Comparing Maslow And Humanistic Psychology

I took the survey at the beginning of the year and felt pretty confident in my responses. I realize now, looking back, that I answered the questions based off of my opinion of myself and not necessarily of the majority of those around me. I leaned more towards individualism and the idea that people are free to make their own choices. I have picked Maslow as the theorist that I best identity with because of his hierarchy of needs, reasons for motivation, humanistic psychological findings, and steps towards self actualization. Humanistic psychology and the theory's main focus is on the person as a whole, instead of taking many different pieces of the puzzle separately and potentially out of context. Abraham Maslow is considered the founder of humanistic psychology, it is also known as the 3rd force of psychology. It focuses on the experience of the person that is in the situation at that moment, instead of relying heavily on their past. He was one of the first theorists to put emphasis on healthy, normal people and study people as they are rather than trying to dig too deep for something that may not exist. Humanistic psychology attends to the idea that people have creativity, a choice, and the ability to reach self actualization by themselves. Maslow reinforced the idea that the primary goal and concern of

Maslow thought that people were able to change based off of their goals, what they were trying to achieve and how. One of his main points was that if someone is able to focus on the concept of self-actualization then they are able to realize a new part or a new aspect of themselves, like ultimate happiness. With that, the environment also has huge potential to hinder someone's growth as well prevent them from achieving self actualization if efforts are not focused or directed in the correct