Deck 11: The Humanistic Approach: Theory, Application, and Assessment

Question 1

Which of the following concepts from existential philosophy influenced the development of the humanistic approach to personality?

A) A lifestyle that counters emptiness, anxiety, and boredom.
B) Person-centered psychotherapy
C) Hierarchy of needs
D) Self-actualization

Answer 1

A

Question 2

According to Carl Rogers, subception

A) is the most common defense process.
B) only happens in people who are fully functioning.
C) takes place at a level somewhere below consciousness.
D) results in an increase in anxiety.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

According to Rogers, fully functioning people

A) are more aware of societal norms and more likely to conform to society's standards.
B) put society's needs ahead of their own personal needs and interests.
C) accept and express their anger when they feel it.
D) are not concerned with rebellion and so are unlikely to act in nonconforming ways.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

The "third force" in psychology was developed in part to promote a view of humankind different from the ones presented by the

A) Freudian and trait approaches.
B) Freudian and behaviorism approaches.
C) trait and behaviorism approaches.
D) Freudian and social learning approaches.

Question 5

According to Rogers, what are the consequences of using high levels of distortion and denial?

A) The person will experience disorganization as their psychological protections collapse.
B) The person will begin to experience disequilibrium.
C) Distortion increases anxiety, but denial reduces it.
D) Some distortion is good for functioning, but denial never is.

Question 6

Each of the following is an element of humanistic psychology except one. Which one?

A) Personal responsibility
B) Fully functioning persons
C) Personal growth
D) Identity crisis

Question 7

Which of the following concepts is generally accepted by advocates of the humanistic approach to psychology?

A) No one can know a client in therapy better than the client himself or herself.
B) It is the therapist's job to explain to the client the new goals the client must set for himself or herself.
C) People should spend more time thinking about the future and planning the directions of their lives.
D) People need to see how their past sets the course for where their lives are going.

Question 8

Emphasis on ________in the 1960s provided fertile soil for the growth of humanistic psychology.

A) civil rights
B) the environment and learning
C) communism
D) individuality and personal expression

Question 9

A man thinks of himself as an outstanding athlete. One day, he watches some tennis players at his athletic club who are considerably better than he is. This information is threatening to his self-concept. Because the man is not fully functioning, Rogers might have expected him to do one of the following except one. Which one?

A) Experience anxiety.
B) Reinterpret what he has seen to make it less threatening.
C) Deny that the men are good tennis players.
D) Accept that there are better tennis players than himself.

Question 10

A woman tells a humanistic psychotherapist that she wants to leave an unhappy relationship, but that she can't. The therapist will probably set as a goal that the woman comes to understand that

A) she must live in the "here and now."
B) there is a good part to everyone, even the man she is having trouble with now.
C) she should take responsibility for her choice to stay in or leave the relationship.
D) when she gets in touch with who she really is and drops her defenses, many of her relationship problems will also end.

Question 11

Carl Rogers suggested that the most commonly used defense process is

A) subception.
B) distortion.
C) denial.
D) repression.

Question 12

The humanistic approach to personality is most similar to

A) behaviorism.
B) existential philosophy.
C) the trait approach to personality.
D) the psychoanalytic approach to personality.

Question 13

Which of the following is true about Carl Rogers' background?

A) He entered his undergraduate education eager for a career in psychology.
B) Before entering psychology, Rogers planned a career as a minister.
C) The interpersonal warmth characteristic of Rogers' psychotherapy sessions was modeled by his parents as he grew up.
D) Rogers studied with the great existential philosophers in Europe.

Question 14

To what did Carl Rogers attribute part of his reason to move away from his original career goal and toward psychology as a profession?

A) His older brother was awarded a National Science Foundation fellowship.
B) He and his wife lost a child during childbirth.
C) The study of theology caused him to question his religious beliefs.
D) The assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Question 15

Which of the following would indicate one of the major elements of the humanistic approach to psychology?

A) Plan for the future.
B) Seize the day.
C) Let your past be your guide.
D) You're just a pawn.

Question 16

Carl Rogers proposed a defense mechanism not originally identified by Sigmund Freud. This process, called subception, allows people to

A) avoid awareness of threatening information.
B) move toward self-actualization.
C) bring their real and ideal selves closer together.
D) come to see themselves as they really are.

Question 17

Which of the following is a characteristic of the fully functioning person, according to the psychology of Carl Rogers?

A) They are open to their experiences.
B) They trust their own feelings.
C) They pay attention to what is happening in the here and now.
D) All of these are correct.

Question 18

Which term did Abraham Maslow use that was roughly equivalent to Carl Rogers's concept of the fully functioning individual?

A) Ego integrity
B) Optimal experience
C) Flow
D) Self-actualization

Question 19

According to the humanistic approach, people will be happy when

A) their immediate needs, such as money and shelter, are met.
B) they establish meaningful personal relationships.
C) their lives are free from problems.
D) they move toward becoming fully functioning.

Question 20

For Abraham Maslow, the turning point in his thinking about human personality came while he was

A) watching a World War II parade.
B) listening to a lecture on psychoanalysis.
C) wondering about the best techniques for therapy.
D) playing in a football game in college.

Question 21

A boy hits his younger sister. What might a Rogerian therapist recommend the parents say to the child?

A) "Hitting your sister is wrong. You are a bad boy."
B) "You need another way to express your feelings."
C) "I love you very much, but hitting is not an acceptable behavior."
D) "You will be punished if you do that again."

Question 22

Which of the following is true about Abraham Maslow's background?

A) He had a happy childhood.
B) He was drawn to psychology by his interest in behaviorism.
C) His writings were not well received by professional psychologists until after his death.
D) He worked closely with Carl Rogers.

Question 23

Research suggests that people are most likely to have flow experiences when they

A) work at something that has no clear goal.
B) relax and do something that is not very taxing.
C) are in their leisure time.
D) are working at their jobs.

Question 24

According to Maslow, which of the following is true about deficiency motives?

A) They affect behavior after most of the lower motives on the hierarchy of needs have been satisfied.
B) They result from the lack of a needed object.
C) They continue to grow even after the target object has been found.
D) They cannot be satisfied until the growth needs are satisfied.

Question 25

There are many common misconceptions of Maslow's need hierarchy. Among them is the assumption that

A) our lower needs must be satisfied totally before we can turn to higher needs.
B) how well our lower needs are satisfied determines how much those needs influence our behavior.
C) all needs are included at some level in the need hierarchy.
D) all cultures have the same basic need hierarchy.

Question 26

After a woman has more or less satisfied all of the needs on Maslow's hierarchy except the last one, what need will now have a strong influence on her behavior?

A) The need to perceive herself as competent and achieving
B) The need to experience nonpossessive, unselfish love (B love)
C) The need to develop her full potential, to be her true self
D) The need for self-respect

Question 27

A father tells his son that he loves him when the child is good, but says "I do not like you right now" when the child misbehaves. The father neglects to remind the child that he is still loved. The father is engaging in

A) denial.
B) conditional positive regard.
C) classical conditioning.
D) an anxiety-reduction technique.

Question 28

Which of the following is true about peak experiences, as described by Maslow?

A) All self-actualized people experience them.
B) Only self-actualized people experience them.
C) They are unrelated to where one is on Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
D) Self-actualized people have more intense and frequent peak experiences than others.

Question 29

According to Maslow, an adult is likely to take care of which of the following needs first?

A) A steady income
B) A romantic relationship
C) Discovering one's true potential
D) Obtaining the respect of one's peers

Question 30

When Csikszentmihalyi asked people to identify a moment when they felt most alive, participants in his study said that

A) they were engaged in a challenging task.
B) the task demanded the person's full concentration.
C) each step in the task seemed to flow automatically to the next.
D) all of these are correct

Question 31

Each of the following has been identified as a component of optimal experience except one. Which one?

A) Our attention is completely absorbed in the activity.
B) We experience a loss of self-consciousness.
C) People around us recognize and respect our accomplishments.
D) We lose a sense of time.

Question 32

Adlai Stevenson once said, "A hungry man is not a free man." What feature of the humanistic approach to personality does this reflect?

A) The emphasis on personal responsibility and free will
B) Rogers' fully functioning person
C) Maslow's hierarchy of needs
D) Maslow's description of psychologically healthy people

Question 33

Which of the following does Rogers blame for our inability to incorporate new information into our self-concepts?

A) Disorganization
B) Conditional positive regard
C) Subception
D) Anxiety

Question 34

According to Maslow, a man who has satisfied his physiological and safety needs will probably become highly aware of his need for

A) friends and a romantic relationship.
B) self-respect.
C) respect from his peers.
D) self-actualization.

Question 35

All of the following are among the eight components of the optimal experience except one. Which one?

A) One can concentrate only on the task at hand.
B) Satisfaction is received from a task.
C) The activity has clear goals.
D) Attention is absorbed by the activity.

Question 36

Flow experiences are more likely to happen

A) when people are at work.
B) when listening to music.
C) when people are away from work.
D) during sexual intimacy.

Question 37

One of the most basic human behaviors is the need to engage in sexual activities with a partner. According to Maslow, how do such behaviors relate to his hierarchy of needs?

A) Sexuality is specifically related to the level of belongingness and love.
B) Sexual actions are related to our desire to satisfy esteem needs.
C) Sexual functioning exists solely on a "survival needs" level of the hierarchy.
D) Sexual behaviors can satisfy one or a combination of several needs.

Question 38

According to Maslow, the motive that results from a lack of some object is called a_________ motive.

A) hierarchy
B) possession
C) envy
D) deficiency

Question 39

Which of the following is characteristic of the people Maslow identified as "psychologically healthy"?

A) They have many friends.
B) They are the only ones who have "peak experiences."
C) They tend to be creative.
D) They are unconcerned with what others think of them.

Question 40

Among the many characteristics of self-actualized people, they tend to

A) admit to personal weakness and attempt to improve themselves.
B) ignore their own weaknesses and focus on their personal strengths.
C) show higher acceptance of other people for who they are.
D) be more greatly inhibited in their social interactions.

Question 41

Which of the following is a Rogerian psychotherapist likely to use during therapy?

A) Conditional positive regard
B) Rephrasing and reflecting clients' words back to them
C) Dream interpretation
D) Conditions of worth

Question 42

Rogerian therapists measure each of the following with the Q Sort technique except one. Which one?

A) The client's self-concept
B) The client's ideal self
C) The client's progress during the course of psychotherapy
D) The client's ability to see things in a realistic manner

Question 43

A Rogerian therapist expects each of the following except one might happen if progress is being made during psychotherapy. Which one?

A) The client no longer needs to feel valued by the therapist regardless of what he or she says.
B) The client's ideal self will change to be more like the real self.
C) The client's real self will change to be more like the ideal self.
D) The client will begin to accept parts of himself or herself that previously had been denied or distorted.

Question 44

Recent studies of psychotherapists have shown that

A) most do not use a humanistic approach.
B) many either identify their approach as humanistic or use person-centered techniques in their work.
C) the usefulness of humanistic psychotherapy is questionable.
D) the effectiveness of the humanistic approach is only temporary.

Question 45

As a client becomes more fully functioning during the course of several psychotherapy sessions, we would expect the correlation between his or her real and ideal selves to

A) decrease.
B) stay the same.
C) increase.
D) do any of the above, for the correlation is unrelated to progress in therapy.

Question 46

According to Rogers, the therapist's job is to

A) identify the client's problems for him or her.
B) teach the client what it means to be fully functioning.
C) modify the client's self-destructive behaviors.
D) provide an atmosphere within which clients are able to help themselves.

Question 47

People report that during optimal experiences, they feel as if they are caught in natural and effortless movement from one step to the next.

Question 48

Each of the following except one has been identified as a strength of the humanistic approach. Which one?

A) Clearly defined concepts
B) Focus on the healthy side of personality
C) Impact on psychotherapy practices
D) Influence in disciplines other than psychology

Question 49

Rogers recommended that therapists use a process of reflection. By this, he meant that they should

A) give clients some quiet time to think about what they are saying.
B) repeat clients' words back to them verbatim so they can hear exactly what they sound like when spoken.
C) explain to clients how they are distorting or denying their experiences.
D) rephrase and translate vague feelings expressed by clients into more precise words.

Question 50

According to Rogers, there is a proper therapeutic relationship that must exist if a client and therapist are to achieve success in counseling. This relationship includes which of the following?

A) Repetitive peak experiences
B) Unconscious impulses being revealed
C) Unconditional positive regard
D) Humanistic transference

Question 51

All but which of the following has been a criticism of the humanistic approach?

A) "Free will" may not be a scientific explanation for behavior.
B) Many key concepts are poorly defined.
C) Few psychotherapists have been influenced by the humanistic approach.
D) The humanistic approach makes some overly naive assumptions about human nature.

Question 52

Rogers and Freud provide distinctly opposite answers to the question of whether or not

A) anxiety plays a role in psychological disorders.
B) people use defenses to reduce anxiety.
C) a psychotherapist should explain to a client what the client really means.
D) people are influenced by mental processes of which they are not aware.

Question 53

Maslow believed that the five-level hierarchy was an oversimplification of his true theory of needs.

Question 54

The use of the Q-Sort technique of personality assessment fits nicely with Rogers's theory of personality because

A) clients are believed to know themselves best.
B) therapists must help clients place the cards into the correct categories.
C) clients discover the unrealistic ways in which they see themselves.
D) clients must be told how to behave more appropriately by their therapist.

Question 55

According to Rogers, clients are able to overcome defenses and accept experiences that have been denied and distorted when they

A) experience conditional positive regard.
B) experience unconditional positive regard.
C) think about what they are saying to the therapist.
D) have a good self-concept.

Question 56

Statistical determinism refers to which of the following?

A) The idea that statistical findings are most conclusive.
B) The perspective that researchers can predict the likelihood of specific actions.
C) Deciding the correct statistical test for studies of self-actualization.
D) People are not really free to make choices because they do not know the most likely causes of their choice.

Question 57

The most common defense, according to Rogers, is the process of distortion.

Question 58

You ask a person to provide a real-self profile and an ideal-self profile with a Q-Sort. Which correlation would you expect to find between the two profiles if the person is approaching fully functioning?

A) 52
B) 04
C) 38
D) 75

Question 59

According to Carl Rogers, individuals progress toward an ultimate satisfying state of being self-actualized.

Question 60

By using Google search for Maslow's hierarchy of needs, researchers found

A) very few website hits.
B) as many website hits for Maslow as they did for Freud.
C) more Internet images of the need pyramid than of the Mona Lisa.
D) all of these are correct.

Question 61

Identify an optimal experience you have had. List the eight components of optimal experiences and discuss whether each one was present in yours.

Question 62

Discuss the basic tenets of Carl Rogers's humanistic approach to personality. Discuss where anxiety comes from according to Rogers, including the defenses that he suggested we use against anxiety. Describe Rogers's characterization of the fully functioning person.

Question 63

Describe your understanding of the therapeutic situation in person-centered therapy. What is the therapist's job, and what are the key elements and techniques Rogers used? Give one way this approach to psychotherapy is successful.

Question 64

Describe how Maslow went about studying psychologically healthy people. List each of the characteristics of the self-actualized individual he found and define what he meant by peak experience. List and define each of the five levels in Maslow's hierarchy of needs, giving your own example of a need at each level.

Question 65

In a correlational analysis of Q-Sort responses, a zero correlation indicates that the client's real and ideal selves are highly related.