Key assumptions

• People are intrinsically good and have an innate need to make themselves and the world better
• People are motivated to self- actualise
• Subjective, conscious experiences are more important than objective reality
• Humanistic psychologists focus on the study of humans only, so it rejects comparative psychology (the study of animals)
• Focuses on how individuals perceive events
• Humanists argue that human behaviour is complex, so it is unsuitable for study through traditional scientific methods, which seek to identify and test simple Cause-and-effect relationships objectively