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Carl Rogers
Abraham Maslow
Rollo May
"People are basically good, and have an innate need to make themselves and the world better"
"People are basically good, and have an innate need to make themselves and the world better"
The Humanist Belief
Founders of Humanism
Carl Rogers (1902-1987)
Developed person-centered/client-centered therapy
Pioneered the concept of "unconditional positive regard"
Believed the client should determine the speed, intensity, and duration of each session
Established a counseling center and published many studies on psychotherapy while working as a professor at the University of Chicago
Served as the president of the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1947 and was the first recipient of the APA's Distinguished Professional Contribution Award
Was passionate about using humanism to resolve political oppression and social conflict
Developed "Person-Centered Approach Workshops" to help clients improve their cross-cultural communications, personal growth, self-empowerment, and social justice education
References:
Carl Rogers, PhD: 1947 APA President. (n.d.). https://www.apa.org. https://www.apa.org/about/governance/president/carl-r-rogers#:~:text=Carl%20R.,field%20of%20clinical%20psychological%20research.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2023, March 24). Carl Rogers | Biography & Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carl-Rogers
Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
Known for developing three fundamental components of Humanistic therapy: the hierarchy of needs, self-actualization, and peak experiences
His concept of a human's hierarchy of needs is widely regarded as one of the most influential contributions to psychology to date and is relevant to teachers and counselors to understand students' behavior and habits
Disagreed with both Freud's psychoanalytic theories and Skinner's behavioral theories, as he believed they were too focused on the negative aspects of people's lives and felt that they limited human creative potential
Focused on helping client's maximize their personal well-being and achieve their full potential
Was heavily influenced by Max Wertheimer's Gestalt therapy methods, which emphasized treating the whole person, not just the parts that seem ill, as everything in psychology is deeply interconnected
References:
Cherry, K. (2023). Biography of Abraham Maslow (1908-1970). Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/biography-of-abraham-maslow-1908-1970-2795524
Charlotte Buhler (1893-1974)
Was born in Berlin and practiced adolescent and infant psychology in Vienna before fleeing to the United States during the rise of fascism
While in America, helped to develop humanistic therapy alongside Rogers and Maslow
Believed that traditional scientific research does not fully understand human behavior due to the nature of the scientific method being designed for the physical sciences
Was impressed by human nature's self-determination and individuals' drives to fulfill their goals
Developed 4 basic human tendencies:
1) The tendency to strive for personal satisfactions in sex, love, and ego recognition
2) The tendency toward self-limiting adaptation for the purpose of fitting in, belonging, and gaining security
3) The tendency toward self-expression and creative accomplishments
4) The tendency toward integration or order-upholding
References:
Charlotte Buhler. (n.d.). http://faculty.webster.edu/woolflm/charlottebuhler.html#:~:text=THE%20HUMANISTIC%20PSYCHOLOGY%20OF%20CHARLOTTE,organized%20according%20to%20individuals'%20gifts.
GoodTherapy Editor Team. (2015, July 23). Charlotte Buhler Biography. https://www.goodtherapy.org/famous-psychologists/charlotte- buhler.html
Rollo May (1909-1994)
Was heavily influenced by the previous humanistic therapists and merged the ideas into a new concept called "existential therapy" in 1958
Combined humanism with existentialism to understand the underlying causes and mechanisms of human suffering and crises
Argued that human development progressed through 5 stages, during which an individual faces a specific crises or challenge
Innocence - infancy
Rebellion - childhood and early adolescence
Decision - transitional stage between teenage years and young adulthood
Ordinary - adulthood
Creative - self-actualization phase of older adulthood
Was particularly concerned with the concept of anxiety and how it can cause individuals to be brave and make couragous decisions
Wrote many books on existentialism and humanism, including Man's Search for Himself, Love and Will, The Meaning of Anxiety, and The Courage to Create
References:
GoodTherapy Editor Team. (2015, July 20). Rollo May Biography. https://www.goodtherapy.org/famous-psychologists/rollo-may.html
Assumptions of Humanism
According to Simply Psychology, the following is a list of assumptions regarding Humanism:
Humans have free will; this is called personal agency.
• All individuals are unique and have an innate (inborn) drive to achieve their maximum potential.
• A proper understanding of human behavior can only be achieved by studying humans – not animals.
• Subjective reality is the primary guide for human behavior
• Psychology should study the individual case (idiographic) rather than the average performance of groups (nomothetic).
• The whole person should be studied in their environmental context.
• the goal of psychology is to formulate a complete description of what it means to be a human being (e.g. the importance of language, emotions, and how humans seek to find meaning in their lives).
Mcleod, S. (2023, March 17). Humanistic Approach in Psychology (humanism): Definition & examples.
Simply Psychology. Retrieved April 29, 2023, from
https://www.simplypsychology.org/humanistic.html
The "Third Force" - Origin of Humanism
Humanism became influential in psychology during the 1960s and is often referred to as “a “third force” in psychology, primarily in response to what some psychologists viewed as significant limitation in the behaviorist and psychoanalytic schools of thought” (Good Therapy Team, 2018). “Known as humanistic psychology, it is not a single branch of psychology” and “humanistic psychology was not created around the work of one founder” (Aanstoos, 2022). However, when thinking of humanistic psychologists, Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow are two of the most prominent and influential psychologists with the goal of “emphasizing a more positive and humanistic approach” (Good Therapy Team, 2018) to psychology. They believed that “human beings were born with the desire to grow, create and to love, and had the power to direct their own lives” (Mcleod, 2023). Rogers believed that of most importance to psychology is how “individuals perceive and interpret events” and not behavior, the unconscious, thinking, or the human brain as his fellow psychologists believed. Maslow and Clark Moustakas met with other psychologists to discuss this new approach to psychology and identified the following core tenets during their meeting: “self-actualization, creativity, health, individuality, intrinsic nature, self, being, becoming, and meaning” Good Therapy Team, 2018). According to Good Therapy (2018), other major contributors to the development of humanistic psychology other than those previously mentioned are Gordon Allport, James Bugental, Charlotte Buhler, Rollo May, Gardner Murphy, Henry Murry, Fritz Perls, Kirk Schneider, Louis Hoffman, and Paul Wong.
References
Aanstoos, C. M. (2022). Humanistic psychology. Salem Press Encyclopedia of Health.
Team, G. T. E. (2018, August 3). Humanistic psychology (humanism). Humanistic Psychology. Retrieved April 30, 2023, from https://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/types/humanistic-psychology
Mcleod, S. (2023, March 17). Humanistic Approach in Psychology (humanism): Definition & examples. Simply Psychology. Retrieved April 29, 2023, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/humanistic.html
Historical Timeline for Humanism
Historical Timeline for Humanistic Psychology (Mcleod, 2023)
Maslow (1943) developed a hierarchical theory of human motivation.
Carl Rogers (1946) publishes Significant aspects of client-centered therapy (also called person-centered therapy).
In 1957 and 1958, at the invitation of Abraham Maslow and Clark Moustakas, two meetings were held in Detroit among psychologists who were interested in founding a professional association dedicated to a more meaningful, more humanistic vision.
In 1962, with the sponsorship of Brandeis University, this movement was formally launched as the Association for Humanistic Psychology.
The first issue of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology appeared in the Spring of 1961.
Clark Hull’s (1943) Principles of behavior was published.
B.F. Skinner (1948) published Walden Two, in which he described a utopian society founded upon behaviorist principles.
References
Mcleod, S. (2023, March 17). Humanistic Approach in Psychology (humanism): Definition & examples. Simply Psychology. Retrieved April 29, 2023, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/humanistic.html
Humanism and the School Counselor
It is not within the role of a school counselor to conduct therapy sessions with the student population, but it would be very helpful to consider the following list by Cherry (2022) when counseling students in developing self-awareness and goal setting:
Identify and discover your strengths
Visualize what you want to achieve
Focus on enjoying experiences rather than just achieving goals
Identify your values and beliefs
Identify what make you happy and pursue experiences that bring you joy and that you are passionate about
Learn to accept yourself and others
Keep learning new things
See the positive…be optimistic
References
Cherry, K. (2022, November 14). How humanistic theories are used in psychology. Verywell Mind. Retrieved April
29, 2023, from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-humanistic-psychology-2795242#toc-how-to-
apply-humanistic-psychology
3 MOST COMMON HUMANISTIC THERAPY TYPES
&
THE TECHNIQUES AND METHODS OF EACH
GESTALT
The Gestalt method focuses on the present moment. Dwelling on assumptions of the past and why we may feel the way we do based on it, does not serve a purpose when using Gestalt techniques. The goal of therapy is to explore why we feel the current emotions we have and how we can work to align all the pieces of ourselves.
During therapy sessions time is focused on experiencing emotions rather than just talking about them. Role-playing, re-enacting situations, and creating visual representations of feelings, are all techniques that are used in Gestalt therapy.
Gestalt therapy generally does not have set guidelines, therapists will use best practice methods based on individual client needs. However, two common techniques are often used in sessions; The Empty Chair and Exaggeration.
The Empty Chair method works to resolve unfinished business. Clients sit across from an empty chair and have a dialogue with whomever they may need to; spouse, parent, sibling, boss, etc. The therapist is there to encourage dialogue, but not direct it.
The Exaggeration method uses what the therapist takes note of about body movement and gestures and then asks the clients to re-create them in exaggerated ways. The goal is to get the client to think about the feelings associated with the body movements in hopes of resolving where that feeling is coming from.
(Psychology Today, n.d.)
PERSON-CENTERED
Person-centered therapy, often referred to as Rogerian, is a type of talk therapy that focused on the idea that people know themselves best and if provided the proper therapeutic environment they can work towards being their best selves. All people, no matter their circumstances, are capable of growth and it is not necessary to change one's personality to do this (Capuzzi & Stauffer, 2016, pp. 169-170).
During therapy sessions, the focus is on people finding and creating what they believe to be the best versions of themselves. In this manner, there are no specific directives for methods. It is most important that the counselor believes in the tenants of the theory and who they are as a person, then what type of techniques they use. However, there are two common strategies around communication that are often seen in this therapy; Active Listening and Recognition and Reflection of Feelings (Capuzzi & Stauffer, 2016, pp. 180-182).
Active Listening is part of showing empathy toward the client. Facing them, making eye contact, verbal declarations of understanding, and paraphrasing back to the client for reflection, are all parts a counselor should employ when actively listening (Capuzzi & Stauffer, 2016, p. 180).
Recognition and Reflection of Feelings are done by the counselor to help draw out the underlining reasons a person is feeling the way they feel about a certain situation. The goal here is to have the client reflect on their feelings not be told what their feelings are (Capuzzi & Stauffer, 2016, p. 181).
EXISTENTIAL
Existential therapy focuses on exploring the immediate here and now of human existence. Existential therapists believe that self-awareness or self-discovery is possible in the conscious mind. Therapy sessions focus on bringing awareness into the moment and using these feelings to heal the mind. Anxiety is a normal human emotion and with proper exploration of this emotion, anxiety can be used to our benefit (Sommers-Flanagan & Sommers-Flanagan, 2018, pp. 89-94).
During therapy sessions anxiety and guilt are treated as normal human responses to the world we live in. The goal is not to rid us of these feelings but to reduce the negative effects of them. Providing informed consent to clients is crucial when using existential therapy due to the nature of the intensity of this therapy (Sommers-Flanagan & Sommers-Flanagan, 2018, pp. 89-94).
Like Gestalt and person-centered therapies, existential therapy sessions use many of the same techniques. Major differences include the language that is used and the intensity and length of sessions.
The Interpersonal therapeutic encounter is the most important part of a therapy session. Being present and going where the client takes you and having them dig deep into those emotions is considered having an authentic existential therapy session (Sommers-Flanagan & Sommers-Flanagan, 2018, p. 100).
Transactional Analysis
Transactional Analysis
Transactional Analysis is
References
David Capuzzi, & Mark D. Stauffer. (2016). Counseling and Psychotherapy : Theories and Interventions: Vol. Sixth edition. American Counseling Association.
John Sommers-Flanagan, & Rita Sommers-Flanagan. (2018). Counseling and Psychotherapy Theories in Context and Practice : Skills, Strategies, and Techniques: Vol. Third edition. Wiley.
Psychology Today. (n.d). Gestalt Therapy. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapy-types/gestalt-therapy
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