Evaluating the Humanistic Approach

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Chapter 11 Personality
SEEKING SELF-ACTUALIZATION
According to Rogers, conditions of worth
can make it harder for children to become
aware of and accept the aspects of themselves that conflict with their parents’
values. Progress toward self-actualization
can be enhanced by associating with
those whose positive regard does not depend on displaying any particular set of
behaviors.
Removed due to copyright
permissions restrictions.
they can give to someone else. This deficiency orientation may lead a person to be jealous and to focus on what is missing in relationships; as a result, the person will never
truly experience love or security.
In contrast, people with a growth orientation do not focus on what is missing but
draw satisfaction from what they have, what they are, and what they can do. This orientation opens the door to what Maslow called peak experiences, in which people feel
joy, and even ecstasy, in the mere fact of being alive, being human, and knowing that
they are utilizing their fullest potential.
Evaluating the Humanistic Approach
The humanistic approach to personality is consistent with the way many people view
themselves. It gives a central role to immediate experience and emphasizes each person’s
uniqueness. The best-known application of the humanistic approach is the client-centered
THE JOYS OF A GROWTH ORIENTATION According to Maslow’s theory of
personality, the key to personal growth
and fulfillment lies in focusing on what
we have, not on what we don’t have or
on what we have lost. Rachel Barton
could have let the accident that took her
leg destroy her career as a concert violinist, and with it, her joy in life—but she
didn’t.
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The Humanistic Approach
in review
therapy of Carl Rogers, which is discussed in the chapter on treatment of psychological disorders. The humanistic approach has also inspired other therapies, as well as
short-term personal-growth experiences such as sensitivity training and encounter
groups that are designed to help people become more aware of themselves and the way
they relate to others (e.g., Cain & Seeman, 2002). It has also led to programs designed
to teach parents how to avoid creating conditions of worth while maximizing their children’s potential. Further, the humanistic approach is consistent with the rapidly growing field of positive psychology, which, as described in the motivation and emotion chapter, focuses on subjective well-being and other positive aspects of human thought and
feelings (Diener, 2003; Snyder & Lopez, 2006).
Yet to some, the humanistic approach is naive, romantic, and unrealistic. Are people
all as inherently good and “growth oriented” as this approach suggests? Critics wonder
about that, and they also fault humanists for paying too little attention to the role of
inherited characteristics, learning, situational influences, and unconscious motivation in
shaping personality. Further, the idea that personality development is directed only by
an innate growth potential is seen by many as an oversimplification. So, too, is the
humanistic assumption that all human problems stem from blocked self-actualization.
Personality researchers also see many humanistic concepts as too vague to be tested
empirically. Accordingly, the humanistic approach is not popular among those who conduct empirical research to learn about personality (Friedman & Schustack, 2003).
Finally, humanists’ tendency to define ideal personality development in terms of personal growth, independence, and self-actualization has been criticized for emphasizing
culture-specific concepts about mental health that may not apply outside North America and other Western cultures (Heine, 2003). As discussed in the next section, the foundations of humanistic self theories may be in direct conflict with the values of nonWestern, collectivist cultures.
“In Review: Major Approaches to Personality” summarizes key features of the
humanistic approach, along with those of the other approaches we have described.
Which approach is most accurate? There is no simple answer to that question, partly
MAJOR APPROACHES TO PERSONALIT Y
Basic Assumptions
About Behavior
Typical Research
Method
Psychodynamic
Determined by largely
unconscious intrapsychic
conflicts
Case studies
Trait
Determined by traits or
needs
Analysis of tests for basic
personality dimensions
Social-cognitive
Determined by learning,
cognitive factors, and
specific situations
Analysis of interactions
between people and
situations
Humanistic
Determined by innate growth
tendency and individual
perception of reality
Studies of relationships
between perceptions
and behavior
Approach
?
1. Tests that measure the big-five dimensions of personality are based on the
approach to personality.
2. The role of learning is most prominent in the
approach to personality.
3. Object relations and attachment theories are modern variants on
personality theories.