During the 1950s, humanistic psychology began as a reaction to psychoanalysis and behaviorism, which dominated psychology at the time. Psychoanalysis was focused on understanding the unconscious motivations that drove behavior while behaviorism studied the conditioning processes that produced behavior. Humanist thinkers felt that both psychoanalysis and behaviorism were too pessimistic, either focusing on the most tragic of emotions or failing to take the role of personal choice into account.
Humanistic psychology was instead focused on each individual’s potential and stressed the importance of growth and self-actualization. The fundamental belief of humanistic psychology was that people are innately good, with mental and social problems resulting from deviations from this natural tendency.
In 1962, Abraham Maslow published Toward a Psychology of Being, in which he described humanistic psychology as the "third force" in psychology. The first and second forces were behaviorism and psychoanalysis respectively.
However, it is not necessary to think of these three schools of thought as competing elements. Each branch of psychology has contributed to our understanding of the human mind and behavior. Humanistic psychology added yet another dimension that took a more holistic view of the individual.
Major Thinkers in Humanistic Psychology
- Abraham Maslow
- Carl Rogers
Important Events in Humanistic Psychology
- 1961-Journal of Humanistic Psychology was established.
- 1962-American Association for Humanistic Psychology was formed.
- 1971-Humanistic psychology becomes an APA division.
Criticisms of Humanistic Psychology
- Often seen as too subjective; the importance of individual experience makes it difficult to objectively study and measure humanistic phenomena. How can we objectively tell if someone is self-actualized? The answer, of course, is that we cannot. We can only rely upon the individual's own assessment of their experience.
- Observations are unverifiable—there is no accurate way to measure or quantify these qualities.
Strong Points of Humanistic Psychology
- Emphasizes the role of the individual; humanistic psychology gives more credit to the individual in controlling and determining their state of mental health.
- Takes environmental influence into account; rather than focusing solely on our internal thoughts and desires, humanistic psychology also credits the environment's influence on our experiences.
- Humanistic psychology continues to influence therapy, education, healthcare, and other areas.
- Humanistic psychology helped remove some of the stigma attached to therapy, and made it more acceptable for normal, healthy individuals to explore their abilities and potential through therapy.
