PSY1HPM Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Gordon Allport, Abraham Maslow, Humanistic Psychology
30 Jun 2018
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HPM Lecture 5 - Historical Foundations of Psychology (4)
Humanistic Perspective
Humanistic psychology: theoretical approach that emphasises the uniqueness of the individual, their individual
perception and experience of their world
Humanism takes an optimistic view of human experience, developed in the 1950s/60s as an alternative to
psychodynamics and behaviourism. It focuses on aspects of personality that are unique to humans.
It assumes that people are innately good and consequently, driven to choose adaptive, goal-directed, and
growth-oriented behaviours (i.e., self-actualisation: belief that people are motivated to reach their full potential)
Self-actualisation is a key focus in humanism
It is not interested in traits that are shared with other animals (unlike behaviourism) : the human is an
experiencing person, not merely a behaving organism
Gordon Allport: Precursor to Humanism
Gordon Allport (1897-1968) is perhaps better known for his work in personality psychology, but he was also a key
catalyst for the development of the humanistic perspective – he was a strong advocate for psychology
emphasizing the individual experience
Whilst working on his undergraduate degree, he spent a year teaching in Constantinople – on his return to
Harvard he travelled via Vienna to visit Freud. At their meeting, Freud greeted
Allport with an expectant silence. Allport filled the awkward silence with a story about a little boy he had
observed on the tram: the boy said to his mother “I don’t want to sit there… don’t let that dirty man sit beside
me”, (Allport, 1967, p.8). Freud asked“And was that little boy you?”, assuming Allport was revealing his own past!
Carl Rogers: Founder of Humanism
Carl Rogers was one of the key founders of the humanistic approach
The basic premises of his approach to humanism are:
Humans are motivated through an innate potential to actualize, maintain and enhance the self
People as basically good
Reality is subjective (depends on our perception: (phenomenology)
Rogers argued that humans grow up in an atmosphere where we are given love and support on the (implicit)
condition that we behave the way we are expected to i.e. conditional positive regard.
But what if we don’t do what our parents want us to do?
Rogers argued that then parents withhold their love, with this threat, children learn to abandon their true
feelings, wishes, and desires, and instead substitute those of their parents, leading us to become alienated from
our true selves: if we don’t receive unconditional positive regard, we cannot become self-actualised
Carl Rogers: Rogerian Therapy
Based on his humanistic perspective, Rogers developed a humanistic approach to therapy : Humanistic therapy is
person-centred (or client-centred) therapy.
Humanistic therapy relies reflective / empathic listening technique (restate context, clarify feelings) , and on the
therapist having: unconditional positive regard for the client and accurate empathy with the client
There are a number of basic assumptions underlying Rogerian Therapy: People are innately good, Behaviour is
purposeful and goal directed, Disturbed behaviour results from faulty learning, Effective learning takes place
when a person receives unconditional regard, Responsibility for the client’s behaviour rests with the client.
Humanistic therapists are not interested in understanding or uncovering unconscious motivations, identifying
unresolved conflict, making patients conform to social expectations or labelling patients with a diagnosis
Instead, the humanistic therapist’s open and caring relationship with the client, and unconditional positive regard
toward the client, will help that client achieve more of their potential – helping them to reduce the discrepancy
between their actual and ideal selves
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Abraham Maslow set out to formulate a holistic system of psychology, he believed that the fundamental unit in
psychology was not a reflex, sensation or unconscious memory
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Hpm lecture 5 - historical foundations of psychology (4) Humanistic psychology: theoretical approach that emphasises the uniqueness of the individual, their individual perception and experience of their world. Humanism takes an optimistic view of human experience, developed in the 1950s/60s as an alternative to psychodynamics and behaviourism. It focuses on aspects of personality that are unique to humans. It assumes that people are innately good and consequently, driven to choose adaptive, goal-directed, and growth-oriented behaviours (i. e. , self-actualisation: belief that people are motivated to reach their full potential) It is not interested in traits that are shared with other animals (unlike behaviourism) : the human is an experiencing person, not merely a behaving organism. Gordon allport (1897-1968) is perhaps better known for his work in personality psychology, but he was also a key catalyst for the development of the humanistic perspective he was a strong advocate for psychology emphasizing the individual experience.
