Humanistic psychology arose in the 1950s-1960s as a deliberate third force reacting against the determinism of psychoanalysis and the reductionism of behaviorism, insisting on understanding people holistically, as wholes greater than the sum of their parts, with attention to self-actualization, meaning and creativity. Clinically it favors approaches built on self-awareness, empathy and unconditional positive regard.
Facts
Central QuestionWhat accounts for uniquely human concerns and positive potential, self, self-actualization, meaning, creativity, growth, that reductionist psychoanalysis and behaviorism leave out? 1 Founded Year Connections
Associated With
Source Humanistic psychology
A founding figure of humanistic psychology, co-founder of the Association for Humanistic Psychology and pioneer of life-span developmental theory within it.
Existential and humanistic psychology are closely allied, both part of what is often called the third force in psychology alongside behaviorism and psychoanalysis, and their leading figures overlapped and collaborated.
Source Wikipedia: Existential Therapy
Critiqued Here
Maslow named behaviorism psychology's 'first force' and argued it systematically excluded the subjective data of consciousness and the complexity of human personality, one of the two schools humanistic psychology positioned itself as a 'third force' against.
Source Humanistic psychology
Maslow argued psychoanalysis addressed only human pathology, framing humanistic psychology's 'third force' as the healthy complement Freud's system left out.
Source Humanistic psychology
Founded By
Source Humanistic psychology
In Branch
Sources
1. Humanistic psychology
Wikimedia FoundationOrigins section
the self, self-actualization, health, hope, love, creativity, nature, being, becoming, individuality, and meaning
opening paragraph
built on their work establishing a third force in psychology in the 1950s
Conceptual origins section
built on their work establishing a 'third force' in psychology in the 1950s.
Associated With: Behaviorism, History section
Maslow believed the first force systematically excluded the subjective data of consciousness and much information bearing on the complexity of the human personality and its development.
Associated With: Psychoanalysis, History section
it is as if Freud supplied us the sick half of psychology and we must now fill it out with the healthy half.
Wikipedia: Existential Therapy
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Existential Psychology
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is humanistic psychology called psychology's "third force"?
Humanistic psychology positioned itself as a third alternative to psychoanalysis and behaviorism, the two schools that came before it.
Humanistic psychology arose in the 1950s and 1960s as a deliberate third force, positioned against the two schools that dominated psychology at the time: psychoanalysis, which it criticized for reducing people to unconscious drives and pathology, and behaviorism, which it criticized for reducing people to conditioned responses with no place for consciousness, choice or growth. Founded by Carl Rogers and closely associated with Abraham Maslow, humanistic psychology instead centered on self-actualization, meaning and each person's capacity for positive growth.
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