HPS307 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Motivation, Psychopathology, Unconditional Positive Regard
Topic 5 ~ Humanistic Approach
Rogers Humanistic Approach
- Key important contributions
- Characterisation of importance of experience as an individual & client centred therapy
- Freud: Clinician tried to explain abnormal psychology
- Rogers: similar, theorizing in a clinical context, far more positive view of human behaviour
- Key similarities in importance of childhood of childhood experience in adult personality or
mental illness later in life, but explain differently
- Positive view of the person, actual and ideal self & discrepancy
> View of the person & Science
- Focus is on the subject experience of people
- Our behaviour is not directly determined by objective reality
- Instead we react according to our perception of this reality
- Perception termed: phenomenological field this is a subjective construct
- Given this, when trying to understand people – important to focus on their subjective exp
- Can react to things differently depending on the experience for them ex. Losing job
- People are fundamentally good: our fundamental motivation is towards positive growth
(termed self-actualisation in Rogers’ Theory)
- People may experience psychological distress when they act in ways that are not authentic
to their self concept: that is, where there is discrepancy between their conscious and
experience & their more visceral experience of their self-concept (incongruence)
Science
- Satisfied with your life and personal relationships
- Based on own subjective experience
- Recognised importance of an empirical approach
- Q-SORT & SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL to measure difference of ideal and real self
- Appreciated the benefits of a scientific approach
> The Self
- All aspects of the phenomenological field (our experience) that relate to me or I
- Ex. I am a good parent, I am a hard worker, I am a good listener
- Characteristics: available to awareness, general (not separate), affects our patterns of
thoughts, feelings and behaviours
- Distinguished between ideal and actual self
- Actual self: Perception of ourselves at the current time, ex. Pretty good at psychology
- Ideal self: An aspirational self, ex. A clinical psychologist
- Less gap between actual and ideal self the better
> Measurement of the self-concept
Q-sort
- Test taker given cards
- Each card lists a statement describing a personality characteristic
- Ex. I dislike being around other people
- Person sorts into order, depending on representation of
each card to their ‘self’
- Sorted according to forced distribution, rating scale
- 9 point rating scale: 1 completely not like me, 9 like me
- Has aspects of both fixed and flexible measures
- Can assess actual and ideal self
- Potential for social desirability bias → attempt to minimise
- Gets people to think as forced to sort on a distribution scale
- The closer the actual and ideal self the better the person & psychological functioning
- Can measure the difference between actual and ideal self (discrepancy measure)
Semantic Differential
- Similar to Q-sort, can be used to measure actual & ideal self & also other areas
- Person rates a statement on a number of different 7-point scales
- Anchors of scales are ‘polar adjectives’: opposites
- EX. Rate of ‘my ideal self’ on: good-bad, strong-weak, professional-unprofessional
- Structures in some ways, but similar so ratings can be compared
- Can get people not only to respond in relation to actual and ideal self, but in terms of actual
self and a significant developmental figure
> Processes of Rogers’ Theory
Self-Actualisation
- Our fundamental motive towards growth & the fulfilment of our inner potential
- Remember Roger’s all people are good belief
- In the right conditions, we will move towards self-actualisation
- People will naturally work to decrease the gap between actual and ideal self
- Not everyone is self-actualising: as other processes undermine self actualisation
- A need for consistency in the content of the self: create dissonance
- A need for congruence between the self & our experience: both create dissonance
- If these 2 things are missing, an individuals move towards self-actualisation may be
distorted
Self-consistency & Congruence
- Individual seeks to maintain its own self-structure, need for consistency
- Individuals organise their functions and values to preserve the self
- EX. If a person sees themselves as unattractive, they will act in ways to support this even if
that behaviour is unrewarding to them
- A person may selectively attend to information that confirms their perception & discount
information that invalidates that perception
- Negative perception, maintained by behaviours pulls the person down
Congruence
- Congruence between self and experience
- EX. Person who believes that they are level-headed loses their temper
- People can seek our experiences that are congruent
- Incongruence can lead to defensive reactions that aim to protect our notion of the self
Subception & Defence
- Inconsistent experiences may not be allowed into consciousness: SIMILAR TO FREUD
- Subception: process that detects incongruent experience without making it conscious
- Defensive behaviour might not resolve the problem, it will take the self further away from
consistency and undermine self-actualisation
- Denial: experience denied entry into consciousness
- Distortion: allows the experience into consciousness but only in a form that makes it
consistent with the self, in line with the motive for self-consistency
- EX. Rationalisation, fantasy, projection,
- Deals with the problem, but not in a way that leads to self-actualisation
Document Summary
Characterisation of importance of experience as an individual & client centred therapy. Freud: clinician tried to explain abnormal psychology. Rogers: similar, theorizing in a clinical context, far more positive view of human behaviour. Key similarities in importance of childhood of childhood experience in adult personality or mental illness later in life, but explain differently. Positive view of the person, actual and ideal self & discrepancy. Instead we react according to our perception of this reality. Focus is on the subject experience of people. Our behaviour is not directly determined by objective reality. Perception termed: phenomenological field this is a subjective construct. Given this, when trying to understand people important to focus on their subjective exp. Can react to things differently depending on the experience for them ex. People are fundamentally good: our fundamental motivation is towards positive growth (termed self-actualisation in rogers" theory)
