Humanistic Psychology PDF

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The focus of this lecture is to take a look at existentialism and the human phenomena to explore humanistic psychology. Ideas discussed is that awareness is everything, existentialism, the structure of experience, concepts of existentialism, bad faith vs. authenticity, humanists, and positive psycho...

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Humanistic Psychology Overview  Existentialism and existentialism + �  A funny kind of science  Unique human phenomena Awareness is everything  Phenomenology: the study of individual experience of the world o Construal: a person’s own particular experience of the world  not a reality, but a reflection of it o Existence is an eternal emergence or becoming Existentialism  A philosophical movement started by Kierkegaard in reaction to rationalism o “The Philosopher” o Included Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Sartre o Emphasizes the importance of the immediate conscious experience o The most interesting thing about humans is their subjective experience The structure of Experience (Ludwig Binswanger)  Umwelt: the objective, physical & biological world.  Mitwelt: the world of relationships with others  Eignwelt: the inner experience of the self (introspection) Concepts of Existentialism  Free Will: you have a choice in how to react to your world.  Thrownness: people are “thrown” into existence into the world in a particular time & place (also called facticity)  Existential Anxiety (Angst): the anxiety that results from contemplating the meaning and purpose of your existence. o Types of Angst (Sartre)  Anguish: anxiety from knowledge that you have free will but your choices cannot be perfect  Forlornness: you & you alone are responsible for your choices (there is no guide)  Despair: there are many things in the world that you are unable to control Bad Faith vs. Authenticity  Bad faith: failure to live up to your existential responsibility and create meaning in your life. o Three problems  Authentic Existence: gain the dignity of being human by trying your best in spite of how pointless & absurd life is o Requires Optimistic Toughness The Humanists  More warm and fuzzy than the European existentialists  Carl Rogers: Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood o People are basically good & if freed up to do so, they will self-actualize  Self-actualization: the process of growing & enhancing life, which Rogers believed was the intrinsic goal of life (i.e., living authentically) o In order to be free to self-actualize, people need to experience unconditional positive regard  Like a tree needs water and light  Unconditional positive regard: the giving of acceptance and love regardless of a person’s behavior  Dog’s love  Conditions of worth: the granting of acceptance only if a person behaves in appropriate ways

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The organism (i.e., any person) has one basic tendency and striving – to actualize, maintain, and enhance the experiencing organism (itself)

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Rogerian Therapy: consists of the therapist showing the client unconditional positive regard with the goal of freeing the client to self-actualize  YouTube: “Gloria”  Positive affirmations: “uh huh.”  Congruence between the real self vs. the ideal self  The end result is a fully-functioning person  Openness to experience: Aware of all experiences without a need to deny or distort them  Existential living: able to live in the moment without preconceived structures  Organismic trust: Trust in one’s experience; not bound by other people’s opinions  Experiential freedom: Free-choice agent; assumes responsibility for decisions and behaviors  Creativity: Able to adjust creatively to changes and seeks new experiences and challenges

Abraham Maslow o Born and raised in NYC o Studied behaviorism at University of Wisconsin o Returned to NYC; influenced by influx of European scholars o Criticism of behaviorism and psychoanalysis  Limited conceptualization; too much on “crippled” psychology o Father of “Third Force” in psychology  Forerunner of Positive Psychology o Agreed with Rogers on self-actualization  But through that basic needs must be met first o Maslow’s Theory of Motivation  A human is a “wanting animal”  Satisfaction of one desire leads to another  Movement toward growth, fulfillment  Motivation vs. Metamotivation  D needs – deficiency needs  B needs = being needs  Needs are hierarchical (bottom to top)  Physiological needs: Pertain to survival and species propagation o Strongest needs  Safety Needs: Need for order, stability, and predictability  Belonging-Love Needs: Need for affection and intimacy o Need to be part of a group  Self-esteem Needs: Need for respect from others o Recognition, status, appreciation o Need for self-respect (self-esteem)  Confidence, mastery, freedom  Self-actualization Needs: Need to fulfill one’s highest potential o Only B need  May explain cross-cultural differences in well-being.  Meta-analysis of 29 nations (N > 54,000)  r = .28 in poorer countries  r = .10 in richer countries  Traits of Self-Actualized People  Realistic, self-accepting, spontaneous, problem-focused, autonomous, Peak experiences, interpersonally connected, independent, Democratic, Philosophic sense of humor, Resolution of dichotomies, Creative, Present-focused

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Some Self-Actualized People: o Abraham Lincoln (in his last years), Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Albert Einstein, Aldous Huxley, William James, Pierre Renoir, Walt Whitman, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Eleanor Roosevelt, albert Schweitzer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Joseph Haydn Self-Actualization: Those living at the B level have very different orientation to the world  Four key characteristics: o Awareness o Honesty o Freedom o Trust Peak Experiences: heightened experience resulting in transcendence of self Critique of Maslow’s Theory:  Not based on scientific method  Based on male perspective o Maslow didn’t identify many women as self-actualized  Based on Western values o In eastern cultures, positive emotions often result from interpersonal relations rather that achievements  Overly optimistic

Positive Psychology YouTube: The new era of Positive Psychology - Martin Seligman (TED Talk)  Term coined by Seligman (2000)  Philosophical reaction to disease model of psychology o Optimal functioning is more than the absence of pathology  PP is the science of understanding human strengths o Flow, Hope, Optimism  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi  Research focuses on the optimal experience of the present moment which he calls “Flow” o Same as being “in the zone”  The enjoyment that develops from performing autotelic activities (i.e., things that are enjoyable for their own sake) o YouTube: “Flow Theory in 5 minutes (I promise)” o Results from the balanced ration of skills and task difficulty o Solitary happiness  Hope & Optimism: Common Themes  Cognitions: both are thinking styles  Future oriented  Goals: most human behaviors are organized around the pursuit of goals  Value: goals vary in terms of their importance, which determines motivation  Expectancy: confidence or doubt about attaining a goal  Snyder’s (1994) Hope Theory  Goals: mental targets that anchor human activities o Approach vs. avoidance goals  Pathways: perceived ability to generate one or more routes to a goal o “Waypower”  Agency: Mental determination to use these routes o “Willpower”  Scheier & Carver’s (1985) Optimism Theory  Goals: desirable or undesirable valued outcomes that motivate human behavior o Goals vs. anti-goals

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 Optimism/pessimism: confidence/doubt about these outcomes Research on Hope  Beliefs about the self o “I energetically pursue my goals.” o Likely promotes problem-focused coping o May be most adaptive in situations with greater control o Could be maladaptive when there is little control o Likely emerges after optimism  Requires self-awareness  Higher hope o Academic success above and beyond intelligence o Superior athletic performance above and beyond athletic ability o Better recovery from illness & injury o Better mental health o High hope = high pain tolerance, high expectancy for academic success Research on Optimism  Beliefs about the world o “Overall I expect more good things to happen to me than bad.” o Likely promotes less intense stress reactions & mental accommodation coping  May be most adaptive in situations with limited control  Higher optimism o Less distress and more positive emotions when encountering adversity  Cancer patients, coronary patients, new mothers o More adaptive coping  /\ problem focus, positive reframing & acceptance  \/ escape, avoidance & denial o High optimism = high positive reappraisal, low perceived stress Are Hope & Optimism the same?  Hope & Optimism strongly associated o r ~ .50 (Snyder et al., 1991) o r ~ .80 in latent space (Bryant & Cvengros, 2004)  Similar patterns of association (Aspinwall & Leaf, 2002)  Frequently conflated in literature (Peterson & Seligman, 2004)  There is a need to clarify distinctions (Tennen, Affleck, & Tennen, 2002) Subtle Theoretical Difference  Optimism intended to be more global than hope o Desired outcomes versus goals o Optimistic expectancies = controllable & uncontrollable forces o Hopeful expectancies = controllable forces only  Hope & optimism seem to differ in activity/passivity and the perception of control o “I energetically purse my goals” o “Overall, I expect more good things to happen to me than bad.”  Hope appears to be involved in expectancies related to personal goals o “I believe I will graduate from college.”  Optimism appears to be involved in expectancies for events not under one’s control o “I believe it will be sunny on graduation day.”...