Human givens

The human givens approach is an holistic model of human well-being and brief, solution-focused, psychotherapy based on evidence from evolution, anthropology, biology, psychology and sociology.[1] It was first introduced in 1998/9 in the monograph Psychotherapy, Counselling and the Human Givens (Organising Idea)[2] and amplified in the 2003 book Human Givens: A new approach to emotional health and clear thinking.[3] The human givens organising ideas[4] proffer a description of the nature of human beings, the 'givens' of human genetic heritage and therefore what humans need in order to be happy and healthy.

Human givens theory proposes the following. Evolution has endowed all humans, regardless of race or culture, with a common set of innate physical and emotional needs along with a set of innate physical, emotional and psychological resources. Like all organisms, humans deploy their 'given' resources in order to meet their 'given' needs in the environment in the course of their daily lives. When all the innate needs are met in a balanced way people will flourish but when this does not happens distress and eventually illness results. The basic human givens proposition is, then, that all emotional distress and mental illness are caused by a failure to get innate needs, particularly emotional needs, met in balance. This may go hand in hand with problems relating to missing, misused or damaged innate resources. The focus of human givens therapy is, therefore, the discovery and rectification/removal of any impediments to these needs being met in an individual's life.

The human givens movement believes that human lives can be made happier, and our future (together with that of the other species with whom we share this planet) can be made more sustainable if societies, organisations, communities, professions, families and individuals are more aware of and sensitive to our innate needs, resources and tendencies.

The human givens approach grew out of a psychotherapeutic method - an integrative, bio-psycho-social model of therapy. Within the framework of needs and resources it uses some interventions from known effective therapeutic methods. The organising ideas[4] are new, along with some of the detailed theory (most notably on the function of dreaming), whilst other areas (such as how addictions are created and maintained[5] and the cycle of depression[6]) represents new formulations of existing scientific knowledge.

The human givens approach is not considered by its proponents to be just another model of psychotherapy but rather the beginnings of a unified science of human well-being with ramifications well beyond mental illness.[7] (Just as architects and engineers need to understand the laws of physical nature (such as gravity) in order to design and build successful structures, so anyone working in the human sphere needs to work in harmony with the laws of human nature if they want these efforts to succeed in the fullest sense.)

Motivation and purpose

The human givens approach was pioneered because of what was seen as "the primitive stage of development" of the field of psychology, psychotherapy and counselling in which there are an estimated 400+ different models to choose from[8] (which is highly confusing for people seeking effective help). This "state of chaos" was thought to indicate that something was fundamentally wrong with these approaches to understanding human nature, mental illness and how to treat it. In contrast, mature sciences (such as physics and biochemistry) have a common ground of understanding. The human givens approach arose from the perception that such a set of organising ideas[4] was lacking in psychology and psychotherapy.[7][9] It attempts to provide this missing common ground by asking, and suggesting answers to, some fundamental questions:

The fundamental, orientating question asked and addressed by the human givens approach is therefore "what do we need and how do we go about getting it?" (with the emphasis on we because evidence suggests human beings cannot be truly well in isolation from one another).

Historical background

An interpretation of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, represented as a pyramid with the more basic needs at the bottom[10]

For centuries, wise people and ancient texts have described how humans have innate needs for emotional and spiritual sustenance in addition to physical requirements.[11][12] In more recent times, Abraham Maslow is credited with the first prominent theory which laid out a hierarchy of needs.[13] The precise nature of the hierarchy and the needs have subsequently been refined, and to some extent superseded, by modern neuroscientific and psychological research. Nonetheless, Maslow's key idea has been accepted; that humans have a range of emotional as well as physical needs and that basic needs (e.g. food, shelter, physical safety) need to be met before higher needs (e.g. friendship, achievement) can be satisfied.

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.[14][15]

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.

Many more researchers and neuroscientists have contributed to the debate, and over the past twenty years the scientific evidence for these innate emotional needs has become much stronger than it was when Maslow was researching and writing.

Some of the original research demonstrating the evidence for each need is referenced in the following section, but for an accessible summary written in laypersons language the latest version of the core textbook is recommended[16] as is Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman.[17]

Innate needs

Human givens thinking suggests 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 and even, in some cases, survival. Decades of social and health psychology research now support this.[18]

The human givens approach defines nine emotional needs:

  1. Security: A sense of safety and security; safe territory; an environment in which people can live without experiencing excessive fear so that they can develop healthily.
    • The work of Marmot in the Whitehall Studies, and subsequent interpretation of his data by other researchers, has demonstrated the needs for emotional security to ensure health. A good example is the finding about workers who were subjected to prolonged job security concerns during organisational change processes.[19]
  2. Autonomy and control: A sense of autonomy and control over what happens around and to us.
    • The Whitehall Studies are also an authoritative source to demonstrate that autonomy and control are innate needs. Marmot determined that people who are lower in organisational hierarchies have worse health and mental health outcomes, and that this is because they have less autonomy and control over their working lives.[20] A more technical exposition of how autonomy and control are necessary for human health is given in the Whitehall Study further analysis by Stansfeld, Fuhrer, et al.[21][22]
  3. Status: A sense of status - being accepted and valued in the various social groups we belong to.
  4. Privacy: Time and space enough to reflect on and consolidate our experiences.
  5. Attention: Receiving attention from others, but also giving it; a form of essential nutrition that fuels the development of each individual, family and culture.
    • Steve Cole and colleagues have found that "the biological impact of social isolation reaches down into some of our most basic internal processes - the activity of our genes... changes in immune cell gene expression were specifically linked to the subjective experience of social distance.”[23][24] There is also a growing body of research on the damaging effects of solitary confinement on human mental health[25] (although the distress experienced by people in solitary confinement could be said to be due to a combination of unmet needs including those for attention and autonomy/control).
  6. Connection to the wider community: We have evolved as a group animal and need to feel part of something larger than ourselves.
  7. Intimacy: Emotional connection to other people - friendship, love, intimacy, fun.
  8. Competence and achievement: A sense of our own competence and achievements, that we have what it takes to meet life's demands - which ensures we don't feel we are rubbish (don't develop 'low self-esteem').
  9. Meaning and purpose: A sense of meaning and purpose which comes from being stretched in what we do and how we think - it is through 'stretching' ourselves mentally or physically by service to others, learning new skills or being connected to ideas or philosophies bigger than ourselves that our lives become purposeful and full of meaning. Meaning makes suffering tolerable.

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.[26][27] The exact categorisation of these needs, however, is not considered important. Needs can be interlinked, and have fuzzy boundaries, as Maslow noted.[28] 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 has enjoyed amazing evolutionary success due in large part to its 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.[29][30][31]

Innate resources

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:

Three reasons for mental illness

A further organising idea[4] proffered by the human givens approach is to suggest that there are three main reasons why an individual may not be getting their needs met and thus why they may become mentally ill:

  1. Environment: the environment is sick - it is toxic, preventing us from getting, or simply lacking, the things we need;
  2. Damage: there is damage to our internal guidance system - to our 'hardware' (the brain/body) or 'software' (missing or incomplete instincts and/or unhelpful conditioning);
  3. Knowledge: we may not know what we need; or we may not have been taught, or may have failed to learn, the coping skills necessary for getting our needs met (for example, to use the imagination for problem solving rather than worrying, or how to make and sustain friendships).

When dealing with mental illness or distress this framework provides a checklist that guides both understanding and treatment.

Key features

Key features of the human givens school include:

Research and evidence

There are now a number of independent studies evaluating the human givens approach:

Organisations

The following constitute the main human givens organisations:

Human Givens Institute

The Human Givens Institute is a membership organisation open to those wishing to support and promote the human givens approach through all forms of psychological, educational and social interactions, and the professional body representing the interests of those in the caring and teaching professions who aim to work in alignment with the best scientific knowledge available about the givens of human nature. The institute is in the process of becoming accredited by the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care.

Human Givens Foundation

The Human Givens Foundation is a charitable organisation devoted to spreading the human givens philosophy and information into organisations concerned with health, education, business, social work and the wider care system, the police, the armed forces, and, more widely, into social policy and government. It aims to support parents, families, couples and individuals to live more harmonious, satisfying and meaningful lives.

Human Givens College

Human Givens College is a training organisation offering psychotherapy courses as well as a full psychotherapy diploma course leading to qualification as a human givens practitioner. There are currently 226 Registered Members on the HGI Register - people who have achieved part 3 of the diploma course and are set up in private practice.

See also

Bibliography of publications

References

  1. ↑ "Where did the human givens organising idea come from?".
  2. ↑ Griffin, Joe; Tyrrell, Ivan (1998). Psychotherapy, Counselling and the Human Givens (Organising Idea). ISBN 1899398953.
  3. ↑ Griffin, Joe; Tyrrell, Ivan (2003). Human givens : a new approach to emotional health and clear thinking (First ed.). Chalvington, East Sussex: HG Publishing. ISBN 1-899398-31-7.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Use of the term 'organising idea' as a way of referring to human thinking/perceptual processes seems to have originated with Henri Bortoft and is much used in human givens literature. "What is an organising idea?".
  5. ↑ Griffin, Joe; Tyrrell, Ivan; Winn (2005). Freedom from addiction : the secret behind successful addiction busting : a practical handbook. Chalvington: HG Pub. ISBN 1-899398-46-5.
  6. ↑ Griffin, Joe; Tyrrell, Ivan; Winn, Denise (2004). How to lift depression ( --fast) : a practical handbook. HG Pub. ISBN 1-899398-41-4.
  7. 1 2 Griffin, Joe; Tyrell, Ivan (2005). Evolution and the human givens --hope for the future. HG Publishing. ISBN 1-899398-76-7.
  8. ↑ Yaryura-Tobias, José A.; Neziroglu, Fugen A. (1997). Biobehavioral treatment of obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders (1st ed.). New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 978-0393702453.
  9. ↑ Okhai, Farouk (May 2010). "Human Givens Psychotherapy" (PDF). Arab Journal of Psychiatry 21 (1): 9–28.
  10. ↑ Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
  11. ↑ "Teaching Proverbs from the Temples of Luxor, Egypt". The seed includes all the possibilities of the tree. The seed will develop these possibilities, however, only if it receives corresponding energies from the sky.
  12. ↑ King James Bible. Matthew 4:4. Man shall not live by bread alone...
  13. ↑ "Dr. Abraham Maslow, Founder Of Humanistic Psychology, Dies". New York Times. June 10, 1970. Retrieved 2010-09-26. 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.
  14. ↑ Seligman, Martin (2002). Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment. ISBN 9780743222983.
  15. ↑ Seligman, Martin (2011). Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being. ISBN 9781439190753.
  16. ↑ Griffin, Joe; Tyrrell, Ivan (2013). Human Givens: The new approach to emotional health and clear thinking. HG Publishing. ISBN 1-899398-31-7.
  17. ↑ Goleman, Daniel (1995). Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ (1st ed.). ISBN 9780553804911.
  18. ↑ See references for Chapter 5 of the new edition of the core human givens book: Griffin, Joe; Tyrrell, Ivan (2013). Human givens : The new approach to emotional health and clear thinking (New ed.). Chalvington, East Sussex: HG Publishing. pp. 97–153. ISBN 978-1899398317.
  19. ↑ Marmot, Michael; et al.; Dr Ruth Bell. "WORK STRESS AND HEALTH: the Whitehall II study" (PDF). Public and Commercial Services Union on behalf of Council of Civil Service Unions/Cabinet Office. 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.
  20. ↑ Marmot, Michael; et al.; Dr Ruth Bell. "WORK STRESS AND HEALTH: the Whitehall II study" (PDF). Public and Commercial Services Union on behalf of Council of Civil Service Unions/Cabinet Office. Whitehall II provides ample documentation of this: the lower the grade of employment, the less control over work. This combination of imbalance between demands and control predicted a range of illnesses. The evidence from Whitehall II suggested that low control was especially important. People in jobs characterised by low control had higher rates of sickness absence, of mental illness, of heart disease and pain in the lower back.
  21. ↑ Stansfeld, Stephen A.; Fuhrer, Rebecca; Head, Jenny; Ferrie, Jane; Shipley, Martin (July 1997). "Work and psychiatric disorder in the Whitehall II Study". Journal of Psychosomatic Research 43 (1): 73–81. doi:10.1016/S0022-3999(97)00001-9.
  22. ↑ Stansfeld, S.A.; Fuhrer, R; Shipley, M.J.; Marmot, M.G. (1999). "Work characteristics predict psychiatric disorder: prospective results from the Whitehall II Study.". Occupational & Environmental Medicine 56 (5): 302–307. doi:10.1136/oem.56.5.302. 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.
  23. ↑ Wheeler, Mark. "UCLA researchers identify the molecular signature of loneliness". UCLA.
  24. ↑ Cole, Steve W.; Hawkley, Louise C.; et al. (2007). "Social regulation of gene expression in human leukocytes". Genome Biology 8 (9): Article R189. doi:10.1186/gb-2007-8-9-r189. PMC 2375027. PMID 17854483.
  25. ↑ "Solirary Watch - Journal Articles". Solitary Watch.
  26. ↑ Deci, Edward L.; Ryan, Richard M. (1985). Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior. doi:10.1007/978-1-4899-2271-7. ISBN 9781489922731.
  27. ↑ Bartholomew, K.J.; Nikos Ntoumanis; et al. (November 2011). "Self-Determination Theory and Diminished Functioning: The Role of Interpersonal Control and Psychological Need Thwarting". Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 37 (11): 1459–1473. doi:10.1177/0146167211413125. 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.
  28. ↑ Maslow, Abraham (July 1943). "A theory of human motivation". Psychological Review 50 (4): 370–396. doi:10.1037/h0054346. 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.
  29. ↑ Reis, Harry T.; Kennon M. Sheldon; et al. (April 2000). "Daily Well-Being: The Role of Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness". Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 26 (4): 419–435. doi:10.1177/0146167200266002. 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.
  30. ↑ Deci, Edward L.; Richard M. Ryan; et al. (2001). "Need Satisfaction, Motivation, and Well-Being in the Work Organizations of a Former Eastern Bloc Country: A Cross-Cultural Study of Self-Determination". Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 27 (8): 930–942. doi:10.1177/0146167201278002.
  31. ↑ Ryan, Richard M.; Edward L. Deci (Jan 2000). "Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being". American Psychologist 55 (1): 68–78. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.68. 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.
  32. ↑ Deikman, Arthur J. (1982). The Observing Self: Mysticism and Psychotherapy (1 ed.). Beacon Press. ISBN 978-0807029510.
  33. ↑ Baars, Bernard J.; Ramsøy, Thomas Z.; Laureys, Steven (December 2003). "Brain, conscious experience and the observing self". Trends in Neurosciences 26 (12): 671–675. doi:10.1016/j.tins.2003.09.015.
  34. ↑ LeDoux, Joseph (2003). The emotional brain : the mysterious underpinnings of emotional life ([Nachdr.] ed.). London: Phoenix. ISBN 978-0753806708.
  35. ↑ Libet, B; Gleason, CA; Wright, EW; Pearl, DK (1983). "Time of conscious intention to act in relation to onset of cerebral activity (readiness-potential). The unconscious initiation of a freely voluntary act.". Brain : a journal of neurology 106 (3): 623–42. doi:10.1093/brain/106.3.623. PMID 6640273.
  36. ↑ Hughes, edited by Rick; Cooper,, Cary L.; Kinder, Andrew (2012). International handbook of workplace trauma support (1 ed.). Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. Chapter 9. ISBN 978-0-470-97413-1.
  37. ↑ Griffin, Joe; Tyrrell, Ivan; Winn, Denise (2004). How to lift depression ( --fast) : a practical handbook. Chalvington: HG Pub. ISBN 1-899398-41-4.
  38. ↑ Griffin, Joe; Tyrrell, Ivan; Winn, Denise (2005). Freedom from addiction : the secret behind successful addiction busting : a practical handbook. Chalvington: HG Pub. ISBN 978-1899398461.
  39. ↑ "What is hypnosis?".
  40. ↑ "Caetextia Website".
  41. ↑ "Ivan Tyrrell and Richard Bentall discuss patient-centred new approaches to the understanding and treatment of psychotic illness.".
  42. ↑ Andrews, William; Twigg, Elspeth; Minami, Takuya; Johnson, Gina (Dec 2011). "Piloting a practice research network: A 12-month evaluation of the Human Givens approach in primary care at a general medical practice". Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice 84 (4): 389–405. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8341.2010.02004.x. PMID 22903882.
  43. ↑ Yates, Yvonne; Atkinson, Cathy. "Using Human Givens therapy to support the well‐being of adolescents: a case example". Pastoral Care in Education 29 (1): 35–50. doi:10.1080/02643944.2010.548395.
  44. ↑ Tsaroucha, Anna; Kingston, Paul; Stewart, Tony; Walton, Ian; Corp, Nadia. "Assessing the effectiveness of the "human givens" approach in treating depression: a quasi experimental study in primary care". Mental Health Review Journal 17 (2): 90–103. doi:10.1108/13619321211270416.
  45. ↑ Tsaroucha, Anna; Kingston, Paul; Corp, Nadia; Stewart, Tony; Walton, Ian. "The emotional needs audit (ENA): a report on its reliability and validity". Mental Health Review Journal 17 (2): 81–89. doi:10.1108/13619321211270407.
  46. ↑ Swisher AK (2010). "Practice-based evidence.". Cardiopulm Phys Ther J 21 (2): 4. PMC 2879420. PMID 20520757.
  47. ↑ Peter Andrews, William; Peter Wislocki, Andrew; Short, Fay; Chow, Daryl; Minami, Takuya (23 September 2013). "A five-year evaluation of the Human Givens therapy using a practice research network". Mental Health Review Journal 18 (3): 165–176. doi:10.1108/MHRJ-04-2013-0011.
  48. ↑ Adams, Shona. "EVALUATION OF HUMAN GIVENS ‘REWIND TREATMENT’ TO TREAT TRAUMA" (PDF).

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