Humanistic A03

• Not reductionist

  Humanists reject any attempt to break up behaviour and experience into smaller components
• Holism


  Humanistic psychologists advocate holism, the idea that subjective experience can only be understood by considering the whole person. This approach may have more validity than other approaches as it considers meaningful behaviour with its real-life concepts
• Limited application

  HP has relatively little real-world application. Even though Rogerian therapy revolutionised counselling and Maslow's hierarchy of needs used to explain motivation in the work place particularly, the HP has limited impact within the discipline of psychology as a whole
• Sound-evidence

  HP may have little impact because it lacks a sound evidence-base and that the approach has been described as a loose set of rather abstract concepts and not a comprehensive theory
• Positive approach


  Humanistic psychologists praised for 'bringing back the person to psychology' and promoting a positive image of the human condition. Offers a refreshing and optimistic alternative to Freud's theory
• HP's view of people

  HP sees all people as good, free to work towards the achievement of their potential and in control of their lives
• Untestable concepts

  HP includes number of vague ideas that are abstract and difficult to test. Concept likes SA and congruence are useful therapeutic tools but would be a problem to asses under experimental conditions
• Rogers attempt to make HP more scientific

  Rogers attempted to make his work more rigorous by adding the O-sort, objective measure of progress in therapy. But HP lacks empirical evidence and even describes itself as unscientific
• Cultural bias

  Many ideas of HP like individual freedom, autonomy and personal growth are more readily associated with individualistic cultures. Collective cultures like India may not identify easily with HP and thus, it is possible the approach would not travel well and is a product of cultural context