Introduction
Humanistic psychology is often discussed as “third force” psychology to distinguish it from “first force” (psychoanalysis) and “second force” (behaviorism) psychology. Humanistic psychologists hold that these prior paradigms have a limited view of humankind – psychoanalysis because of its focus on unhealthy behavior and behaviorism because of its mechanistic reduction of human beings to stimulus – response organisms. Two axiomatic assumptions undergird humanistic psychology theory and method – holism and the self-actualizing tendency. Holism is the belief that each person is a unified whole (mind, body, spirit) rather than a fragmented conglomeration of parts; human existence is a reciprocal relationship between individual subjectivity, interpersonal and social relationships, and the material world. The second assumption, self-actualization, refers to the inherent movement of human beings toward the fulfillment of their potential. Both Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers...
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Diaz, J. (2014). Humanistic Psychology. In: Teo, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_142
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