BASIC ASSUMPTIONS OF HUMANISM

Introduction:
Humanistic psychology uses a different approach to psychology where they look at the
individual as a whole. They believed that all humans are unique and are free agents who have
the ability to achieve their innate potential to the fullest. When looking at the individual, they
prefer to adopt the point of view of the person within the situation rather than the point of
view of the observer.
As it developed, humanistic psychology focused on each individual's potential and stressed
the importance of growth and self-actualization. The fundamental belief of humanistic
psychology is that people are innately good and that mental and social problems result from
deviations from this natural tendency.
Humanists believe that people are influenced by their self-perceptions and personal meanings
attached to their experiences. The humanist theory helps to develop critical thinking,
judgment, and creativity. They encourage to empower and take control over their learning
processes not be just concentrating on the reward at the end They encourage people to look
into themselves for the answers to their questions.

Development of Humanism:

Early in the 20th century, psychological thinking was dominated by two philosophies:
behaviourism and psychoanalysis. Behaviouristic psychologists study overt behaviours and
believe that people are conditioned by rewards and punishments to act in a certain manner.
Behaviourists seek to manipulate human behaviour through the use of appropriate
reinforcements.

The school of psychoanalysis seeks to understand the unconscious motivations and internal
instincts that cause behaviour. This view was expounded by Freud who believed people are
creatures of life and death instincts. Life instincts primarily involve survival and propagation;
the drives of hunger, thirst, and sex fall under this category. Death instincts reflect
humankind's pessimism.

Although behaviourism and psychoanalysis contributed to the understanding of human

behaviour, it did not include a holistic view of the individual. Humanistic psychology, also often
referred to as humanism, emerged during the 1950s as a reaction to the psychoanalysis and
behaviourism that dominated psychology at the time.

 During the late 1950s, Abraham Maslow, and other psychologists held meetings to
discuss developing a professional organization devoted to a more humanist approach
to psychology.
 They agreed that topics such as self-actualization, creativity, individuality, and related
topics were the central themes of this new approach.
 The American Association for Humanistic Psychology was officially established in
1961.
 In 1962, Maslow published “Toward a Psychology of Being” in which he described
humanistic psychology as the "third force" in psychology. The first and second forces
were behaviourism and psychoanalysis respectively.
Basic assumptions:
 Humanistic psychology begins with the existential assumptions that phenomenology
is central and that people have free will. Personal agency is the humanistic term for
the exercise of free will. Personal agency refers to the choices we make in life, the
paths we go down and their consequences.

 A further assumption is then added - people are basically good, and have an innate
need to make themselves and the world better. The humanistic approach emphasizes
the personal worth of the individual, the centrality of human values, and the creative,
active nature of human beings. The approach is optimistic and focuses on noble
human capacity to overcome hardship, pain and despair.

 Both Rogers and Maslow regarded personal growth and fulfilment in life as a basic
human motive. This means that each person, in different ways, seeks to grow
psychologically and continuously enhance themselves. This has been captured by the
term self-actualization, which is about psychological growth, fulfilment and
satisfaction in life. However, Rogers and Maslow both describe different ways of
how self-actualization can be achieved. Maslow (1943, 1954) stated that human
motivation is based on people seeking fulfilment and change through personal growth.
Self-actualized people are those who were fulfilled and doing all they were capable
of. The growth of self-actualization (Maslow, 1962) refers to the need for personal
growth and discovery that is present throughout a person’s life.

 Central to the humanistic theories of Rogers (1959) and Maslow (1943) are the
subjective, conscious experiences of the individual. Humanistic psychologists argue
that objective reality is less important than a person's subjective perception and
understanding of the world. Because of this, Rogers and Maslow placed little value
on scientific psychology, especially the use of the psychology laboratory to
investigate both human and animal behaviour.

 The humanistic approach mostly emphasises upon recognizing, valuing the dignity of
one’s own self‐worth of every individual learner and upon developing the self‐
concept of the learner so, it starts from the assumption that the learner must feel
positive about themselves and about their ability to improve and progress towards the
realization of their full potential and for this the learner must have a clear and accurate
understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses

 Abraham Maslow’s view of human needs was more complex than Rogers’. Whilst
Rogers believed that people needed unconditional positive regard, Maslow
acknowledged that people have a variety of needs that differ in immediacy and which
need satisfying at different times. He arranged these needs in a hierarchy, whereby the
more basic needs towards the bottom take precedence over those higher up (e.g.
everyone needs to have their achievements recognized, but will put this need to one
side if they are starving hungry). Maslow believed that those who satisfied all their
needs might become self-actualisers: rare, remarkable people who fulfil their potential
 completely. However, he also thought that prolonged periods where a particular need
was not satisfied could result in a sort of fixation. For example, a person who grew up
in poverty might continue to be dominated by anxiety about food even if they were
lucky enough to escape poverty later.

Humanistic psychologists favour research methods that will allow them to understand other
people’s subjectivity. Consequently, they avoid methods that study people objectively,
including experimentation and non-participant observation. They generally think that
reducing people’s experience to numbers robs it of its richness and meaning, so they also
avoid quantitative approaches. Therefore, qualitative methods are preferred, particularly
unstructured interviewing as it allows access to other people’s views and experiences without
imposing on them the researcher’s ideas about what is important. Where observation is used
it is likely to be participant observation, with the researcher taking part in what they are
studying in order to understand how the participants perceive it. Humanistic psychologists
may also analyse all sorts of other qualitative materials that allow them insight into how
people understand their world, including diaries, letters and biographies.
Humanism rejected comparative psychology (the study of animals) because it does not tell us
anything about the unique properties of human beings. Humanism views human beings as
fundamentally different from other animals, mainly because humans are conscious beings
capable of thought, reason and language. For humanistic psychologists’ research on animals,
such as rats, pigeons, or monkeys held little value. Research on such animals can tell us, so
they argued, very little about human thought, behaviour and experience.
To conclude, humanistic approach explicitly states that people have free will, which sets it
apart from other approaches. In the nature-nurture debate, humanists favour nurture because
of the influence of experiences on a person’s ways of perceiving and understanding the
world. Their belief in the uniqueness of each individual inclines them toward an ideographic
approach to psychology. Humanistic approach emphasises upon recognizing, valuing the
dignity of one’s own self‐worth and self-actualization. So according to humanism, objective
reality is less important than a person's subjective perception and understanding of the world.
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