2. ATP: Social Psychology: Lecture 22, Humanism Tom Farsides (SOC) Humanistic Approaches to Personality: Rogers & Maslow Tom Farsides: 03-10-02 Tom Farsides: 03-10-02

3. ATP: Social Psychology: Lecture 22, Humanism Tom Farsides (SOC) Lecture contents Structure The self Measures of the self-concept Process Self-actualization Self-congruence Positive regard Maslow

4. ATP: Social Psychology: Lecture 22, Humanism Tom Farsides (SOC) Structure: The self Phenomenological foundation. Changing self, but with some stable patterned, organised integrity. The self, me, and I parts of the phenomenal field comprise the self-concept. Self-concept is essentially conscious. Ideal self, Undesired self, etc..

5. ATP: Social Psychology: Lecture 22, Humanism Tom Farsides (SOC) Measures of the self-concept Q-sort Adjective checklist Semantic differential Each can be used to measure actual and possible selves. Actual-Ideal discrepancy indicates incongruence

6. ATP: Social Psychology: Lecture 22, Humanism Tom Farsides (SOC) The 3 faces of Eve Osgood & Luria (1954) Jane Normal, slightly on the good side of average. Eve White Normal, but a little bad, passive, and weak. Eve Black World idiosyncratically perceived to maintain perfect self- concept. Thus, hatred and fraud as positive values.

7. ATP: Social Psychology: Lecture 22, Humanism Tom Farsides (SOC) Process: Self-actualization The fundamental motivation for humans to actualise, maintain, and enhance the experiencing organism (i.e., the self). Rogers (1951, p. 487) Involves moving from: Simplicity to complexity. Dependence to independence. Solitude to socialisation. Rigidity to flexibility and freedom of expression.

8. ATP: Social Psychology: Lecture 22, Humanism Tom Farsides (SOC) Process: Self-consistency Lecky (1945) Rather than seeking pleasure and the avoidance of pain, Organisms strive to maintain self-structure. Organisms develop value systems, With valuation of the self at the centre. Self-consistency more important than utilitarian self- reward. People with a poor self-concept will prefer others who validate their view to others that provide positive feedback (inconsistent with self-concept).

9. ATP: Social Psychology: Lecture 22, Humanism Tom Farsides (SOC) Process: Self-congruence People actively strive for congruence between their self- concept and their perceived experience. Incongruence leads to tension, experienced as anxiety. Subception allows pre-conscious awareness of incongruent experiences, making defence possible, e.g., distortion, denial, rationalisation, fantasy, projection.

10. ATP: Social Psychology: Lecture 22, Humanism Tom Farsides (SOC) Research on self-congruence Chodorkoff (1954) People, particularly poorly adjusted ones, were slower to recognise personally threatening than neutral words. Cartwright (1956) People, particularly poorly adjusted ones, were poorer at remembering self-inconsistent descriptors than self-consistent ones. Aronson & Mettee (1968) People low in self-esteem were more willing to cheat than people with more positive self-concepts.

11. ATP: Social Psychology: Lecture 22, Humanism Tom Farsides (SOC) Process: The need for positive regard A need for positive regard underlies anxiety from incongruence. Unconditional positive regard brings security to accept all aspects of perceived experience. Conditions of worth bring the need to deny part of ones own experience.

12. ATP: Social Psychology: Lecture 22, Humanism Tom Farsides (SOC) Growth and development Coopersmith (1967) High self-esteem kids more assertive, independent, creative, flexible, imaginative, and willing to reject experience-inconsistent social definitions of reality. Esteem not related to external indicators of prestige, such as wealth, education, or occupation. Esteem apparently influenced by important others reflected appraisal. Parents typically high in (i) degree of unconditional acceptance and interest; (ii) explicit demands, firmly enforced; and (iii) democratic practices and respect within parameters set.

13. ATP: Social Psychology: Lecture 22, Humanism Tom Farsides (SOC) Psychopathology Occurs when the need for positive regard from others becomes stronger than a desire to strive for self- actualisation. Historically, Rogers championed non-directive reflection, then client-centred therapy, then something akin to positive reflected appraisals (my term). Latter involves (i) congruence/genuineness, (ii) unconditional positive regard, and (iii) empathic understanding.

14. ATP: Social Psychology: Lecture 22, Humanism Tom Farsides (SOC) Abraham Maslow

15. Maslows hierarchy of needs

16. Salience in the hierarchy

17. ATP: Social Psychology: Lecture 22, Humanism Tom Farsides (SOC) Evaluation Four key criticisms (second and fourth mine): (1) What of processes beyond the conscious phenomenal field? (ii) Why confer the monopoly of validity on phenomenology? On what basis are you so convinced that you have understood your client better than Mr. Freud has understood his patient? (MacLeod, 1964, p. 138) (iii) How possible is it to study others phenomenology without bias? (iv) On what basis must/may we assume the model of man borrowed from Rousseau?