Humanistic PDF

Preview

Summary

Humanistic notes ...

Description

Chp. 12 Humanistic and Positive Psychology Both behaviorism and psychoanalysis are deterministic schools which give no freedom and free well to a person 

Behaviorism  a person is at the mercy of their environment, reward punishment contingencies and associations in terms of Watson.

Humanistic psychology is unique because Prime attribute of human is free-well, creativity and their freedom and argue that psychology is unique science it is not conventional science like physics and chemistry cause object of study in psychology is not object like stone or chemical, it is self-aware organism “human” can think, reflect. Humans are cable of free-well and understand that they are being studied. 

That’s why it is called 3rd force because it revolves against deterministic views of behaviorism and psychoanalysis



Humanistic psychology argues that because human mind is self-aware, it knows is being studied



The subject of study is that a person who is studying the participants, shares the same characteristics with the participants, psychologist like to pretend that they do not have the creativity or biases when they are studying in another organism but that is not true so, a person is studying another person and by doing so, they are trying to understand their own minds and the instrument to study that mind is another mind



Humanistic psychology brought back cognition, emotions and they made self-awareness the focus that humans have creativity, self-awareness, free well

Humanistic psychology’s assumptions are: 1. Phenomenology is central based on the view that we have to understand each individual person from their own world view. Argues that each person lives in their own world and it is unique world for each person and if we want to understand them then we have to become the part of their world (basic  it is not important what a actual physical world is, it is how a person perceives, understands and interpret the world is extremely important)

2. Here and now  the argument is that psychoanalysis focused on the past, for humanistic right now and here is important because what we have experienced in the past is gone, future is not here and the only way we can perceive the past and future is to our ideas right here and now. The choices that we make within here and now that determine our behavior, understanding and emotions. 3. Humans have free-well/free agency  because here and now is so important it gives us the understanding that humans have free-well 4. People are basically good and desire to make themselves and world better  humans have innate desires that people are basically good, and we all have innate desire to make the world a better place Based on these assumption humanistic rejects 

rejects scientific methodology and comparative psychology studying animals and applying those assumptions to human’s behaviors.



qualitive research methods are important like: o dairy accounts o open-ended questionnaires o unstructured interviews o unstructured observations



construal how you understand and interpret your world which give the ability of freewell to people. We interpret our world, the objective outside world do not matter. The world for each person is unique based on their understanding, construal of world. We have that ability to do therefore we have free-well. o And if leave the understanding of our world on other people then we are giving up our freedom

Phenomenology starts from existentialism

Existentialism  argued that rationalism, science and technology have gone too far, and they have taken away real human experience from human, we have lost touch with ourselves, we have become to mechanical and we have to reconnect with this existence. 

Some key questions of existentialism o What is the nature of existence?

o How does it feel? o And what does it mean? Existentialism is trying to bring back human elements such as understanding of human behavior Some of the important philosopher in existentialism are; 1. Binswanger  argued that if we look in our mind the conscious experience of being alive is consist of 3 elements a. Umwelt  biological experience, relate to our biological, physical needs like hunger, pleasure, feeling cold, warm (bodily sensations) b. Mitwelt  social experience, what you think/feel as a social being. In term of social experiences like thought and emotions about other people and emotions and thoughts directed to you. c. Eigenwelt  introspective/inner self/inner psychological experience. It is the experience, or we try to think about our own experiences and how does it feel like to have hot chocolate A research has been done and gave pieces of fruits to all participants and asked them to tell how the smell, taste of fruit look like (Eigenwelt) 2. Heidegger  another important philosopher, pointed the important human part of experience is Geworfenheit meaning Thrown-nes  basically means human existence depends on the cricumstances of time, place of their lives in which they are born ex. Someone born in rich society or born in slave society, their experiences will differ from each other. o He argued that thrownness is difficult in modern world because we lost the importance of religion. The religion gives the purpose to the most people and find the answer all the existential questions like why I am here, what is the purpose of life and what is the meaning of life o Since we have lost the connection or touch with religion we can find the answers for these questions therefore we all have developed Angst-existential anxiety  anxiety which is created when we cannot find the answers/meanings for existential questions 3. Sartre  there are 3 separate sensations of angst or existential anxiety

a. Anguish  choices are never perfect, lead to both good and bad outcomes. For ex. When we are helping person A then we do not have enough time to help person B, then our choices are never perfect, can have both good and bad outcomes. b. Forlornness  alone with your choices. No matter what we do or say we are the one making/responsible for our choices. For ex. If we say that I have made this choice cause my mom or dad told me to do so, we are still making a choice to listen to them so, at the end of the day it is us making choices. c. Despair  realization that many outcomes are beyond control. That a lot in our lives are beyond our control and because they are beyond our control, it doubles our responsibility to do our best in the aspects that we do have control over. to affect those aspects of the world that can be influenced Sartre famous phrase is existence precedes essence  he argues that human beings do not have any essence for ex. If you make a table there is design for that table, there is a purpose for which table is design so, table has essence before its existences. According to Sartre humans do not have essence they came to existences without any purpose or meaning. Our existences came before essence. Life has no meaning we have to give it a meaning or purpose 



living in bad faith: unexamined life •

Immoral: selling self for comfort

•

unhappy life

•

impossible, “if I do not choose, I am still choosing”

•

no exit from existential dilemma

•

Existence precedes essence

Existential psychologist and philosopher argued that there is no right answer to these existential questions, the answers we have to construct through ourselves.



We as a human try to find a meaning and there is no right or wrong meaning, whatever a person decides of themselves.



Argues that we have angst directly authentically, o

there is no right answer here,

o we cannot escape from these question o it requires optimistic toughness to do that, but we have to or able find the answers o have to face meaninglessness of our lives and face we are morality  going to die, face our lives have no meaning o have to create answers for those questions and have to create mean and purpose for our lives called optimistic toughness. o Can choose to live our lives without answering the question called live in bad faith. Not bothering with anything and go alone whatever society tells you to do ex. Buy nice car or fancy house and live unexamined live. That is unhappy life o Whatever meaning we find is only applicable for us and is arbitrary meaning that there is no universal meaning. o Meaningful live is do to something which can do better human condition

The Eastern Alternative Existentialism

Western focus on the individual

Eastern collective cultures

Eastern collective cultures 1. Buddhism  argues that: i.

anatta” that there is “nonself” there is no independent self and it is an illusion, if we think ourselves as independent being will lead to isolation and unhappiness. Self is collection of 5 things.

a) Form  physical world around us b) Sensation  the feeling of sense arises from physical world c) Perception  understanding of the objects which put emotional inputs, or interpretation of sensation. d) Volitions  mental formation of good or bad values e) Consciousness our awareness of physical process that are happening 

Buddhist argues that we are made up 5 things and they are constantly changing for ex. I am sitting on the chair and if I stands up then the way I am looking the things around me

changes, my perception changes, my coconsciousness change whatever I was a few second ago and now I am not the same person. 

Self according to Buddhist does not exist. Self is collection of these 5 elements and if one of these elements is taken then there is no self – self falls apart.



Just like onion if we keep peeling it then there is no center entity.



Self is combination of these 5 elements and these elements



Considering self as individual entity then it will lead to isolation, dis-attachment from other people.



The good interpretation of self is that we are part of world pool in which water remains the same but the components change ex when the river flows and your standing at point A observing the river flow and you will be standing at the same point but every liter of water that passes through from your point A changes. What pass through that point will not be the same what is passing now.



Similarly, with the self is like water pool, it is connected to bigger reality, but it is constantly inflex not the same.



A river looks to be permanent, but we only have to put our feet in it to feel the constant movement (change) of the water, so river is always the same but water at any given point in time is different from before

ii.

Anicca  nothing last forever, things are keep changing. Ex of river flows from 100s of years but flow of water is not the same, so everything is constantly changing. Once a person realizes that there is no significant self and we all are part of larger reality then it takes away our selfish focus, brings.

a) Enlightenment: understanding, well-being of others matters as much as your own. Because we are part of larger entity. b) Leads to Nirvana  a serene, selfless state c) Leads to universal compassion

Optimistic Humanism: Rogers & Maslow Based on Existential and Eastern view Rogers and Maslow came up with Optimistic Humanism. Right after the behaviorism started as reaction to it, that humans are different that they are no rock like skinner suggested.

Optimistic Humanism based on 4 central concepts 1) Phenomenology  2) Here and now 3) Personal responsibility 4) Personal growth  humans have innate desire towards personal growth

Rogers  he developed his personality theory based on humanistic, and named person centered therapy and based on that; 

people have basic motivating drive to self-actualize  people became what they are capable of becoming to grow to their fullest.



His theory emphasised on phenomenal field  people react to react to stimuli based on their subjective reality, it is the field that we have mentally and in our mental world, how we perceive the world around us and self-concept that how perceive our self-develop within this phenomenal field through our constant interactions with the environment within phenomenal field. The feedback we get feeds our interaction



Self-concept develops based on the feedback from this field of reality



Key feature of his theory is positive regard/unconditions of worth  if receive unconditional positive regard from people around us we develop good healthy selfconcept, and real self. Their sense of self is based on their concept do not need to make one. Their ideal self and real self are closer because they know they will be accepted for who they are.



However, if received conditional positive regards/conditions of worth  we will not be able to develop healthy concept. Ex. I will marry you if have a big fancy car (acceptance with conditions) or if you behave this way then you are a good boy.

If you do certain

The goal of roger’s therapy to help clients to become fully functional person. Person who develop inside into his own self, goals and needs and help back person to remove the conditions of worth.

 Goal help the client become a fully functioning person  Develop insight  Remove conditions of worth 

Therapist  the first one to empirical investigate the efficacy of therapeutic relationship 

Unconditional positive regard



Empathy



Genuineness/ congruence



Efficacy research  More congruence between ideal and real self after therapy



Criticisms  having closely aligned real and ideal selves is not always a good measure of psychological adjustment

Maslow  famous for hierarchy of needs. Argues that people are motivated by the needs and needs are organized on hierarchy based on their strength.

Love is both D and B need

Physiological and safety needs are  Basic needs Belongingness and love need, and esteem needs are  psychological D- needs orneeds deficiency needs cause, based on motivation of deficiency something deficient needs Self-actualization  self-fulfillment needs B-need or being need, motivation increases arise, when needs are met when needs are met, or it is not a need motivation satisfied  Rogers argues that love can be both iness which focus on receiving rather than giving and also, B-needs  based on growth needs, taking care of others, not possessed. 

His theory applies practically on business, advertisements use for o Career choice o Employee motivation  if their physiological needs are met, then their creativity needs are needed. o Education  because we are not allowing kids to be more creative in term of their education that stratifies their creativity. The competition is more emphasized



Research  Cross- cultural application o Correlation between well-being and economic status in poor versus rich countries o Indicating that once you achieve finical stability then you move on to the higher need levels where you need to be competent. Where in poor countries the lower needs are being satisfied their happiness is strongly related to the lower needs.



Studied 18 self-actualized people including

o Abraham Lincoln o Albert Einstein o William James o Mahatma Gandhi o Benedict Spinoza 

He studied their personality that how self-actualized people are, and he found that selfactualized people are o Acceptance of self and others o Intimate personal relationships  do not have many friends but the ones they have are very close and intimate. o Non-hostile sense of humor o Spontaneity and simplicity o Democratic values o Independence o Peak experiences  mystical states awareness & self-consciousness heightened, feel simultaneously powerful and powerless, filled with awe and ecstasy He argued that we all have peak experiences but self-actualized experienced quite often.

Kenrich in 2010 edited to the hierarchy of Maslow  where parenting and mate retention becomes more important.

Both Roger and Maslow argued that we need to be “Fully Functional Person”  someone who can face the world without fear or without self-doubt and reality for them is absolutely clear. 

They look the world with open eyes



Self-concept is congruent with reality (not much difference between real and ideal self)

Rogers: possible only if receive unconditional positive regard from important people in life Maslow: anyone can become fully functional

Flow Csikszentmihalyi  look more into positive regards

He focused on how we can improve the quality of life and we said we can do that by Autotelic Activities that you are enjoying doing and being part of it. So, it is not something that you have to do it. should spent our time in the activities that we like or enjoy then we experience flow. 

Flow experience of engaging in autotelic activities o Tremendous concentration, total lack of distractibility, and thoughts concerning only the activity at hand o Mood that is slightly elevated  slightly happy and positive o Time seems to pass very quickly.



Happens when a person’s skills match to the level of activity like perfect match between a person’s ability and level of difficulty and it helps people to achieve better quality of life.



Criticism people who are no social will work very well because like solitary

Positive psychology Deci & Ryan  if we want to achieve happiness is better to take path of eudaimonia rather than hedonia.  Hedonia  maximize pleasure, minimize pain (seek pleasure and avoid pain)  Eudaimonia 3 central intrinsic goals essential for fully functioning (find variable things in life that could be;  Autonomy  making your goals, decisions  Competence finding something which you are good at

 Relatedness  the ability to develop good and strong needs for relationships  Research support for advantages of following intrinsic goals  does support the idea that the lifestyle, which is more meaningful, has more intrinsic goals rather than extrinsic goals  Russia, US, France positive correlation with self-esteem  Claim of universality? Inborn or cultural teachings

Martin Seligman  learned helplessness moved on with positive psychology. 

Psychology has become too focused on pathology that we ignore.



Rebirth of humanistic psychology



Ignores existential anxiety and also free-well



Focused on well-being, and finding ways to improve quality of life



Goal: improve quality of life & prevent pathologies resulting from meaningless life



Investigates traits, processes & social institutions that promote happy & meaningful life



Research focus  studied of cross culture and though that these virtues can be universal, Identified core virtues in Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, ancient Greek philosophy, Christianity, Judaism, Islam o Results  and they found 6 virtues are universal, but courage was not found in all the traditions however, justice, humanity, temperance, wisdom and transcendences were across the cultures.

Phenomenology

Roots of e...