SOME BASIC TENETS OF HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

In 1967, the American Association for Humanistic Psychology published a four-part statement on the
themes of humanistic psychology. This statement was presented by Buhler and Allen in 1972:

1. Humanistic psychology focuses on centering attention on the experiencing individual. Thus,

experiencing is the primary phenomenon. Other events, theoretical explanations, and behavior
are secondary to the experience and the meaning of the individual.
2. The emphasis is on the distinctive human qualities such as choice, creativity, evaluation, and
self-regard (realization) as opposed to considering people in reductionistic or mechanistic terms.
3. The emphasis is on meaningfulness in the selection of problems to study. Research procedures
are opposed to a primary objectivity as the significant experience.
4. An ultimate concern with valuing human dignity and an interest in the development of the
potential inherent in every person.

Charlotte Buhler, one of the leading humanistic psychologists today, has set down what she considers to
be some of the basic concepts of humanistic psychology. According to Buhler, humanistic psychology
stresses some of the following:

1. The person as a whole is the main subject of humanistic psychology. This is not new to
psychological theorizing. Existential psychology also considers the person as a unity. However,
the direction of the humanist is towards the emphasis of understanding rather than explaining.
According to Maslow, each person must be approached as a unique individual. The same point is
made by the existential psychologists.
2. Humanistic psychology is concerned with the knowledge of a person’s entire life history. This
notion is typically applied in taking the history of a person in both psychiatry and clinical
psychology. The student of abnormal psychology depends to a great extent on the “case history
method” as a means of understanding a person’s problems. Buhler, however, claims that so-
called life cycle studies are still scarce.
3. Human existence and intention are also of great importance. Buhler admits sharing the same
idea with existential psychologists. Perhaps, humanistic psychology places more attention on
intention. By this is a meant a person’s experiencing his own identity.
4. Life goals are of equal importance. Here, humanistic psychology is not concerned with purely
biological satisfaction of needs or the fulfillment of Freudian instincts, but self-realization or self-
actualization as the goals of life. Such concepts were first introduced by Jung, and have become
important aspect of Maslow’s and Rogers’ personality theories. Fulfillment of the goal of self-
realization is another term frequently used. Furthermore, various humanistic psychologists
stress basic life conflicts. Buhler stresses the importance of the integrative process as a
resolution. Jung had earlier stressed this concept in the transcendent function.
5. Man’s creativity has a primary place in humanistic psychology. Creativity becomes a universal
human function that leads to all forms of self-expression. It is also related to the general goal-
seeking of a person. Adler had stressed the idea of a creative self, and Fromm had talked about
creativity in terms of productivity.
6. Humanistic psychology is frequently applied to psychotherapy. The aim of therapy is self-
understanding. Also, the therapeutic process should lead to a greater understanding of others.

Excerpt from:
Theories and Systems of Psychology book by Robert Lundin