PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC AND REPUBLIC OF ALGERIA

MINISTRY OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND SCIENTIFIC

RESEARCH

UNIVERSITY CENTER ‘’ SALHI AHMED ‘’ NAAMA

DEPARTEMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

SECTION OF ENGLISH

The humanistic approach

STUDENTS NAME: Supervised by:

 Boukhemoucha Hala Mrs: Sebagh wahida

 Moulai khadija

Academic year: 2020/2021

The definition of The humanistic approach :
Humanistic, humanism and humanist are terms in psychology relating to an
approach which studies the whole person, and the uniqueness of each individual.
Essentially, these terms refer the same approach in psychology. Humanism is a
psychological perspective that emphasizes the study of the whole person. A central
assumption of humanism, according to Huitt (2001), is that people act with
intentionality and values. This is in contrast to the behaviourist notion of operant
conditioning (which argues that all behaviour is the result of the application of
consequences) and the cognitive psychologist belief that the discovering knowledge or
constructing meaning is central to learning .

The Origins :
The origin of humanism can be traced back to Western Europe as far as
2500years ago. Then, there is a tradition of non-religious ethical thinking. It is viewed
as a way of understanding the world and of finding meaning in life and ground moral
thinking. However the movement was diversified and strengthened in 1960s.

Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, Erik Erikson, Carl Jung, Erich Fromm, Karen
Horney, Melanie Klein, Harry Stack Sullivan, and others. In the late 1930s,
psychologists, interested in the uniquely human issues, such as the self, self-
actualization, health, hope, love, creativity, nature, being, becoming, individuality, and
meaning—that is, a concrete understanding of human existence, included Abraham
Maslow, Carl Rogers, and Clark Moustakas, who were interested in founding a
professional association dedicated to a psychology focused on these features of human
capital demanded by post-industrial society.
Other significant events in the development of humanism include:
Maslow (1943) developed a hierarchical theory of human motivation.
Carl Rogers (1946) publishes ―Significant aspects of client-centred therapy‖ (also
called person centred therapy).
In 1957 and 1958, at the invitation of Abraham Maslow and Clark Moustakas, two
meetings were held in Detroit among psychologists who were interested in founding a
professional association dedicated to a more meaningful, more humanistic vision.
In 1962, with the sponsorship of Brandeis University, this movement was formally
launched as the Association for Humanistic Psychology.
The first issue of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology appeared in the Spring of
1961.
The five basic principles of humanistic psychology are:
1. Human beings, as human, supersede the sum of their parts. They cannot be reduced
to components.
2. Human beings have their existence in a uniquely human context, as well as in a
cosmic ecology.
3. Human beings are aware and are aware of being aware - i.e., they are conscious.
Human consciousness always includes an awareness of oneself in the context of other
people.
4. Human beings have the ability to make choices and therefore have responsibility.
5. Human beings are intentional, aim at goals, are aware that they cause future events,
and seek meaning, value, and creativity.

Humanism in ralation to learning :

Humanistic approaches to learning are based on the principles of humanism and
are founded most notably on the work of Abraham Maslow (1908–1970) and Carl
Rogers (1902–1987). They centre on the learner as an individual and consider that
learning is not just about the intellect, but also about educating the ―whole person,‖
taking a person’s interests, goals, and enthusiasm into account, so that full potential
can be achieved. This approach to learning is student centred, with learners
encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning and being intrinsically
(natural, inborn), rather than extrinsically (external originating from the outside)
motivated .

The basics of human learning theory :

Humanistic learning theory describes learning in terms of personal growth and
the full development of each human’s potential not on just an intellectual level, but
also on an emotional, psychological, creative, social, physical, and even spiritual level
(DeCarvalho, 1991; Maslow, 1971; Morris, 1978; Rogers, 1969; Patterson, 1973).
Based on this, five common goals of humanistic education are identified :

1. To facilitate the development of fully functioning, self-actualized human beings

who have the capacity to nurture themselves, others, and their environment;
2. To instill a joy of learning and a desire to be life-long learners;
3. To promote the discovery of each student’s passions, special talents, and abilities;
4. To teach the knowledge and skills necessary for students to be good decision
makers and effective problem solvers.
5. To enable students to be responsible world citizens who are able to contribute to
democratic societies.
The psychoanalytic view :
The psychoanalytic theorists believed differently as they claimed that motivation
comes from the wants of the id- usually sexual in nature. Also, the psychoanalytic
theory states that human nature is viewed in a very negative and pessimistic manner
whilst the humanistic approach is more optimistic about human nature.

Criticisms of humanism :
As with any viewpoint, humanism has its critics. One major criticism of
humanistic psychology is that its concepts are too vague. Critics argue that subjective
ideas such as authentic and real experiences are difficult to objectify; an experience
that is real for one individual may not be real for another person. For this reason,
critics believe that conclusions drawn from subjective experiences are almost
impossible to verify, making research in humanistic psychology unreliable. In
addition, critics claim that humanistic psychology is not a true science because it
involves too much common sense and not enough objectivity.

Even with the short comings and criticisms of this theory of learning, the
humanistic approach has its fair share of strengths as well. One of the greatest
strengths of humanistic psychology is that it emphasizes individual choice and
responsibility. Humanistic psychology satisfies most people's idea of what being
human means because it values personal ideals and self-fulfilment. It is evident that
this theory would be best used for an educator as it promotes learning in a conducive
and non-threatening environment at the students’ own pace and. What we should do,
therefore, is to make use of its advantages and put it into teaching practice to prove
whether it is suitable or not, at the same time, we should avoid its disadvantages and
improve the present method to make satisfied progress.