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Humanistic Perspective on Personality Essay

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The humanistic perspective on personality deals exclusively with human behavior. Humanistic psychologists believe that human nature includes a natural drive towards personal growth, that humans have the freedom to choose what they do regardless of environmental factors, and humans are mostly conscious beings and are not controlled by unconscious needs and conflicts. They also believe that a person's subjective view of the world is more important than objective reality. Two of the humanistic theorists that have made an impact of humanism are Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. When thinking about my personality in regard to different personality theories, I felt that I could most relate to the humanistic theory. Carl Rogers …show more content…

I was fortunate to have parents that Rogers would say showed me unconditional love. Because of this, I feel that I can get past obstacles and rough times because I know that I am worthy of love, regardless. I also I agree that experiences that threaten people's views of themselves cause anxiety. If I feel that I am doing good in a class and feel like I've been working hard and using my brain's potential and then I get a failing grade on a test or assignment, I feel anxious. I thought that I was doing good, and now I don't know what to think. My self-concept is threatened. A natural defense is to blame the teacher, or the test, or make excuses for myself because I don't like to have my self-concept threatened. Abraham Maslow described the hierarchy of needs as a systematic arrangement of needs, according to priority, in which basic needs must be met before less basic needs are aroused. The most basic needs are physiological needs that one must have in order to survive. Then you need safety and security. If these needs are not met, you don't go on to belongingness and love needs. And without belongingness and love, you won't have a very high self-esteem, which is the next level. This hierarchy goes up until you reach the need for self-actualization. This is the need to fulfill your potential. Maslow described this as "What a man can be, he must be." I think that this applies to myself. If I get my final grades and they are

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