The Handy Psychology Answer Book. Lisa J. Cohen

refer to ways that people process information. Believing the mind to be composed of opposites in continual tension with each other, he proposed two polarities: thinking vs. feeling and intuition vs. sensation. Each polarity was mutually exclusive from the other one. You could not process the world through feeling and through thinking at the same time. One side of the polarity was always dominant, the other relegated back to the unconscious. Extroversion vs. introversion described the attitude toward the outside world. The extrovert attends primarily to external reality, to other people and objects. The introvert is turned inward, preoccupied with internal, subjective experience.

      What personality tests are derived from Jung’s theory of personality?

      The Meyers-Briggs test is a well-known personality test that is often used in the work-place to identify employees’ different personality styles. This test uses all three polarities mentioned above, extroversion vs. introversion, thinking vs. feeling, intuition vs. sensation, and adds one more, judgment vs. perception. Extroversion is also measured on scales associated with the Five Factor Model of personality, such as the NEO personality inventory. This test, formulated to identify dimensions of personality in non-pathological adults, uses 240 items to quantify five areas: neuroticism, extroversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.

      What was Jung’s relationship with mysticism?

      Jung was always drawn to mysticism and late in life he traveled extensively to learn about the spiritual practices of other cultures. He visited the Pueblo Indians in New Mexico, he traveled to Kenya and India and, he collaborated on studies of various Eastern religions. He viewed the symbolism in all the religious traditions as expressions of universal archetypes. Jung’s view of mental health was also religiously tinged. Our happiness is dependent upon our communion with a universal reality that is part of us but yet larger than us. In his concept of the collective unconscious, he combined psychology, evolutionary biology, and the spiritual traditions of many diverse cultures.

      What are archetypes?

      Archetypes are patterns of experience and behavior that reflect ancient and fundamental ways of dealing with universal life situations. Archetypes reside in the collective unconscious. There is a mother archetype, a child archetype, an archetype of the feminine, of the masculine, and many more. Archetypes can never be directly known in consciousness but can only be glimpsed through the images that float up from our unconscious in dreams, creative works of art, mythology, and even religious symbolism. Through interpretation of this visual symbolism, we gain greater knowledge of our deepest selves.

      HUMANISTIC THEORIES

      What is humanistic psychology?

      Humanistic psychology refers to a group of psychological theories and practices that originated in the 1950s and became very popular in subsequent decades. Similar to the Gestalt psychologists, the humanistic psychologists reacted against the constraints of the dominant psychological schools of their time but the humanistic psychologists had better timing. They arrived on the scene just as the dominance of behaviorism and psychoanalysis was beginning to fade. In fairly short order, they became powerful counterpoints to the orthodoxies of both schools.

      In general, humanistic psychologists wanted to inject humanity back into the study of human beings. More specifically, they objected to a mechanical view of psychology, to the portrayal of human beings as passive objects at the mercy of either stimulus-response chains or unconscious drives. They insisted that people are active participants in their own lives. Humanists emphasized free will and the importance of choice. They also valued the richness of subjective experience and concerned themselves with the qualities of lived experience, of human consciousness.

      Finally, they challenged the emphasis on pathology in psychoanalysis. In contrast to Freud, they believed that people are inherently motivated toward psychological growth and will naturally move toward health with proper encouragement and support.

      What philosophical and psychological schools influenced humanistic psychology?

      In Europe, the ravages of World War II and the Holocaust brought the question of meaning to the fore. How can life have meaning and purpose in the face of such senseless slaughter? The philosophical movement of Existentialism came out of these circumstances and provided a backdrop for the humanistic psychologists. Phenomenology, an earlier branch of European philosophy, also influenced the humanistic psychologists with its focus on the rich complexity of subjective experience. With regard to psychological schools, the functionalism of William James also played a role, as did the holistic theories of the Gestalt psychologists.

      This triangle illustrates Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

      What is meant by third force psychology?

      In 1950s America, where humanistic psychology originated, the field of psychology was dominated by the twin giants of behaviorism and psychoanalysis. Behaviorism dominated academic psychology and psychoanalysis dominated clinical psychology. Humanistic psychologists wanted to create an alternative to these two great forces: a third force in psychology.

      Who was Abraham Maslow?

      The American psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908–1970) was one of the founding fathers of humanistic psychology. Maslow wrote a number of books and also made several important theoretical contributions. He is perhaps best known for his concept of the hierarchy of needs. Maslow believed that human psychological needs are multidimensional and that there is no single motivating force to explain all of human behavior. He believed these needs could be organized hierarchically with the most fundamental needs related to biological survival. Once our fundamental biological needs—such as thirst, hunger, and warmth—are met, our needs for safety come into play. Following satisfaction of safety needs, psychological needs for emotional bonds with other people become important. Once those are met, we become concerned with self-esteem and the need to feel recognized and valued in a community. Finally, after all these more basic needs are met, we encounter the need for self-actualization, a kind of creative fulfillment of our human potential.

      What did Maslow mean by self-actualization?

      Although Maslow was not the first to use the term self-actualization, his name is most frequently associated with it. Self-actualization refers to a state of full self-expression, where one’s creative, emotional, and intellectual potential is fully realized. We recognize what we need to feel fully alive and we commit ourselves to its pursuit. Although Maslow was criticized for promoting what was seen as a selfish pursuit of pleasure, he stressed that it is only through development of our truest selves that we attain full compassion for others. In his view, self-actualized people make the strongest leaders and the greatest contributions to society. This concept illustrates humanistic psychology’s concern with personal growth and psychological health in contrast to psychoanalysis’s emphasis on psychopathology and mental illness.

      What did Maslow mean by peak experiences?

      A peak experience occurs in a state of total awareness and concentration, in which the world is understood as a unified, integrated whole where all is connected and no one part is more important than another. This is an awe-filled and ecstatic experience, which is frequently described in religious or mystical terms. It is not simply a rose-colored distortion of life, however, where all evil and tragedy is denied. Rather it is a moment of full comprehension, where good and evil are fully accepted as a part of a complete whole. Like William James and Carl Jung before him, Maslow believed the mystical and ecstatic aspects of religion were proper subjects of psychological study.

      What is the difference between D-love and B-love?

      Maslow also distinguished between