CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVE

Name: Tevin Thomas
Subject: introduction to psychology
Date: 05/11/14
Lecturer:




















TABLE OF CONTENT
Theory and Theorist……………………………………………………………………………………………………………2
Advantages…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………2
Disadvantages……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………2-3
Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………4



















CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVE: Humanistic

Humanistic psychology is the psychology study of human as a whole being and the uniqueness of an individual. It is more affiliated with social psychology than anything else. It mostly appeals to the behavior of an individual whether it is because of an environment or the behavior of others or the ones internal feelings. It is referred to as the "third force in psychology".
Theorists in humanistic/humanism are Abraham Maslow (1946) published "significant aspects of client centered therapy". Abraham Maslow was a humanistic psychology. He was well known for creating the Maslow hierarchy of needs. The hierarchy of needs is a triangle divided into 5 parts starting with the basic human need from the bottom complex ones at the top. The 5 steps are:
Biological and physiological needs – air, food, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep.
Safety needs – protection from elements, security, order, law, stability, freedom from fear.
Love and belongingness needs – friendship, intimacy, affection and love etc.
Esteem needs – achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, etc.
Self-actualization needs – realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking person growth and peak experience
ADVANTAGES
According to the state university of Cortland 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 a human means because it values personal ideals and self-fulfillment. Finally, humanistic psychology provides researchers with a flexible framework for observing human behavior because it considers a person in the context of his environment and in conjunction with his personal perception and feelings".
DISADVANTAGES
Once again from the state university of Cortland one of its disadvantages is "one major criticism of humanism psychology is that its concept is 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".
According to yahoo and Ask other disadvantages are:" lack of empirical evidence, the self-help therapy involved can teach narcissistic tendencies" and human psychology is based heavily on ideas of patient's free will. Because of this, humanistic therapy is usually ineffective at developing specific treatment techniques for specific problems of patients. It is also very difficult to evaluate.
























BIBLIOGRAPHY
Psychology fourth edition – Ciccarelli, Saundra K