HUMANISM
Positive psychology is a relatively new form of psychology. It emphasises the positive influences in a person's life. These might include character strengths, optimistic emotions, and constructive institutions. This theory is based on the belief that happiness is derived from both emotional and mental factors
Humanistic Psychology: free will, self-actualisation and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, focus on the self, congruence, the role of conditions of worth. The influence on counselling Psychology.
Humanism, humanist, and humanistic are psychological terms which relate to an approach to study the whole person, as well as his or her uniqueness. These terms are referred in psychology to have the same approach. Humanistic approach, at some point, is named phenomenological in which the study of a personality is focused on the subjective experience of an individual.
Will a humanistic approach be a favorable way to deal with various aspects of human existence? Perhaps a number of strengths and weaknesses can serve as a guide to justify this issue.
WEAKNESSES
As with any viewpoint, humanistic psychology hasits critics. One major criticism of humanistic psychology is that its conceptsare too vague. Critics argue that subjective ideas such as authentic and realexperiences are difficult to objectify; an experience that is real for oneindividual may not be real for another person. For this reason, critics believethat conclusions drawn from subjective experiences are almost impossible toverify, making research in humanistic psychology unreliable. In addition,critics claim that humanistic psychology is not a true science because itinvolves too much common sense and not enough objectivity.
STRENGTHS
One of the greatest strengths of humanisticpsychology is that it emphasizes individual choice and responsibility. Humanistic psychology satisfies most people's idea of what being human meansbecause it values personal ideals and self-fulfillment. Finally, humanisticpsychology provides researchers with a flexible framework for observing humanbehavior because it considers a person in the context of his environment and inconjunction with his personal perceptions and feelings.
1. Focus on the Individual Behavior
Instead of focusing on the unconscious behavior, genes, and mind among others, it has shifted its attention to the individual or entire person.
2. Satisfies the Idea of Most People
As humanistic approach values self-fulfillment and personal ideals, it satisfies the idea of most people regarding the meaning of being human. This focuses more on humankind’s positive nature and free will that is relative to change.
3. More Behavioral Insights
It is easier to acquire a genuine insight and complete information due to the qualitative data that can be associated to behavior.
4. Individualistic Methods of Study
It highlights the importance of a more idiographic and individualistic methods of study. Humanism can also be favorable to different professions, including criminology, history, and literature because humanistic thought has a basis that strikes a hint in all that is considered to be human.
5. Person-Centered Counseling
The non-directional nature of person-centered counseling will allow clients to feel more comfortable when communicating with counselors. More so, clients are considered their equals as they don’t claim to be experts.
List of Weaknesses of Humanistic Approach
· Promotes Frustration Among Clients. Allowing clients to think for themselves can be confusing for those who are not capable of doing so. ...
· Opposition to Deterministic Laws of Science. ...
· Ethnocentricity of Humanistic Approach. ...
· Experience is Required. ...
· Learning Style Issues
LIST OF WEAKNESSES OF HUMANISTIC APPROACH
1. Promotes Frustration Among Clients
Allowing clients to think for themselves can be confusing for those who are not capable of doing so. Likewise, their clients may feel frustrated because they will not be provided with explanations for their problems.
2. Opposition to Deterministic Laws of Science
Humanistic approach supports free will in which proponents have opposing beliefs in deterministic laws. Accordingly, determinism states that there is only a single course of events that is possible, which contradicts that of the existence of free will.
3. Ethnocentricity of Humanistic Approach
This type of approach can be biased and centered on the Western culture only. For this matter, it can be said that it will influence those who have diverse cultures to follow and adopt even if it contradicts to their beliefs.
Some critics argue that Maslow is unconsciously naive about elitist elements in his theories. As one critic poses: ". . . what real individuals, living in what real societies, working at what real jobs, and earning what real income have any chance at all of becoming selfactualizers?" (Lethbridge, 1986, p. 90). Meanwhile, other critics assign Maslow a much more malevolent role, seeing Maslow s psychology as a "new and seductive Social Darwinism," capitalist thought taken to its logical extreme (Shaw & Colimore, 1988, p. 56).
4. Experience is Required
In a classroom environment, for instance, the teacher’s capability is a very important role in the success of the humanistic approach. This is because in a humanist classroom, the teacher should facilitate students and their open expressions towards feelings in which traditional teaching doesn’t emphasize on it.
5. Learning Style Issues
Each student has unique learning styles that the humanist teacher must employ for that particular student. However, such styles and evaluations can be very unwieldy and unorganized.
Humanistic approach can only be applied to few areas of psychology, but it can provide better insights into the behavior of the individual through qualitative methods. Likewise, it can offer a more comprehensive view on human behavior.
They particularly reject any notion of an autonomous self, emphasizing the determination of macro socioeconomic forces on the shaping of any individual. In this set of assumptions, human nature is human only by virtue of the society. Such a position, based on the belief that the individual has no identity of self apart from society, also includes a belief in the perfectibility of humans, through a sweeping revolution in political, economic, and social arrangements, a toppling of inequitable macro structures of power and oppression. Marxist critics blast Maslow s commitment to incremental progress and find the notion of personal responsibility to be only a tool of capitalistic oppressors.
