Overview of Humanistic Psychology



Overview of Humanistic Psychology

David Oguns

Rochester Institute of Technology

May 22, 2007

0514-441-01 Humanistic Psychology

Running head: HUMANISTIC PSY

ABSTRACT

Humanistic psychology is sometimes referred to as the naïve branch of psychology because some of the theories are unable to be supported by scientific methods. Despite this, humanistic psychology still has substantial practical application related to therapy. Many of the theories born from the Neo-Freudians Alfred Alder, Karen Horney, and Carl Jung paved the way to humanistic psychology. One of the first humanistic psychologists was Abraham Maslow.

Overview of Humanistic Psychology

Sigmund Freud is considered to be the father of modern psychology. His theory suggests that humans have three major parts of their mind that affect their behavior – the id, the ego, and the superego. However, the important distinguishing characteristics between Freudian theories and humanistic theories on psychology are not the semantics of why humans behave a certain way. Humanistic psychology generally looks at what all human beings are trying to achieve in life and how we go about achieving those goals. Neo-Freudian psychology was often considered to be the “Second Force” of psychology by Abraham Maslow. The psychologists that fall into this category started integrating ideas of personality and individualism into their theories which made behavior stemming from the person less deterministic.

Alfred Alder believed that there were two unconscious levels that made up a human being - the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. The personal unconscious is the concept most people have of the unconscious. It can be brought into the conscious and affect behavior that a person is aware of(Boeree, 2007). The collective unconscious is

A humanistic view of psychology believes all humans are good and that the only thing that sets them apart behaviorally are differences in values or perceived meanings of various actions.

It requires analyzing the values, intentions, and meanings of an individual(Humanistic Psy, 2007).

REFERENCES

Boeree, George C. Alfred Alder. Personality Theories (2007). Retrieved May 22, 2007

from

Boeree, George C. Karen Horney. Personality Theories (2007). Retrieved May 22,

2007 from horney.html

Boeree, George C. Carl Jung. Personality Theories (2007). Retrieved May 22, 2007

from jung.html

Boeree, George C. Abraham Maslow. Personality Theories (2007). Retrieved May 22,

2007 from maslow.html

Humanistic Psychology Overview. Association for Humanistic Psychology. Retrieved

May 22, 2007 from

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