unisel

1. unisel IAS1162 – Humanistic Approach

2. Key Elements to Humanistic Approach • Personal Responsibility • The Here And Now • The Phenomenology of the Individual • Personal Growth

3. Personal Responsibility • We are ultimately responsible for what happens to us • Our behaviors represent personal choices of what we want to do at a particular moment • People choose to be in a situation or a relationship that they do not have to

4. The Here and Now • Humanistic psychologists view that the moment you spend time thinking about something in the past is just a waste of time • You waste your time of not doing something useful to your life • We can’t become fully functioning individuals until we learn to live our lives as they happen • “Today Is The First Day of the Rest of Your Life” • We need not be victims of our past • Our past experience shape and influence who we are and how we behave • These experiences should not dictate what we can become • You need not be forever shy and unassertive just because “you have always been that way” • You need not be in an unhappy relationship simply because you don’t know what else to do • Your past guides you to be what you are today, but it should not be an anchor

5. The Phenomenology of the Individual • No one knows you better than yourself • Friends and family may give advices if you have problems, but allowing someone else decides what is best for you is unsatisfying and ineffective • Usually you listen to the many advices, but you decide what is the next course of action

6. Personal Growth • There is more to life than simply having all your immediate needs met • People are not content when their immediate needs have been met • They are motivated to continue their development in a positive manner • Carl Rogers (1902-1987) maintained that we naturally strive to reach an optimal sense of satisfaction with our lives – “Fully Functioning” • As we grow, our needs change and we need to become a ‘better person’

7. Hierarchy of Needs • Introduced by Abraham Maslow (1908 – 1970) • He identified five basic categories of needs • Physiological Needs • Safety Needs • Belongingness and Love Needs • Esteem Needs • Need for Self-Actualization

8. Physiological Needs • Includes hunger, thirst, air and sleep • The most demanding • The must be satisfied before we can move to higher level needs • Finding enough food and water for survival takes priority over concerns about gaining respect of peers

9. Safety Needs • Only comes after Physiological Needs have been met • Includes the need for security, stability, protection, structure, order and freedom from fear and chaos • Most evident when future is unpredictable or when stability of the political or social order is threatened • E.g. Malaysian students in Egypt • Job security vs Higher pay but only as a contract

10. Belongingness and Love Needs • Most middle class American and possibly Malaysian adults have the need for food, water, security, stability fairly well satisfied • But lower-level needs does not guarantee happiness • Need for friendship and love • Some people become slaves to their work, but most become unsatisfied without friends and loved ones

11. Esteem Needs • More to life than love • Two basic types: • Need to perceive oneself as competent and achieving • Need for admiration and respect • But the respect must be deserved – no cheating or lying your way into positions of honor and authority

12. Need for Self-Actualization • When all the lower levels are satisfied, people turn to developing themselves • What we want for our life, where it is heading, what we want to accomplish • Very few people reach this state of self-actualization, the point that every potential is fully developed

13. You may be different, but you are part of the team ENJOY THE COMPANY WHILE YOU CAN! You may even be the cutest…