Update tendency

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Updating tendency is a term of humanistic psychology that goes back to Kurt Goldstein and represents the basic motive of human action. It is the constant striving of humans to maintain, develop and realize their development possibilities, as well as to achieve independence and self-determination.

This actualization tendency is a basic principle in the client- or person-centered psychotherapy of Carl Rogers and corresponds to his humanistic-person-centered view of man. It is seen as the overriding principle of meaning and development of human behavior and experience. It has the effect that the human organism seeks to develop and maintain all physical, emotional and spiritual possibilities.
In Rogers' original, this means: “The term describes the organism's inherent tendency to develop all its possibilities. In such a way that they serve to maintain or promote the organism. ”The actualization tendency is thus the only axiom or at least one of the central constructs in Roger's theory. It develops Rogers in his "Theory of Therapy" from the "tendency to reorganize his self-concept" with regard to a congruence of self-concept and "the totality of his experiences (...) in the following personality theory towards the actualization tendency". The actualization tendency then plays a central role in this personality theory , especially with the “postulates about the nature of the child”. Going beyond Abraham Maslow (as of 1954, Motivation and Personality ), the term at Rogers contains, in addition to deficiency needs (Maslow) such as food, clothing, housing, etc., other needs, from the "differentiation of his self and his functions" to " Development towards autonomy and away from heteronomy or control through external constraints. "

When the basic need for unconditional positive appreciation is satisfied, the human being behaves in a fundamentally constructive, rational, social striving for his development . If he is not granted this appreciation, he will do everything to maintain his existence and his self-respect , even if he can no longer develop himself or even has to suppress his inner possibilities. This can lead to blockages, mental disorders and inhibitions or to destructive, irrational, anti-social behavior.

On the basis of this (anthropological) model assumption about the essence of human beings, violence and aggression are not ascribed fundamentally to human beings, but rather as a consequence, understood as a grown expression of possibly chronified blockages of the tendency to actualize.

References

  1. ↑ a b cf. Rogers 2009, p. 27.
  2. ↑ See Rogers 2009, pp. 24, 26 f. Further constructs are the self or self-concept or “the constructs of congruence, incongruence, defense, unconditional positive attention, the locus of evaluation, etc.” cf. ibid., P. 34, cf. on self 32 ff.
  3. ↑ Cf. Rogers 2009, p. 55. On the theory of therapy and personality change , cf. ibid. pp. 46–56.
  4. ↑ See Rogers 2009, p. 56 f.
  5. ↑ See Rogers 2009, p. 26, below with reference to Angyal 1941.

See also

literature

  • Rogers, CR: A Theory of Psychotherapy, Personality, and Interpersonal Relationships. With a foreword by Jürgen Kriz. Reinhardt Verlag, Munich a. a. 2009 (original 1959).
  • Jürgen Kriz: Self-Actualization . BoD. 2006, ISBN 3833452552