HA AO3

• strengths of HA


  • not reductionist
  • positive approach
• - of HA


  • reductionist approaches are more scientific
  • limited application
• + not reductionist


  • rejects attempts to break up behaviour and experience into smaller components
  • Humanistic psychologists advocate holism - idea that subjective experience can only be understood by considering the whole person
  • this approach may have more validity than its alternatives by considering meaningful human behaviour within its real word context
• - reductionist approaches are more scientific

  • this is because ideal of science is the experiment and experiments reduce behaviour to independent and dependent variables
  • one issue with HP is there are few concepts that can be broken down to a single variables and measured
  • this means that HP in general is short on empirical evidence to support its claims
• + positive approach

  • HA is optimistic
  • HP have been praised for bringing the person back into psychology and promoting a positive image of the human condition
  • freud saw human beings as prisoners of their past
  • HP see all people as good , free to work towards the achievement of their potential and in control of their lives
  • this suggests that HP offers a refreshing and optimistic alternative to other approaches
• - limited application

  • critics argued that HP has little impact in psychology or little real world application
  • approach is described as loose set of abstract ideas
  • rogerian therapy revolutionised counselling techniques and maslows hierachy of needs has been used to explain motivation particularly in the workplace