Humanistic Psychology Essay

In any psychology class, different areas of psychology are usually discussed. The viewpoint and techniques are related to a theory, and sometimes the main contributors are discussed as well. Though they know that theories have been made and continue to exist, learners seldom wonder how they originated. Knowing the theory is of good use, but in order to really understand it, people must first learn about its origins. Learning the reasons why, where, and how a theory was started really gives a bigger picture that helps a person know the material more deeply. Humanistic psychology is one of the areas where knowing its beginnings, such as the pioneer contributors and reasons of why this area became, helps a person comprehend it.

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Before it came into being, there were several persons that had already opposed the psychoanalytic way of thinking, including neo-freudians such as Karen Horney and Alfred Adler (Schultz & Schultz, 2012). Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, two of the most influential people in the humanistic movement, were also against Freud’s views. They believed that the current forms of therapy, such as free association, were too dependent on the therapist and not the client (Ewen, 2003). Behaviorist also could not measure issues that were more hypothetical and less concrete such as creativity (Cloninger, 1993). The behavioral scientific research was sometimes labeled as unethical, and they believed that humans were worth more than being defined by the results of a laboratory animal (Shultz & Shultz, 2012; Waterman, 2013; Wertheimer,

Humanistic psychology is frequently overlooked, and it is often the least known among the three forces. It never became a true school of thought because most humanistic psychologists were in clinical settings, and not colleges. While it may not have had a tremendous impact in the field, it is believed to have been the inspiration behind the development of the cognitive approach (Schultz & Schultz, 2012). It is also believed that humanistic psychologists such as Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers were the main inspirations for the current movement of positive psychology. However, several positive psychology practitioners usually have a problem when positive psychology is associated with humanistic psychology. They believe that while their views might have been inspired by this psychology, their basic approaches are not similar, especially when it comes to research (Waterman,