What is the most important in the humanistic perspective as it relates to personality?

According to Freud, the ego uses a variety of different strategies to try to reduce or redirect anxiety in some way. These strategies operate entirely at an unconscious level. Because the psychodynamic/psychoanalytic theory describes personality as largely coming from and operating on an unconscious level, how this theory assesses or measures personality is kind of a tricky issue.

Defense Mechanisms

Denial is a defense mechanism that refers to strongly opposing or denying your true feelings at an unconscious level. So, if you continue to smoke, you might deny that strong evidence suggests smoking causes cancer, which lets you keep doing the behavior. This can be accompanied by rationalization, a defense mechanism, that involves coming up with an excuse—a rationalization—to hide the real reason for engaging in a behavior.

Reaction formation is a defense mechanism that involves unconsciously switching unacceptable impulses to their opposite. So, if you develop a strong attraction for someone you can’t really pursue—such as your boss—you might shift these feelings to their opposite and feel that you really hate that person.

Other defense mechanisms Freud proposed include regression, a proposed tendency to retreat when faced with some type of anxiety-provoking event to an earlier life stage. So, a child who experiences something that creates anxiety—like their parents’ divorce—might revert to an earlier pattern of behavior, such as thumb-sucking.

Another mechanism is passive aggression, a defense mechanism which involves expressing anger or insulting someone, but in a socially acceptable way. So, a person might say, “You’ve done so well for someone with your level of education.”

This article comes directly from content in the video series Introduction to Psychology. Watch it now, on Wondrium.

Projective Tests

As one can’t just ask people to describe themselves, they have to create measures that attempt to tap into the unconscious.

These measures, which are called projective tests, use a standardized set of ambiguous stimuli, such as ink blots or drawings. The researcher then asks people to describe what they see or tell a story about a picture. Because stimuli have no inherent meaning, whatever people say in response is assumed to be a projection of their underlying motives, conflicts, and personality traits.

Rorschach Inkblot Test

The most widely known type of projective test is the Rorschach inkblot test. This test consists of a set of 10 inkblots, which are shown one at a time. These blots have no real pattern or picture, so again, if someone looks at one of the blots and says, “It is a fierce animal”, or “That’s a gun”, they are thought to have aggressive tendencies.

Another historical example of a projective test is the Thematic Apperception Test, or TAT. This test consists of a series of ambiguous black and white drawings and asks people to make up a story about the picture. For example, one image is of a boy who appears to be looking out a window. One person might tell a story about how he’s daydreaming while looking at the stars. Another person might tell a story about how he’s thinking of jumping to his death.

Freud also emphasized the importance of childhood experiences in shaping us in various ways, and again, this belief is now widely accepted in the field of psychology. However, Freud saw development as largely fixed in childhood, whereas most developmental psychologists now view development as a lifelong process.

The Humanist Perspective

Another approach to personality, the humanist perspective, emerged in the 1950s and 1960s, and was largely a reaction to concerns about two aspects of the then-prevailing psychoanalytic perspective: its focus on negative emotions, such as anxiety, and people’s lack of agency over their outcomes, with its emphasis on personality being largely or even entirely fixed by experiences in early childhood.

According to the humanistic perspective, our personality is formed based on how we perceive and interpret the world. Humanists believe that all people are born with an inborn drive to become self-actualized, meaning to develop all of our talents and capabilities, to realize our full potential.

One humanist theorist, Carl Rogers, viewed our self-concept, meaning how we see ourselves, as the most important component of personality. This self-concept develops based on life experiences, including interactions with other people. According to Carl Rogers, we all have two views of our self: How we see our real self—who we really are; and also our ideal self—meaning who we would like to be. If these two selves are nearly the same, we have a positive self-concept and good mental health. But if these two selves are quite different, meaning our real self doesn’t live up to our ideal, we experience poor mental health.

Negative Self-concept

How does a negative self-concept develop? Basically through negative life experiences, such as repeatedly being told by parents or other adults that your feelings and behavior aren’t good enough.

For example, children who receive conditional reinforcement, meaning they are loved and accepted only when they engage in certain types of behavior, may worry that others will abandon them if they sometimes behave poorly. This belief, not surprisingly, can lead someone to feel pretty bad about themselves. Rogers therefore emphasized the importance of providing children with what he called unconditional positive regard, what we commonly refer to now as unconditional love.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Another humanist theorist, Abraham Maslow, is probably best known for developing a hierarchy of needs. He believed that personality development occurs as a natural progression from lower level to higher level needs.

Babies initially focus on basic physiological needs, such as hunger and thirst, and then safety, a need to feel secure and safe. Then, as we grow and develop, children focus on higher level needs, such as the need for belongingness and love, and the need to feel good about one’s self and to achieve.

Our ultimate goal is to achieve self-actualization, meaning finding self-fulfillment and realizing one’s potential.

What is the most significant aspect of the humanistic approach to personality?

What is main focus of humanistic theory of personality?

What does the humanistic perspective say about personality?

What is the most significant aspect of the humanistic approach to personality quizlet?