The humanistic theory approach

Humanistic Theories

The humanistic theory approach engages social skills, feelings, intellect, artistic skills, practical skills, and more as part of their education. Self-esteem, goals, and full autonomy are key learning elements in the humanistic learning theory.

• Read the following background on the time periods and societies in which Freud and Rogers lived.
  • Sigmund Freud lived in a time of change that included a catastrophic world war that set the stage for an even bigger world war. Ten years after Freud’s birth in 1856, Austria went to war with Prussia in Germany.
  • The result was the formation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which would expand and then disintegrate in the next 50 years.
  • Freud was born into a wealthy, Jewish family and lived most of his life in Vienna, the Austrian capital.
  • He would have been fully aware of the forces that marked profound changes in the 19th and early 20th centuries. He saw nationalist movements that destabilized the Austro-Hungarian Empire. World War I in 1914 was triggered by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. Consider that of the 7.8 million Austro-Hungarian forces that fought in the war, 90 percent (7.02 million) were causalities—killed, wounded, missing, or taken prisoner.
  • (See the Optional Resource, WWI Casualty and Death Tables, for these and additional statistics.) Freud also witnessed the rise of communism and fascism in Europe.
  • When he died on September 23, 1939, Nazi Germany had invaded Poland and World War II had begun. As a Jew, he had left Vienna for England, where he died, to escape the Nazi threat.
  • For comparison to the technology in the modern coffee shop, photography developed greatly in his lifetime, and the telephone was invented. But there were no computers or Internet or anything close to them. Telephones were not portable. And while there were hand-held cameras, they were nothing like the cell phone features of today.
  • The Learning Resources on Carl Rogers provide background on his life. Note that he spent much of his early life living on a farm in the U.S. Midwest—the opposite environment from Freud’s urban setting in a major European capital—and initially went to college to study agriculture and then the ministry before becoming a psychologist.
  • Born at the start of the 20th century in 1902, Rogers witnessed tremendous change and development in his lifetime. He was 14 when World War I began and 37 at the start of World War II, from which America emerged as a major world power.
  • He witnessed the Nuclear Age and its arms race, and the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union for nearly 50 years following World War II.
  • He also saw the Civil Rights Movement and the Women’s Movement in the United States.
  • In terms of technology, when he died in 1987, there were digital cameras, mobile phones, and laptop computers, although not of the convenient size, speed, and multiple features of current devices.
  • The Internet was in primitive use, although social sites like Facebook had not yet been founded.

• Reflecting on the settings in which Freud and Rogers lived and how they might view the following behaviors, choose one of these behaviors as the focus of your post:
• • Chronicling personal activity through selfies
  • Revealing personal/emotional lives on Facebook
  • Texting as a primary means of communicating with others

This is my colleague’s response to the Learning Resource Above.

Revealing personal/emotional lives on Facebook

My choice of behavior is Revealing personal/emotional lives on Facebook, today an age most who have social media post every major or minor event of their lives. For some, it’s like an addiction if they don’t post, comment, or like something on social media they feel incomplete. For others, it’s like a goal to reach a certain amount of likes or comments on their post for people to view. In the times of Rogers, he was still around when the internet was barely starting, however, social media was not a thing yet.

My thought is that he would have been surprised at how much time and influence social media had on a person’s everyday life, but at the same time would have an understanding due to his theory on people’s behavior of the need for positive regard. Cervone and Pervin, 2019 mention that ‘people need not only the obvious biological fact of life, food, water shelter.

They need to be accepted and respected by others, that is, to receive other’s positive regard.” (p141). This is how I would imagine that Rogers would view people’s behavior in revealing personal/emotional posts on Facebook, the need for likes and comments reflects the need for other’s positive regard which leads to them losing touch with their true selves by distorting their own feelings and desires.

In the perspective of Sigmund Freud’s theory that personality is made of Id, ego, and superego I think his theory of someone’s behavior with social media posting constantly would be the need for the individual to be accepted and that would fall in relation to the Id which needs motivational forces.

The Ego would search for what it is that can satisfy the Id which would be the constant posting and lastly the superego which offers rewards or punishments dependent on behavior. By posting constantly on social media a person is seeking motivational satisfaction like the Id, and after seeing all the responses than the superego sees it as a reward.

Seidman, 2015 mentions that “Participants also reported on their motives for using Facebook (attention-seeking, need to feel accepted by others, self-expression, communication with others, and to find and disseminate information), how many likes and comments they typically got on their posts, and their frequency of Facebook use.”

I am more in agreement with Roger’s theory the fact that I have seen this occur with some people I know.

They post on social media to get the positive rewards and acceptance of others and truly lose a sense of reality because they are so inserted in social media seeking validation.

Reference

Cervone, D., & Pervin, L. A. (2019). Personality: Theory and research (14th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Seidman, G. (2015, July 2). Close encounters: What can you learn about people from Facebook? [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/close-encounters/201507/what-can-you-learn-about-people-facebook

Respond to my colleague’s post above at least in one or more of the following ways.

• Ask a probing question and provide insight into how you would answer your question and why.
• Ask a probing question and provide the foundation or rationale for the question.
• Expand on your colleague’s posting by offering a new perspective or insight.
• Agree with a colleague and offer additional (new) supporting information for consideration.
• Disagree with a colleague by respectfully discussing and supporting a different perspective.

Support your reply to a colleague’s post with at least one reference (textbook or other scholarly, empirical resources).

You may state your opinion and/or provide personal examples; however, you must also back up your assertions with evidence (including in-text citations) from the source and provide a reference.