StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...

Humanistic School of Psychology - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
Humanistic psychology adopts a holistic approach to human personality viewing the human condition as one integrate unity, something more than a mere sum of physical, social, and psychological characteristics. Humanistic psychology is often referred to as the 'third force' in contrast to two major psychological schools that dominated in American psychology throughout the first half of 20th century, behaviorism (the first force) and psychoanalysis (the second force) (Vander-Zanden, 1993).
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER91.5% of users find it useful
Humanistic School of Psychology
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Humanistic School of Psychology"

Download file to see previous pages

Humanistic psychology emerged in the 1950s, the time marked by profound social changes, the onset of global movements, emergence of new scholarly paradigms questioning the traditional empiricist and positivist conceptions of the world and human being, the change in physics which "discarded the requirement of total objectivity and the complete separation of external world from observer", etc (Schultz and Schultz, 2004: 483). In psychology, these transformations took shape of the rise of cognitive and humanistic perspectives that actively criticized psychoanalytic theory for portraying people as being directed only by their unconscious wishes and irrational forces.

They also did not support the behaviorist school because the latter viewed people as biological robots "who are mechanically programmed by the conditioning force of external stimuli" (Vander Zanden, 1993: 45). These principles rely almost exclusively on the research and findings of two American psychologists Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers, the brightest and most proliferate representatives of humanistic psychology. The essence of Maslow's theory is the hierarchy of needs and "self-actualization" - development and self-improvement of personality.

Human have a complex hierarchy of needs that emerge at the moment of birth (food, drink, shelter) and continue throughout life (social security, status attainment, etc). Visually, these needs are organized in the form of the famous 'pyramid of need' with physiological needs being at the bottom and self-actualization being at the top. Maslow believes that the lower layers of needs must be fulfilled first before passing over to the upper layers. However, it does not mean that each person must follow the same template: fulfilling the non-basic needs depends entirely upon the individual.

Musicians must make music, artists must paint, and poets must write if they want to be ultimately at peace with themselves. What humans can be, they must be: they must be true to their own nature and if they are it is called "self-actualization". This category is less a need than a final development stage for the person (Maslow, 1987). Poor amenability to being quantified and lack of predictive power is perhaps the most often mentioned drawback of Maslow's model: it is a general idea or shape that is descriptive and represents a great analytic interest.

Maslow's theory is also weak on the exact points of transition. Thus, for illustrative purposes one may speak of someone's needs being 85% satisfied, but there is absolutely no possibility available to quantify the

...Download file to see next pages Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Humanistic School of Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words”, n.d.)
Humanistic School of Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1500732-humanistic-school-of-psychology
(Humanistic School of Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 Words)
Humanistic School of Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 Words. https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1500732-humanistic-school-of-psychology.
“Humanistic School of Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1500732-humanistic-school-of-psychology.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Humanistic School of Psychology

Psychology of Personal Motivation

The paper "psychology of Personal Motivation" describes that Maslow put forward some key ideas of humanistic psychology that all people have an inherent desire to find inner happiness and satisfaction, self-actualization.... hellip; Various experts argue that one should not see humanistic psychology as a subfield with psychology, but it is merely a perspective on human conditions that influences psychology and psychological practice....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

Criticism of Humanistic Theory

It is suggested that although the humanistic theory does not offer adequate and comprehensive explanations of the differences in gender and culture or the way human psychology evolves over the passage of time, yet it is one of the most frequently used theories of psychology even in the modern age.... The humanistic theory is one of the most prominent theories of human psychology.... It is significantly different from the other theories in that it is free of the constraints in the study of human psychology and rather suggests that free will drives human behavior....
8 Pages (2000 words) Research Paper

Modern Performance Management

Abraham Maslow's Humanistic School of psychology, in another interrelated classic work, "A Theory of Human Motivation (1943)".... hellip; Human resource managers need to look into the broader definition of the economic term, "human capital" to understand the real emotional, functional and psychological needs of an employee, failing which the organisation stands to lose competitiveness and productivity, and face irreversible decline in work culture (Smith & Mazzin, 2004). This paper aims to provide a reinforcement of the above school of thought, by examining the practical application of sound human resource management principles laid out in accordance with the theories outlined in MIT Sloan school of Management educator Douglas McGregor's classic work, 'The Human Side of Enterprise (1960)", in which he identified an approach of creating an environment within which employees are motivated by two theories, named by him as Theory X and Theory Y....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

Hierarchy of Human Needs

Maslow became the leader of the Humanistic School of Psychology that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s, which he referred to as the "third force" -- beyond Freudian theory and behaviorism.... He takes psychology to a different dimension where the human being is seen under a new light.... He takes psychology to a different dimension where the human being is seen under a new light.... His approach to psychology has motivated eupsychology, for example, a new way of doing psychology as a science and as a therapy....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay

Important Perspectives in Learning Theories

The paper 'Important Perspectives in Learning Theories' presents learning which is an in-detachable phenomenon in the life of human beings.... From infant to elderly, human beings continue to learn as Plato said “education and admonition commence in the first years of childhood.... hellip; Though learning is a common experience and lasts till the end of our life; it is not fully understood....
10 Pages (2500 words) Case Study

Advantages and Disadvantages of Person-Centered Counseling Approach

Indeed, client-centered therapy is regarded as one of the founding therapies of the Humanistic School of Psychology.... Like Gestalt therapy, client-centered therapy is a humanistic psychology.... Roger's theories are contextualized within the broader spectrum of humanistic theories, Gestalt therapy.... he core theoretical foundation of humanistic psychologies is the existential emphasis on human agency, and Carl Roger's client-centered therapy is no exception....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

The Prince of Zamunda and the Father of Client-Centered Theory

hellip; John (Jack) Mayer, psychology professor, and published author believes the ideal way to study and approach personality psychology is in an integrated way.... rdquo;("humanistic perspectives on," 2003) In other words, it focuses more on the feelings of an individual and less on the function of the theory or technical elements of the approach....
10 Pages (2500 words) Coursework

Humanistic, Cognitive and Positive Psychology

Cognitive psychology is associated with a school of thought referred to as cognitivism.... The paper "Humanistic, Cognitive and Positive psychology" illustrates Maslow's theories of human growth in testable hypotheses form for a better understanding of human strengths and virtues: valor, creativity, spirituality, the capacity to love, integrity, curiosity self-control, and humor.... hellip; Humanistic psychology developed during the mid-nineties as a response to the behaviorism and psychoanalysis that prevailed dominantly in psychology at the time....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us