KEY THEME

The humanistic perspective emphasizes free will, self-awareness, and psychological growth.

KEY QUESTIONS

By the 1950s, the field of personality was dominated by two completely different perspectives: Freudian psychoanalysis and B. F. Skinner’s brand of behaviorism (see Chapter 5). While Freud’s theory of personality proposed elaborate and complex internal states, Skinner believed that psychologists should focus on observable behaviors and on the environmental factors that shape and maintain those behaviors (see Rogers & Skinner, 1956). As Skinner (1971) wrote, “A person does not act upon the world, the world acts upon him.”

Another group of psychologists had a fundamentally different view of human nature. In opposition to both psychoanalysis and behaviorism, they championed a “third force” in psychology, which they called humanistic psychology. Humanistic psychology is a view of personality that emphasizes human potential and such uniquely human characteristics as self-awareness and free will (Cain, 2002).

In contrast to Freud’s pessimistic view of people as being motivated by unconscious sexual and destructive instincts, the humanistic psychologists saw people as being innately good. Humanistic psychologists also differed from psychoanalytic theorists by their focus on the healthy personality rather than on psychologically troubled people.

In contrast to the behaviorist view that human and animal behavior is due largely to environmental reinforcement and punishment, the humanistic psychologists believed that people are motivated by the need to grow psychologically. They also doubted that laboratory research with rats and pigeons accurately reflected the essence of human nature, as the behaviorists claimed. Instead, humanistic psychologists contended that the most important factor in personality is the individual’s conscious, subjective perception of his or her self (Purkey & Stanley, 2002).

The two most important contributors to the humanistic perspective were Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. In Chapter 8, on motivation, we discussed Abraham Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs and his concept of self-actualization. Like Maslow, Rogers emphasized the tendency of human beings to strive to fulfill their potential and capabilities (Kirschenbaum, 2004; Kirschenbaum & Jourdan, 2005).

Carl Rogers (1902–1987) grew up in a large, close-knit family in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. His parents were highly religious and instilled a moral and ethical atmosphere in the home, which no doubt influenced Rogers’s early decision to become a minister. After studying theology, Rogers decided that the ministry was not for him. Instead, he turned to the study of psychology, ultimately enjoying a long, productive, and distinguished career as a psychotherapist, writer, and university professor.

Like Freud, Rogers developed his personality theory from his clinical experiences with his patients. Rogers referred to his patients as “clients” to emphasize their active and voluntary participation in therapy. In marked contrast to Freud, Rogers was continually impressed by his clients’ drive to grow and develop their potential.

These observations convinced Rogers that the most basic human motive is the actualizing tendency—the innate drive to maintain and enhance the human organism (Bohart, 2007; Bozarth & Wang, 2008). According to Rogers, all other human motives, whether biological or social, are secondary. He compared the actualizing tendency to a child’s drive to learn to walk despite early frustration and falls. To get a sense of the vastly different views of Rogers and Freud, read the Critical Thinking box, “Freud Versus Rogers on Human Nature.”

THE SELF-CONCEPT

Rogers (1959) was struck by how frequently his clients in therapy said, “I’m not really sure who I am” or “I just don’t feel like myself.” This observation helped form the cornerstone of Rogers’s personality theory: the idea of the self-concept. The self-concept is the set of perceptions and beliefs that you have about yourself, including your nature, your personal qualities, and your typical behavior.

According to Rogers (1980), people are motivated to act in accordance with their self-concept. So strong is the need to maintain a consistent self-concept that people will deny or distort experiences that contradict their self-concept.

The self-concept begins evolving early in life. Because they are motivated by the actualizing tendency, infants and young children naturally gravitate toward self-enhancing experiences. But as children develop greater self-awareness, there is an increasing need for positive regard. Positive regard is the sense of being loved and valued by other people, especially one’s parents (Bozarth, 2007; Farber & Doolin, 2011).

Rogers (1959) maintained that most parents provide their children with conditional positive regard—the sense that the child is valued and loved only when she behaves in a way that is acceptable to others. The problem with conditional positive regard is that it causes the child to learn to deny or distort her genuine feelings. For example, if little Amy’s parents scold and reject her when she expresses angry feelings, her strong need for positive regard will cause her to deny her anger, even when it’s justified or appropriate. Eventually, Amy’s self-concept will become so distorted that genuine feelings of anger are denied because they are inconsistent with her self-concept as “a good girl who never gets angry.” Because of the fear of losing positive regard, she cuts herself off from her true feelings.

Like Freud, Rogers believed that feelings and experiences could be driven from consciousness by being denied or distorted. But Rogers believed that feelings become denied or distorted not because they are threatening but because they contradict the self-concept. In this case, people are in a state of incongruence: Their self-concept conflicts with their actual experience (Rogers, 1959). Such a person is continually defending against genuine feelings and experiences that are inconsistent with his self-concept. As this process continues over time, a person progressively becomes more “out of touch” with his true feelings and his essential self, often experiencing psychological problems as a result.

How is incongruence to be avoided? In the ideal situation, a child experiences a great deal of unconditional positive regard from parents and other authority figures. Unconditional positive regard refers to the child’s sense of being unconditionally loved and valued, even if she doesn’t conform to the standards and expectations of others. In this way, the child’s actualizing tendency is allowed its fullest expression. However, Rogers did not advocate permissive parenting. He thought that parents were responsible for controlling their children’s behavior and for teaching them acceptable standards of behavior. Rogers maintained that parents can discipline their child without undermining the child’s sense of self-worth.

For example, parents can disapprove of a child’s specific behavior without completely rejecting the child herself. In effect, the parent’s message should be, “I do not value your behavior right now, but I still love and value you.” In this way, according to Rogers, the child’s essential sense of self-worth can remain intact.

Rogers (1957b) believed that it is through consistent experiences of unconditional positive regard that one becomes a psychologically healthy, fully functioning person. The fully functioning person has a flexible, constantly evolving self-concept. She is realistic, open to new experiences, and capable of changing in response to new experiences.

Rather than defending against or distorting her own thoughts or feelings, the person experiences congruence: Her sense of self is consistent with her emotions and experiences (Farber, 2007). The actualizing tendency is fully operational, and she makes choices that move her in the direction of greater growth and fulfillment of potential. Rogers (1957b, 1964) believed that the fully functioning person is likely to be creative and spontaneous, and to enjoy harmonious relationships with others.

The humanistic perspective has been criticized on two particular points. First, humanistic theories are hard to validate or test scientifically. Humanistic theories tend to be based on philosophical assumptions or clinical observations rather than on empirical research. For example, concepts like the self-concept, unconditional positive regard, and the actualizing tendency are very difficult to define or measure objectively.

Second, many psychologists believe that humanistic psychology’s view of human nature is too optimistic (Bohart, 2013). For example, if self-actualization is a universal human motive, why are self-actualized people so hard to find? And, critics claim, humanistic psychologists have minimized the darker, more destructive side of human nature. Can we really account for all the evil in the world by attributing it to a restrictive upbringing or society?

The influence of humanistic psychology has waned since the 1960s and early 1970s (Cain, 2003). Nevertheless, it has made lasting contributions, especially in the realms of psychotherapy, counseling, education, and parenting (Farber, 2007; Joseph & Murphy, 2013). The humanistic perspective has also promoted the scientific study of such topics as the healthy personality and creativity. Finally, the importance of subjective experience and the self-concept has become widely accepted in different areas of psychology (Sheldon, 2008; Sleeth, 2007).