The Human Givens - an introduction
Taken from: New Thinking, Better Results - the Human Givens approach to teaching and learning, a presentation to the VALBEC Annual Conference by Merv Edmunds, May 2005. Print Friendly Full Version

Some years ago, an English psychologist named Ivan Tyrrell went on a search to find why, of the 412 different therapy methods for treating depression, none of them seemed to be very effective. He decided that there must be fundamental principles to do with the way the brain processes information that are yet to be understood.

At the same time, an Irish psychologist by the name of Joe Griffin was on a similar search: to explain why humans dream. Because sleep patterns play a major role in dreaming and depression, the two psychologists became interested in each other's work, and together they proposed a new therapy approach called the Human Givens. The new approach has triggered something of a revolution outside therapy. Its explanation of the way the brain processes information has application in many fields, including education, diplomacy, healthcare, disability and social services. The term 'human givens' means several things.

• Firstly, it is a set of ideas that together make up a new framework or paradigm for the brain’s information processing.
• Secondly the term suggests that these ideas are a starting point for further exploration, no need to argue over these fundamental ideas, instead test and apply them in the various arenas of mental health, education, disability and so on.
• In its simplest form, the term refers to a set of things humans have been given: a series of needs, and an array of resources to help them meet these needs.

Physical needs include a wholesome diet, exercise, restorative sleep. Emotional needs, previously thought of as things that get in the way of clear thinking, are becoming recognised as equally important as physical needs.

Emotional needs (with the corresponding fears that arise when they are not met or getting them met is threatened) may include:

• Life/growth/survival, and the fear of death, annihilation, danger
• Love/intimacy/connection, and the fear of rejection loneliness and alienation
• Significance/meaning, and the fear of insignificance, meaninglessness
• Control/autonomy, and the fear of being overwhelmed and not coping

As well as needs, we are all given a set of resources that can help us get these needs met. Things like imagination, long-term memory, the ability to learn through metaphor, a dreaming brain, and the capacity to observe ourselves. Problems arise when needs are not met, or resources are mis-used. Depression, for example is an over-use of the imagination and the dreaming brain not being able to restore emotional balance. While essentially a therapy approach, the Human Givens model offers educators some great insights in lay-person’s terms into how the brain processes information. Let’s look at some principles.

The first principle: all behaviour is needs driven.
Behaviour is an expression of an individual’s attempt to get a need met; the way they are getting a need met; or their response to a perception that a basic need is threatened. This principle is deceptively simple - and teachers ignore it at their peril.

The second principle: the brain works through a pattern-matching process.
The way we make sense of the world is by matching what we see, hear, smell, touch, and taste, with a pattern already in our heads. Sometimes this pattern matches perfectly, sometimes it doesn’t.

My three year old son was on all fours once, looking at a string of hairy caterpillars on the footpath. When I came closer, he looked up at me and said: “Look Daddy, a train.” The closest match in his head was ‘train’. At his age he didn’t have one for caterpillars, so this was a first-time event, and learning took place.

The third principle: the higher the emotional arousal, the more primitive the pattern-matching.
Arousal helps us notice particular things and blocks out other things, it is designed for action not thinking. In Daniel Goleman’s term the emotional brain ‘hijacks’ the thinking brain.

In the dance of feeling and thought, the emotional faculty guides our moment-to-moment decisions, working hand-in-hand with the rational mind, enabling - or disabling - thought itself.

Goleman, D (1996) Emotional Intelligence. Bloomsbury.

The fourth principle: needs met in a way that maintains a state or climate of high emotional arousal, will reduce the likelihood of other important needs being met.
If we accept that all behaviour is an attempt to get a need met, it is possible to see that some people can only get their needs met by creating and maintaining a high state of arousal. The problem is not that they are getting their needs met, but the fact that they are being met in a way that creates an emotionally-charged climate that will reduce their chances of getting other needs such as the needs for love, connection, and meaning met. And, with a continuing state of arousal, their thinking patterns will effectively block out other possibilities for behaving differently.

Application

Now, so that you can consider the possibility of applying some Human Givens (and 'project persona) thinking to your setting, let’s look at what I regard as essentials:

• A focus on the development of thinking skills, beginning with an awareness of how the brain works.
• A healthy regard to the notion that thinking is a social activity, not an individual one.
• Recognition of the role of metaphor, imagery and visualisation in learning, with a particular focus on the creation of a virtual identity and ‘success metaphors’.
• Activities that demand a reflective style of thinking and that promote a non-aroused emotional state.
• Learning tasks embedded in a single overall project (stealth learning).
• A high level of unfamiliarity to promote creative expression and new thinking responses.

If I sound passionate about the way the Human Givens principles can make a difference, it is because I have seen the results in people’s personal as well as professional lives. Information that helps us understand behaviour needs to be in every teacher’s bag of tricks. Things like understanding that behaviour is needs-driven, the role of metaphor in creating new patterns, awareness that arousal can limit thinking and so on. Strategies that enable us to get our basic needs met in a way that sets a positive emotional climate. A climate that enables us and those around us to work with each other on tasks that make sense, offer personal growth and the development of skills to negotiate this maze called life.

References

Griffin, J. & Tyrrell, I. (2003) Human Givens: a new approach to emotional health and clear thinking. Human Givens Publishing, UK.
Griffin, J. & Tyrrell, I. (2004) Dreaming Reality: how dreaming keeps us sane, or can drive us mad. Human Givens Publishing, UK.

Other useful publications include:
Breaking the cycle of depression: a revolution in psychology
The APET model: patterns in the brain
The shackled brain: how to release locked-in patterns of trauma
(all available from Human Givens Publishing)

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