Assumptions

• Assumptions of the approach

  It assumes that a healthy psychological attitude is dependant on taking personal responsibility, recognising the existence of free will.
• People are naturally good, with the potential for personal growth and fulfilment if they are provided with appropriate circumstances.

  Humanist psychologists believe in:
• 1. The uniqueness of human beings – takes an idiographic approach (concerned with understanding each individual, instead of general laws that apply to everyone)
• 2. The importance of subjective (not objective) and holistic experience - human behaviour is best understood from the perspective of the individual, and their whole

  experience
• 3. The rejection of psychology as a science and the belief that humans can or should be studied scientifically
• 4. Humans have free will - we have the ability to make our own choices, and these are driven by the need to self- actualise