, and
does not establish any specific goals for clients. The second type, the contemporary
person centered therapist, is a more active and directive therapist but still adheres to
an underlying person-centered philosophy.
- To practice person-centered therapy, you’ll need to work on your attitude! Most
graduate students in counseling, social work, and psychology grossly underestimate
the power of person-centered therapy.
- Your attitude is central to person-centered work. Your job is to experience and express
the three core conditions (or attitudes) of congruence, unconditional positive regard,
and empathy.
- Elaborate on applying the principles in therapy