Humanism Vs Humanistic Psychology

In order to have a personal theory regarding human behavior one must understand the different behaviors through the principals of psychology. Similar to a fingerprint, people are unique and their behaviors/personalities are all different. A person’s personality can have emotional impact in reference to the way they act, speak, react to different situations and the lives of people that they are involved with. Relationships can also be influenced by the way a person behaves and the personality they portray.

Humanistic Theory of human needs is a psychological theory based on human needs, was developed by Abraham Maslow, his Hierarchy

While in college, Behavioral Psychology greatly intrigued Maslow but, soon found aspects he disagreed with. He found Behavioral and Psychoanalytic psychology only focused on the negative primitive aspects of humanity. Maslow argued that although humans can be cruel and negative there are also positive aspects of humanity such as compassion, kindness, empathy and many others. He felt that current schools of thought during his time watered down humanity made it seem simplistic and he wanted there to more positivity to add to the complexity that is humanity. Humanistic Psychology according to Shiraev (2015), “a value of orientation that holds a hopeful and constructive view of people and of their substantial capacity to be self-determining” (p. 389).

Humanistic perspective is a psychological perspective popularized by Carlo Rogers and Abraham Maslow that emphasizes the human capacity for choice and growth. This perspective offers a very positive viewpoint of human nature and potential. It suggests that we are each responsible for our own happiness and well-being as humans. “The humanistic approach emphasizes the personal worth of the individual, the centrality of human

1.Humanistic psychologists view personality with a particular spotlight on potential for a well-rounded personal growth. The main goal is to assist people recognize, accept, and be themselves with great integrity.

Unlike Freud and the psychodynamic approach that concentrated on the unconscious mind, the concern of the humanistic psychologists was to do justice to people’s conscious experience and their role in direction their own lives. The humanistic approach in psychology developed as a rebellion against what some psychologists saw as limitations of the behaviourist and psychodynamic psychology. The humanistic approach is thus often called the “third force” in psychology after psychoanalysis and behaviourism (Maslow, 1968).( Saul McLeod. (2007). Humanism. Available: http://www.simplypsychology.org/humanistic.html. Last accessed 13th Nov 2013.) Humanism rejected the assumption of the behaviourist perspective which is characterised as deterministic, focused on reinforcement of stimulus-response behaviour and heavily dependent on animal research. Humanistic psychology also rejected the psychodynamic approach because it also is deterministic, with unconscious irrational and instinctive forces determining human thought and behaviour.  Both behaviourism and psychoanalysis are regarded as dehumanizing by humanistic psychologists. (Maslow, A. H. (1943). A Theory of Human Motivation. Psychological Review, 50, 370-96.) The two most prominent figures in the field of humanistic psychology are Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers. Their focus in humanistic psychology was to emphasize that which helps individuals reach

The Humanistic Theory has a positive view of human nature, especially when compared to Freudian theory, and assumes that people are fundamentally good. The humanistic theory falls under the phenomenological theory and focuses on selfhood. The overarching goals of the humanistic theory are self-actualization, self-fulfillment and self-realization (Hill). This theory suggests that people should be viewed holistically and claims that the client has an innate motivation to reach her full potential. In addition, humanists believe that clients have the potential to determine their own destinies.

This perspective assumes that we all thrive for personality growth, through mental processes and behaviors.. This perspective is different in its methodology compare to the biological approach, and the psychodynamic approach. Both these perspectives assume that human beings are controlled by internal or external forces. There are deterministic in nature. The humanistic perspective, promotes free will, and people can be, whatever, they envision themselves. This perspective was influence by humanists such as Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, who emphasizes on the importance of individual potentials.

During the 1950s the humanistic approach was established, this was because of the growing panic therapists started to experience due to the limitations of psychoanalysis. The man who started this approach was Carl Rogers; he had no faith in psychoanalysis due to his belief that psychoanalysis had fallen short in handling the nature of healthy growth in the individual. Rather than just looking at behaviour from an observer’s point of view, Humanism looks at behaviour from the eyes of the person in question. Due to the fact that this approach centres on personal experiences and subjective concepts, humanists do not deem scientific practices as justified or acceptable. This perspective proposes that each and every one of us is liable for our own euphoria. In modern day psychotherapy an extensive field of efficient methods are at our disposal due to the impact of humanistic

The humanistic perspective on personality deals exclusively with human behavior. Humanistic psychologists believe that human nature includes a natural drive towards personal growth, that humans have the freedom to choose what they do regardless of environmental factors, and humans are mostly conscious beings and are not controlled by unconscious needs and conflicts. They also believe that a person's subjective view of the world is more important than objective reality. Two of the humanistic theorists that have made an impact of humanism are Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow.

The humanistic approach to psychology is an organization of different thoughts in which the interests of humans and their values and/or beliefs are of main importance (Schultz & Schultz, 2009). The term humanistic relays the notion that all human beings have the potential for growth and that no one is purposely bad or unworthy (Carver & Scheier, 2012). In contrast to psychoanalytical psychologists, humanistic psychologists tend to focus on the strengths of human behavior and not the aspects that make an individual’s

Humanistic psychology was created as a response to the limitations of the two forces already established, psychoanalytic and behaviorist psychology. One of the biggest differences between humanistic psychology and the other disciplines is that it views humanity in a holistic and optimistic manner rather than in fragmentations. One of the most significant and founding theorists of this humanism force was Carl Rogers. His contributions to the field, research on personality, and his psychotherapy techniques continue to expand and influence many researchers, psychologists, and counselors.

It is said that humanistic psychology was developed upon the limitations of behaviourism. The humanistic approach is often referred to as the “third force” in psychology coming after psychoanalysis and behaviourism; it is an alternative approach to psychology (Maslow, 1968). It offered a more wholesome approach to psychology at the time in comparison to behaviourism and psychoanalysis. This essay will compare and contrast behaviourism and humanistic psychology; it will focus on their contributions to psychological theory and their applications in the real world.

Humanistic psychologists generally argue that a person’s subjective perception and understanding of the world is far more important than objective reality (Funder, 2012). Hence the fact that Rogers and Maslow valued scientific psychology very little. They and other humanistic psychologists typically prefer more qualitative research methods. These methods are often things such as diaries, open ended questionnaires, wholly unstructured interviews and observations. It is far more useful if the goal is not to generalize the findings to the general

Humanistic theory by Carl Rogers, is based on an ensemble of theories and methods largely having the origins in humanistic psychotherapy, but adapted to the specific of activity from the social work areas, the solving of the socio-human and collective problems and not only the individual problems. Regardless of the specific and nature of the object of intervention humanistic theory uses this unlimited and miraculous resource of the human or humane personality. This is the reason why its theories and methodologies operate with concepts like human being, soul, person, self, empathy, compactly, personal development, spirituality, humane personality, even when aims objectives at the family, organizational or community level. humanistic social work is, ultimately, the representation of the individual client as personality, soul, being, and moving in the background the representation as body or through elementary social relationships, as well as the representation of the collective client as a sympathetically interaction between persons with souls, personalities, as human beings. Humanistic traits like empathy and spirituality, through creativity, aesthetic sensibility, authentic faith, concern for truth, balanced personality will transmit and stimulate the development of the human/ humane features at the client’s level too, factually transmitting positive energy, happiness, aesthetic, intellectual, spiritual, and playful qualities. Also, thus contributing to its personal development, increasing the self-esteem, social consciousness, the capacity of initiative and social autonomy - fulfilling the true mission of the humanistic social work practice. So, humanistic work prioritizes the human personality as resource and operates with an empathetic professional personality concept that combines the human humane personality with the pragmatic positive personality. The focus of the humanistic curriculum is the goal is to train and cultivate the empathetic-professional personality, the ability to resonate to the sufferings and the human problems of customers and display qualities such as empathy, presence of spirit, the high level of