Human Givens is a niche theory in psychotherapy proposed by Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell in the late 1990s, [1] and amplified in the 2003 book Human Givens: A new approach to emotional health and clear thinking. [2] Human Givens therapy draws on several psycho therapeutic models, such as motivational interviewing, cognitive behavioural therapy, psychoeducation, interpersonal therapy, imaginal exposure therapy and NLP such as the Rewind Technique. [3]
Abraham Maslow is credited with the first prominent theory which laid out a hierarchy of needs. [4] The precise nature of the hierarchy and the needs have subsequently been refined by modern neuroscientific and psychological research.
Since Maslow's work in the middle of the twentieth century, a significant body of research has been undertaken to clarify what human beings need to be happy and healthy. The UK has contributed significantly to the international effort, through the ground breaking Whitehall Study led by Sir Michael Marmot, which tracked the lifestyles and outcomes for large groups of British civil servants. This identified effects on mental and physical health from emotional needs being met—for instance, it showed that those with less autonomy and control over their lives, or less social support, have worse health outcomes.
In the United States, the work of Martin Seligman, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania has been influential. Seligman has summarised the research to date in terms of what makes humans happy; again, this demonstrates themes about universal emotional needs which must be met for people to lead fulfilling lives. [5] [6]
At the University of Rochester, contemporaries of Seligman Edward Deci and Richard Ryan have conducted original research and gathered existing evidence to develop a framework of human needs which they call self-determination theory. This states that human beings are born with innate motivations, developed from our evolutionary past. They gather these motivational forces into three groups—autonomy, competence and relatedness. The human givens approach uses a framework of nine needs, which map onto these three groups.
The human givens model proposes that human beings come into the world with a given set of innate needs, together with innate resources to support them to get those needs met. Physical needs for nutritious food, clean water, air and sleep are obvious, and well understood, because when they are not met people die. However, the emotional needs, which the human givens approach seeks to bring to wider attention, are less obvious, and less well understood, but just as important to human health. Decades of social and health psychology research now support this. [7]
The human givens approach defines nine emotional needs:
These needs map more or less well to tendencies and motivations described by other psychological evidence, especially that compiled by Deci and Ryan at the University of Rochester. [14] [15] The exact categorisation of these needs, however, is not considered important. Needs can be interlinked and have fuzzy boundaries, as Maslow noted. [16] What matters is a broad understanding of the scope and nature of human emotional needs and why they are so important to our physical and mental health. Humans are a physically vulnerable species that have enjoyed amazing evolutionary success due in large part to their ability to form relationships and communities. Getting the right social and emotional input from others was, in our evolutionary past, literally a matter of life or death. Thus, Human Givens theory states, people are genetically programmed only to be happy and healthy when these needs are met.
There is evidence that these needs are consistent across cultures, and therefore represent innate human requirements. [17] [18] [19]
The Human Givens model also consists of a set of 'resources' (abilities and capabilities) that all human beings are born with, which are used to get the innate needs met. These constitute what is termed an 'inner guidance system'. Learning how to use these resources well is seen as being key to achieving, and sustaining, robust bio-psycho-social health as individuals and as groups (families, communities, societies, cultures etc.).
The given resources include:
A further organising idea [22] proffered by the human givens approach is to suggest that there are three main reasons why individuals may not be getting their needs met and thus why they may become mentally ill:
When dealing with mental illness or distress this framework provides a checklist that guides both diagnosis and treatment.
Within this framework Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell developed models for several forms of mental illness based on their own research and insights.
Psychotherapy based on the Human Givens theory follows the APET model, following the order in which the brain processes information and offers supportive strategies for each phase. [27]
Sessions are structured by the RIGAAR model. [28] [29]
Human Givens therapy is a solution-focused brief therapy, [30] an approach that is aligned with solution-focused coaching and wellness coaching, [31] and thus the Human Givens approach is used by psychotherapists as well as life coaches [32] [33] and therapeutic coaches. [34] [35]
In 2008, a systematic review of the literature on the Human Givens approach concluded that the evidence was limited and of low quality. They called for rigorously designed studies. They did find 2 studies of higher quality evidence supporting the rewind technique but attributed the rewind technique rather than the Human Givens approach. The authors called on mainstream journals to provide space for healthy debate. [36]
In 2012 a retrospective review of 3,885 cases found Human Givens Therapy to be clinically equivalent to a benchmark for relief from psychological distress. [37]
A controlled study found that treating people with mild to moderate depressed mood (measured using HADS) with human givens therapy had quicker results than the treatment provided to people in a control group, but suffered problems reaching an adequately sized control group. [38]
A five-year evaluation of the Human Givens therapy using a practice research network found success with relieving psychological distress. [39]
In 2019 a retrospective study found that a Human Givens based therapy provided by PTSD Resolution for the Armed Forces Community was to be an acceptable alternative for IAPT treatment. [40] The therapy offered by PTSD Resolution is based on the rewind technique as adopted by Human Givens. [41]
Psychotherapy is the use of psychological methods, particularly when based on regular personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase happiness, and overcome problems. Psychotherapy aims to improve an individual's well-being and mental health, to resolve or mitigate troublesome behaviors, beliefs, compulsions, thoughts, or emotions, and to improve relationships and social skills. Numerous types of psychotherapy have been designed either for individual adults, families, or children and adolescents. Certain types of psychotherapy are considered evidence-based for treating some diagnosed mental disorders; other types have been criticized as pseudoscience.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a conceptualisation of the needs that motivate human behaviour, which was proposed by the American psychologist Abraham Maslow. According to Maslow’s original formulation, there are five sets of basic needs that are related to each other in a hierarchy of prepotency. Typically, the hierarchy is depicted in the form of a pyramid although Maslow was not himself responsible for the iconic diagram. The pyramid begins at the bottom with physiological needs and culminates at the top with self-actualization needs. In his later writings, Maslow added a sixth level of ‘meta-needs’ and metamotivation.
Positive psychology is a field of psychological theory and research of optimal human functioning of people, groups, and institutions. It studies "positive subjective experience, positive individual traits, and positive institutions... it aims to improve quality of life."
Psychology is an academic and applied discipline involving the scientific study of human mental functions and behavior. Occasionally, in addition or opposition to employing the scientific method, it also relies on symbolic interpretation and critical analysis, although these traditions have tended to be less pronounced than in other social sciences, such as sociology. Psychologists study phenomena such as perception, cognition, emotion, personality, behavior, and interpersonal relationships. Some, especially depth psychologists, also study the unconscious mind.
Motivation is an internal state that propels individuals to engage in goal-directed behavior. It is often understood as a force that explains why people or animals initiate, continue, or terminate a certain behavior at a particular time. It is a complex phenomenon and its precise definition is disputed. It contrasts with amotivation, which is a state of apathy or listlessness. Motivation is studied in fields like psychology, neuroscience, motivation science, and philosophy.
Abraham Harold Maslow was an American psychologist who created Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a theory of psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human needs in priority, culminating in self-actualization. Maslow was a psychology professor at Brandeis University, Brooklyn College, New School for Social Research, and Columbia University. He stressed the importance of focusing on the positive qualities in people, as opposed to treating them as a "bag of symptoms". A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Maslow as the tenth most cited psychologist of the 20th century.
Humanistic psychology is a psychological perspective that arose in the mid-20th century in answer to two theories: Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory and B. F. Skinner's behaviorism. Thus, Abraham Maslow established the need for a "third force" in psychology. The school of thought of humanistic psychology gained traction due to Maslow in the 1950s.
A need is dissatisfaction at a point of time and in a given context. Needs are distinguished from wants. In the case of a need, a deficiency causes a clear adverse outcome: a dysfunction or death. In other words, a need is something required for a safe, stable and healthy life while a want is a desire, wish or aspiration. When needs or wants are backed by purchasing power, they have the potential to become economic demands.
Content theory is a subset of motivational theories that try to define what motivates people. Content theories of motivation often describe a system of needs that motivate peoples' actions. While process theories of motivation attempt to explain how and why our motivations affect our behaviors, content theories of motivation attempt to define what those motives or needs are. Content theory includes the work of David McClelland, Abraham Maslow and other psychologists.
Existential therapy is a form of psychotherapy based on the model of human nature and experience developed by the existential tradition of European philosophy. It focuses on the psychological experience revolving around universal human truths of existence such as death, freedom, isolation and the search for the meaning of life. Existential therapists largely reject the medical model of mental illness that views mental health symptoms as the result of biological causes. Rather, symptoms such as anxiety, alienation and depression arise because of attempts to deny or avoid the givens of existence, often resulting in an existential crisis. For example, existential therapists highlight the fact that since we have the freedom to choose, there will always be uncertainty - and therefore, there will always be a level of existential anxiety present in our lives.
Self-determination theory (SDT) is a macro theory of human motivation and personality that concerns people's innate growth tendencies and innate psychological needs. It pertains to the motivation behind people's choices in the absence of external influences and distractions. SDT focuses on the degree to which human behavior is self-motivated and self-determined.
Psychodynamics, also known as psychodynamic psychology, in its broadest sense, is an approach to psychology that emphasizes systematic study of the psychological forces underlying human behavior, feelings, and emotions and how they might relate to early experience. It is especially interested in the dynamic relations between conscious motivation and unconscious motivation.
Self-actualization, in Maslow's hierarchy of needs, is the highest personal aspirational human need in the hierarchy. It represents where one's potential is fully realized after more basic needs, such as for the body and the ego, have been fulfilled. Long received in psychological teaching as the peak of human needs, Maslow later added the category self-transcendence.
Ivan Tyrrell is a British educator, writer, and artist. He lives with his wife Véronique in the Cotswolds, England.
Edward L. Deci is a professor of Psychology and Gowen Professor in the Social Sciences at the University of Rochester, and director of its Human Motivation Program. He is well known in psychology for his theories of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and basic psychological needs which he has been researching for 40 years. With Richard Ryan, he is the co-founder of self-determination theory (SDT), an influential contemporary motivational theory.
Organismic theories in psychology are a family of holistic psychological theories which tend to stress the organization, unity, and integration of human beings expressed through each individual's inherent growth or developmental tendency. The idea of an explicitly "organismic theory" dates at least back to the publication of Kurt Goldstein's The organism: A holistic approach to biology derived from pathological data in man in 1934. Organismic theories and the "organic" metaphor were inspired by organicist approaches in biology. The most direct influence from inside psychology comes from Gestalt psychology. This approach is often contrasted with mechanistic and reductionist perspectives in psychology.
Determination is a positive emotional feeling that promotes persevering towards a difficult goal in spite of obstacles. Determination occurs prior to goal attainment and serves to motivate behavior that will help achieve one's goal.
Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way is a book by the writer Idries Shah that was first published by Octagon Press in 1978. Later editions by Harper & Row (1981) and Penguin Books include an introduction by Nobel Prize Winner Doris Lessing.
The self-perceived quality-of-life scale is a psychological assessment instrument which is based on a comprehensive theory of the self-perceived quality of life (SPQL) and provides a multi-faceted measurement of health-related and non-health-related aspects of well-being. The scale has become an instrument of choice for monitoring quality of life in some clinical populations, for example, it was adopted by the Positively Sound network for women living with HIV.
Metamotivation is a term coined by Abraham Maslow to describe the motivation of people who are self-actualized and striving beyond the scope of their basic needs to reach their full potential. Maslow suggested that people are initially motivated by a series of basic needs, called the hierarchy of needs. Maslow states, "Self-actualizing people are gratified in all their basic needs ". Once a person has successfully navigated the hierarchy of needs thus satisfying all their basic needs, Maslow proposed they then travel "a path called growth motivation".
Dr. Abraham Maslow, professor of psychology at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., and founder of what has come to be known as humanistic psychology, died of a heart attack. He was 62 years old.
We found that during the periods of insecurity in the run up to the privatisation, civil servants in PSA suffered more physical ill-health than their unaffected counterparts and they also experienced adverse changes in some of the well-known risk factors for heart disease, such as blood pressure.
The associations between the three Karasek work characteristics, decision authority, skill discretion, job demands, and effort-reward imbalance predicting the combined risk of psychiatric disorder at phases 2 and 3, are reported in table 1. High efforts in combination with low rewards were strikingly associated with an increased risk of psychiatric disorder. This has not previously been reported.
Within Self Determination Theory, the nutriments for healthy development and functioning are specified using the concept of basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. To the extent that the needs are ongoingly satisfied people will develop and function effectively and experience wellness, but to the extent that they are thwarted, people more likely evidence ill-being and non-optimal functioning. The darker sides of human behavior and experience, such as certain types of psychopathology, prejudice, and aggression are understood in terms of reactions to basic needs having been thwarted, either developmentally or proximally.
Thus it seems impossible as well as useless to make any list of fundamental physiological needs for they can come to almost any number one might wish, depending on the degree of specificity of description.
Subsequently, we have tested the importance and generality of these needs and have found that, across many eastern and western cultures, these needs are essential for psychological health in each country we have studied (e.g., Chirkov, Ryan, Kim, & Kaplan, 2003), and we were pleased to see the new evidence on this matter provided in Sheldon et al's target article.
In conclusion, the present study provides evidence in support of the self-determination model of work motivation across two very different cultures and types of work organizations. More specifically, the results suggest that the study of basic psychological needs may be relevant across quite divergent cultures with different political, economic, and value systems.