humanistic evaluation

• (hardly) not reductionist

  One strength of the humanistic approach is that it rejects attempts to break up behaviour and experience into smaller components (reductionism).

  Behaviourists explain human and animal learning in terms of simple stimulus-response connections. Supporters of the cognitive approach see human beings as little more than information-processing 'machines'. Biological psychologists reduce behaviour to its basic physiological processes. Freud described the whole of personality as a conflict between three things: Id, Ego and Superego. In contrast, 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 its alternatives by considering meaningful human behaviour within its real-world context.
• Counterpoint - unscientific due to not being reductionist

  Having said that, reductionist approaches may be more scientific. This is because the ideal of science is the experiment, and experiments reduce behaviour to independent and dependent variables. One issue with humanistic psychology is that, unlike behaviourism, there are relatively few concepts that can be broken down to single variables and measured.

  This means that humanistic psychology in general is short on empirical evidence to support its claims.
• (multi) Cultural bias

  One limitation of the approach is that it may be culturally-biased. Many of the ideas that are central to humanistic psychology, such as individual freedom, autonomy and personal growth, would be much more readily associated with countries that have more individualist tendencies (e.g. the US). Countries with collectivist tendencies

  emphasise more the needs of the group and interdependence. In such countries, the ideals of humanistic psychology may not be as important as in others (e.g, self-actualisation).

  Therefore, it is possible that this approach does not apply universally and is a product of the cultural context within which it was developed.
• approach positive

  Another strength of the humanistic approach is that it is optimistic. Humanistic psychologists 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 and claimed all of us existed somewhere between 'common unhappiness and absolute despair'. In contrast, humanistic psychologists see all people as basically good, free to work towards the achievement of their potential and in control of their lives.

  This suggests that humanistic psychology offers a refreshing and optimistic alternative to other approaches.