Analysis Of The Humanistic Theories Of Carl Rogers And Abraham Maslow

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In this assignment, I will be talking about the Humanistic perspective. I will briefly discuss in detail the humanistic theories of Carl Rodgers and Abraham Maslow which are THE PERSON CENTRED THEORY and MASLOW’S THEORY OF SELF ACTUALISATION respectively. I will evaluate both of these theories and lastly apply Maslow’s theory of self-actualization to my life. HUMANISM Humanism is a system of values and beliefs that is based on the idea that people are basically good and that problems can be solved using reason instead of religion (Merriam-Webster dictionary online, 2014). Humanistic theories stated in the 1950’s because of the discrimination against behavioral and psychodynamic theories. Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow are the humanistic theorists who came up with their own theories of which they explain humanism further through their theories. THE SELF According to Carl Rogers (as cited in Weiten, 2014), he came up with a personality structure called the self, commonly known as the self-concept which is the collection of beliefs about one’s own nature’ unique qualities and a typical behavior. Self-concept is about how one sees the self, for instance the person might say he’s better at something and in reality it proves otherwise INCONGRUENCE. Carl Rogers came up with a term called incongruence which is a gap between self-concept and reality. Incongruence is degree of disparity between one’s self-concept and one’s actual experience (Weiten, 2014) What Carl Rogers means is that if a person for example claims to be good with math and gets higher marks in math tests, this shows that the person’s self-concept is congruent with reality. Doing the opposite of what you say you are simply means that your self-concept is incongruent with ... ... middle of paper ... ...APPLYING MASLOW’S THEORY TO MY LIFE If I have to apply Abraham Maslow’s theory of self-actualization to my life, I would say that I have a strong relationship with my parents and a great friendship with my friends. Sometimes I find it hard to do things that will make others appreciate who I am, so I do them just to feel appreciated. I always need to be around people even in my busiest time, I still want to be attached and this gives me no privacy at all. This truly shows that I have a need for self-actualization. In conclusion, Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers came with their own theories which are Maslow’s theory of self-actualization and Person-centred theory respectively, of which they explained the humanistic perspective according to their own view. These theories describes the needs of which people should have and to also know their personality structures.

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