Humanistic Approach

The study of psychology has been developing since ancient times and more than likely, it will continue to change as psychologists provide new approaches or change existing ones to gain a better understanding of human behavior and their mental processes. As today’s psychologists broadened their studies in the field of psychology, it helps us to a better understanding of these new approaches to the science of behavior. In this paper, I will present a comparison and analysis of three fundamental approaches; humanistic psychology, cognitive psychology, and the positive psychology movement.

Humanistic psychologists seek to understand human being as a whole person, and their ability to influence their-self perceptions and personal meanings in regard

The key focus of psychoanalysis was based on understanding the unconscious motivation that drives behavior, while on the other hand; the key focus of behaviorism involved the study of the conditioning processes that create behavior. Both behaviorism and psychoanalysis emerged from a social context, and both approaches are classified as dominant branches in psychology.

Since the beginning of time, humanistic thinkers have been concern with understanding human behavior. However, during the 1970s and 1980s, humanistic psychology has broadened its sphere of influence in the field of psychology. This have had a major impact on the mental health field because; 1) it provided a set of new principles in regards to the understanding of the human conditions, 2) it broadened its methods of analysis in the study of human behavior, and 3) it has presented various ways to conduct more effective methods in the professional practice of

The overall goal of cognitive psychology seeks to understand how the human mind works, and to identify behavior by characteristics other than its apparent properties (“Cognitive Psychology,” 2009).

When it comes to using scientific methods to study human mental processes and behavior, cognitive psychology was and still is considered to be one of the most dominant approaches. However, positive psychology is easier to be accepted by academic psychologists as merely a branch of cognitive psychology. In general positive psychology is more similar to humanistic psychology in its focuses on optimal human behavior.

Although positive psychology is classified as a newest branches of psychology to emerge, it relied heavily on the influenced of other approaches in psychology such as humanistic psychology and existentialism and challenge other approaches such as psychoanalytic and behaviorism. Martin Seligman (2002), a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, created the positive psychology movement. After many decades of conducting experimental research, he became successful for his learned helplessness theory, and in 1998 he was appointed president of the American Psychological Association (APA).