Explain humanistic approach to personality.

Humanistic approach to personality proposed by Rogers.

Humanistic theories emphasise personal responsibility and innovate tendencies toward personal growth. They focus on the importance of people's subjective attitudes, feelings and beliefs especially with regard to the self.

According to humanistic approach, we human beings are most creative, growing, fully functioning and self-actualizing people.

Human lives in the here and now and trust their own feelings. They are sensitive to the needs of others but they do not allow society's standards to shape their feelings or actions to an excessive degree.

Rogers suggests that each individual has a concept of ideal self. If there is a discrepancy between real self and ideal self then individual develops maladjustment.

Rogers proposed two basic assumptions:

(a) Human behaviour is goal-directed and worthwhile.

(b) People always choose adaptive and self-actualizing behaviour.

Rogers believed that many individuals fail to become fully functioning persons because they grow up in an atmosphere of conditional positive regard and develop distorted self-concepts which interferes with personal growth. Such people fail to self-actualise.

All human beings desire unconditional positive regard, freedom of choice and feeling of fulfilment for attainment of self-actualization.

Humanistic theories don't deny the importance of past experience but they generally focus on the present.