Humanistic Psychology

Modern psychology has many different methods of obtaining similar results. From the rigid, scientific setting of behaviorism to the free will, whole person approach of humanistic psychology, the goal is to help individuals lead healthier lives through good mental health. The practices of psychology have evolved, especially throughout the mid Twentieth Century, when there was a shift from one school of thought to another, though not entirely. This essay will compare and contrast behaviorism and humanism in order to determine which approach might be more effective in reaching the goal of helping people live better lives. Behaviorist psychology is primarily based upon the study of conditioning processes that produce behavior in individuals. This

(Watson 1930)

Behaviorism made use of a laboratory setting in order to carry out its experiments on both humans and animals. It was widely believed that behavior could be studied in a systematic and observable way without considering the unobservable mental states such as cognitions, moods and emotions. These things were considered too subjective and therefore non-scientific. This methodology did not take into account the role of personal choice and essentially reduced its subjects to being no more sophisticated than animals.

Humanistic psychology emphasizes the study of the whole person. It is a philosophy that views human behavior through the eyes of the observer as well as the person doing the behavior. This philosophy came to prominence in the 1950’s. Carl Rogers is given the majority of credit for this line of thought. His approach was that of a client-centered nature and is largely based on free will, self-actualization and overcoming hardship, pain and

It is believed that humans have an inherent drive toward realizing our own capability and creativity. The humanistic philosophy closely models democracy in that the client has his or her own stock in the treatment process and so gains the ability to determine the outcome of therapy. The freedom to choose is a hallmark of the humanistic philosophy.

These two philosophies are in stark contrast in regards to methodology. There was a significant division in the psychiatric community in the middle of the Twentieth Century, especially going into the 60’s. Humanistic psychology began to take hold as the generally accepted method due to its more humane approach. The type of experimentation and tendency to force results gave behavioral psychology a less appealing nature and came to be thought of as having a dehumanizing nature. It is reminiscent of Pavlov’s conditioning by repetition, most notably in a dog’s response to a