The main directions of humanistic psychology. Humanistic psychology: basic provisions and methods, representatives, interesting facts

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An approach in psychology that includes the problems of love, inner involvement and spontaneity instead of their systematic and principled exclusion is defined as humanistic.

Humanistic psychology puts a person and his self-improvement in the main place. Its main subjects of consideration are: higher values, self-actualization, creativity, freedom, love, responsibility, autonomy, mental health, interpersonal relationships.

The object of humanistic psychology is not forecasting and control over human behavior, but the liberation of a person from the fetters of neurotic control that arose as a result of his “deviations” from social norms or from the psychological conditions of the individual.

Humanistic psychology as an independent direction emerged in the USA in the 1960s of the XX century, as an alternative to behaviorism and psychoanalysis. Its philosophical basis was existentialism.

In 1963, the first president of the Association for Humanistic Psychology, James Bujenthal, formulated five main points of this approach:

  1. Man as an integral being surpasses the sum of his constituents (that is, man cannot be explained as a result of a scientific study of his particular functions).
  2. Human being unfolds in the context of human relations (that is, a person cannot be explained by his particular functions, in which interpersonal experience is not taken into account).
  3. A person is aware of himself and cannot be understood by psychology, which does not take into account his continuous, multi-level self-awareness.
  4. A person has a choice (he is not a passive observer of his existence, but creates his own experience).
  5. A person is intentional (facing the future, in his life there is a purpose, values ​​and meaning).

It is believed that humanistic psychology was formed under the influence of ten directions:

  1. Group dynamics, in particular T-groups.
  2. Self-actualization doctrine (Maslow, 1968).
  3. Personality-Centered Psychology (Client-Centered Therapy Rogers, 1961).
  4. Theory Reich with his insistence on releasing the clamps and releasing the internal energy of the body.
  5. Existentialism, in particular theoretically interpreted Jung(1967) and practically experimentally - Perls(also Fagan and Shepherd, 1972).
  6. Results of using expending drag, in particular LSD (Stanford and Golightly, 1967).
  7. Zen Buddhism and Its Idea of ​​Liberation (Letting, 1980).
  8. Taoism and its ideas of the unity of opposites "Yin - Yang".
  9. Tantra and its ideas on the importance of the body as an energy system.
  10. Summit Experiments as Revelation and Enlightenment (Rowan, 1976).

Humanistic psychology is not an ordered area of ​​scientific knowledge. It is not a science, but rather a collection of metaphysical concepts that show the way for solving human problems through existential experience. In which:

  1. A deep and intense group of studies culminates in a general realistic attitude towards oneself and others.
  2. An ecstatic and summit experiment in which a sense of the unity and patterns of the human and natural worlds is achieved.
  3. The existential experience of being is entirely responsible for certain thoughts and actions.

All the major figures in humanistic psychology have gone through this kind of experience. This led to the idea of ​​a subject of knowledge that can only be investigated or evaluated in steps like this.

The humanistic approach in psychology is clearly focused on practical problems. Its central concepts are personal growth(becoming) and human capabilities. She claims that people can change by working on themselves.

Within the framework of this direction, a large number of self-intervention techniques have been created, which can be systematized as follows:

1. Bodily methods:

  • therapy Reich, bioenergy-oriented, revitalization;
  • methods Rolfing "s, Feldenkreis "s;
  • technique Alexander;
  • "Sensual Consciousness";
  • holistic health, etc.

2. Thought methods:

  • transactional analysis;
  • creation of personal constructs ("repertoire grids" Kelly);
  • family therapy;
  • NLP - Neurolinguistic Programming, etc.

3. Sensual methods:

  • Encounter, psychodrama;
  • awareness of integrity;
  • initial integration;
  • empathic interaction Rogers and etc.

4. Spiritual methods:

  • transpersonal counseling,
  • psychoanalysis,
  • intensive enlightenment intensive workshops,
  • dynamic meditation,
  • sand play (send play),
  • interpretation of dreams (dream work), etc.

Most of these methods can be adapted to work in many industries. Humanistic practitioners focus on personal growth through psychotherapy, holistic health, learning, social work, organizational theory and counseling, business training, general development training, self-help groups, creative training, and social research. (Rowan, 1976).

Human being is studied by humanistic psychology as a co-research, when the subject himself also plans his own study, participates in the performance and in the comprehension of the results. It is believed that this process provides more different kinds of knowledge about a person than the classical research paradigm. This knowledge is one that can be used immediately.

Several concepts arose on this basis:

The real self (real self). This concept is key in humanistic psychology. It is inherent in conceptual constructions Rogers (1961), Maslow (1968), cabin boy(1967) and many others. The real self implies that we can go deeper than the surface of our roles and their disguises to contain and emphasize the self. (Shaw, 1974). A number of studies that build on this have interacted with Hampdun-Turner (1971). Simpson(1971) argues that here we have the political aspect of the "real-self" idea. From this perspective, gender roles, for example, can be seen as concealing the “real self,” and therefore as oppressive. These connections were carefully considered Carney and McMahon (1977).

Subpersonal (sub-personalities). This concept has been highlighted Assagioli and other researchers (Ferucci, 1982). It indicates that we have a number of subpersonalities that come from different sources:

  • collective unconscious;
  • cultural unconscious;
  • personal unconscious;
  • disturbing conflicts and problems, roles and social problems (Frames);
  • fantasy ideas about who we want to be.

Abundance motivation (validity, wealth of motivation). Most psychologists base their views on the homeostatic model. Action is thought initiated by needs or desires. Human being, however, tends towards creative tension and the situations that support it, as well as the reduction of tension. Achievement motivation (McClelland, 1953), the need for difference in experience (Fisk and Moddi, 1961) can be considered in connection with the concept of motivational wealth, allow to explain different kinds of actions. Motivation cannot be driven by performance. It can be "removed" only for the actor.

Finally, humanistic psychologists argue that attention to one's own states and motives makes it possible to avoid self-deception and makes it easier to discover the real self. This is a kind of motto of humanistic psychology in its theoretical and applied expression.

Romenets V.A., Manokha I.P. History of psychology of the XX century. - Kiev, Lybid, 2003.

Non-behaviorism

Back in 1913, W. Hunter, in experiments with delayed responses, showed that an animal responds not only directly to a stimulus: behavior involves processing a stimulus in the body... This posed a new problem for behaviorists. An attempt to overcome the simplified interpretation of behavior according to the "stimulus-response" scheme by introducing internal processes that unfold in the body under the influence of a stimulus and affect the response, constituted various variants of non-behaviorism. It also develops new models of conditioning, and the results of research are widely disseminated in various areas of social practice.

The foundations of neobehaviorism were laid by Edward Chase Tolman (1886-1959). In his book "Target Behavior of Animals and Man" (1932), he showed that experimental observations of animal behavior do not correspond to Watson's understanding of behavior according to the "stimulus-response" scheme.

He proposed a version of behaviorism called target behaviorism. According to Tolman, any behavior is aimed at achieving some goal. And despite the fact that the attribution of the expediency of behavior presupposes an appeal to consciousness, nevertheless Tolman believed that in this case, too, reference to consciousness could be dispensed with, remaining within the framework of objective behaviorism. Behavior, according to Tolman, is an integral act, which is characterized by its own properties: focus on the goal, intelligence, plasticity, selectivity, expressed in the willingness to choose the means leading to the goal in shorter ways.

Tolman distinguished five main independent causes of behavior: environmental stimuli, psychological drives, heredity, prior learning, age. Behavior is a function of these variables. Tolman introduced a set of unobservable factors that he designated as intervening variables. They are the ones who connect the stimulating situation and the observed reaction. Thus, the formula of classical behaviorism had to be transformed from S - R (stimulus - response), into the formula S - O - R, where "O" includes everything related to the body... By defining independent and dependent variables, Tolman was able to provide operationalized descriptions of unobservable, internal states. He called his teaching operant behaviorism... And one more important concept was introduced by Tolman - latent learning, i.e. a learning that is not observable at the time it occurs. Since intermediate variables are a way of operational description of unobservable internal states (for example, hunger), then these states could already be studied from a scientific standpoint.

Tolman extended the conclusions drawn from observations of animals to humans, thereby sharing Watson's biologic positions.

Clark Hull (1884-1952) made a major contribution to the development of neobehaviorism. According to Hull, the motives of behavior are the needs of the body that arise as a result of deviations from optimal biological conditions. At the same time, Hull introduces such a variable as motivation, the suppression or satisfaction of which is the only basis for reinforcement. In other words, motivation does not determine behavior, but only energizes it. He identified two types of motivation - primary and secondary. Primary impulses are associated with the biological needs of the body and relate to its survival (needs for food, water, air, urination, thermal regulation, sexual intercourse, etc.), and the secondary ones are associated with the learning process and relate to the environment. By eliminating primary impulses, they can themselves become urgent needs.

Using logical and mathematical analysis, Hull tried to identify the connection between incentives, stimuli and behavior. Hull believed that the main reason for any behavior was need. The need causes the activity of the organism, determines its behavior. The strength of the reaction (reaction potential) depends on the strength of the need. The need determines the nature of behavior that is different in response to different needs. The most important condition for the formation of a new connection, according to Hull, is the adjacency of stimulus, reactions and reinforcement, which reduces the need. The bond strength (reaction potential) depends on the number of reinforcements.

A variant of operant behaviorism was developed by B.F. Skinner... Like most behaviorists, Skinner believed that turning to physiology was useless for studying the mechanisms of behavior. Meanwhile, his own concept of "operant conditioning" was formed under the influence of the teachings of IP Pavlov. In recognition of this, Skinner distinguished between two types of conditioned reflexes. He proposed to classify the conditioned reflexes studied by the Pavlovian school as type S. This designation indicated that in the classical Pavlovian scheme, the reaction arises only in response to the action of any stimulus (S), i.e. unconditioned or conditioned stimulus. The behavior in the "skinner box" was assigned to type R and called operant. Here the animal first produces a reaction (R), say the rat presses a lever, and then the reaction is reinforced. During the experiments, significant differences were established between the dynamics of the K type reaction and the development of the salivary reflex according to the Pavlovian technique. Thus, Skinner made an attempt to take into account (from a behavioristic point of view) the activity (arbitrariness) of adaptive reactions. R - S.

Practical Application of Behaviorism

The practical application of behavioral schemes has demonstrated extremely high efficiency, primarily in the field of correcting "undesirable" behavior. Behavioral psychotherapists preferred to discard the arguments about internal torment and began to view psychological discomfort as a consequence of improper behavior. Indeed, if a person does not know how to behave adequately to the emerging life situations, does not know how to establish and maintain relationships with loved ones, with colleagues, with the opposite sex, cannot defend his interests, solve emerging problems, then it is only one step from here to all sorts of depression, complexes and neuroses, which in fact are only consequences, symptoms. It is not the symptom that needs to be treated, but the disease, that is, to solve the problem underlying the psychological discomfort - the behavioral problem. In other words, a person must be taught to behave correctly. If you think about it, isn't the ideology of all training work based on? Although, of course, a rare modern coach will agree to recognize himself as a behaviorist, on the contrary, he will still utter a bunch of beautiful words about the existential-humanistic ideals of his activity. But he would try to carry out this activity without relying on behavior!

We all constantly experience one of the applied aspects of behavioral psychology, being exposed to the tireless and, admittedly, very effective influence of advertising. As you know, the founder of behaviorism Watson, who lost all academic positions as a result of a scandalous divorce, found himself in the advertising business and succeeded a lot in it. Today, the heroes of commercials, persuading us to buy this or that product, are actually soldiers of Watson's army, stimulating our customer reactions according to his precepts. You can blame stupid annoying ads as much as you want, but its creators would not invest big money in it if it were useless.

Criticism of behaviorism

So, behaviorism turns out to be highly vulnerable to criticism due to the fact that it:

- forced psychology to abandon what is most exciting and attractive in it - the inner world, that is, consciousness, sensory states, emotional experiences;

- treats behavior as a set of responses to certain stimuli, thereby reducing a person to the level of an automaton, robot, puppet;

- relying on the argument that all behavior is built in the course of lifetime history, neglects innate abilities and inclinations;

- does not pay attention to the study of motives, intentions and target attitudes of a person;

- unable to explain the brilliant creative achievements in science and art;

- relies on the experience of studying animals, not humans, therefore the picture of human behavior presented by him is limited to those traits that humans share with animals;

- unethical, as it uses cruel methods in experiments, including painful effects;

- pays insufficient attention to individual psychological characteristics, trying to reduce them to an individual repertoire of behavior;

- inhuman and anti-democratic, since it aims at manipulating behavior, so that its results are good for a concentration camp, and not for a civilized society.

Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis emerged in the early 90s. XIX century. from the medical practice of treating patients with functional disorders of the psyche.

Dealing with neuroses, mainly hysteria, S. Freud studied the experience of the famous French neurologists J. Charcot and I. Berngayim. The latter's use of hypnotic suggestion for therapeutic purposes, the fact of post-hypnotic suggestion made a great impression on Freud and contributed to such an understanding of the etiology of neuroses, their treatment, which constituted the core of the future concept. It was set forth in the book "A Study of Hysteria" (1895), written jointly with the famous Viennese physician I. Breuer (1842-1925), with whom Freud collaborated at that time.

Consciousness and unconsciousness.

Freud described consciousness, preconsciousness and the unconscious by analogy with an iceberg.

1. Consciousness. 1/7 part is consciousness in the waking state. It includes everything that remembers, hears, perceives while in a state of wakefulness.

2. Preconsciousness - (borderline part) - stores memories of dreams, reservations, etc. Thoughts and actions arising from Preconsciousness give guesses about the Unconscious. Remembering a dream does not mean that you are identifying unconscious thoughts. This means that you are remembering the coded ideas of the Unconscious. Preconsciousness protects Consciousness from the influence of the Unconscious. It works on the principle of a one-way valve: it allows information to pass from Consciousness to Unconscious, but not back.

3. The unconscious. 6/7 - contains our fears, secret desires, traumatic memories of the past. These thoughts are completely hidden and inaccessible to the waking Consciousness. This is for protection: we forget past negative experiences in order to free ourselves from them. But it is impossible to look DIRECTLY into the unconscious. Even dreams are encoded images, according to Freud.

DRIVING FORCES OF BEHAVIOR

These forces Freud considered instincts, mental images of bodily needs, expressed in the form of desires. Using the well-known law of nature - conservation of energy, he formulated that the source of psychic energy is the neurophysiological state of arousal. According to Freud's theory, each person has a limited amount of this energy, and the goal of any form of behavior is to relieve the tension caused by the accumulation of this energy in one place. Thus, a person's motivation is entirely based on the energy of arousal produced by bodily needs. And although the number of instincts is unlimited, Freud divided two groups: Life and Death.

The first group, under the general name Eros, includes all forces serving the purpose of maintaining vital processes and ensuring the reproduction of the species. It is common knowledge that Freud considered the sexual instinct to be one of the leading; the energy of this instinct is called libido, or libido energy — a term used to denote the energy of the vital instincts in general. Libido can find relaxation only in sexual behavior.

Since there are many sexual instincts, Freud suggested that each of them is associated with a specific part of the body, i.e. erogenous zone, and identified four areas: mouth, anus and genitals.

The second group - the Death Instincts or Tonatos - underlies all manifestations of aggression, cruelty, murder and suicide. True, there is an opinion that Freud created a theory about these instincts under the influence of the death of his daughter and fear for his two sons, who were at that time at the front. This is probably why this is the most and least considered question in modern psychology.

Any instinct has four characteristics: source, purpose, object and stimulus.

The source is the state of the organism or the need that causes this state.

The goal of the instinct is always to eliminate or reduce arousal.

Object - means any person, object in the environment or in the body of the individual himself, providing the goal of instinct. The paths leading to the goal are not always the same, but neither are the objects. In addition to flexibility in choosing an object, individuals have the ability to postpone discharge for long periods of time.

A stimulus is the amount of energy required to achieve a goal, to satisfy an instinct.

To understand the dynamics of the energy of instincts and its expression in the choice of objects is the concept of displacement of activity. According to this concept, the release of energy occurs through a change in behavioral activity. Manifestations of displaced activity can be observed if the choice of an object by

is not possible for any reason. This bias is at the heart of creativity, or, more commonly, domestic conflicts over problems at work. Without the ability to enjoy directly and immediately, people have learned to shift instinctive energy.

Personality theory.

Freud introduced three basic structures into personality anatomy: id (it), ego and superego... This was called the structural model of personality, although Freud himself was inclined to consider them as some kind of processes, rather than structures.

Let's take a closer look at all three structures.

ID. - corresponds to the unconscious. “The division of the psyche into conscious and unconscious is the main prerequisite of psychoanalysis, and only this gives it the opportunity to understand and introduce science to the frequently observed and very important pathological processes in mental life” (Z. Freud “I and It”).

Freud gave great importance to this division: "this is where psychoanalytic theory begins."

The word "ID" comes from the Latin "IT", in Freud's theory it means primitive, instinctive and innate aspects of personality, such as sleep, eating, and fills our behavior with energy. Id has its central meaning for the individual throughout life, it does not have any restrictions, it is chaotic. As the initial structure of the psyche, id expresses the primary principle of all human life - the immediate release of psychic energy produced by primary biological impulses, the restraint of which leads to tension in personal functioning. This release is called the pleasure principle.... Obeying this principle and not knowing fear or anxiety, id, in its pure manifestation, can pose a danger to the individual and

society. IT obeys its desires, in other words. Id strives for pleasure and also avoids unpleasant sensations. It can be denoted

It also plays the role of an intermediary between somatic and mental processes. Freud also described two processes by which the id relieves the personality of tension: reflex actions and primary processes. An example of reflex action is a cough for respiratory irritation. But these actions do not always lead to stress relief. Then the primary processes come into action, which form the mental image, is directly related to the satisfaction of the main

needs.

Primary processes are an illogical, irrational form of human thinking. It is characterized by an inability to suppress impulses and distinguish between real and unreal. The manifestation of behavior as a primary process can lead to the death of an individual, if external sources of satisfaction of needs do not appear. So babies, according to Freud, cannot postpone the satisfaction of their primary needs. And only after they realize the existence of the external world, the ability to postpone the satisfaction of these needs appears. Since the emergence of this knowledge

the next structure arises - the ego.

EGO. (Lat. "Ego" - "I") - preconsciousness. The component of the mental apparatus responsible for making decisions. The ego, is a separation from the id, draws from it part of the energy to transform and fulfill needs in a socially acceptable context, thus ensuring the safety and self-preservation of the body.

The ego in its manifestations is guided by the principle of reality, the purpose of which is to preserve the integrity of the organism by postponing satisfaction until it finds the possibility of its discharge and / or the appropriate conditions of the external environment. Because of this, the Ego is often opposed by the Id. The ego was called by Freud a secondary process, the "executive organ" of the personality, the domain of intellectual problem-solving processes.

SUPER EGO. - corresponds to consciousness. Or super-ego.

The superego is the last component of the developing personality, which functionally means a system of values, norms and ethics, reasonably compatible with those that are accepted in the environment of the individual.

As the moral and ethical force of the individual, the super-ego is the result of long-term dependence on parents. “The role that the super-ego later takes on is first performed by an external force, the parental authority ... legal direct heir ".

Further, the development function is taken by the society (school, peers, etc.). You can also consider the superego as an individual reflection of the "collective conscience", the "moral watchdog" of society, although the values ​​of society are distorted by the perception of the child.

The superego is subdivided into two subsystems: conscience and ego ideal.

Conscience is acquired through parental punishment. It includes the ability for critical self-esteem, the presence of moral inhibitions and the emergence of feelings of guilt in the child. The rewarding aspect of the superego is the ego ideal. It is formed from the positive assessments of the parents and leads the individual to establish high standards for himself. The superego is considered fully formed when parental control is replaced by self-control. However, the principle of self-control does not serve the principle

reality. The superego directs a person to absolute perfection in thought, word and deed. It tries to convince the ego of the superiority of idealistic ideas over realistic ones.

Due to such differences, the id and superego conflict with each other, giving rise to neuroses. And the task of the Ego, in this case, is to settle conflicts.

Freud believed that all three facets of a person's inner world constantly interact with each other: "Id" perceives the environment, "Ego" analyzes the situation and chooses the optimal plan of action, "Super-Ego" corrects this decision in terms of the moral convictions of the individual. But these areas do not always operate smoothly. Internal conflicts between "must", "can" and "want" are inevitable. How does the inner conflict of the personality manifest itself? Let's look at the simplest life example: a person finds a wallet with money and a fellow countryman's passport in a foreign country. The first thing that comes to his mind is the realization of the fact that there is a large number of banknotes and a personal document of another person (“Id” worked here). Next comes the analysis of the information received, because you can keep the money for yourself, throw out the documents and enjoy the unexpectedly received material resources. But! The "Super-Ego" intervenes in the matter, because in the depths of the personality it is a well-mannered and honest person. He realizes that someone has suffered from this loss and needs to get his wallet. Here an internal conflict arises: on the one hand, to receive a fairly large amount of money, on the other, to help a stranger. The example is the simplest, but it successfully demonstrates the interaction of "It", "I" and "Super-I".

Ego defense mechanisms.

The main function of anxiety is to help avoid unacceptable manifestations of instinctive impulses and to encourage their satisfaction in the right form and at the right time. Defense mechanisms help to carry out this function. According to Freud, the ego responds to the threat of the breakthrough of the impulses of the id

two ways:

1. Blocking the expression of impulses in conscious behavior

2. Or by distorting them to such an extent that the initial intensity has decreased or deviated to the side.

Let's take a look at some of the basic defensive strategies.

crowding out... Repression is considered the primary defense of the ego, because it provides the most direct route to escape from anxiety, as well as being the basis for building more complex mechanisms. Repression or "motivated forgetting" is the process of removing from consciousness thoughts or feelings that cause suffering... Example. With the same wallet: in order not to solve the problem, a person will lose interest in money: “why do I need it? I will manage with my own. "

Projection... Projection is the process by which an individual attributes his own unacceptable thoughts, feelings and behavior to other people. The projection explains social prejudice and the scapegoat phenomenon, since ethnic and racial stereotypes are a convenient target for its manifestation. Example.

Substitution... In this defense mechanism, the manifestation of the instinctive impulse is redirected from a more threatening object to a less threatening one. (the boss at work is the wife). A less common form of substitution is a direction to oneself: hostile impulses directed to others are redirected to oneself, which causes a feeling of depression and condemnation of oneself.

Rationalization... Another way to deal with frustration and anxiety is to distort reality. Rationalization refers to the false reasoning that makes irrational behavior appear in a way that appears to be reasonable. The most commonly used type is the "green grapes" rationalization, which takes its name from the fable "The Fox and the Grapes"

Reactive education... This mechanism operates in two stages: the unacceptable impulse is suppressed; in consciousness, the opposite is manifested. Freud wrote that many men who ridicule homosexuals actually defend themselves against their own homosexual urges.

Regression... Regression is characterized by a return to childish behavior patterns. It is a way to alleviate anxiety by returning to an earlier, safer and more enjoyable period of life.

Sublimation. This defense mechanism enables a person, in order to adapt, to change their impulses in such a way that they can be expressed through socially acceptable thoughts and actions. Sublimation is seen as the only constructive strategy for curbing unwanted instincts. For example, creativity instead of aggression.

Negation... Denial is triggered as a defense mechanism when a person refuses to admit that an unpleasant event has occurred. For example, a child experiencing the death of a beloved cat believes that she is still alive. Denial is most common in young children and older individuals with reduced intelligence.

So, we examined the mechanisms of protection of the psyche in the face of external and internal threats. From the above, it is clear that all of them, except for sublimation, distort the pictures of our needs in the process of use, as a result, our ego loses energy and flexibility. Freud said that the seeds of serious psychological problems fall on fertile soil only when our defenses lead to a distortion of reality.

Freud's theory of personality served as the basis for psychoanalytic therapy, which is successfully used today.

Humanistic psychology

In the 60s of the XX century, a new direction emerged in American psychology, called humanistic psychology, or "third force". This direction was not an attempt to revise or adapt to the new conditions of any of the existing schools. On the contrary, humanistic psychology intended to go beyond the behaviorism-psychoanalysis dilemma, to open a new look at the nature of the human psyche.

The basic principles of humanistic psychology are as follows:

1) emphasizing the role of conscious experience;

2) belief in the holistic nature of human nature;

3) emphasis on free will, spontaneity and creative power of the individual;

4) the study of all factors and circumstances of human life.

The origins of humanistic psychology

Like any other theoretical direction, humanistic psychology had certain premises in earlier psychological concepts.

Oswald Külpe in his works clearly showed that not all the content of consciousness can be reduced to its elementary forms and explained in terms of "stimulus-response". Other psychologists also insisted on the need to turn to the sphere of consciousness and take into account the holistic nature of the human psyche.

The roots of humanistic psychology can be traced back to psychoanalysis. Adler, Horney, Erickson and Allport, in opposition to Freud's position, insisted that man is a being primarily conscious and endowed with free will. These "apostates" of orthodox psychoanalysis saw the essence of man in his freedom, spontaneity and ability to be the cause of his own behavior. A person is characterized not only by the events of past years, but also by his goals and hopes for the future. These theorists noted in the personality of a person, first of all, the creative ability of a person to form his own self.

The nature of humanistic psychology

From the point of view of humanistic psychology, behaviorism is a narrow, artificially created and extremely impoverished view of human nature. The emphasis of behaviorism on external behavior, in their opinion, deprives the image of a person of true meaning and depth, placing it on a par with an animal or a machine. Humanistic psychology rejected the idea of ​​a person as a being, whose behavior is built only on the basis of any reasons and is completely determined by the stimuli of the external environment.... We are not laboratory rats or robots, a person cannot be completely objectified, calculated and reduced to a set of elementary acts of the "stimulus-response" type.

Behaviorism was not the only opponent of humanistic psychology ... She also criticized elements of rigid determinism in Freud's psychoanalysis: an exaggeration of the role of the unconscious and, accordingly, insufficient attention to the conscious sphere, as well as a predominant interest in neurotics and psychotics, and not in people with a normal psyche.

If before psychologists were most interested in the problem of mental disorders, then humanistic psychology is aimed primarily at the task of studying mental health, positive mental qualities... Focusing only on the dark side of the human psyche and leaving aside such feelings as joy, satisfaction, and the like, psychology ignored precisely those aspects of the psyche that in many ways make up the human being. That is why, in response to the apparent limitations of both behaviorism and psychoanalysis, humanistic psychology from the very beginning created itself as a new view of human nature, a third force in psychology. It is precisely designed to engage in the study of those aspects of the psyche that were previously overlooked or ignored. An example of this kind of approach is the work of Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers.

Self-actualization

From Maslow's point of view, everyone has an innate desire for self-actualization.. Self-actualization (from Latin actualis - real, real) - a person's striving for the fullest possible identification and development of his personal capabilities... It is often used as a motivation for any accomplishment. Moreover, such an active desire to reveal their abilities and inclinations, the development of personality and potential hidden in a person is, according to Maslow, the highest human need. True, in order for this need to manifest itself, a person must satisfy the entire hierarchy of underlying needs. Before the need of each higher level begins to "work", the needs of the lower levels must already be satisfied. The entire hierarchy of needs looks like this:

1) physiological needs - the need for food, drink, breathing, sleep and sex;

2) the need for security - a sense of stability, order, security, lack of fear and anxiety;

3) the need for love and a sense of community, belonging to a particular group;

4) the need for respect from others and for self-respect;

5) the need for self-actualization.

Most of Maslow's works are devoted to the study of people who have achieved self-actualization in life, those who can be considered healthy psychologically. These people, he found, have the following characteristics: (self-actualized)

objective perception of reality;

full acceptance of one's own nature;

enthusiasm and dedication to any business;

simplicity and naturalness of behavior;

the need for independence, independence and the opportunity to retire somewhere, to be alone;

intense mystical and religious experience, the presence of higher experiences **;

friendly and sympathetic attitude towards people;

non-conformism (resistance to external pressures);

democratic personality type;

creative approach to life;

high level of social interest (this idea was borrowed from Adler).

Among such self-actualized people Maslow attributed Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jane Adams, William James, Albert Schweitzer, Aldous Huxley and Baruch Spinoza.

These are usually middle-aged and older people; as a rule, they are not susceptible to neuroses. According to Maslow, this kind of people make up no more than one percent of the population.

True, later Maslow abandoned his pyramid, as well as the theory of needs.Due to the fact that not all corresponded to the theory, for some individuals the higher needs turned out to be more important than the satisfaction of the lower ones "to the full extent."Maslow moves away from a rigidly defined hierarchy of needs and divides all motives into two groups: deficit and existential. The first group is aimed at filling deficiencies, such as the need for food or sleep. These are inevitable needs that ensure human survival. The second group of motives serves development, these are existential motives - activity that arises not to satisfy needs, but is associated with obtaining pleasure, satisfaction, with the search for a higher goal and its achievement.

Carl Rogers... Rogers' concept, like Maslow's theory, is based on the dominance of one main motivating factor. True, unlike Maslow, who based his conclusions on the study of emotionally balanced, healthy people, Rogers based mainly on his experience in the psychological counseling room on campus.

Personality-Oriented Therapy is an approach in psychotherapy developed by Carl Rogers. It differs primarily in the fact that the responsibility for the changes taking place lies not with the therapist, but with the client himself.

The very name of the method quite clearly reflects his view of the nature and tasks of humanistic psychology. Rogers thereby expresses the view that a person, thanks to his mind, is able to independently change the nature of his behavior, replacing undesirable actions and actions with more desirable ones. In his opinion, we are not at all doomed to forever be under the power of the unconscious or our own childhood experiences. The personality of a person is determined by the present, it is formed under the influence of our conscious assessments of what is happening.

Self-actualization

The main motive of human activity is the desire for self-actualization.. Although this desire is innate, its development can be facilitated (or, on the contrary, hindered) by childhood experiences and learning. Rogers emphasized the importance of the mother-child relationship, as it significantly affects the growth of the child's self-awareness. If the mother adequately meets the child's needs for love and affection - Rogers called this positive attention - then the child is much more likely to grow up psychologically healthy. If the mother makes the manifestations of love dependent on the good or bad behavior of the child (in Rogers' terminology, conditionally positive attention), then such an approach is most likely internalized in the child's psyche, and the latter will feel worthy of attention and love only in certain situations. In this case, the child will try to avoid situations and actions that cause disapproval of the mother. As a result, the child's personality will not receive full development. He will not be able to fully manifest all aspects of his Self, since some of them are rejected by the mother.

Thus, the first and indispensable condition for the healthy development of the personality is unconditional positive attention to the child. The mother should show her love for the child and his full acceptance, regardless of one or another of his behavior, especially in early childhood. Only in this case the child's personality develops fully, and is not made dependent on certain external conditions. This is the only way that allows a person to eventually achieve self-actualization.

Self-actualization represents the highest level of mental health in an individual. Rogers' concept is largely similar to Maslow's concept of self-actualization. The differences between these two authors relate to different understandings of personality mental health. For Rogers, mental health or full personality disclosure is characterized by the following traits:

openness to any type of experience;

the intention to live life to the fullest at any time in life;

the ability to listen more to your own instincts and intuition than to the reason and opinions of others;

a sense of freedom in thoughts and actions;

high level of creativity.

Rogers emphasizes that it is impossible to achieve a state of self-actualization. This is a process that takes time. He emphasizes in every possible way the constant growth of a person, which is reflected in the very title of his most famous book "Becoming a Personality".

Cognitive psychology


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Date the page was created: 2016-04-26

Introduction.

There are a large number of psychological directions in the history of psychology. Humanistic psychology is devoted precisely to the personal problems of a modern person, whose inner life was forgotten in haste and vanity. The person whom we call reasonable, possessing truly enormous opportunities and fantastic potential, in fact turns out to be a frightened little animal who chases the ghost of unrealizable happiness all his life and finds only disappointments. It is this “concrete person”, multiplied, however, by several billion, and constitutes the Achilles heel of our civilization. We suffer, for the most part, not from some external troubles, but, first of all, from our own emotional state - internal tension, anxiety, anxiety, irritability, since our state of mind, and our whole life, is what we are we feel, we experience. All the time we were treated like meat and draft power, so we ourselves began to treat ourselves like that. But we are people. We have a soul, and it tends to suffer. The traditional directions of psychology could not offer a decent vision of the history and prospects of a person. Humanistic psychology places a "point of view" in a particular person. "Man is gold that is hidden under our feet and is waiting in the wings to shine in the rays of the rising sun." Humanistic psychology is the system that makes it possible to understand what a person is, how you can help him realize himself, his needs and identify the internal reserves that he has. This is the principle of humanistic psychology.



The task of humanistic psychology is to reveal the creative and spiritual potential of a person, to contribute to his self-knowledge, self-development, satisfaction of his mental and spiritual needs, his understanding of his uniqueness, freedom and responsibility, his own destiny.

We let everything take its course, get annoyed and curse fate. Humanistic psychology invites us to spend our energy on creating our own life, to take responsibility, to be ourselves. Humanistic psychology- a psychological concept that pays special attention to the study of human conscious experience, as well as the holistic nature of nature and human behavior.

2. The history of the emergence of humanistic psychology.

In the 60s of the XX century. in American psychology, a new direction emerged, which was called humanistic psychology, or "third force". This trend, unlike neo-Freudianism or neobehaviorism, was not an attempt to revise or adapt any of the existing schools to new conditions. On the contrary, humanistic psychology intended to go beyond the dilemma of behaviorism - psychoanalysis, to open a new look at the nature of the human psyche.

The psychoanalytic trend, which first raised the question of the need to study motivation and personality structure, has enriched psychology with many important discoveries. But this approach ignored the study of such important characteristics as the qualitative uniqueness of the personality of each person, the ability to consciously and purposefully develop certain aspects of the "self-image" and build relationships with others. Scientists also objected to the idea of ​​psychoanalysis that the process of personality development ends in childhood, while experimental data showed that the formation of a personality occurs throughout life.
The approach to the study of personality, developed within the framework of the behaviorist direction, could not be recognized as satisfactory either. Scientists who developed this approach, focusing on the study of role behavior, ignored the issues of intrinsic motivation, personality experiences, as well as the study of those innate qualities that leave an imprint on a person's role behavior.
Awareness of these shortcomings of traditional psychological trends led to the emergence of a new psychological school, called humanistic psychology. This trend, which appeared in the United States in the 40s, was built on the basis of the philosophical school of existentialism. One of its founders is G. Allport, who emphasized that American psychology contributed to the dissemination and development of what Freud, Binet, Sechenov and other scientists contributed to psychology. “Now we can do the same service for Heidegger, Jaspers and Binswanger,” he wrote.
The development of humanistic psychology was facilitated by the situation that developed in society after the Second World War. If the First World War demonstrated the unconscious cruelty and aggression of man, horrifying public opinion and shaking the foundations of humanism and enlightenment, then the Second World War, without refuting the presence of these qualities, revealed other aspects of the human psyche. She has shown that many people in extreme situations show resilience and dignity in the most difficult conditions.

These facts, as well as the data obtained by the psychology of personality in the 30-50s, showed the limited approach to a person, explaining the development of his motivation, his personal qualities only by the desire for adaptation. New approaches were needed that would interpret the ability of people to overcome the pressure of the situation, to “stand above the field,” as Levin said, their desire to creatively realize their abilities. This desire of a person to preserve and develop his spiritual uniqueness was impossible to explain in terms of the old psychology and only natural-scientific determination, ignoring philosophical postulates.
That is why the leaders of humanistic psychology turned to the achievements of philosophy of the 20th century, primarily to existentialism, which studied the inner world, human existence. This is how a new determination appeared - psychological, explaining the development of a person by his desire for self-actualization, creative realization of his potential capabilities.

The relationship of the individual with society is also partially revised, since the social environment can not only enrich a person, but also stereotype him. Proceeding from this, representatives of humanistic psychology, although they emphasized the unacceptability of the idea of ​​depth psychology about the hostility of the external world to the individual, tried to study various mechanisms of communication, to describe the complexity of the relationship between the individual and society in its entirety. At the same time, the importance for science of the study of full-fledged and creative people, and not only neurotics, who stood at the center of the research interests of psychoanalysis, was emphasized.

3. KEY REPRESENTATIVES.

Thus, both the logic of the development of psychology and the ideology of society led inevitably to the emergence of a new, third path in psychology, which humanistic psychology developed by G. Allport, A. Maslow and K. Rogers was trying to formulate.

G. Allport (1897-1967) is one of the founders of humanistic psychology, considered by him as an alternative to the mechanism of the behavioral approach and the biological, instinctive psychoanalytic approach. Allport objected to the transfer of symptoms observed in sick people, neurotics, to the psyche of a healthy person. Although he began his career as a psychotherapist, he very quickly moved away from medical practice, focusing on experimental research in healthy people. Allport also considered it necessary not only to collect and describe the observed facts, as was the practice in behaviorism, but to systematize and explain them. “Gathering 'naked facts' makes psychology a headless horseman,” he wrote, so he saw his task not only in developing methods for studying a person's personality, but also in creating new explanatory principles, the concept of personal development.
One of the main postulates of Allport's theory, which he outlined in his book "Personality: Psychological Interpretation" (1937), was the position that the personality is an open and self-developing system. He proceeded from the fact that a person is primarily a social, not a biological being and therefore cannot develop without contacts with people around him, with society. Hence his sharp rejection of the position of psychoanalysis about antagonistic, hostile relations between the individual and society. Asserting that “personality is an open system”, he emphasized the importance of the environment for its development, the openness of a person to contacts and the influence of the outside world. At the same time, Allport believed that the communication of a person with society is not a desire for balancing with the environment, but mutual communication, interaction. Thus, he sharply objected to the postulate generally accepted at that time that development is adaptation, adaptation of a person to the world around him. He argued that the basis for the development of the human personality lies precisely in the need to blow up the balance, to reach new heights, i.e. the need for constant development and improvement.
One of the most important merits of Allport is that he was one of the first to speak about the uniqueness of each person. He argued that each person is unique and individual, as he is the bearer of a peculiar combination of qualities and needs, which Allport called trite - a trait. These needs, or personality traits, he divided into basic and instrumental. The main traits stimulate behavior and are innate, genotypic, and instrumental -

shape behavior and are formed in the process of a person's life, that is, they are phenotypic formations. The set of these traits constitutes the core of the personality, gives it uniqueness and originality.
Although the main features are innate, they can change, develop during life, in the process of a person's communication with other people. Society stimulates the development of some personality traits and inhibits the development of others. This is how that unique set of traits is gradually formed, which underlies the "I" of a person. Important for Allport is also the provision on the autonomy of traits. The child does not yet have this autonomy, it

traits are unstable and not fully formed. Only in an adult who is aware of himself, his qualities and his individuality, the traits become truly autonomous and do not depend on either biological needs or the pressure of society. This autonomy of a person's needs, being the most important characteristic of the formation of his personality, allows him, while remaining open to society, to preserve his individuality. So Allport solves the problem of identification-alienation - one of the most important for humanistic psychology.
Allport developed not only his theoretical concept of personality, but also his methods of systemic study of the human psyche. He proceeded from the fact that certain traits exist in the personality of each person, the difference is only in the level of their development, the degree of autonomy and place in the structure. Focusing on this position, he developed his multifactorial questionnaires, with the help of which the peculiarities of the development of personality traits of a particular person are investigated. The most famous is the University of Minnesota questionnaire (MMPI), which is currently used (with a number of modifications) not only to study the structure of personality, but also to analyze compatibility, professional suitability, etc. considering that the data of the questionnaire should be supplemented by the results of observation, most often joint. So, in his laboratory, they practiced joint observation of a person, and then exchange of views and drawing up a map of the traits of the observed client. He also came to the conclusion that the interview gives more information and is a more reliable method than the questionnaire, precisely because it allows you to change questions during the study, to observe the state and reaction of the subject. Sufficient clarity of criteria, the presence of objective keys for decoding, and consistency distinguish all the methods of personality research developed by Allport from the subjective projective methods of the psychoanalytic school.
Thus, Allport formulated the main provisions of a new direction - the humanistic school of personality psychology, which is currently one of the most significant psychological schools.

Somewhat later, the American psychologist R. May (1909-1994) joined humanistic psychology, whose psychological concept was influenced by the views of A. Adler and the ideas of existential philosophy. In his theory, May proceeded from the position that one of the most important properties of the human psyche is the ability to perceive itself as both a subject and an object. These two poles of consciousness define the space of free will, by which Mei meant the freedom to choose one of these two states and the possibility of changing one state to the other.
The process of personality formation, according to May, is associated with the development of self-awareness, which is characterized by intentionality and awareness of one's identity. Thus, in May's concept, features appear not only of the psychology of Brentano and Husserl, but also of psychoanalysis. This influence is especially noticeable in his interpretation of the unconscious, which he associates with the unrealized abilities and aspirations of a person. Unfulfillment leads to anxiety, which, when intensified, contributes to neuroticism.

Therefore, the task of the psychotherapist is to help a person understand the causes of his anxiety, addictions that hinder free development and self-improvement. Freedom is associated with flexibility, openness, willingness to change, which helps a person to realize himself and build a lifestyle adequate to his individuality.

A. Maslow (1908-1970) is rightfully considered the "spiritual father" of humanistic psychology. It was he who developed the most important theoretical provisions of this direction - about self-actualization, types of needs and mechanisms of personality development. With his brilliant lectures and books, he also contributed to the spread of the ideas of this school, although in terms of popularity in the United States they are inferior to behaviorism and psychoanalysis.
Maslow graduated from the University of Wisconsin and received his Ph.D. in Psychology in 1934. His interest in psychology and the development of his concept was greatly influenced by his acquaintance with European philosophers, especially with scientists who emigrated to the United States. His communication with M. Wertheimer has already been mentioned. It was this scientist, his personality, lifestyle and creativity that led Maslow to the idea of ​​a "self-actualizing personality." The second person who served as a model for this concept was the famous anthropologist R. Benedict.
Maslow's own theory, which the scientist developed by the 50s, was presented by him in the books Towards the Psychology of Being (1968), Motivation and

personality ”(1970), etc. It appeared on the basis of a detailed acquaintance with the basic psychological concepts that existed at that time, as well as the very idea of ​​Maslow about the need to form a third path, a third psychological direction, alternative to psychoanalysis and behaviorism.
In 1951 Maslow was invited to Branden University, where he served as chairman of the psychological department until 1968, that is, almost until his death. He also served as president of the American Psychological Association in his later years.
Speaking about the need to form a new approach to understanding the psyche, Maslow emphasized that he is not an antibehaviorist, not an antipsychoanalyst, does not reject old approaches and old schools, but opposes the absolutization of their experience, against everything that limits human development, narrows his possibilities.
One of the biggest drawbacks of psychoanalysis, in his opinion, is not so much the desire to belittle the role of human consciousness, but the tendency to consider mental development from the point of view of adaptation of the organism to the environment. At the same time, one of Maslow's main ideas was the idea that, unlike animals, man does not strive for equilibrium with the environment, but, on the contrary, wants to explode this equilibrium, since it is death for the individual. Balance, adaptation, rootedness in the environment reduce or completely destroy the desire for self-actualization, which makes a person a person. Therefore, only the desire for development, personal growth, that is, for self-actualization, is the basis for the development of a person and society.
Maslow no less actively opposed the tendency to reduce all mental life to behavior, which was characteristic of behaviorism. He believed that the most valuable thing in the psyche - its Self, the desire for self-development - cannot be described and understood from the standpoint of behavioral psychology, and therefore the psychology of behavior should not be excluded, but supplemented by the psychology of consciousness, which would investigate the "I-concept", Self of personality.
In his psychological studies, Maslow almost did not conduct the global, large-scale experiments that are accepted in American psychology, especially in behaviorism. It is characterized by

small, pilot studies, which not so much groped for new paths, but rather confirmed what he arrived at in his theoretical reasoning. This approach was characteristic of Maslow from the very beginning, this is how he approached the study of self-actualization, one of the central concepts of his concept of humanistic psychology.
Unlike psychoanalysts, who mainly investigated deviant behavior, Maslow believed that it was necessary to investigate human nature "by studying its best representatives, and not by cataloging the difficulties and mistakes of average or neurotic individuals." Only by studying the best people, he wrote, can we explore the boundaries of human capabilities and at the same time understand the true nature of man, which is not fully and clearly represented in other, less gifted people.
The group he chose consisted of 18 people, 9 of them were his contemporaries, and 9 were historical figures, including A. Lincoln, A. Einstein, W. James, B. Spinoza and other famous scientists and political figures. These studies led him to the idea that there is a certain hierarchy of human needs, which looks like this:

physiological needs - for food, water, sleep, etc .;

the need for security - stability, order;

the need for love and belonging - for family, friendship;

the need for respect - self-respect, recognition;

the need for self-actualization - the development of abilities.

One of the weakest points in Maslow's theory was his position that these needs are in a fixed hierarchy once and for all, and that higher needs (for example, for self-esteem or self-actualization) arise only after more elementary ones are satisfied. for example, the need for security or love. Not only

critics, but also Maslow's followers showed that very often the need for self-actualization or self-esteem dominates and determines human behavior, despite the fact that his physiological needs remained unmet, and sometimes even frustrated the satisfaction of higher-level needs.
However, despite the discrepancy on the problem of the hierarchy of these needs, most representatives of humanistic psychology accepted the very term self-actualization, introduced by Maslow, as well as his description of a self-actualizing personality.
Subsequently, Maslow himself abandoned such a rigid hierarchy, combining all existing needs into two classes - the needs of need (deficit) and the need for development (self-actualization). Thus, he identified two levels of human existence - existential, focused on personal growth and self-actualization, and scarce, focused on satisfying frustrated needs. Subsequently, he identified the groups of existential and deficient needs, values ​​of cognition, designating them with the terms B and D (for example, B-love and D-love), and also introduced the term metamotivation to denote the actual existential motivation leading to personal growth.
Describing a self-actualizing personality, Maslow said that such people are inherent in the acceptance of themselves and the world, including other people. These are, as a rule, natural people, adequately and effectively perceiving the situation, focused on the task, and not on themselves. At the same time, these people are characterized not only by acceptance of others, openness and contact, but also by the desire for solitude, for autonomy and independence from their environment and culture.
So Maslow's theory includes the concepts of identification and alienation, although these mechanisms of mental development have not been fully disclosed to him. However, the general direction of his reasoning and experimental research makes it possible to understand his approach to the mental development of the individual, his understanding of the relationship between the individual and society.
The scientist believed that every person is born with a certain set of qualities, abilities, which constitute the essence of his "I", his Self and which a person needs to realize and manifest in his life and work. Therefore, it is the deliberate aspirations and motives, and not

unconscious instincts constitute the very essence of the human personality, distinguish man from animals. However, the desire for self-actualization encounters various difficulties and obstacles, a lack of understanding of others and one's own weakness, uncertainty. Therefore, many people

retreat in front of difficulties, giving up the desire to prove themselves, to self-actualize. Such a refusal does not pass without leaving a trace for the personality, it stops its growth, leads to neuroses. Maslow's research has shown that neurotics are people with an undeveloped or unconscious need for self-actualization.
Thus, society, the environment, on the one hand, is necessary for a person, since he can self-actualize, express himself only among other people, only in society. On the other hand, society, by its very nature, cannot but interfere with self-actualization, since any society, according to Maslow, seeks to make a person a stereotyped representative of the environment, it alienates a person from its essence, its individuality, makes it conformal.
At the same time, alienation, while preserving the Self, the individuality of the personality, puts it in opposition to the environment and also deprives it of the opportunity to self-actualize. Therefore, in his development, a person needs to maintain a balance between these two mechanisms, which, like Scylla and Charybdis, guard him in the process of development in order to destroy the personality. The optimal, according to Maslow, is identification in the external plane, in a person's communication with the outside world and alienation in the internal plane, in terms of his personal development, the development of his self-awareness. It is this approach that allows you to effectively communicate with others and at the same time remain yourself. This position of Maslow, his thoughts about the need for confrontation, but not hostility of the individual and society, the need to alienate from the environment that seeks to stereotype a person, to persuade him to conformism, made Maslow popular among intellectuals, since this position largely reflected not only the concept of Maslow himself, but also the concept of the relationship between the individual and society, adopted in this social group.
Maslow's thesis that the goal of personal development is the desire for growth, self-actualization, while stopping personal growth is death for the individual, the Self, has also received recognition. At the same time, the spiritual

growth is hampered not only by physiological needs, fear of death, bad habits, but also by group pressure, social propaganda, which reduce the autonomy and independence of a person. It must be emphasized that, in contrast to psychoanalysts, who considered

psychological defense as a good for the individual, as a way to avoid neurosis, Maslow considered psychological defense to be evil, which stops personal growth. To some extent, the reason for this contradiction will become clear if we remember that for psychoanalysis, development is adaptation to the environment, finding a certain ecological niche in which a person can escape from the pressure of the environment. From Maslow's point of view, psychological defense helps to adapt to the environment and, therefore, hinders personal growth. Thus, opposing views on the very process of personality development give rise to opposing views on the role of psychological defense in this development.
Self-actualization is associated with the ability to understand oneself, one's inner nature, to learn to “tune in” in accordance with this nature, to build one's behavior on the basis of it. At the same time, self-actualization is not a one-time act, but a process that has no end, it is a way of "living, working and relations with the world, and not a single achievement," Maslow wrote. He singled out in this process the most significant moments that change a person's attitude to himself and the world, stimulate personal growth and the desire for self-actualization. It can be an instantaneous experience, which Maslow called a "peak experience," or a prolonged "plateau experience." In any case, these are moments of the greatest completeness of life, the realization of precisely existential, and not deficient needs, and therefore they are so important in the development of self-actualization, primarily self-actualization of the transcendental type, formed in people for whom it is the transcendental experience that is most significant.
It should be noted that Maslow was practically the first psychologist to pay attention not only to deviations, difficulties and negative aspects of the personality, but also to the positive aspects of personal development. He was one of the first to explore the positive achievements of personal experience, revealed the ways of self-development and self-improvement for any person.

Carl Rogers (1902-1987) graduated from the University of Wisconsin, abandoning the priestly career he had trained for since his youth. He became interested in psychology and work as a practicing psychologist

At the Center for Helping Children, she gave him interesting material, which he summarized in his first book "Clinical work with problem children" (1939). The book was a success, and Rogers was invited to become a professor at Ohio University. This is how his academic career began. In 1945

In 2006, the University of Chicago gave him the opportunity to open a consulting center where Rogers developed the foundations for his non-directive "client-centered therapy." In 1957 he transferred to the University of Wisconsin, where he taught courses in psychiatry and psychology. He writes the book "Freedom to Learn", in which he defends the right of students to be independent in their learning activities. However, a conflict with the administration, who believed that the professor was giving too much freedom to his students, led Rogers to leave public universities and organize the Center for the Study of Personality, a loose association of representatives of the therapeutic profession, in which he worked until the end of his life.

In his theory of personality, Rogers developed a certain system of concepts in which people can create and change their ideas about themselves, about their loved ones. In the same system, therapy is deployed to help a person change himself and his relationship with others. As with other representatives of humanistic psychology, the idea of ​​the value and uniqueness of the human person is central to Rogers. He believes that the experience that a person has in the process of life, and which he called the "phenomenal field", is individual and unique. This world, created by a person, may or may not coincide with reality, since not all objects included in the environment are perceived by the subject. Rogers called the degree of identity of this field of reality congruence. A high degree of congruence means that what a person communicates to others, what is happening around, and what he is aware of in what is happening, more or less coincide with each other. Violation of congruence leads to an increase in tension, anxiety and, ultimately, to neurotization of the personality. Leaving one's individuality, abandoning self-actualization, which Rogers, like Maslow, considered one of the most important needs of the individual, also leads to neurotization. Developing the foundations of his therapy, the scientist combines the idea of ​​congruence with self-actualization in it.

Speaking about the structure of the I, Rogers attached particular importance to self-esteem, which expresses the essence of a person, his self.

Rogers insisted that self-esteem should not only be adequate, but also flexible, changing depending on the situation. This is a constant change, selectivity in relation to the environment and a creative approach to it in the selection of facts for awareness, which I wrote about

Rogers, proves the connection of his theory not only with Maslow's views, but also with the concept of Adler's "creative self", which influenced many theories of personality in the second half of the 20th century. At the same time, Rogers not only talked about the effect of experience on self-esteem, but also emphasized the need for openness towards experience. Unlike most other concepts of personality, which insist on the values ​​of the future (Adler) or the influence of the past (Jung,

Freud), Rogers emphasized the importance of the present. People must learn to live in the present, be aware of and appreciate every moment of their lives. Only then will life be revealed in its true meaning, and only then can we talk about full realization, or, as Rogers called it, about the full functioning of the personality.

Rogers, accordingly, had his own special approach to psychocorrection. He proceeded from the fact that the psychotherapist should not impose his opinion on the patient, but lead him to the correct decision, which the latter makes on his own. In the course of therapy, the patient learns to trust himself more, his intuition, his feelings and motives. Beginning to understand himself better, he understands others better. As a result, that "insight" occurs, which helps to rebuild one's own assessment, to "restructure the gestalt," as Rogers says. This increases congruence and allows you to accept yourself and others, and reduces anxiety and tension. Therapy takes place as a therapist-client meeting or, in group therapy, as a therapist and multiple client meeting. Rogers created "encounter groups," or meeting groups, are one of the most widespread psychocorrection and training technologies today.

2. Basic principles of humanistic psychology:
1. Emphasizing the role of conscious experience.
2. Belief in the holistic nature of human nature.
3. Emphasis on free will, spontaneity and creative power of the individual.
4. Study of all factors and circumstances of human life.

The leaders of humanistic psychology turned to the achievements of philosophy of the 20th century, primarily to existentialism, which studied the inner world, human existence. This is how a new determination appeared - psychological, explaining the development of a person by his desire for self-actualization, creative realization of his potential capabilities.

3. Basic theories of humanistic psychology:

Gordon Allport
Basic and instrumental features, the set of which is unique and autonomous. The openness of the man-society system, questionnaires.

Abraham Maslow
Hierarchy of needs, priority of existential or scarce needs. The need for self-actualization, mechanisms of identification and alienation.

Carl Rogers
“I am a concept”, in the center of which is flexible and adequate self-esteem. Congruence, personality-centered therapy.

The methodological positions of humanistic psychology are formulated in the following premises:
1) the person is complete;
2) not only general but also individual cases are valuable;
3) the main psychological reality is human experiences;
4) human life is a single process;
5) a person is open to self-realization;
6) a person is not determined only by external situations.

THE IMPORTANCE OF HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY.

The main area of ​​practical application of Humanistic psychology is psychotherapeutic practice, in which many of the ideas that form the theoretical foundation of Humanistic psychology were born and developed today. The concepts of personality created by humanists are very popular to this day. And the client-oriented method of psychotherapy developed by K. Rogers is actively used both in psychological counseling and in psychotherapy. In the practical work of a humanistically centered psychotherapist and counselor psychologist, the client finds an attentive and sympathetic, delicate interlocutor who pays special attention to the emotional components of the client's problems - experiences and feelings. They do not engage, like psychoanalysts, in analyzing free associations or interpreting dreams. They will not, like behavioral psychotherapists, wean from non-optimal behavioral scenarios and schemes, do not give advice on “how to behave” in certain situations. Humanists try to understand a person and his life situation, help to understand and express the client's concerns, difficulties and related experiences more clearly and definitely. At present, the ideas of humanistic psychology continue to be among the most demanded in psychological practice and theory, and new interesting and significant concepts are being created on their basis.

Part of humanistic psychology is existential psychology - a direction based on the uniqueness of the personal experience of a particular person, irreducible to general schemes. Existential psychology is a science that studies the meaning of life, but not in the aspect of its content, what does existential philosophy do, but in the aspect of it

actions, its significance for a person, its given in the experience of human life and its conditioning by this experience.

An intensive theoretical search aimed at developing a new image of a person, a new concept of a human personality, is organically combined by humanist psychologists with the provision of concrete help to people through counseling, psychotherapy, improvement of activities in the field of education, management, prevention of antisocial behavior, etc. In the future, the center is focused on questions not of a theoretical nature, but of more practical application, primarily in the framework of psychotherapy, as well as educational problems. It is thanks to this practical orientation that humanistic psychology gains influence and becomes widespread.

Without pretending to be spiritual guidance, humanistic psychology is designed to help each person find the meaning of their own life. In the situation of an approaching anthropological catastrophe, it is not local research programs that are relevant, but the knowledge of the essence and potential, not yet disclosed possibilities of the human phenomenon: in this we see the responsibility of psychologists for what is happening. At the heart of humanistic psychology is the idea of ​​a person as a person who freely makes his responsible choice among the opportunities provided to her. Thus, a person who realizes his essence is "doomed" to constant self-improvement (continuous formation) as a condition for his full-fledged existence in society and culture.

CONCLUSION

Humanistic psychology has become a kind of breakthrough in Western psychology. The founders of humanistic psychology aimed to correct the imbalances of behaviorism and psychoanalysis in the interpretation of a person and to choose the more correct one - life psychology, i.e. more useful for life. Understanding of a healthy creative personality was asserted as a subject of research - a task that no other school posed. As a third branch of psychology, humanistic psychology addresses, first of all, those abilities that were absent or were not systematically present in both behavioral and classical psychoanalytic theory: love, creativity, selfhood, growth, satisfaction of basic needs, self-actualization, higher values , being, becoming, spontaneity, meaning, honesty, psychological health and concepts close to them. Humanistic psychologists have expanded the subject area of ​​psychology to include personality relationships and understanding the context of her action.

There are many rational "seeds" in the ideas of humanistic psychologists. But it is not at all necessary to agree with the representatives of this direction in everything. Some critics believe that the theories of representatives of this direction are a generalization of some particular laws, in which there is no systematic approach, within which it would be possible to evaluate and study human subjectivity. Despite this, humanistic thought had a significant impact on the development of psychotherapy and personality theory, influenced the organization of government and education, the counseling system.

LITERATURE

1. Vakhromov E.E. Humanistic psychology in the context of the evolution of psychological ideas of the twentieth century // www.hpsy.ru

2. Geiger. G. About Abraham Maslow and his recent works. // www.hpsy.ru

3. Goble F. The Third Force: The Psychology of Abraham Maslow // www.hpsy.ru

4. Maslow A. Self-actualization. // www.ihtik.lib.ru

5. Maslow A. Psychology of being // www.myword.ru

6. Stepanov S.S. Age of Psychology: Names and Fates // www.hpsy.ru

7. Tikhonravov Yu V. Existential psychology. // www.myword.ru

8.R.V. Petrunnikova, I.I. Zayats, I.I. Akhremenko. History of Psychology - Minsk .: MIU Publishing House, 2009

Humanistic psychology is a direction in psychology, the subject of study of which is a holistic person in his higher, specific only for a person manifestations, including the development and self-actualization of a personality, its higher values ​​and meanings, love, creativity, freedom, responsibility, autonomy, experiences of the world, mental health, "deep interpersonal communication", etc.

Humanistic psychology formed as a psychological trend in the early 1960s, opposing itself, on the one hand, to behaviorism, which was criticized for the mechanistic approach to human psychology by analogy with animal psychology, for considering human behavior as completely dependent on external stimuli, and, on the other hand, psychoanalysis, criticized for the idea of ​​a person's mental life as completely determined by unconscious drives and complexes. Representatives of the humanistic direction strive to build a completely new, fundamentally different methodology of cognition of a person as a unique object of research.

The main methodological principles and provisions of the humanistic direction are as follows:

> a person is complete and must be studied in its entirety;

> each person is unique, so the analysis of individual cases is no less justified than statistical generalizations;

> a person is open to the world, a person's experience of the world and himself in the world is the main psychological reality;

> human life should be considered as a single process of human becoming and being;

> a person has the potential for continuous development and self-realization, which are part of his nature;

> a person has a certain degree of freedom from external determination due to the meanings and values ​​by which he is guided in his choice;

> man is an active, intentional, creative being. The main representatives of this direction are

A. Maslow, W. Frankl, C. Buhler, R May, F. Barron et al.

A. Maslow is known as one of the founders of the humanistic direction in psychology. He is best known for his hierarchical model of motivation. According to this concept, seven classes of needs consistently appear in a person from birth and accompany his growing up:

1) physiological (organic) needs such as hunger, thirst, sex drive, etc .;

2) the need for security - the need to feel protected, get rid of fear and failure, from aggressiveness;

3) the need for belonging and love - the need to belong to a community, to be close to people, to be recognized and accepted by them;

4) the needs of respect (reverence) - the need to achieve success, approval, recognition, authority;

5) cognitive needs - the need to know, be able, understand, research;

6) aesthetic needs - the need for harmony, symmetry, order, beauty;

7) needs of self-actualization - the need to realize their goals, abilities, development of their own personality.

According to A. Maslow, this motivational pyramid is based on physiological needs, and higher needs, such as aesthetic and the need for self-actualization, form its top. He also believed that the needs of the higher levels can be satisfied only if the needs of the lower levels are first met. Therefore, only a small number of people (about 1%) achieve self-actualization. These people have personality traits that are qualitatively different from the personality traits of neurotics and people who do not reach such a degree of maturity: independence, creativity, philosophical outlook, democratic relationships, productivity in all spheres of activity, etc. Later A. Maslow abandons the rigid hierarchy of this model , distinguishing two classes of needs: needs needs and development needs.

V. Frankl believed that the main driving force of personality development is the pursuit of meaning, the absence of which creates an "existential vacuum" and can lead to the most sad consequences, including suicide.

Humanistic psychology - a trend in Western (mainly American) psychology, which recognizes personality as its main subject, as a unique integral system, which is not something given in advance, but an “open opportunity” of self-actualization inherent only in humans. In humanistic psychology, the main subjects of analysis are: the highest values, self-actualization of the individual, creativity, love, freedom, responsibility, autonomy, mental health, interpersonal communication. Humanistic psychology as an independent trend emerged in the early 60s of the XX century, as a protest against the dominance of behaviorism and psychoanalysis in the United States, receiving the name of the third force. A. Maslow, K. Rogers, V. Frankl, S. Buhler, R. May, S. Jurard, D. Bujenthal, E. Shostrom and others can be referred to this direction. Humanistic psychology relies on existentialism as its philosophical base. The Manifesto of Humanistic Psychology was a book edited by R. May "Existential Psychology" - a collection of papers presented at a symposium in Cincinnati in September 1959 in the framework of the annual convention of the American Psychological Association.

Main features

In 1963, the first president of the Association for Humanistic Psychology, James Bujenthal, put forward five pillars of this direction of psychology:

Man as an integral being surpasses the sum of his constituents (in other words, man cannot be explained as a result of a scientific study of his partial functions).

Human being unfolds in the context of human relations (in other words, a person cannot be explained by his partial functions, in which interpersonal experience is not taken into account).

A person is conscious of himself (and cannot be understood by psychology, which does not take into account his continuous, multi-level self-awareness).

Man has a choice (man is not a passive observer of the process of his existence: he creates his own experience).

A person is intentional (a person is turned into the future; in his life there is a purpose, values ​​and meaning).

Some areas of psychotherapy and humanistic pedagogy are based on humanistic psychology. The healing factors in the work of a humanistic psychologist and psychotherapist are, first of all, unconditional acceptance of the client, support, empathy, attention to inner experiences, stimulation of choice and decision-making, authenticity. However, despite its apparent simplicity, humanistic psychotherapy is based on a serious phenomenological philosophical base and uses an extremely wide range of therapeutic technologies and methods. One of the basic beliefs of humanistic professionals is that everyone contains the potential for recovery. Under certain conditions, a person can independently and fully realize this potential. Therefore, the work of a humanistic psychologist is aimed, first of all, at creating favorable conditions for the reintegration of the individual in the process of therapeutic meetings.

It puts at the center of its methodology the personality of the client, which is the control center in the decision-making process. This distinguishes this trend from psychodynamic theory, which emphasizes how the past 1 affects the present, and from behaviorist theory, which uses the influence of the environment on the personality.

Humanistic, or existential-humanistic * | something, the direction in psychology was developed by K. Rogers! F. Perls, W. Frankl. ; |

Their main methodological position is that || the purpose of a person is to live and act, determine | his destiny, the concentration of control and decisions is within the person himself, and not in his environment.

The basic concepts in which this direction of psychology analyzes human life is the concept of human existence, making a decision or choice and the corresponding action that relieves anxiety; the concept of intentionality - an opportunity that states that a person, acting in the world, must clearly understand the impact of the world on him.

The task of the client and the psychologist is to understand the client's world as fully as possible and to support him while making a responsible decision.

The revolution, which in practical psychology is associated with the works of K. Rogers, consists in the fact that he began to emphasize the responsibility of the person himself for his actions and decisions. This is based on the belief that every person has an initial desire for maximum social self-actualization.

The psychologist maintains the client's state of mental health by giving the person the opportunity to get in touch with their inner world. The main concept that psychologists in this area work with is the attitude of a particular client. Working with the client's world requires from the psychologist the skills of attention and listening, high-quality empathy. The psychologist must be able to work with the contradiction of the client's real and ideal self-image, establishing a relationship with the client. In this process, during the interview, the psychologist must achieve congruence with the client. For this, the psychologist must have authenticity during the interview, treat the client in a positive and non-judgmental manner.

During the interview, the psychologist uses open and closed questions, reflection of feelings, retelling, self-disclosure and other techniques that allow the client to show his attitude.

Using in communication with the client interaction methods that allow the client to relieve anxiety and tension, the psychologist shows the client how to communicate with people. A client heard and understood by a psychologist can change.

In the humanistic direction of psychology, gestalt therapy (F. Perls) occupies a special place, characterized by a variety of techniques and microtechniques affecting the client. Let's list some of the techniques of gestalt therapy: perception "here and now", directivity; speech changes;

the empty chair method: a conversation with a part of your “I”; dialogue of the "upper dog" - authoritarian, directive, and the "lower dog" - passive with a sense of guilt, seeking forgiveness; fixed sensation; work with dreams.

In addition, thanks to the works of V. Frankl, techniques for changing attitudes are used in humanistic / psychological psychology! niya; paradoxical intentions; switching; runaway method. ”| denia (call). The implementation of these techniques requires a psi *. | chologue of eloquence, accuracy of verbal formulations /! orientation to the client's attitude. |

The humanistic direction of practical psychology ^ constantly focuses on the individual growth of the client. SCH

Practical psychologist working with client contributes | in an interview with him his own worldview. If the psycho-D log is inclined to impose his point of view on the client, then this ^ can lead to an inability to hear the client, which is different. destroys the interaction situation. Psychologist to slave | to be effective, should not start with a preconceived notion! ideas about how his client's world should be.! Practical work of a psychologist is working with a specific | the individuality of the person. Including with the proper "! individuality is an integral part of his professionalism ”| position. ,.<|

The psychologist needs to constantly study his personality, | good and professional opportunities to avoid rigidity or unnecessary freedom in the development of personal concepts ^!

Psychologist and client - two different people - meet you | interview time. Regardless of its success, both participate ”! how it changes as a result of interaction. ... l |

Supporters of humanistic theories of individuality primarily interested in how a person perceives, realizes and explains real events in his own life. They describe the phenomenology of individuality, and do not seek an explanation for it, for theories of this type are periodically called phenomenological. Descriptions of an individual and events in her life here are mainly concentrated on the present life experience, and not on the past or the future, are given in terms of the type of "meaning of life", "values", "life goals", etc.

The most famous representatives of this approach to individuality are American specialists A. Maslow and K. Rogers. We will specifically consider the concept of A. Maslow further, and now we will briefly dwell only on the characteristics of the theory of K. Rogers.

Creating his own theory of individuality, Rogers proceeded from the fact that everyone has a desire and ability for personal self-improvement. Being a being endowed with consciousness, he for himself determines the meaning of life, its goals and values, is the supreme expert and the supreme judge. The central concept in Rogers' theory was the concept of "I", which includes ideas, ideas, goals and values, through which a person characterizes himself and outlines the prospects for his growth. The main questions that any person poses and is obliged to solve are the following: "Who am I?", "What can I do to become who I want to be?"

The image of "I", which is formed as a result of personal life experience, in its own turn influences the perception of a given person of the world, other people, on the assessments that a person gives to his behavior. Self-concept can be positive, ambivalent (contradictory), negative. An individual with a positive self-concept sees the world differently than a person with a negative or ambivalent one. Self-concept can incorrectly reflect reality, be distorted and fictional. What does not agree with the self-concept of a person can be ousted from his consciousness, rejected, however, in fact, it can be true. The degree of a person's satisfaction with life, the measure of the fullness of the joy he felt depends on how much her experience, her "real I" and "ideal I" agree m / y with herself.

The main human need, according to the humanistic theories of individuality, is self-actualization, the desire for self-improvement and self-expression. Recognition of the main role of self-actualization unites all representatives of this theoretical direction in the study of personality psychology, despite significant differences in views.

According to A. Maslow, the psychological characteristics of self-actualizing individuals include:

Active perception of reality and the ability to navigate well in it;

Acceptance of yourself and other people as they are;

Immediacy in actions and spontaneity in expressing one's own thoughts and feelings;

Focusing on what is happening outside, as opposed to focusing only on the inner world, and focusing consciousness on your feelings and experiences;

Having a sense of humor;

Developed creativity;

Rejection of conventions, however, without ostentatious disregard;

Concern for the well-being of other people and failure to provide only their own joy;

Ability to deeply understand life;

Humanistic psychology

Humanistic psychology - A direction in psychology, in which the main subjects of analysis are: the highest values, self-actualization of the individual, creativity, love, freedom, responsibility, autonomy, mental health, interpersonal communication.

Representatives

A. Maslow

K. Rogers

V. Frankl

F. Barron

S. Jurard

Subject of study

A unique and unrepeatable personality, constantly creating himself, realizing his purpose in life. He studies health, harmonious individuals who have reached the pinnacle of personal development, the pinnacle of “self-actualization”.

Self-realization.

Self-esteem.

Social needs.

Reliability needs.

Stages of personality degradation.

Search for the meaning of life.

Physiological basic needs.

The inadequacy of animal research for human understanding.

Theoretical provisions

man is whole

Not only general but also individual cases are valuable.

The main psychological reality is human experiences

Human life is a holistic process

A person is open to self-realization

A person is not determined only by external situations

Contribution to psychology

Humanistic psychology opposes building psychology on the model of natural sciences and proves that a person, even being an object of research, should be studied as an active subject, evaluating an experimental situation and choosing a way of behavior.

Humanistic psychology - a number of areas in modern psychology, which are focused primarily on the study of human semantic structures. In humanistic psychology, the main subjects of analysis are: the highest values, self-actualization of the individual, creativity, love, freedom, responsibility, autonomy, mental health, interpersonal communication. Humanistic psychology emerged as an independent trend in the early 60s. biennium XX century as a protest against behaviorism and psychoanalysis, called the "third force". This direction can be attributed to A. Maslow, K. Rogers, V. Frankl, S. Buhler. F. Barron, R. May, S. Jurard and others. The methodological positions of humanistic psychology are formulated in the following premises:

1. Man is whole.

2. Not only general but also individual cases are valuable.

3. The main psychological reality is human experiences.

4. Human life is a single process.

5. A person is open to self-realization.

6. A person is not determined only by external situations.

Some areas of psychotherapy and humanistic pedagogy are based on humanistic psychology.

Society is increasingly attracting the attention of creative individuals capable of withstanding competition and possessing mobility, intelligence and the ability to self-actualize and continuous creative self-development.

Interest in various manifestations of human existence and the formation of personality is especially manifested in the humanistic direction of psychology and pedagogy. Thanks to him, a person is viewed from the point of view of his uniqueness, integrity and striving for continuous personal improvement. This trend is based on the vision of the human in all individuals and the obligatory respect for the autonomy of the individual.

General concepts of humanism

"Humanism" translated from Latin means "humanity". And as a direction in philosophy arose during the Renaissance. It was positioned under the name "Renaissance Humanism". This is a worldview, the main idea of ​​which is the assertion that a person is a value above all earthly goods, and based on this postulate, it is necessary to build an attitude towards him.

In general, humanism is a worldview that implies the value of a person's personality, his right to freedom, a happy existence, full-fledged development and the possibility of manifesting his abilities. As a system of value orientations, today it has taken the form of a set of ideas and values ​​that affirm the universal significance of human existence, both in general and in particular (for an individual).

Before the emergence of the concept of personality "the concept of" humanity "was formed, which reflects such an important personality trait as the willingness and desire to help other people, show respect, care, complicity. Without humanity, in principle, the existence of the human race is impossible.

This is a personality trait that represents the ability to consciously empathize with another person. In modern society, humanism is a social ideal, and a person is the highest goal of social development, in the process of which conditions must be created for the full realization of all its potential opportunities to achieve harmony in the social, economic, spiritual spheres and the highest prosperity of the individual.

The main foundations of the humanistic approach to man

Nowadays, the interpretation of humanism focuses on the harmonious development of the intellectual abilities of the individual, as well as on its spiritual, moral and aesthetic components. For this, it is important to discern in a person his potential data.

The goal of humanism is a full-fledged subject of activity, knowledge and communication, who is free, self-sufficient and responsible for what is happening in society. The measure that the humanistic approach presupposes is determined by the prerequisites for self-realization of a person and the opportunities provided for this. The main thing is to let the personality open up, to help it become free and responsible in creativity.

The model of the formation of such a person, from the point of view of humanistic psychology, began its development in the USA (1950-1960). It has been described in the works of A. Maslow, S. Frank, K. Rogers, J. Kelly, A. Combsi, and other scientists.

Personality

The humanistic approach to man described in the above-mentioned theory has been deeply analyzed by scientific psychologists. Of course, it cannot be said that this area has been studied completely, but significant theoretical research has been done in it.

This direction of psychology arose as a kind of alternative concept to the current, fully or partially identifying human psychology and animal behavior. considered from the point of view of humanistic traditions, is referred to as psychodynamic (at the same time, interactionist). It is not an experimental one that has a structural-dynamic organization and covers the entire period of a person's life. She describes him as a person, using terms of intrinsic properties and characteristics, as well as behavioral terms.

The supporters of the theory, which considers the person in a humanistic approach, are primarily interested in the perception, understanding and explanation by a person of the real events of his life. Phenomenology of personality is preferred over the search for explanations. Therefore, this type of theory is often called phenomenological. The very description of a person and events in her life focuses mainly on the present and is described in such terms: "life goals", "meaning of life", "values", etc.

Humanism in the psychology of Rogers and Maslow

In his theory, Rogers relied on the fact that a person has the desire and ability for personal self-improvement, since he is endowed with consciousness. According to Rogers, man is a creature that can be the supreme judge for itself.

The theoretical humanistic approach in the psychology of Rogers' personality leads to the conclusion that the central concept for a person is "I", with all ideas, ideas, goals and values. Using them, he can characterize himself and outline the prospects for personal improvement and development. A person should ask himself the question “Who am I? Who do I want and can become? " and be sure to solve it.

The image of "I" as a result of personal life experience affects self-esteem and the perception of the world and the environment. This can be negative, positive, or contradictory. Individuals with different “I” -conceptions see the world in different ways. Such a concept can be distorted, and what does not fit into it, is repressed by consciousness. Life satisfaction is a measure of the fullness of happiness. It directly depends on the coherence between the real and the ideal "I".

Among the needs, the humanistic approach in personality psychology distinguishes:

  • self-actualization;
  • striving for self-expression;
  • striving for self-improvement.

The dominant among them is self-actualization. It brings together all theorists in this area, even with significant differences of opinion. But the most common for consideration was the concept of views of Maslow A.

He noted that all self-actualizing people are involved in some kind of business. They are devoted to him, and the work is something very valuable for a person (a kind of vocation). People of this type strive for decency, beauty, justice, kindness and perfection. These values ​​are vital needs and the meaning of self-actualization. For such a person, existence appears as a process of constant choice: move forward or retreat and not fight. Self-actualization is the path of constant development and rejection of illusions, getting rid of false ideas.

What is the essence of the humanistic approach in psychology

Traditionally, the humanistic approach includes the theories of G. Allport about personality traits, A. Maslow about self-actualization, K. Rogers about indicative psychotherapy, about the life path of the personality of Buhler S., as well as R. May's ideas. The main provisions of the concept of humanism in psychology are as follows:

  • initially, a person has a constructive, genuine strength;
  • the formation of destructive forces occurs as it develops;
  • a person has a motive for self-actualization;
  • on the path of self-actualization, obstacles arise that prevent the effective functioning of the individual.

Key concept terms:

  • congruence;
  • positive and unconditional acceptance of yourself and others;
  • empathic listening and understanding.

The main objectives of the approach:

  • ensuring the completeness of personality functioning;
  • creating conditions for self-actualization;
  • teaching spontaneity, openness, authenticity, friendliness and acceptance;
  • fostering empathy (sympathy and complicity);
  • development of the ability for internal assessment;
  • openness to new things.

This approach has limitations in its application. These are psychotics and children. A negative result is possible with the direct effect of therapy in an aggressive social environment.

On the principles of the humanistic approach

The basic principles of the humanistic approach can be summarized in brief:

  • with all the limitation of being, a person has freedom and independence to realize it;
  • an important source of information is the existentiality and subjective experience of the individual;
  • human nature always strives for continuous development;
  • man is one and whole;
  • the personality is unique, it needs self-realization;
  • man is directed to the future and is an active creative being.

Responsibility for actions is formed from principles. Man is not an unconscious tool or a slave to established habits. Initially, his nature is positive and kind. Maslow and Rogers believed that personal growth is often hindered by defense mechanisms and fears. After all, often self-esteem is at odds with that which is given to a person by those around him. Therefore, he is faced with a dilemma - the choice between accepting an assessment from the outside and the desire to remain with his own.

Existentiality and humanism

Psychologists representing the existential-humanistic approach are Binswanger L., Frankl V., May R., Bugental, Yalom. The described approach developed in the second half of the twentieth century. Let's list the main provisions of this concept:

  • a person is viewed from the standpoint of real existence;
  • he must strive for self-actualization and self-realization;
  • a person is responsible for his choice, existence and realization of his own potentials;
  • the personality is free and has many options. The problem is trying to avoid it;
  • anxiety is a consequence of the failure to realize one's capabilities;
  • often a person does not realize that he is a slave to patterns and habits, is not an authentic person and lives a falsehood. To change this state, you need to realize your true position;
  • a person suffers from loneliness, although he is initially lonely, since he comes into the world and leaves it alone.

The main goals pursued by the existential-humanistic approach are:

  • education of responsibility, the ability to set tasks and solve them;
  • learning to be active and overcome difficulties;
  • search for activities where you can freely express yourself;
  • overcoming suffering, experiencing "peak" moments;
  • concentration of choice training;
  • search for true meanings.

Free choice, openness to the upcoming new events - a guideline for the individual. This concept rejects the qualities inherent in human biology.

Humanism in upbringing and education

The norms and principles promoted by the humanistic approach to education are focused on ensuring that the system of the "educator / pupil" relationship is based on respect and fairness.

So, in the pedagogy of K. Rogers, the teacher must awaken the pupil's own forces to solve his problems, and not solve for him. You cannot impose a ready-made solution. The goal is to stimulate personal work of change and growth, and these are limitless. The main thing is not a set of facts and theories, but the transformation of the student's personality as a result of independent learning. - to develop opportunities for self-development and self-actualization, the search for their individuality. K. Rogers defined the following conditions under which this task is implemented:

  • students in the learning process solve problems that are significant to them;
  • the teacher feels congruent to the students;
  • he treats his disciples unconditionally;
  • the teacher shows empathy for the students (penetration into the inner world of the student, look at the environment through his eyes, while remaining himself;
  • educator - assistant, stimulator (creates favorable conditions for the student);
  • it encourages students to make moral choices by providing material for analysis.

The person who is being brought up is the highest value that has the right to a dignified life and happiness. Therefore, the humanistic approach in education, which affirms the rights and freedom of the child, contributing to his creative development and self-development, is a priority direction in pedagogy.

This approach requires analysis. In addition, a full-fledged deep understanding of the concepts (diametrically opposed) is necessary: ​​life and death, lies and honesty, aggression and goodwill, hatred and love ...

Sports education and humanism

Currently, the humanistic approach to training an athlete excludes the process of preparation and training, when the athlete acts as a mechanical subject that achieves the result set in front of him.

Studies have shown that often athletes, reaching physical perfection, cause serious harm to the psyche and their health. It happens that inadequate loads are applied. This works for both young and mature athletes. As a result, this approach leads to psychological breakdowns. But at the same time, studies show that the possibilities for the formation of an athlete's personality, its moral, spiritual attitudes, the formation of motivation are endless. An approach aimed at its development can be fully implemented if the value attitudes of both the athlete and the coach are changed. This attitude should be made more humane.

Formation of humanistic qualities in an athlete is a rather complicated and lengthy process. It should be systematic and requires a trainer (educator, teacher) to master the technologies of high subtlety impact. This approach is focused on the humanistic attitude - the development of the personality, its mental and physical health by means of sports and physical culture.

Governance and humanism

Today, various organizations strive to constantly improve the level of culture of their staff. In Japan, for example, any enterprise (firm) is not just a place for its employees to earn money for living, but also a place that unites individual colleagues into a team. For him, a spirit of cooperation and interdependence play an important role.

Organization is an extension of the family. Humanistic is viewed as a process that creates reality, which enables people to see events, understand them, act according to the situation, giving meaning and significance to their own behavior. In fact, rules are means, and the main action takes place at the moment of choice.

Every aspect of the organization is loaded with symbolic meaning and helps create reality. The humanistic approach focuses on the individual, not the organization. To achieve this, it is very important to be able to integrate into the existing value system and change in new conditions of activity.

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