Humanistic theory of personality

Humanistic theory of personality
         
  In humanistic psychology it is emphasized people have free will and they play an active role in determining how they behave. Accordingly, humanistic psychology focuses on subjective experiences of persons as opposed to forced, definitive factors that determine behavior. Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers were proponents of this view, which is based on the phenomenal field theory of Combs and Snygg (1949).

            Maslow spent much of his time studying what he called self actualization’s person, those who are fulfilling themselves and doing the best they are capable of doing. Maslow believes all who are interested in growth move towards selfactualizing (growth, happiness, satisfaction) views. Many of these people demonstrate a trend in dimensions of their personality (George Boeree 2009:251). Characteristics of self-actualizers according to Maslow include the four key dimensions:

1.        Awareness-maintaining constant enjoyment and awe of life. These individuals often experienced a peak experience. He defined a peak experience as anintensification of any experience to the degree there is a loss or transcendence of self". A peak experience is one in which an individual perceives an expansion of his or herself, and detects a unity and meaningfulness in life. Intense concentration on an activity one is involved in, such as running a marathon, may invoke a peak experience.

2.        Reality and problem centered-they have tendency to be concerned with problems in their surroundings.

3.        Acceptance/Spontaneity-they accept their surroundings and what cannot be changed.

4.        Unhostile sense of humor/democratic, they do not like joking about others, which can be viewed as offensive. They have friends of all backgrounds and religions and hold very close friendships.

            Maslow and Rogers emphasized a view of the person as an active, creative, experiencing human being who lives in the present and subjectively responds to current perceptions, relationships, and encounters. They disagree with the dark, pessimistic outlook of those in the Freudian psychoanalysis ranks, but rather view humanistic theories as positive and optimistic proposals, which stress the tendency of the human personality toward growth and self-actualization. This progressing self will remain the center of its constantly changing world; worlds that will help mold the self but not necessarily confine it. Rather, the self has opportunity for maturation based on its encounters with this world (George Boere, 2009: 252).

            This understanding attempts to reduce the acceptance of hopeless redundancy. Humanistic therapy typically relies on the client for information of the past and its effect on the present, therefore the client dictates the type of guidance the therapist may initiate. This allows for an individualized approach to therapy. Rogers found patients differ in how they respond to other people. Rogers tried to model a particular approach to therapy- he stressed the reflective or empathetic response.

            This response type takes the client's viewpoint and reflects back his or her feeling and the context for it. An example of a reflective response would be, it seems you are feeling anxious about your upcoming marriage. This response type seeks to clarify the therapist's understanding while also encouraging the client to think more deeply and seek to fully understand the feelings they have expressed.         From this definition we can see that if we talk about personality, it means that we talk about some one’s characteristics and the qualities completely. From the definition above, it can be considered that personality is a part of psychology. It means that personality becomes one of areas of psychology concern. Personality also represents the characteristic of person in general that are determined on the basic of his or her patterns of behavior(George Boeree, 2009: 256). Surely in analyzing Mrs.pontellier’s  personality, the researcher will use the theory of personality especially on Maslow’s humanistic theory of personality.

In this study, he researcher emphasizes on Maslow, because he mentions the awakening of need that is used in analyzing Mrs.pontellier’s need personality.