Lecture.docx

Lecture 13 - human need is an invariant, something that characterizes all people and does not vary meaningfully from one person to the next - humanism emerges in the 20 century as the third organizing force in north American psychology - psychology dominated by three primary intellectual traditions; Psychoanalysis: a relatively dark view of human nature, one that assumes we have very little control of our own behaviours and that we’re governed by unconscious forces, there are dark libidinal urges that characterize much of human motivation; a pessimistic view Behaviourist: adopted much more of a neutral view of behavior, tried to be morally neutral, we are a product of our learning histories, we are neither good/bad Humanistic: more optimistic view, humans are essentially good, all of us come into the world with potentials, and we are constitutionally designed to realize such potentials, whether we do or not is largely a function of the environments we find ourselves in, is environment supporting/nourishing the growth of person occupying it; we are rational, purposeful, capable of autonomous self-regulation, gives us far more credit as to understanding ourselves; a very positive and optimistic view - key figure in humanistic tradition and the originator of humanistic approach to psychotherapy is Carl Rogers - rogers was trained as a psychotherapist, also offered a theory of personality - carl rogers was convinced at the heart of things, there was a singular motivation underlying all human behavior, to actualize, maintain, and enhance the experience organism - believed inside each of us is a true self, the person we are intended to become, and will realize that true person and are in the process of becoming the person we are meant to be - we are on a journey to realize all the potentials inside us - there are environments that will support this development and those that will derail it - how do you know your taking right steps? Rogers speculated theres a mechanism that informs us about whether we are taking growth promoting steps/choices, and called this “organismic valuing process”; basically the small voice that tells us we are right/wrong - rogers believed that people don’t need to be told whats right thing to do, need far less advice; believed we have this intuitive structure that feeds back to us whether we are making right/wrong choices - organismic valuing process built into our species, everyone has it; when u get back with that person you’ve broken up with time and time again, voice tells u ur an idiot - assuming that the surrounding environment supports ones social and emotional development, and presuming that we really listen to that voice, we are on the road to becoming what he’d call a fully functioning person (one is actualizing full potential) - there are traits that characterize people on this road (people that are doing well) Openness to experience: how the unique quality of the fully functional person is free of the need to defensively distort the reality they experience; able to listen attentively, both to the stimuli within them and stimuli in outer environment; they are receptive to what is being brought to their attention; isn’t overwhelmed with insecurities and preoccupations, have the stability of character to face negative feedback, rejection, failure; don’t need to tweak experiences Existential living: person isn’t preoccupied with the remembered past or anticipated future, aren’t overwhelmed with apprehension of future or regret of past, fully appreciate what present moment offers, Self trust: has ability to trust intuition, what the OVP is telling them to do, they trust themselves and go with gut- critical ingredient to path towards to full functioning: positive regard: all of us have innate need to be loved and accepted, first by parents, then by peers, other authority figures - most of us as part of maturation find that there are conditions attached to the worth we receive; most of us find that parents, teachers, are not unconditional in the regard they have for us - most of us figure out that some things will lead to approval and others to disapproval - rogers thought this was critical to developing sense of self: as we grow we are learning what things we need to do and what kinds of people we need to be to secure love, attention, and affection from others; this can have critical implications - i.e dad speaks bad about homosexuals, son grows up and later realizes he is, and so certain components of self need to be repressed in order to secure respect from father Conditional positive regard: idea that love and approval are earned occasionally by meeting certain conditions; as we grow we learn the conditions upon which our worth is attached and the conditions upon which positive regard is bestowed; we learn in order to receive full extent of parents approval and esteem we need to achieve certain milestones and become certain things; this can set the stage for self to be fragmented - ie you love to draw, but in a household where everyones a scientist and same is expected of you, then you know this part of you should be buried or suppressed, in order for everyone to accept you and love you - how do you fix this? Simple from a rogerian point of view; as a therapist you must supply client in distress with the unconditional positive regard they never receieved - key idea in client centred therapy (rogerian psychotherapy): counselor must provide unconditional positive regard, must be accepting of all components of client - key way of conveying your unconditional regard as a counselor is expressing your empathic understanding of the clients internal frame of reference, you must in your words convey to the client that you are capable of seeing the world as the client sees it, can adopt clients frame of reference - the specific behavior you use to do this is called reflection: used to convey empathic understanding - reflection: when a counselor accurately expresses the clients attitudes and feelings, you must put into words what client said or is trying to say, and in a way that they know you get it, and you are capable that the feelings they are having also exist inside you (to some extent) - the behavior of reflecting back to the client his/her attitudes and feelings is thought over the course of psychotherapy to have a transformative impact on the clients sense of self - told story of how advisor dipped two weeks into patient program during his first year of grad school, and how he was in panic; training doesn’t improve performance as a psychotherapist (31:18) Read a quote from the book by carl rogers - point of quote: your goal as the counselor is to frame some attitude, experience or aspect of the patient that he/she cannot accept and show that YOU accept it; by having that acceptance reflected back at them they can bring it back to the surface and include it as a part of who they are; the fragmented self can be brought into light and self and reorganized - Abraham maslow most famous for hierarchy of basic needs, all of which are fundamentally deficiency motives; experience them as needs when we are deprived of them and motivated to restore them - there is a hierarchy in t