Humanistic Personality
Humanistic Personality
Alicia R. Tsosie
PSY 101
Dr. Gayle
Humanistic Psychology gets its name from its belief in the basic goodness and respect of humankind. Two American psychologists, Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers paved the way for this new approach to understanding personality and improving the overall satisfaction of individuals. Only through self-improvement and self-knowledge can one truly be happy.
Carl Rogers believed that all people have a tendency toward growth = ‘Actualization’. In the course of pursuing self-actualization, people engage in what Rogers called the organismic valuing process. Experiences perceived as not enhancing are valued as bad and are avoided. Rogers used the term Fully Functioning Person for someone who is self-actualizing. According to Rogers, the main determinant of whether we will become self-actualized is childhood experience. If the conditions are few and reasonable then the child will be fine but if the conditions of worth are severely limiting then self-actualization will be severely impeded. This pattern of self-acceptance and self-rejection is called conditional self-regard.
Abraham Maslow, like Rogers, focused on the positive. Maslow believed a human has a hierarchy of needs to fulfill before becoming a self-actualized, fully able person. After the basic needs such as food and shelter are met, humans need to feel safe and seek love and acceptance, and only then can they love themselves. Only after all these things are done can a person fulfill their potential.
I am a Humanistic, I agree with Maslow, and Rogers. I believe that everyone has a free will, and that we should have a clean slate everyday. Everyone should have “free choice” or have the ability to choose for yourself and not have it controlled by genetics, learning, or unconscious forces. The people that we are today are composed of the different choices that we have made.
I disagree the most with the Behaviorist theories, that I am not...
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