The SelfDr. H. Lori Schnieders

Carl Rogers: The Humanistic Approach

Two Basic Human NeedsSelf Actualization: the need to fulfill all of one’s potential.

Positive Regard: the need to receive acceptance, respect, and affection from others.

Positive regard often comes with conditions attached (“Conditions of Worth”): We must meet others’ expectations to get it. This is called Conditional Positive Regard.

Basic Human Problem: The two needs are often in conflict. Satisfying one may mean giving up the other.

Effect on Personality: We get a false picture of who we are—our interests, motivations, goals, abilities.

Our Two Selves

Real Self (“Organism”): all our experiences (feelings, wishes, perceptions)

Self-Concept: the person we think we are (e.g., “I am...”)

Losing Touch with the Real Self

We have a need for positive self-regard (to like and respect ourselves).

Conditional positive regard from others becomes conditional positive self-regard.

This means we will like and accept only those parts of ourselves that other people like and accept.

The self-concept pulls away from the real self; we get a false picture of who we really are.

This mismatch is called Incongruence.

Person-Centered Therapy:The Goal is Congruence

Incongruence has many harmful effects. One is that it prevents self-actualization. You have to know who you are to fulfill your potential.

The therapist tries to bring the self-concept closer to the real self:

Real SelfSelf-Concept Congruence

Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

Humanistic-Existential ParadigmSelf-actualization Theory

Maslow’s Assumptions

• Human nature is basically good, not evil

• Normal human development involves the actualization of this inherent goodness

Central Human MotiveSelf-Actualization

Maslow’s Assumptions...• Psychopathology results from the frustration of a

human being’s essential nature

• Self-Actualization• Esteem• Love• Safety• Physiological

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

PHYSIOLOGICAL OR SURVIVAL NEEDS

MOST NEEDS HAVE TO DO WITHSURVIVAL PHYSICALLY AND

PSYCHOLOGICALLY

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

PHYSIOLOGICAL OR SURVIVAL NEEDS

SAFETY NEEDS

ON THE WHOLE AN INDIVIDUALCANNOT SATISFY ANY LEVELUNLESS NEEDS BELOW ARE

SATISFIED

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

PHYSIOLOGICAL OR SURVIVAL NEEDS

SAFETY NEEDS

LOVE, AFFECTION, AND BELONGINGNESS NEEDS

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

PHYSIOLOGICAL OR SURVIVAL NEEDS

SAFETY NEEDS

LOVE, AFFECTION, AND BELONGINGNESS NEEDS

ESTEEM NEEDS

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

SELF-ACTUALIZATION

NEEDFOR

MASLOW EMPHASIZES NEED FOR SELF ACTUALIZATION IS

A HEALTHY INDIVIDUAL’S PRIMEMOTIVATION

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

SELF-ACTUALIZATION

NEEDFOR

MASLOW EMPHASIZES NEED FOR SELF ACTUALIZATION IS

A HEALTHY INDIVIDUAL’S PRIMEMOTIVATION

SELF-ACTUALIZATION MEANS ACTUALIZING ONE’S POTENTIAL BECOMING ALL ONE IS

CAPABLE OF BECOMING

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

PHYSIOLOGICAL OR SURVIVAL NEEDS

SAFETY NEEDS

LOVE, AFFECTION, AND BELONGINGNESS NEEDS

ESTEEM NEEDS

SELF-ACTUALIZATION

NEED

but we can nearly all do more than we think we can

Nobody can do everything,

The 17 Metaneeds • Truth• Goodness• Beauty• Wholeness• Dichotomy-transcendence• Aliveness• Uniqueness• Perfection• Necessity

The 17 Metaneeds..... • Completion• Justice• Order• Simplicity• Richness• Effortlessness• Playfulness• Self-sufficiency

Maslow’s Definition of a Self-actualized Person

• Has no mental illness• Satisfied in basic needs• Fully exploited talents• Motivated by values

Some Characteristics of Self-actualizing persons

• Superior perception of reality• Increased acceptance of self, of others,

and of nature• Increased spontaneity• Increased detachment and desire for

privacy• Greater freshness of appreciation and

richness of emotional reaction

Some Characteristics of Self-actualizing persons.....

• Increased autonomy and resistance to conformity• Higher frequency of peak experiences • Increased identification with the human species• Improved interpersonal experiences• More democratic character structure• High levels of creativity

Ugliness can be present for so long, you don’t notice it any more

- but so can beauty

Peak Experiences

A Short Scale Measuring Self-actualization

• I do not feel ashamed of any of my emotions.• I feel I must do what others expect me to do. • I feel that people are essentially good and can

be trusted.• I feel free to be angry to those I love.• It is always necessary that others approve of

what i do. • I don’t accept my own weaknesses. • I can like people without having to approve of

them.• I fear failure.

A Short Scale Measuring Self-actualization....

• I avoid attempts to analyze and simplify complex domains. • It is better to be yourself than to be popular.• I have no mission in life to which I feel especially

dedicated. • I can express my feelings even when they may result

in undesirable consequences.• I do not feel responsible to help anybody. • I am bothered by feelings of being inadequate. • I am loved because I give love.

Eight ways to self-actualize

• Experience things fully, vividly, selflessly. Throw yourself into the experience; concentrate on it fully; let it totally absorb you.• Life is an ongoing process of choosing between safety

(out of fear ) and risk (for the sake of growth: make the growth choice a dozen times a day.• Let the self emerge. Try to shut out external clues as

to what you should think, feel, say and let your experience enable you to say what you truly feel.

Eight ways to self-actualize....

• When in doubt, be honest. If you look into yourself and are honest, you will also take responsibility; taking responsibility is self-actualizing.• Listen to your own tastes. Be prepared to be

unpopular.• Use your intelligence. Work to do well the things

you want to do, whether that means finger exercises at a keyboard, memorizing every bone, muscle and hormone in the human body, or learning to finish wood so it looks and feels like silk.

Eight ways to self-actualize....

• Make peak experiencing more likely: get rid of illusions and false notions; learn what you are good at and what your potentialities are not.• Find out who you are, what you like and don’t

like, what is good and what is bad for you, where you are going, what your mission is. Opening yourself up in this way means identifying defenses - and then finding the courage to give them up.

Rogers’ & Maslow’s Healthy Personalities

Rogers• More fully open to

experience. Unafraid of own feelings.• More existential living.

Nondetermined, independent. • Increased trust in own

organism. More creative, nonconformist.

Maslow• Reality and problem-centered.

Accepting of self. Unexpected ruthlessness.• Spontaneity and simplicity.

Freshness of appreciation. Discrimination between means and ends. Need for privacy.• Acceptance of others.

resistance to acculturation. Creative. Unhostile sense of humor. More intimate personal relations. Social interest.

What motivates People

For Next Class: Read Ch. 2 in Choice & Change pgs 26-45

Think about the self in Society