DEVELOPMENT TRANSITION & CHANGE MANAGEMENT- HUMANISTIC APPROACH TO LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT

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DEVELOPMENT TRANSITION & CHANGE
MANAGEMENT
CONTINUOUS INTERNAL ASSESSMENT - 1
Submitted by-
Simran Mondal
1918107
HUMANISTIC APPROACH TO LIFESPAN
DEVELOPMENT
NOVEMBER 2020
Masters in Science (Strategic Management)
CBCS (Batch of 2019)

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INTRODUCTION
Humanistic Approach to Lifespan Development
Humanistic theory emerged in the mid 1960’s, it was developed in reaction to pessimistic
Psychodynamic & Behaviouristic approaches to psychology (they were quite a negative
approach as they thought that conflicts & fixations are inevitable & also failed to adequately
address the real meaning of behaviour & nature of healthy growth)
Humanistic theory is very different to that; it has a very optimistic outlook on human
nature & personal development. It argues that what ultimately drives human behaviour is
an individual choice. It focuses on free will & says that humans have natural capability to
make decisions about their lives, control their behaviours & motivate themselves to reach
more advanced levels of maturity, instead of relying on societal standards. It studies the
whole person & the uniqueness of each individual,
Humanistic Theory believes that people are inherently good with unique attributes & we are
able to undergo our own development with healthier personalities. The main aim of this
theory is to drive individuals towards self actualization, & to realise & enhance ones full
potential by understanding the concepts & methods of learning, growing &
development in an individual.
Carl Rogers & Abraham Maslow have been regarded as the founders of the Humanistic
Approach.
They regarded personal growth & fulfilment in life as a basic human motive. In their
theories they speak about “Self actualizing person” by focusing on the full potential of a
person or labelling them as full functioning person as they believe that humans strive for the
frontiers of creativity for optimal wellbeing & to benefit others by reaching their highest level
consciousness & wisdom as an outcome of healthy development. They also said that a
person’s subjective perception & understanding of the world is most important.
However they both describe in different ways how Self actualization can be achieved.
Key words: Lifespan development, Self development theory, Growth Oriented, Fully
functioning person, Individual development, highest potential, larger welfare, Self
esteem & Society

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REVIEW OF LITERATURE
1. (DeRobertis, 2019) “Lifespan Human Development and “The Humanistic
Perspective”: A Contribution Toward Inclusion”, In this article they have
emphasized on the gap in psychology literature due to the
exclusion/underrepresentation of Humanistic approach in the study of lifespan
development. It said that the humanistic psychologists preferred that the humanistic
approach shouldn’t be taken as a separate field but used as a basis for psychology
itself. It mainly focused on the existential humanistic self development theory that
says that people have the capacity for self awareness & choices, & is capable of
responding intelligently & flexibly in different situations. The approach leans towards
growth & self actualization.
This article aimed at providing humanistic approach as a stepping stone for
psychologists in the study of Human Development.
2. (Bland A.M., 2019) “Humanistic Perspective”, Here they explain how Humanistic
approach was an alternative to Psychodynamic & Behaviouristic approach to
psychology. Humanistic approach was developed as a growth oriented
conceptualization of personality to focus on the vast potential of human nature &
understanding of surroundings. The Humanistic Approach to therapy focused on the
relationship between the therapist & the client to promote transformative changes by
looking at the client’s behaviour not only through the eyes of the observer but through
the eyes of the doing. It conceptualized humans as continually evolving & unique
rather than being fixated on a specific structure. It assumed that people are free to
make their own choices & are consciously aware of their behaviours. They have also
mentioned how Schneider et al has criticized humanistic approach as an
undisciplined, impractical, and therefore worthy of obsolescence. As it is subjective in
nature provides only impressionistic descriptions without precision and specificity
and that at the clinical level it does not offer standardized, stepwise
techniques/procedures.
This article helps in understanding the journey & development of the humanistic
perspective to psychology & how Humanistic approach acts as a guide to personality
assessment.

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DISCUSSIONS
Humanistic Theory:
It is referred to the humanism & is known to focus on personal growth & fulfilment as a basic
human motivation in life & as individuals it gives us more credit in controlling &
determining the needs & characteristics without having any stigma attached.
Carl Rogers Theory:
Self Concept: Roger believed people can actually grow & blossom like flowers, for a person
to grow they need an environment that provides them with acceptance & empathy. He said
everybody is good & work towards becoming fully functioning & they only get destroyed
due to external factors or really bad self concept. People are trust worthy; they have vast
potential for understanding themselves & resolving their own problems without the need of
outside interventions. The self concept is based on the subjective reality (phenomenal field).
Roger speaks about 3 components:
1. Self worth: It directs towards what we think we are worthy of as people & what we
deserve in life. It is our analysis on what we think we consist of & this concept is
influenced by the treatment one is received as a child from his/her parents.
2. Self Image: It directs towards how we look at ourselves as human beings as a part of
society. It includes how we think of ourselves as good or bad people as beautiful or
ugly as kind or selfish. In simple words it is looking into mirror, how we see ourselves
in our minds.
3. Ideal self: It directs towards person we would like to be in our minds. It consists of all
our goals & ambitions. As we grow our goals changes & the ideal self also undergoes
changes. He said as human beings move closer to their Ideal self they actually begin
to self actualize.
When there is a similarity between a person’s ideal self (what they want to be like) & their
real self (what they think they are) there is Congruence. If there is a difference between the
real self & the ideal self then they are in a state of Incongruence. The closer the self image &
the ideal self are the greater the congruence they have, the greater the feelings of self worth,
the more likely they are to reach Self actualization.
Self Actualization means human beings reaching their full potential & becoming one with
their ideal self. A fully functioning (we become a fully functioning person when we try to
reach self actualization) person will have the following characteristics:
• Aware of all experiences & Existential living

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• Freedom of choice
• Creativity & spontaneity
Assumptions:
• Behaviours are goal oriented & worthwhile (every action is goal oriented)
• Person who is innately good will always try to self actualize
Abraham Maslow’s Theory:
Hierarchy of needs: This theory is focused on the importance of personal growth & fulfilment
of needs. The hierarchy of needs is represented in a pyramid.
The pyramid consists of 8 needs starting from Basic need of physiology in the base of the
pyramid followed by safety needs, belonging & love needs, esteem needs, cognitive needs,
aesthetic needs, self actualization & the last Transcendence.
In the above diagram the D needs represent the deficit needs, if these needs are not met they
make us uncomfortable, & these are the motivating force to move towards the next group of
needs that is the B needs in the diagram, it represents the Growth needs that constantly help
us in our growth & development. We as humans never get enough of these needs.
Each of these needs need to be met in order for a person to progress in the next level & all
level needs to be fulfilled for a person to reach Self Actualization & Transcendence.

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Criticisms:
Humanistic Approach -
• It is criticised as it fails to account for human capacity for evil, also the individualism
in humanism can lead to selfishness & lack of morals.
• It rejects the notion that our behaviour is largely determined by unconscious
processes, by learning from our environment, or by rational cognitive processing.
• As humanistic theory emphasizes on subjectivity on the clinical level it doesn’t offer
standardization.
• There is no specificity & precision in the Humanistic approach as it focuses from the
point of view of the individual.
• It is assumed to be overly philosophical & doesn’t have scientific variability, which
makes it difficult in the research level.
• It is believed that Humanistic approach is helpful only for a short period of time as it
addresses only the current problems.
• Humanistic approach is more relevant to therapy rather than psychological research
on lifespan development.
Carl Rogers Self concept –
• Rogers self concept is highly criticised in the European countries as they believe
achievement of group is more important than as an individual
• Lack of empirical evidence: Sensory observations are less
• Focus on subjective experience is high.
Hierarchy of needs –
• It is too restrictive & suggests that if a person doesn’t have one of the needs met at a
certain level, they cannot possibly advance up the hierarchy of needs.
• Some people may actually demonstrate certain characteristics of self actualization
like morality, creativity etc but not have lower needs met, hence there is no
explanation for the excellence despite missing to fulfil lower level needs.
• As we know that two people are not same, so not all of the needs of the particular
hierarchy are going to work for everybody, so it seems to be knowingly restrictive in
having those needs met lower & higher level but all of that is actually going to
necessarily work for everybody in the world.
• It applies to only a small amount of population, so only people that have access to
resources or access to employment & getting their physiological needs met have any
hope of actually getting self actualized.

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