Humanistic Psychology vs. Psychoanalysis & Behaviorism
Introduction
Time and again, humans have tried to explain the root causes of behavior that is unacceptable in the human society. As a result, they have come up with various schools of thought that have been developed from one stage to the other. Among the most common attempted explanations of human behavior are psychoanalysis, behaviorism and humanistic psychology. These explanations have tried establish the root cause of certain behavior defects. Consequently, this paper intends to highlight the arguments of the first two and explain how they differ from humanistic psychology.
Humanistic psychology is a branch of psychology that was a reaction to psychoanalysis and behaviorism during the 1950s. Psychoanalysts were driven by the desire to understand how behavior is derived unconsciously. Psychoanalysis was founded more on the mental processes that shaped behavior while behaviorism had its argument hued in the environmental factors that influenced behavior. As a point of contention, humanistic psychologists felt that failure to consider personal choice by the psychoanalysts was not proper (Cherry, K. 2010 par. 1). Cherry writes that humanistic psychology embraces the view that people are naturally good but can fail to achieve self-actualization when this nature is corrupted in any way (2010). This is the view that was developed by the major scholars and proponents of humanistic psychology. This paper will examine the details of the relevance of the topic to psychology and discuss the views that major scholars have written concerning it, specifically Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers.
The main players in Humanistic psychology and their views
Abraham Maslow in Toward a Psychology of Being, argues that “humanistic psychology is the “third force” in psychology. The first and second forces were behaviorism and psychoanalysis respectively” (Cherry, 2010, par. 3). Maslow’s focus was on the healthy individual. To achieve the status of a healthy individual through motivation, people must gratify their basic needs for “safety, love, belongingness, respect, and self-esteem” all geared towards self-actualization of the individual (1955). For Maslow, a healthy individual is one who exhibits characteristics such as “superior perception of reality, increased acceptance of self, others and nature, greater freshness of appreciation, and richness of emotional reaction, improved interpersonal relations and creativeness and changes in the value system” among others (1956). The positive development of all these characteristics is what he refers to as growth. Unhealthy people tend to yearn for their gratification persistently thus become sickened and withered (Maslow, 1957). That means that any person who does not have the characteristics that promote self-actualization doesn’t grow.
Carl Rogers has a similar view about the healthy individual. “He sees mental health as the normal progression of life, and he sees mental illness, criminality, and other human problems, as distortions of that natural tendency” (Boeree, 2006). He regards “conditioning” by both the society and the individual self as to blame for bringing about elements that cause a living being to lack health. The society makes it conditional to prove to be worthy to receive what we need rather than just receiving it because we need it. Thus one ends up not appreciating themselves because of the “conditional positive self-regard” standards that the society has set for us. It makes us as a person seek the gratification of those setting the standards rather than your individual gratification (Boeree, 2006). When a person fails to justify himself before the society, such a person is likely to develop some sense of inadequacy and low self-esteem because of the lesser feeling than what others expect him to be.
Rollo May’s writing and teachings focused on the “positive aspects of human potential and on the will of individuals toward self-fulfillment.”(Robbins, 1999) All these writers, though with different ways of approach towards humanistic psychology all have the same direction of thought: human satisfaction in life.
Importance of Humanistic Psychology
Psychology generally refers to the study of the human mental processes and behavior. It is a wide subject that is divided into experimental and applied areas (Gregory, 2010 para.1). The process is geared towards treating patients of mind and behavioral problems in the human being. Humanistic psychology helps a patient learn to appreciate the importance of an individual’s choice as well as satisfaction. However, the three views of psychoanalysis, behaviorism and humanistic psycholo
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