research methods for humanistic approach

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research methods for humanistic approach

As the previous section demonstrates, the concept of ethics in research is more complicated than simply considering whether the research is right or wrong. Indeed, all researchers are expected to adhere to minimum standards. Even these minimum standards can be less than straightforward; however, and as a result, research is typically regulated by codes or standards that are outlined by associations, societies and universities, to minimize the risk that research participants are harmed.

Researchers have not only a humanistic obligation to care for those who participate in their research, but also a scientific obligation to uncover information that benefits society. Ultimately, researchers are asked to minimize harm (and the risk of harm) to their participants (human and animal). As it relates specifically to humans, this harm could be mental, physical, or emotional, and could occur at the time of the research or in the future, after the research is finished. Researchers then must give substantial thought to the impact their research (e.g., the experiences the participants have, the questions that are asked) might have on a participant, and do all they can to minimize negative impacts. Likewise, researchers must give similar attention to the impact of their research as it relates to the pain and suffering of animals, which must be weighed against the overall benefits of the research.

Research Methods, Data Collection and Ethics Copyright © 2020 by Valerie Sheppard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Ethics in Research

9 A Humanistic Approach to Research

As the previous section demonstrates, ethics in research is more complicated than simply considering whether the research is right or wrong. Indeed, there are minimum standards that all researchers are expected to adhere to. Even these minimum standards can be less than straightforward; however, and as a result, research is typically regulated by codes or standards that are outlined by associations, societies and universities to minimize the risk that research participants are harmed.

Researchers have not only a humanistic obligation to care for those who participate in their research, but also a scientific obligation to uncover information that benefits society. Ultimately, researchers are asked to minimize harm (and the risk of harm) to their participants (human and animal). As it relates specifically to human, this harm could be mental, physical, emotional, and could occur at the time of the research or in the future, after the research is finished. Researchers then must give substantial thought to what impact their research (e.g., the experiences the participants have, the questions that are asked) may have on a participant and do all they can to minimize negative impacts. Likewise, researchers must give similar attention to the impact of their research as it relates to the pain and suffering of animals, which must be weighed against the overall benefits of the research.

An Introduction to Research Methods in Sociology Copyright © 2019 by Valerie A. Sheppard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Humanistic Psychotherapies: Handbook of Research and Practice

JONATHAN L. GRINDLINGER , M.D. ,

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Beginning in the 1940s, Carl Rogers reconceptualized psychotherapy by deemphasizing therapeutic technique in favor of the interpersonal processes he saw as critical for therapeutic change. This emphasis on interpersonal process is perhaps the most important aspect of the humanistic school of psychotherapy, initially differentiating it from the other main schools of psychotherapy. Although contemporary forms of humanistic psychotherapy differ somewhat in approach, all of them focus attention on the therapeutic relationship, involving empathy, authenticity, and the recognition of a subjective, individually constructed reality; the critical role of emotional experience; individual responsibility; and freedom of choice. The humanistic approach favors the skills involved in processing one’s emotions over the achievement of intellectual understanding.

From its inception, a primary goal of humanistic psychotherapy has been research-based validation of its hypotheses about the nature of constructive change within a therapeutic relationship. Humanistic psychotherapies share the fundamental premise that an optimal therapeutic relationship fosters maximal development of individual potential. Central tenets include nonjudgmental acceptance of the other’s personal experience as a precursor to mutual understanding and therapeutic change. The patient, not the therapist, determines the direction of therapy and is the locus of control. These core features of Carl Rogers’s client-centered psychotherapy emphasized the person over the problems and the feelings expressed in the here and now as opposed to thoughts. In 1940, Rogers and his students were the first to study audio transcriptions of therapy sessions, work that justifies the claim that this group initiated modern research in the field of psychotherapy. It was this research which led to the hypotheses and theoretical formulations that strengthened and enlarged the framework of the humanistic approach.

By the mid-1950s, genuineness and empathic understanding had become the cornerstones of humanistic psychotherapy. Advances since the mid-1960s include the development of methods to highlight the thoughts and feelings that underlie the patient’s self-concept in order to facilitate constructive change. Increasing emphasis on “here and now” experiential processes is seen as critical for developmental change. Certainly, many of these concepts parallel those found in psychodynamic modalities; however, my impression after studying this book is that humanistic psychotherapeutic approaches are less restrained by the residua or echoes of drive theory and therefore provide the therapist more freedom to explore the emotional arena in psychotherapy without fear of “contaminating the transference.” The “real” relationship between patient and therapist becomes the core of therapy as opposed to the transferential relationship.

This text provides state-of-the-art information on the status of contemporary research and practice in the field of humanistic psychology. For the clinician, many of the chapters provide detailed discussions on therapeutic technique derived from the research, including transcripts from psychotherapy sessions that illustrate those techniques. The book is divided into six main parts. The first section provides “an overview of the history, defining characteristics, and evolution of humanistic psychotherapies” (p. xxv). The second part provides summaries of basic research findings, including a meta-analysis suggesting that “humanistic psychotherapies have substantial effect sizes and are equally effective or more effective than other major approaches to psychotherapy” (p. xxv). This part also includes chapters on process-outcome research and qualitative research, illustrating the epistemological maturity of this field. The third and fourth parts review the major humanistic psychotherapeutic approaches and modalities, including couples and family therapy, group therapy, and child therapy, along with corresponding reviews of supporting research. The fifth part focuses on current therapeutic issues and applications, as well as research reviews demonstrating the linkage between these approaches and therapeutic outcome. A chapter from this section, titled “Emotion in Humanistic Psychotherapy,” is where I encountered my only significant disappointment. Specifically, it failed to differentiate the concept of affect as physiological from the concept of emotion as biographical and to differentiate cognitive processes from affective processes, distinctions I view as necessary for clarity and consistency. Nevertheless, I found the approaches presented for the targeting of emotion and subsequent therapeutic intervention important and valuable work despite my dissatisfaction with this chapter’s explication of terminology and underlying theory. The final section proposes the future direction of this field, presenting a contemporary theoretical model that integrates a synthesis of humanistic psychology with modern neuroscience and systems theory.

Despite the preponderance of research on psychotherapy indicating that the quality of the therapeutic relationship is the strongest predictor of a successful outcome, there is in psychology and psychiatry a growing bias toward “empirically supported treatments” dependent on the medical model. Unfortunately for the patients exposed to such attitudes, the consequent attention to remediation of symptoms and return of the patient to the “premorbid condition” encourages the therapist to be a technician and to ignore any opportunity to lead the patient toward new growth. However, humanistic psychology has a long heritage emphasizing a phenomenological approach, which provides a distinct advantage for the development of the therapist’s empathic skills. The conscious effort to recognize and suspend preconceptions, theoretical assumptions, judgments, and expectations allows for a greater appreciation of the other’s subjective experience. Nonetheless, an approach that allows for the optimization of empathic connection also runs directly counter to theory-based, reductionistic scientific epistemology.

During the mid-1960s to mid-1970s the “questionable practices and antischolarly attitudes” (p. xxi) of some humanistic psychologists damaged the reputation of humanistic psychotherapy. A number of humanistic psychologists bought into the rollicking ethos of that era and disregarded the rigorous approaches emphasized by their forebears. Some rejected modern science by overemphasizing phenomenology to the point of “anything goes” and subsequently seemed “on the fringe” and “out of it” to many of us. At the same time, the birth of modern neuroscience and the rapid growth of biological psychiatry threw into increasing disrespect a field far larger than its colorful miscreants. Important advances achieved through biological science came to overshadow the perhaps equally important contributions made by a persistent band of highly trained and committed individuals who had conducted rigorous, qualitative human science, an epistemology traditionally more accepted by psychologists than psychiatrists. The sober reader of this fascinating text will recognize the increasing need for a pluralistic approach.

The economics of modern medicine have reduced severely any financial motivation for psychiatrists to conduct psychotherapy, let alone invest the time and effort needed to acquire increasingly effective psychotherapeutic skills. Notwithstanding substantial biological evidence supporting the efficacy of psychotherapy (1) , the realities of research funding also impede the study of psychotherapy by those interested in biological psychiatry. I can only imagine what we could discover if a pluralistic and integrative research effort were pursued. The editors and authors of Humanistic Psychotherapies emphasize the role of human emotion and the need to link psychotherapeutic technique to neuroscience through a new theoretical framework. Surely an approach to research that addresses both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the phenomena under study will benefit both patient and therapist. Such an argument parallels and is consistent with those made by proponents of the humanistic psychotherapies in this highly recommended book.

Edited by David J. Cain, Ph.D., ABPP, and Julius Seeman, Ph.D. Washington, D.C., American Psychological Association, 2002, 592 pp., $59.95.

1. Kandel ER: A new intellectual framework for psychiatry. Am J Psychiatry 1998 ; 155:457-469 Link , Google Scholar

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Humanistic Psychology

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Humanistic Psychology by Andrew M. Bland , Eugene M. DeRobertis LAST REVIEWED: 26 May 2023 LAST MODIFIED: 25 October 2018 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199828340-0225

Humanistic psychology emphasizes universal and individualized qualities of optimal well-being, the constructive use of creative potential, and the relational conditions that promote those qualities. It offers an alternative to mechanistic and/or reductionistic psychological explanations based on isolated, static elements of observable behavior or mental processes. Humanistic psychologists believe that the technocratic assumptions and practices of the natural science approach conventionally adopted by psychologists in the interest of prediction, manipulation, and control of behavior are insufficient to capture the nuances of how human experience and behavior dynamically co-contextualize and co-constitute one another. They question (1) the unreflective placement of formal theory and hypothetico-deductive method before considerations of human subject matter, which includes the impetus to cast research participants in passive roles in the interest of mathematical precision, and (2) the tendency to prioritize methods that valorize probabilistic generalizability to the detriment of contextually situated perspectives gleaned from meaningful interaction. Likewise, they consider the rigid, uncritical employment of monolithic theories and preoccupation with technique in psychotherapy inappropriate for adequately understanding and addressing human suffering. In contrast, humanistic psychologists employ holistic-systemic and empathically attuned approaches in their therapeutic and research practices to understand lived experiences of individuals as active participants situated in their sociocultural and eco-psycho-spiritual contexts. A flexible, process-oriented, rigorously descriptive approach is favored to elucidate individual self-awareness and self-regulation and to explore how values (autonomy and commitment , freedom and responsibility , personal decision and receptive world-openness ) influence both commonalities and divergences (that is, diversity) in human experience. The person is conceptualized as continually evolving, motivated by a need to progress toward greater levels of integrated interactive functioning, guided by intentionality and an ever-expanding awareness of self and others, with capacities for growth and change irrespective of past limitations and future uncertainties. Humanistic psychologists highlight overall maturity and the role of cooperative meaning making. This article begins with a list of sources for novices to obtain a “big picture” view of humanistic psychology as written by humanistic psychologists ( General Overviews and Textbooks ), followed by a selection of edited volumes ( Reference Works and Anthologies ), peer-reviewed publications ( Journals ), and multimedia presentations ( Online Resources ) that feature the broad range of voices that constitute classic and contemporary humanistic psychology. Next, recommendations are provided for primary source writings on humanistic psychology theorizing and its underlying philosophy ( Theory and Philosophy ), and its practical applications in therapy and research ( Applications ). Finally, a review of sources on humanistic psychology’s history, development, and influence ( History, Development, and Influence ) sets the stage for its contemporary applications: addressing cultural imbalances, technocracy and transhumanism, globalization, and climate change; enhancing education, career development, and leadership; promoting heroism, everyday creativity, and diagnostic alternatives ( Contemporary Applications ).

From its inception, humanistic psychology has been a broad-based yet theoretically delineated movement rather than a highly specialized school. Initially known as the “Third Force” in American psychology, humanistic psychology began in the mid-twentieth century as an alternative to the limitations of and disparities between, on one hand, decontextualized experimentalism and behaviorism and, on the other hand, Freudian psychoanalysis. It both subsumed the strengths and transcended the limitations of those traditions by developing an intersubjective approach to arrive at a process-oriented conceptualization of optimally functioning (versus pathological) personality and personal growth that had been inadequately available in the field. Subsequently, humanistic psychology has become elaborated by three movements in psychology: existential (which emphasizes limited and situated freedom, existential givens, experiential reflection, and personal responsibility), transpersonal (which stresses spirituality, advanced forms of transcendence, and compassionate social action), and constructivist (which accentuates culture, political consciousness, and their relationship to personal meaning). Contemporary humanistic psychology has evolved into a tripartite approach that phenomenologically integrates these three ontologies as the foundation for a human science and clinical outlook that explores the processes that organically promote psychological health and growth in accordance with a person’s nature and potentials. Such an intentionally nonexclusive approach has been preferred to keep the movement open and flexible with the deliberate goal of continuous revision and elaboration so that it may remain relevant for new generations. As noted in Henry 2017 , DeRobertis 2021 , and Bland and DeRobertis 2020 , humanistic psychology often is presented inaccurately and/or one-sidedly in conventional psychology textbooks. For that reason, novices are encouraged to consult summaries that have been developed by reputable humanistic psychologists in consort with original source material. A concise overview of humanistic psychology from its inception to the 2010s (including the existential, transpersonal, and constructivist ontologies) is presented in Bland and DeRobertis 2020 . Brief undergraduate-friendly comparisons and contrasts of humanistic and conventional perspectives on a range of psychological topics are included in Bargdill and Broomé 2016 and Whitehead 2017 . A more detailed exposition of humanistic psychology are provided for intermediate readers in DeRobertis 2021 and Tageson 1982 . More advanced readers (graduate students, professionals, and academicians) are encouraged to consult the following, in order: Misiak and Sexton 1973 (surveys early phenomenological, existential, and humanistic traditions), Rowan 2001 (provides overviews of humanistic, transpersonal, and constructivist perspectives), Schneider 1998 (outlines humanistic psychology’s principal challenges to conventional natural science psychology), and Giorgi 1992 (suggests next steps for humanistic psychology). Interested readers are encouraged thereafter to consult primary source writings in specific topics of humanistic psychology (as identified in the remainder of this article).

Bargdill, R., and R. Broomé, eds. 2016. Humanistic contributions for Psychology 101: Growth, choice, and responsibility . Colorado Springs, CO: Univ. Professors Press.

This edited text written principally by graduate students introduces humanistic perspectives on topics across the spectrum of psychology: theory and research, neurophenomenology, sensation and perception, consciousness, learning, memory, thinking and language, motivation, development, personality, social, stress and health, psychopathology, and therapy. Following the chapter structure of typical introductory psychology textbooks, it provides a supplemental humanistic counterpart to conventional psychological theory and research in each area. Although some philosophical material may be better suited for upper-division students, down-to-earth anecdotes and vignettes elucidate nontraditional concepts.

Bland, A. M., and E. M. DeRobertis. 2020. The humanistic perspective. In Encyclopedia of personality and individual differences . Edited by V. Zeigler-Hill and T. K. Shackelford, 2061–2079. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.

Describes humanistic psychology’s key principles. Traces its influences (humanities; existential-phenomenological philosophy; Eastern wisdom; William James; systems, gestalt, organismic, personality, post-Freudian psychodynamic psychologies), and its historical development through four phases (1940s to 1960s: establishment as “Third Force”; 1960s to 1990s: expansion via existential and transpersonal movements; 1970s to 2000s: relationship with postmodernism and constructivism; and 2000s and 2010s: integration of perspectives and dialogue with conventional psychology). Identifies therapy and research applications. Outlines common critiques of humanistic psychology and provides counter-critiques as appropriate.

DeRobertis, E. M. 2021. The humanistic revolution in psychology: Its inaugural vision. Journal of Humanistic Psychology 61:8–32.

DOI: 10.1177/0022167820956785

Presents findings from a textual analysis of the first issue of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology (cited under Journals: General ) in 1961. Humanistic psychology was envisioned to be a unique amalgam of what would today be considered cultural, cognitive, and developmental psychologies without being reducible to any one of these subfields. Clarifies humanistic psychology’s formative principles and identifies ways in which it has influenced both psychology and society.

Giorgi, A. 1992. Whither humanistic psychology? The Humanistic Psychologist 20:422–438.

DOI: 10.1080/08873267.1992.9986807

Discusses the essential characteristics of a humanistic conceptualization of the person and the promises of a humanistic psychology for revolutionizing the discipline at large. The article culminates with Giorgi’s assessment of the prospects of the humanistic movement with an eye toward a program of systematic, disciplined research from a human science viewpoint. A firm understanding of humanistic psychology is recommended before consulting this article.

Henry, C. D. 2017. Humanistic psychology and introductory textbooks: A 21st-century reassessment. The Humanistic Psychologist 45:281–294.

DOI: 10.1037/hum0000056

Presents findings from a content analysis of the portrayal of humanistic, existential, and phenomenological psychologies in twenty-one contemporary introductory psychology textbooks. Emphasis is given to inadequate coverage, substantial omissions, and both explicit and implicit critiques of humanistic psychologies in textbooks, as well as to their acknowledging the movement’s contributions.

Misiak, H., and V. S. Sexton. 1973. Phenomenological, existential, and humanistic psychologies: A historical survey . New York: Grune and Stratton.

This book offers a straightforward overview of the influence of phenomenological and existential philosophies in European and American psychology and their practical applications for an unbiased exploration of consciousness, inner experience, and individuals’ relationship to themselves, others, and the world. The authors trace the early history of humanistic psychology and address its controversial relationship with the human potential movement. They include contributions of numerous lesser-known figures and copiously summarize myriad formative humanistic texts that now are long out of print.

Rowan, J. 2001. Ordinary ecstasy: The dialectics of humanistic psychology . 3d ed. London: Taylor and Francis.

Rowan explores the emphasis in humanistic psychology on paradox, its relationship with natural science psychology, its influences and historical-perspectival trajectory, and its practical philosophy (questioning fixed categories, living spontaneously but not impulsively, approaching phenomena on their own terms, and breaking rigid patterns of thought and behavior) as applied in counseling and psychotherapy, education, organizations, sexuality and gender, society, power relations, and research. The author fittingly integrates assorted ontologies and epistemologies of humanistic psychology for 21st-century audiences.

Schneider, K. J. 1998. Toward a science of the heart: Romanticism and the revival of psychology. American Psychologist 53:277–289.

DOI: 10.1037/0003-066X.53.3.277

Schneider critiques the foci in conventional psychology on standardization and expediency as reflections of mainstream American culture. The author suggests that both psychology and society acknowledge affective, intuitive, and holistic understandings of behavior as alternatives to linear and causal knowledge; considers the broader context of individuals’ lived realities; asks systemic questions about health, dysfunction, love, and work; and engages in sustainable, socially conscious pursuits. Schneider also proposes that the romantic and conventional positions ultimately can enhance and enrich one another.

Tageson, C. W. 1982. Humanistic psychology: A synthesis . Homewood, IL: Dorsey.

A textbook for upper-division/graduate students and professionals that integrates strands of existential-humanistic theorizing with an emphasis on consciousness; phenomenology; holism; self-actualization and self-determination; authenticity; self-transcendence; and applications of person centeredness in research, therapy, management, education, medicine, law, religion/spirituality, family life, and social justice.

Whitehead, P. 2017. Psychologizing: A personal, practice-based approach to psychology . Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

This alternative introductory psychology textbook compares and contrasts conventional and humanistic and phenomenological psychologists’ perspectives on the following: methods; learning; thinking, knowledge, and intelligence; biological psychology; sensation and perception; memory, retrospection, and prospection; development; personality; motivation; emotion; normality and psychopathology; health psychology; dream analysis; and consciousness. Arguably, this volume is more accessible for beginners than Bargdill and Broomé 2016 ; however, in general, it covers less ground.

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Both positive psychology and the person-centered approach share a common aim to promote human flourishing. In this article I will discuss how the person-centered approach is a form of positive psychology, but positive psychology is not necessarily person-centered. I will show how the person-centered approach offers a distinctive view of human nature that leads the person-centered psychologist to understand that if people are to change, it is not the person that we must try to change but their social environment. Centrally, the paper suggests that respecting the humanistic image of the human being and, consequently, influencing people's social environment to facilitate personal growth would mean a step forward for positive psychology and would promote cross-fertilization between positive psychology and the person-centered approach instead of widening their gap.

Introduction

It was in the late 1980's that I first became interested in what later became known as positive psychology. I was completing my doctorate research in the psychology of trauma. An unexpected finding was that many survivors reported positive changes in outlook. But there was little written in the mainstream literature about this. I wanted to find a language with which to frame my observations. Like many, I had studied humanistic psychology briefly in my undergraduate studies, but not in a way that I understood its depth and richness, so it came as a revelation to me when I discovered that the same intellectual challenges I was now grappling with, had been tackled decades ago.

Specifically, I began to see how Carl Rogers' person-centered theory of personality development could be applied to understanding how people grow following adversity. Throughout the 1990's, I studied Rogers' ideas coming to realize that what he and his colleagues had achieved from the 1950's onwards had offered a new paradigm for the psychological sciences, one that focused on how to promote human flourishing. As a result, when I first encountered positive psychology in the early 2000's, my initial reaction was to dismiss it as it seemed to offer nothing new, but I also saw the enthusiasm of my students for positive psychology, and that positive psychology was succeeding in bringing ideas about well-being back into mainstream awareness when person-centered psychology seemed to be struggling to do so. I could see that person-centered psychology was not incompatible with being interested in positive psychology, so I began to think of myself as a person-centered positive psychologist. For the past two decades I have sought to build bridges between humanistic and positive psychology, to bring the person-centered approach to my work on posttraumatic growth and authenticity, and to make the case that the person-centered approach is a form of positive psychology.

In this article I want to elaborate on what I mean when I say that the person-centered approach is a form of positive psychology. My aim is to position the person-centered approach as part of contemporary positive psychology, as well as it being part of the humanistic psychology tradition. Carl Rogers, the founder of the person-centered approach, was one of the pioneers of humanistic psychology. As such, the person-centered approach is often associated with humanistic psychology. While the relationship between humanistic and positive psychology has been contentious in the past, it is now widely accepted that positive psychology has largely followed in the footsteps of humanistic psychology. In this way, person-centered psychology can be seen as a historical antecedent to positive psychology, but what I want to show is that it is not just a branch of research, scholarship, and practice from the past; it is one that has continued and developed over the past 70 years, that now sits comfortably under the wider umbrella of positive psychology.

I would like to invite readers of this special issue to become more fully acquainted with person-centered psychology and to consider its perspective on what it means to be a positive psychologist. I will provide a brief overview of positive psychology in the context of humanistic psychology, followed by a discussion of the person-centered approach and how it offers a distinctive view of human nature, and finally, reflections on my vision for a more person-centered positive psychology. In short, the person-centered positive psychologist would look not at ways to change people but at how to change their social environment. I will show that considering the influence of the social environment as the means to facilitate personal growth would mean a step forward for positive psychology in a direction away from its individualistic and medicalized focus and would promote cross-fertilization between positive psychology and humanistic psychology. In making this argument I am reiterating and developing Linley and Joseph's ( 2004b ) conclusion in their book Positive Psychology in Practice that there is a need to develop a theoretical foundation for positive psychology that offers a clear, coherent, and consistent vision of human nature, and how the agenda for the practice of positive psychology inevitably arises out of its vision. Speaking personally, my vision would be for a more person-centered positive psychology.

Positive Psychology in the Context of Humanistic Psychology

Positive psychology was formally launched by Martin Seligman in his 1998 presidential address to the American Psychological Association (Seligman, 1999 ), and in the special issue of the American Psychologist dedicated to the topic that soon followed (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000 ). Seligman later said how the idea of positive psychology came to him following a moment of epiphany when gardening with his daughter, Nikki, who was then aged five, when she instructed him not to be such a grouch. “In that moment, I acquired the mission of helping to build the scientific infrastructure of a field that would investigate what makes life worth living: positive emotion, positive character and positive institutions.” (Seligman, 2004 , p. xi). But while such thinking was a refreshing change for many, these were not new ideas. The idea of focusing on the positive was an idea that was always core to humanistic psychology.

The A merican Association for Humanistic Psychology was founded by Abraham Maslow in 1961 (renamed the Association for Humanistic Psychology in 1963). Bugental ( 1964 ) put forward five basic principles of humanistic psychology, which were later adapted by Tom Greening to define the parameters of humanistic psychology: “1. Human beings, as human, supersede the sum of their parts. They cannot be reduced to components. 2. Human beings have their existence in a uniquely human context, as well as in a cosmic ecology. 3. Human beings are aware and aware of being aware —i.e., they are conscious. Human consciousness always includes an awareness of oneself in the context of other people. 4. Human beings have some choice and, with that, responsibility. 5. Human beings are intentional, aim at goals, are aware that they cause future events, and seek meaning, value, and creativity.” Humanistic psychology was known as the third force of psychology, because it recognized the limitations of its predecessors, behavioral psychology and psychoanalytical psychology. As Sutich and Vich ( 1969 ), editors of Readings in Humanistic Psychology , wrote:

“Two main branches of psychology – behaviorism and psychoanalysis- appear to have made great contributions to human knowledge, but neither singly nor together have they covered the almost limitless scope of human behavior, relationships, and possibilities. Perhaps their greatest limitation has been the inadequacy of their approach to positive human potentialities and the maximal realization of those potentialities” (Sutich and Vich, 1969 , p. 1).

Focusing on the potentialities of being human was always a feature of humanistic psychology. For the first decade of its existence, humanistic psychology went from strength to strength (Moss, 2001 ). It sought to understand the nature of humanity and the problems faced in the quest to live harmoniously and peacefully together and within nature. But by the 1980's, however, the influence of humanistic psychology had begun to dwindle (Taylor and Martin, 2001 ). Was humanistic psychology simply ahead of its time? Had it pushed forward its more radical ideas about qualitative ways of knowing too quickly? Did becoming associated with the counterculture lose it credibility?

It seems likely that humanistic psychology lost its power and influence, not only for these reasons, but because it was “…inherently incompatible with the basic assumptions and values of contemporary mainstream psychology and with the conservative ideologies that have increasingly gained power in American culture since the 1960s” (Elkins, 2009 , p. 267). By the late 1990's, humanistic psychology was largely seen as obsolete, irrelevant, and lacking in rigor by mainstream scholars (Krippner, 2001 ).

So it was that when positive psychology was introduced, it seemed that the ideas long championed by humanistic psychologists were now being put forward again, but it was done so in a way that was critical of humanistic psychology for what was perceived to be its anti-scientific stance, and paid scant acknowledgment to its achievements (Robbins, 2008 , 2015 ). In 2001, in response, the Journal of Humanistic Psychology had a special issue containing several articles dedicated to what had become a fraught relationship between humanistic and positive psychology. Greening ( 2001 ), the then editor, opened by remarking how positive psychology had appeared as if humanistic psychology, its decades of scholarship and research, and the fact that early pioneers of humanistic psychology had themselves been presidents of the American Psychological Association, had simply not existed. Taylor ( 2001 ), in his article in the special issue, refuted Seligman's arguments that humanistic psychology was anti-scientific and that it had not generated significant research. It was also argued that positive psychology would gain from recognizing the merits of experiential, process-oriented research methodologies common to the humanistic psychotherapies (Resnick et al., 2001 ).

Certainly, it is clear that some of the initial comments by positive psychologists in the early days were unjustified. That said, perhaps there was also some truth in positive psychology's initial negative portrayal of humanistic psychology as it had later become. Certainly, there were aspects of the 1960's counterculture that were questionable and did no favors to humanistic psychology's standing in the eyes of mainstream psychology by becoming so closely aligned (see Grogan, 2013 ). As such, and as I've argued before, it was possibly a politically astute move by the positive psychologists to distance themselves from the perceived embarrassments of humanistic psychology if it was to succeed where humanistic psychology had failed in garnering mainstream attention, funding, and prestige (see Joseph and Murphy, 2013a ). But as the positive psychology movement evolved, and gained footholds in the mainstream agenda, its leaders (e.g., Seligman et al., 2005 ) came to acknowledge, perhaps albeit reluctantly and without fully admitting their earlier critical comments were largely unfounded and misleading, that positive psychology built upon the earlier work of the pioneers of humanistic psychology (see DeRobertis and Bland, 2021 ). Whether intentional or not, positive psychology had helped to bring the ideas of humanistic psychology back into the mainstream.

In the early days of positive psychology, I believed that it offered the promise to bring these ideas of Rogers and other humanistic psychologists back into the mainstream agenda of scholars (see Linley and Joseph, 2004a ). Almost two decades later, I think positive psychology has indeed provided an important vehicle for renewed interest in humanistic psychology. Positive psychology has become a richer and deeper form of scholarship as a result. For example, one important shift that seems to reflect the accommodation of ideas from humanistic psychology is the movement toward more eudaimonic conceptualizations of well-being as opposed to the hedonic (Joseph, 2015a ). It is now not so easy to dismiss positive psychology as superficial (e.g., Ehrenreich, 2010 ).

One of the problems, however, in understanding what positive psychology can be, is the idea that all it offers is a corrective balance to mainstream psychology's focus on pathology. While that may be how many think of it, including perhaps how some of its pioneers originally thought of it, positive psychology has the potential to be so much more than that. As Wong ( 2011 ) wrote.

I propose that a stronger argument in support of the legitimacy of PP is that PP is much more than a corrective reaction to the perceived imbalance in the literature. Properly understood, the overarching mission of PP is to answer the fundamental questions of what makes life worth living and how to improve life for all People (p. 69).

To be more than a corrective reaction, it is essential to understand how the negative and the positive are related, and how one cannot understand the positive without the negative—what some have called positive psychology 2.0 (see Wong, 2011 ). There is a rich tapestry of humanistic psychology that positive psychologists are now beginning to unfold, one thread of which is the work of Carl Rogers and the person-centered approach. While Rogers is now widely recognized in positive psychology as one of the original pioneers of a more positive psychological approach, the depth and detail of his work is not in my view well-understood, and particularly how his approach offered a vision for what we now call positive psychology 2.0, or put another way, a meta-theory for positive psychology (Joseph and Linley, 2006a ). In the section below I will discuss the significance for practice of Rogers' ideas—specifically how the person-centered approach proposes that if we want to change people, we need to change their social environment.

Person-Centered Psychology

Rogers was originally a psychologist by training. In 1947 he served as the President of the American Psychological Association; the position later held by Seligman 50 years later when he founded the positive psychology movement. Throughout his life Rogers was a prolific researcher and writer, publishing numerous academic papers and books, many of which are still widely read today (see Kirschenbaum, 2007 ). Most known for his development of client-centered therapy (Rogers, 1951 ), Rogers went on to apply his theory more broadly, offering a theoretical framework encompassing personality development, psychological functioning, and helping relationships across different contexts (Rogers, 1959 ).

Meta-Theory of Human Nature and Development

For the present discussion, however, the way Rogers' theory is most obviously relevant to a discussion of positive psychology is his conceptualization of the fully functioning person (1963a). Rogers ( 1963a ) described the fully functioning person as (1) open to all their experiences, they are sensitive to the world around them, other people's reactions, and their own internal feelings, reactions, and meanings; (2) living existentially, able to be fully present in the moment; and (3) able to trust their feelings and reactions to guide them in their actions. Such a person has a non-defensive attitude, can listen to others empathically, unconditionally, communicate clearly and effectively, and respond to situations creatively. In describing the fully functioning person, Rogers provided an alternative to then dominant illness-related concepts. John Shlien, originally writing in 1956, noted:

In the past, mental health has been a ‘residual' concept – the absence of disease. We need to do more than describe improvement in terms of say ‘anxiety reduction'. We need to say what the person can do as health is achieved. As the emphasis on pathology lessons, there have been a few recent efforts toward positive conceptualizations of mental health. Notable among these are Carl Rogers' ‘fully Functioning Person' …(Shlien, 2003 , p. 17).

The idea that the task should be to promote more fully functioning behavior has always been at the core of person-centered psychology (see Levitt, 2008 ; Joseph, 2015b ). While Rogers' ideas about becoming more fully functioning may have been familiar to person-centered psychologists, they were less known to mainstream psychologists who continued to view mental health as a residual concept, until the advent of positive psychology. It should also be recognized that Rogers approached this work using the methods of traditional empirical psychological science. In this way, it is evident that person-centered psychology is a form of positive psychology.

However, and this now takes me to the main point of my article, positive psychology is not necessarily person-centered. This is because the defining feature of Rogers' person-centered theory of how fully functioning arises, is that it was grounded in a growth model (DeCarvalho, 1991 ; Joseph and Patterson, 2008 ; Joseph and Murphy, 2013b ). Rogers presented a view of human nature in which becoming fully functioning was a state toward which people were intrinsically motivated. For Rogers, the person-centered approach was based on an image of the person that is basically trustworthy, and that humans are intrinsically motivated toward:

…development, differentiation, cooperative relationships; whose life tends to move from dependence to independence; whose impulses tend naturally to harmonize into a complex and changing pattern of self-regulation; whose total character is such as to tend to preserve himself and his species, and perhaps to move toward its further evolution (Rogers, 1957 : p. 201).

Rogers ( 1959 ) referred to this as the actualizing tendency, a universal human motivation resulting in growth, development, and autonomy of the individual. The actualizing tendency, Rogers argued, was the one natural motivational force of human beings and which is always directed toward constructive growth (Rogers, 1963b ). This will happen automatically given the optimal social environment. But too often people don't have the optimal social environment, and the unfolding of the actualizing tendency is usurped and thwarted, leading people to self-actualize in ways that are less than fully functioning. Thus, while both positive psychology and person-centered psychology might often share the same goal, how they do this may be very different and hard to reconcile (see e.g., van Zyl et al., 2016 ). My aim is to reflect on positive psychology from the perspective of the person-centered approach, from the point of view that the term positive psychology simply describes a broad discipline with a range of topics of scholarly and practical interest whereas person-centered psychology is a specific approach to those topics; or put another way, positive psychology is about the content, whereas the person-centered approach is about a process.

There is a famous quote from Kurt Lewin: “There is nothing so practical as a good theory” (Lewin, 1951 , p. 169). I think that Rogers' ( 1959 ) approach provides a brilliant illustration of Lewin's quote. For Rogers, it followed that the logical implication of the growth model was that if people are less than fully functioning because of their social environment, then providing them with the optimal social environment would be necessary and sufficient for constructive personality change. Given the optimal social environment the person's intrinsic motivation toward fully functioning would do the rest 1 .

This ontological view of human nature is what underpins the non-directivity of the person-centered practitioner. Non-directivity is an ideological position that arises from the aforementioned fundamental assumptions of the practitioner that humans are intrinsically motivated toward personal development, differentiation, and cooperative relationships, when in optimal social environments. Non-directivity is a much-misunderstood concept. It does not mean no direction; rather it means the practitioner is not imposing their direction but trusting in and helping the client to find their own direction.

The idea that the world around us influences how we think, and feel is of course not new, and many positive psychologists have already emphasized that attention cannot only be placed on the individual. As Wong ( 2011 ) wrote.

“…you cannot live a healthy and fulfilling life in a sick world contaminated by crime, corruption, injustice, oppression, and poverty. Such evils can destroy individuals and societies like cancer cells. Positive psychology 2.0 emphasizes the need to develop good and decent people as well as a civil society by promoting meaning/virtue and overcoming and transforming negatives” (pp. 77).

Humanistic psychologists of all persuasions would no doubt wholeheartedly agree with this, but what is radically different about Rogers' person-centered approach is that it is all about the social environment—we develop “good and decent people” through the society we create. In short, when the optimal social environment is present, people will automatically move in directions toward fully functioning. This is the theoretical core of the person-centered approach that led to 70 years of research and scholarship concerning the operational definition of what constitutes the optimal social environment to produce constructive personality change (Cornelius-White and Motschnig-Pitrik, 2010 ; Murphy and Joseph, 2016 ). Rogers ( 1959 ) proposed that the optimal social environment was one that was experienced as unconditional, positively regarding, empathic and genuine. Taking these principles seriously in the way that Rogers' theory suggests, is an antidote to crime, corruption, injustice, oppression, and poverty. Imagine if that was the attitudinal climate experienced by children in their homes and schools, and by adults in their workplaces and in all other areas of their life.

Applications: Prevention, and Cure

Up to this point, I've deliberately avoided the topic of psychotherapy as I wanted to make it clear that Rogers' theory is about the social environment and its influence on a person's psychological development, and in this way show how applications of his theory may be upstream in education, parenting, public policy, and so on, concerned with prevention, and not just downstream in psychotherapy and clinical psychology, dealing with problems after they arise. Applications of Rogers' ( 1959 ) theory are as much about ensuring that the unfolding of the person's actualizing tendency is not usurped and thwarted in the first place, as it is about the self-righting process subsequently.

Also, because psychotherapy and clinical psychology, more generally, are often understood from the perspective of an illness ideology, as involving activities in which one person (the therapist) attempts to change another in some predetermined way (the client), discussion of Rogers' ( 1959 ) theory in the context of therapy can be misunderstood, as if the necessary and sufficient conditions are something that one person does to another to get them to change. In this way, I wanted to situate the discussion outside the therapeutic context to avoid this misunderstanding. As such, it might therefore surprise some readers to think of Rogers' conditions as describing a social environment as more often his theory is caricatured as something the therapist does to a patient.

Regardless of the nature of the application of Rogers' approach, however, it is not about doing something to people. The attitudinal conditions of unconditionality, positive regard, empathy and genuineness come together to create the fundamental non-directive attitude of the practitioner, which because of his or her trust in the agency of the client, means that they do not intervene, and have no intention of intervening. As Bozarth ( 1998 ) wrote of client-centered therapy:

“The therapist goes with the client, goes at the client's pace, goes with the client in his/her own ways of thinking, of experiencing, or processing. The therapist cannot be up to other things, have other intentions without violating the essence of person-centered therapy. To be up to other things – whatever they might be – is a ‘yes, but' reaction to the essence of the approach. It must mean that when the therapist has intentions of treatment plans, of treatment goals, of interventive strategies to get the client somewhere or for the client to do a certain thing, the therapist violates the essence of person-centered therapy (Bozarth, 1998 , pp. 11–12).

In creating an empathic, unconditional, and congruent social environment, the therapist is not trying to change the person, has no agenda for the person whatsoever, but they trust that given the optimal environment the person will change toward becoming more fully functioning. Unlike other psychologically based interventions, the person-centered practitioner is not doing anything to the person, they have no agenda for the person to change in any particular way, rather the practitioner's only agenda is for themselves to be able to create a social environment characterized by these conditions. This remains a revolutionary idea in psychology that remains underappreciated in my view, perhaps because while Rogers' theory of therapy is well-known, it is less well-understood that it is about changing the social environment, not the person. And this is what makes it a radically different form of practice to most other psychological interventions, which focus on changing the person. This can be difficult to understand if looking at the person-centered approach from outside its paradigmatic stance. But imagine if you truly believed that people would only move in directions toward becoming more fully functioning when they experience themselves in the optimal social environment.

Originally writing about therapy, Rogers ( 1959 ) soon developed his thinking more widely into how the same optimal social environment could be facilitative of growth in a range of contexts. Psychotherapy and clinical psychology are obvious applications of the person-centered approach, but in these contexts, it is about a self-righting process, helpful to people whose tendency toward actualization has already been usurped and thwarted. Of more importance, in my view, is that positive psychology expends its energy on upstream interventions, to facilitate people's psychological development in the first place, such that the eventual need for psychotherapy and clinical psychology is reduced. In this respect, education is the most powerful institution in the world for shaping the future of humanity because of its influence on how each generation comes to view what matters, and what to prioritize and to value.

Recent years have seen much interest in positive psychology applications to education and the development of the new subfield of “positive education” (Seligman et al., 2009 ). Positive education is a relatively new initiative, but its aims are similar to those of person-centered education, as developed by Carl Rogers in his subsequent writings about the applications of the person-centered approach. In 1969, Rogers published his influential book Freedom to Learn (Rogers, 1969 ), in which, building on his earlier writings, he set out his full philosophy of education: in essence, that human beings have a natural urge to learn, that this most readily happens when the subject matter is perceived as relevant to the student, that learning involves change and as such is threatening and resisted; that learning is best achieved by doing, and that the most lasting learning takes place in an atmosphere of freedom in which students were trusted to be autonomous learners. In essence, the goal of education should be to assist people to learn to be self-determining; to take self-initiated action and to be responsible for those actions; to be able to adapt flexibly and intelligently to new problem situations; internalize an adaptive mode of approach to problems, utilizing all pertinent experience freely and creatively; cooperate effectively with others in these various activities; and work, not for the approval of others, but in terms of their own socialized purposes. To adopt other goals in which the teacher has a pre-determined intention that the student should change in any particular direction was seen from Rogers' person-centered perspective as contradictory to the act of nurturing self-determination.

While Rogers' influence has been greatest in the field of psychotherapy, it is I would argue his contributions to education which are the most significant and important for the modern world. However, Rogers' writings on person-centered education have received little attention in the positive education literature. Positive education, whilst offering a new focus on human flourishing, does not challenge traditional education with its largely teacher-centered approach. Rogers' view on education was that it was this teacher-centered approach that was itself the problem that thwarted and usurped developmental processes and stifled creativity and curiosity. Both person-centered education and positive education have a shared focus on human flourishing. But what makes person-centered education different to positive education is its clear ontological stance that people are their own best experts, and the resultant hypothesis that with the right social environment, students will be self-determining and move in autonomous and socially constructive directions (see Joseph et al., 2020 ).

All the different applications of the person-centered approach—whether downstream in the domains of clinical psychology, coaching, counseling, conflict resolution, psychotherapy; or upstream in business, education, encounter groups, leadership, management, parenting, or policy, are all about changing the social environment, because they are grounded in a vision of humanity in which people are always striving toward becoming fully functioning, a tendency which will automatically be released when the social environment is optimal. This is what makes the person-centered approach distinctive, the fact that its interventions are always about changing the social environment and not about changing the person. And in changing the social environment, people will change in a way that is toward becoming more fully functioning. In turn, more fully functioning people, by definition, will create more facilitative social environments for others (Motschnig-Pitrik and Barrett-Lennard, 2010 ). This way of thinking is what I believe would make for a more person-centered positive psychology. But, as already indicated, a more person-centered positive psychology involves more than a simple change of focus from the individual to the social, it also challenges us to think from a different paradigmatic stance and to ask questions about the positionality of positive psychology, its politics, and its subtle use of power over others.

Toward a More Person-Centered Positive Psychology

In this final section I will offer some reflections on positive psychology from the perspective of person-centered psychology. In so doing, I hope to show how a consideration of the person-centered approach leads to questions about positionality, politics, and power in positive psychology.

The Unspoken Positionality of Positive Psychology

One criticism that I have heard leveled against Rogers' theory many times is that it is an ideological position. This argument implies however that there is a neutral position that one could take while waiting for that evidence. But as Burr ( 2015 , p. 172) wrote: “No human can step outside their humanity and view the world from no position at all, and this is just as true of scientists as of everyone else.” All interventions in psychology represent ideological positions and this is one of the lessons to be learned for positive psychology as it moves forward. All forms of psychological practice and policy are grounded in a vision of the human being (Joseph, 2017 ). But for positive psychology, if not the growth model, what model?

To illustrate what I mean, first, all constructs used in research are derived from theories that represent an ideological position, whether expressed implicitly or explicitly, and in turn, the choice of which constructs to investigate represents one's own ideological views. Second, how we interpret the implications for practice from research is ideological. For example, research shows that greater authenticity leads to greater well-being. The implication is that increasing levels of authenticity would be desirable. But what sort of intervention should be designed to promote authenticity? There is nothing inherent in the research finding itself that presupposes the nature of the intervention, whether it be through changing the social environment or by altering the person's thoughts, feelings or behaviors. If one holds to the growth model, then changing the social environment will make sense. But if it is thought that people need instruction from others, then introducing interventions targeted directly at somehow pushing the person toward authenticity will make sense.

In this way, the choice of intervention only looks like it arises out of the research findings if one thinks of oneself as taking a neutral position. Interventions are always ideologically driven and based on the researcher's or practitioner's assumptions about human nature. And those assumptions about human nature are baked into the design of research and the language used to discuss findings. Of course, subsequent research can show support or fail to show support for an intervention, and in that way, we can be guided subsequently by research. If changing the environment doesn't work, then maybe we need to push. But, if there is no neutral position, which ideological position should be our default setting? Furthermore, out positionality also determines what factors are deemed appropriate as targets for intervention. In sum, most positive psychology interventions involve directive interventions targeted at changing the person in ways decided upon by the practitioner as best for the client, which presupposes an ideological position that runs counter to a growth model.

The Hidden Politics of Positive Psychology

If we reflect on one reason for the demise of humanistic psychology being its clash with conservative ideologies (Elkins, 2009 ), I believe we also learn about the success of positive psychology. One of the features of the conservative ideology is its focus on individualism, and it is a focus on individualism that has led to the rise of a culture in which positive psychology research has been used to promote mindfulness in school children, to deal with the stressors of failing educational systems, resilience training in workers to help them cope with punitive workloads, and well-being applications to help people manage the stresses of economic insecurity (Joseph, 2020 ). The person-centered psychologist would see the challenges in such situations to be how to create more growth promoting climates in schools, and workplaces, and in everyday life, how to build more empathic, genuine, and unconditional relationships in which people can be autonomous and free from coercion and control, and thus able to express themselves in a more socially constructive way. This too could be the research agenda for positive psychology if it took seriously a model of growth as its paradigm.

The word paradigm is often overused to refer to new ideas and practices, but its real meaning is that of a world view underlying the theories and methodology of a particular scientific subject. Within the history of psychology, the growth model of person-centered psychology represented a genuine paradigm shift from the first and second forces in psychology, the behaviorist image of the human being as a blank slate on which anything could be written or the psychoanalytical view of the human being as driven by destructive impulses (see DeCarvalho, 1991 ). I believe that positive psychology was a welcome shift in the everyday business of mainstream psychology, but as Seligman ( 2004 ) made clear, it was not a paradigm shift. It continued to operate within the same world view as mainstream psychology. Thus, despite the language of positivity, it appears to me that positive psychology as a movement, largely continues to operate within models that implicitly condone the idea that less than fully functioning human behavior is not so much the result of the social environment, but of a deficit in the person themselves (an absence of a strength), and thus putting the responsibility on the person to manage or cope better in adverse circumstances.

Positive psychologists might not always be the people behind such interventions, but it is the technology and tools of positive psychology which are used when stressed and overworked employees are forced by their managers to attend well-being sessions, or school children are given mindfulness classes to cope with the mental health concerns. The gap that exists between research and practice might blind some to how their research is understood and used, and how ultimately its implementation may condone ideas about deficit and dysfunction within the person. In sum, if we reflect on the demise of humanistic psychology relative to the success of positive psychology, we might wonder if the latter's rise was at least in part because it fits well with the demands of conservative ideologies and the need for many organizations and institutions to control and coerce people to behave in particular ways, which presupposes an ideological position that runs counter to a growth model.

The Subtle Use of Power in Positive Psychology

One of the ways in which psychology has power over people is through its adoption of the medical model. Humanistic psychology has long challenged the traditionally accepted parameters in psychology, including the model of a practitioner taken from medicine (Bugental, 1963 ). Rogers' ( 1959 ) approach succeeded in doing this because of how he theorized the nature of psychological problems as having a unitary cause in incongruence and he offered a form of therapy which was about the social environment; in these ways he moved beyond a separation of the negative and the positive into distinct fields of study, and the need for practitioners to take an expert stance over the person's inner experiences. In this way, the person-centered approach offers a different understanding of the power relations between practitioners and clients. Positive psychology promises to offer an alternative to the medicalisation of human experience (Maddux and Lopez, 2015 ), but yet it does so only in the most superficial of ways by not using the language of medicine but continuing to condone the essential elements of the medical model (see Joseph and Linley, 2006b ).

The first way it does this is because the remit of positive psychology is often seen as a supplement to traditional psychology, which focuses on distress and dysfunction. In doing this it serves to condone the idea that there is a separation between the clinical and the more fully functioning aspects of human experience. The person-centered conceptualization is that while there is a universal human tendency toward actualization, this tendency becomes thwarted in non-optimal social environments, which create an incongruence between the tendency toward actualization and self-actualization. As such, it is usual for people to self-actualize in ways that are less than fully functioning. In this way, person-centered therapy effectively posits a unitary cause of distress, but varied expressions of that distress will arise according to the uniqueness of each individual's incongruence (see Sanders and Joseph, 2016 ).

A second way in which positive psychology continues to condone an illness ideology is through the notion that different interventions are needed for different states of positivity. It is a common assumption in clinical psychology that different interventions are needed for different clinical states, referred to as the specificity myth by person-centered psychologists (Bozarth and Motomasa, 2005 ). It is an assumption from clinical psychology that is applied to positive psychology that there are specific interventions for specific positive psychological states. But it is an assumption that runs counter to the person-centered proposal that there is a unitary cause of distress and growth, and thus a single form of intervention. Shlien ( 1989 ) wrote:

‘Client-centered therapy has only one treatment for all cases. That fact makes diagnosis entirely useless. If you have no specific treatment to relate to it, what possible purpose could there be to specific diagnosis? Nothing remains but the detrimental effects.' (p. 402).

The need for diagnosis, formulation, and all expressions of expertise over the person dissolve when it is the social environment that is the focus of intervention, not the person (Joseph, 2021 ). In this way, the positive psychologist may not be using diagnosis in the clinical sense, but if they are developing an intervention suitable for some people but not others, the same logic applies. As such, much of contemporary positive psychology remains underpinned by the medical model, but that fact is disguised by its language of strengths, virtues, and happiness. In sum, the assumption that different problems or people require different interventions leads the practitioner to take an expert stance, implying that they know what the client needs better than the client knows themselves, which presupposes an ideological position that runs counter to a growth model.

Conclusions

As described above, reflection on positive psychology from the perspective of the person-centered approach leads to questions about the positionality of positive psychology, its politics, and its subtle promotion of power. The adoption of a growth model leads to a different way of addressing these same issues.

A growth model offers: (1) an alternative nomological net of variables for research, to do with the quality of relationships, growth promoting climates, and fully functioning personality dimensions, with (2) different implications for practice, to do with non-directive rather than directive interventions, and (3) significance in terms of real-world relationships between people, institutions, and society, as the aim is to work toward a social environment free from corruption, injustice, oppression, and poverty, and all other ways in which the growth of people is usurped and thwarted.

For researchers, this offers new challenges to understand whether and in what ways people will be intrinsically motivated to move in positive psychological directions when in optimal social environments, and how to define the optimal social environment, across different contexts and cultures. It alerts researchers that research findings in themselves do not indicate an approach to an intervention, and that there is a need to understand the relative merits of directive and non-directive approaches. It also helps us think about how our research is used by others and what other agendas our findings might be used to serve.

Such a shift in thinking would also have implications for what it means to be a positive psychologist. For example, in psychotherapy and clinical psychology, the practitioner must learn new ways of relating to people. Or in education, the educationalist must learn to trust in their students that they have the intrinsic need to learn and to develop. Adopting a person-centered approach to practice offers challenges to positive psychologists in terms of their own psychological development. Because the person-centered approach focuses on the relational climate that the practitioner fosters through their ability to be genuine, empathic, and congruent, the importance of the practitioner's own psychological development and emotional maturity cannot be understated.

Positive psychology is a broad discipline of study and practice. It isn't defined in terms of its approach. Positive psychologists take a variety of approaches to their work, including a person-centered approach, although it may not always be recognized as such.

While my own vision is for a more person-centered positive psychology, and that is the branch of positive psychology that I identify with most strongly, it might be said by some that it is a strength of positive psychology that it has no single paradigmatic positionality on human nature, as that allows for great flexibility in exploration, crossing between ideas and assumptions about human nature traditionally associated with the psychoanalytical, behavioral, and humanistic. As a discipline I would agree that positive psychology need not take any single paradigmatic stance. But that is not the same as it being neutral, as each instance of research or practice does have a stance, whether it is made explicit or not. Unless each researcher and practitioner acknowledges their own positionality, and describes how their focus of interest, measures chosen, and so on, arises from their point of view, what otherwise appears like a coherent and building body of knowledge is actually founded on a tangle of different assumptions. What could be a strength is a weakness. It is a weakness when positionality in research and practice is implicit and unacknowledged, as if it were not true that all research and practice comes from a position, as it allows for the fact that all research and practice is ultimately ideological to go unnoticed.

Seen like this, positive psychology provides a smorgasbord of methods, lacking in any single underpinning ontological approach. In this respect, positive psychology is not person-centered, but person-centered psychology can be thought of as a specific approach to positive psychology. Recognizing it as such places a much-needed new stake firmly in the ground to draw attention to, and create a tension with, whatever the other implicitly accepted ontological stances of mainstream positive psychology are, and which often imply that people's intrinsic motivation cannot be relied upon.

In these ways, I believe that positive psychology can learn from the person-centered position, to realize the often dark and destructive images of humanity that actually lie at the core of much contemporary positive psychology, disguised by its language of positivity. Despite the similarity in stated goals there can be gulf between humanistic and positive psychology. To close the gap, perhaps it may be helpful for positive psychologists to revisit Bugental's ( 1964 ) five basic principles of humanistic psychology and make them their own. Moving forward with a new research agenda, positive psychologists must become more explicit about their own positionality, to be clear what theoretical assumptions underpin their choice to focus either on the person or the social environment. Respecting the humanistic image of the human being and, consequently, considering and influencing people's social environment to facilitate personal growth would promote cross-fertilization between positive psychology and the person-centered approach instead of widening their gap. It would be useful for positive psychologists to be open regarding their image of humanity, thus offering positive psychology as an umbrella for interventions from different theoretical foundations and making that explicit would seem a step forward for positive psychology and a door-opener to include the person-centered approach.

In summary, while the move toward studying the good life is surely to be welcomed, in taking up the baton from humanistic psychology, positive psychologists left behind what I believe is the most vital part of the humanistic approach—its view of human nature. Whereas, humanistic psychology and specifically the person-centered approach provided an alternative growth paradigm to the behavioral and psychoanalytical schools that had come before, positive psychology as a whole takes no single paradigmatic stance. This might be seen as a strength for a discipline, but it is misleading to think that this means that each instance of research or practice is not based in a paradigm. Positive psychology may use the language of positivity, yet implicitly condone ideas about deficit and dysfunction within the person, and talk about growth, yet promote practices that quietly curtail freedom and self-direction. In this way, positive psychology may yet learn from humanistic psychology that our ideas about how to treat people are always based in our visions of human nature.

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Author contributions.

The author confirms being the sole contributor of this work and has approved it for publication.

Conflict of Interest

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's Note

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1 It is beyond the scope of this paper to go into the detail, but it is worth noting that this view of human nature was also taken up and developed subsequently by Ryan and Deci ( 2000 ) in their self-determination theory, which, by and large, offers theory and evidence consistent with and supportive of Rogers' theory (see Sheldon and Kasser, 2001 ; Patterson and Joseph, 2007 ; Joseph and Murphy, 2013b ; Sheldon, 2013 ).

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Humanistic Psychology’s Approach to Wellbeing: 3 Theories

That sounds quite nice, doesn’t it? Let’s repeat that again.

Humans are innately good.

Driving forces, such as morality, ethical values, and good intentions, influence behavior, while deviations from natural tendencies may result from adverse social or psychological experiences, according to the premise of humanistic psychology.

What does it mean to flourish as a human being? Why is it important to achieve self-actualization? And what is humanistic psychology, anyway?

Humanistic psychology has the power to provide individuals with self-actualization, dignity, and worth. Let’s see how that works in this article.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Meaning and Valued Living Exercises for free . These creative, science-based exercises will help you learn more about your values, motivations, and goals and will give you the tools to inspire a sense of meaning in the lives of your clients, students, or employees.

This Article Contains:

What is the humanistic psychology approach, brief history of humanistic psychology, 10 real-life examples in therapy & education, popular humanistic theories of wellbeing, humanistic psychology and positive psychology, 4 techniques for humanistic therapists, 4 common criticisms of humanistic psychology, fascinating books on the topic, more resources from positivepsychology.com, a take-home message.

Humanistic psychology is a holistic approach in psychology that focuses on the whole person. Humanists believe that a person is “in the process of becoming,” which places the conscious human experience as the nucleus of psychological establishment.

Humanistic psychology was developed to address the deficiencies of psychoanalysis , psychodynamic theory , and behaviorism . The foundation for this movement is understanding behavior by means of human experience.

This entity of psychology takes a phenomenological stance, where personality is studied from an individual’s subjective point of view.

Key focus of humanistic psychology

The tenets of humanistic psychology, which are also shared at their most basic level with transpersonal and existential psychology, include:

Humans cannot be viewed as the sum of their parts or reduced to functions/parts.
Humans exist in a unique human context and cosmic ecology.
Human beings are conscious and are aware of their awareness.
Humans have a responsibility because of their ability to choose.
Humans search for meaning, value, and creativity besides aiming for goals and being intentional in causing future events (Aanstoos et al., 2000).

In sum, the focus of humanistic psychology is on the person and their search for self-actualization .

At this time, humanistic psychology was considered the third force in academic psychology and viewed as the guide for the human potential movement (Taylor, 1999).

The separation of humanistic psychology as its own category was known as Division 32. Division 32 was led by Amedeo Giorgi, who “criticized experimental psychology’s reductionism, and argued for a phenomenologically based methodology that could support a more authentically human science of psychology” (Aanstoos et al., 2000, p. 6).

The Humanistic Psychology Division (32) of the American Psychological Association was founded in September 1971 (Khan & Jahan, 2012). Humanistic psychology had not fully emerged until after the radical behaviorism era; however, we can trace its roots back to the philosophies of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger.

Husserl spurred the phenomenological movement and suggested that theoretical assumptions be set aside, and philosophers and scientists should instead describe immediate experiences of phenomena (Schneider et al., 2015).

Who founded humanistic psychology?

The first phase of humanistic psychology, which covered the period between 1960 to 1980, was largely driven by Maslow’s agenda for positive psychology . It articulated a view of the human being as irreducible to parts, needing connection, meaning, and creativity (Khan & Jahan, 2012).

The original theorists of humanistic theories included Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, and Rollo May, who postulated that behaviorism and psychoanalysis were inadequate in explaining human nature (Schneider et al., 2015).

Prior to these researchers, Allport, Murray, and Murphy had protested the reductionist movement, including the white laboratory rat as a method for comparing human behavior (Schneider et al., 2015). Influential women in the development of this branch of psychology included Frieden and Criswell (Serlin & Criswell, 2014).

Carl Rogers’s work

Carl Rogers developed the concept of client-centered therapy , which has been widely used for over 40 years (Carter, 2013). This type of therapy encourages the patient toward self-actualization through acceptance and empathetic listening by the therapist. This perspective asserts that a person is fully developed if their self is aligned with their organism (Robbins, 2008).

In other words, a fully functioning person is someone who is self-actualized. This concept is important, as it presents the need for therapy as a total experience.

Rogers’s contribution assisted the effectiveness of person-centered therapy through his facilitation of clients reaching self-actualization and fully functional living. In doing so, Rogers focused on presence, congruence, and acceptance by the therapist (Aanstoos et al., 2000).

The Humanistic Theory by Carl Rogers – Mister Simplify

The human mind is not just reactive; it is reflective, creative, generative, and proactive (Bandura, 2001). With this being said, humanistic psychology has made major impacts in therapeutic and educational settings.

Humanistic psychology in therapy

The humanistic, holistic perspective on psychological development and self-actualization provides the foundation for individual and family counseling (Khan & Jahan, 2012). Humanistic therapies are beneficial because they are longer, place more focus on the client, and focus on the present (Waterman, 2013).

Maslow and Rogers were at the forefront of delivering client-centered therapy as they differentiated between self-concept as understanding oneself, society’s perception of themselves, and actual self. This humanistic psychological approach provides another method for psychological healing and is viewed as a more positive form of psychology. Rogers “emphasized the personality’s innate drive toward achieving its full potential” (McDonald & Wearing, 2013, p. 42–43).

Other types of humanistic-based therapies include:

Logotherapy is a therapeutic approach aimed at helping individuals find the meaning of life. This technique was created by Victor Frankl, who posited that to live a meaningful life, humans need a reason to live (Melton & Schulenberg, 2008).
Gestalt Therapy’s primary aim is to restore the wholeness of the experience of the person, which may include bodily feelings, movements, emotions, and the ability to creatively adjust to environmental conditions. This type of therapy is tasked with providing the client with awareness and awareness tools (Yontef & Jacobs, 2005). This includes the use of re-enactments and role-play by empowering awareness in the present moment.
Existential Therapy aims to aid clients in accepting and overcoming the existential fears inherent in being human. Clients are guided in learning to take responsibility for their own choices. Rather than explaining the human predicament, existential therapy techniques involve exploring and describing the conflict.
Narrative Therapy is goal directed, with change being achieved by exploring how language is used to construct and maintain problems. The method involves the client’s narrative interpretation of their experience in the world (Etchison & Kleist, 2000).

Humanistic psychology has developed a variety of research methodologies and practice models focused on facilitating the development and transformation of individuals, groups, and organizations (Resnick et al., 2001).

The methodologies include narrative, imaginal, and somatic approaches. The practices range from personal coaching and organizational consulting through creative art therapies to philosophy (Resnick et al., 2001).

Humanistic approach in education

The thoughts of Dewey and Bruner regarding the humanistic movement and education greatly affect education today. Dewey proclaimed that schools should influence social outcomes by teaching life skills in a meaningful way (Starcher & Allen, 2016).

Bruner was an enthusiast of constructivist learning and believed in making learners autonomous by using methods such as scaffolding and discovery learning (Starcher & Allen, 2016).

Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences (Resnick et al., 2001) asserts that there are eight different types of intelligence: linguistic, logical/mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist. In education, it is important for educators to address as many of these areas as possible.

These psychologists soon set the tone for a more intense focus on humanistic skills, such as self-awareness, communication, leadership ability, and professionalism. Humanistic psychology impacts the educational system with its perspectives on self-esteem and self-help (Khan & Jahan, 2012; Resnick et al., 2001).

Maslow extended this outlook with his character learning (Starcher & Allen, 2016). Character learning is a means for obtaining good habits and creating a moral compass. Teaching young children morality is paramount in life (Birhan et al., 2021).

In concentrating on these aspects, the focus is placed on the future, self-improvement, and positive change. Humanistic psychology rightfully provides individuals with self-actualization, dignity, and worth.

Silvan Tomkins theorized the script theory, which led to the advancement of personality psychology and opened the door to many narrative-based theories involving myths, plots, episodes, character, voices, dialogue, and life stories (McAdams, 2001).

Tomkins’s affect theory followed this theory and explains human behavior as falling into scripts or patterns. It appears as though this theory’s acceptance led to many more elements of experience being considered (McAdams, 2001).

Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs has contributed much to humanistic psychology and impacts mental and physical health . This pyramid is frequently used within the educational system, specifically for classroom management purposes. In the 1960s and 1970s, this model was expanded to include cognitive, aesthetic, and transcendence needs (McLeod, 2017).

Maslow’s focus on what goes right with people as opposed to what goes wrong with them and his positive accounts of human behavior benefit all areas of psychology.

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Although humanistic psychology and positive psychology share the basic ideas of psychological wellbeing – the intent to achieve individual human potential and a humanistic framework – their origins are quite different (Medlock, 2012). Humanistic psychology adds two important elements to the establishment of positive psychology: epistemology and its audience (Taylor, 2001).

Humanistic psychology and positive psychology share many overlapping thematic contents and theoretical presuppositions (Robbins, 2008).

Much of the work in positive psychology was developed from the work in humanistic psychology (Medlock, 2012). Positive psychology was also first conceived by Maslow in 1954 and then further discussed in an article by Martin Seligman (Shourie & Kaur, 2016).

Seligman’s purpose for positive psychology was to focus on the characteristics that make life worth living as opposed to only studying the negatives, such as mental illness (Shrestha, 2016).

Congruence refers to both the intra- and interpersonal characteristics of the therapist (Kolden et al., 2011).

This requires the therapist to bring a mindful genuineness and conscientiously share their experience with the client.

Active listening

Active listening helps to foster a supportive environment. For example, response tokens such as “uh-huh” and “mm-hmm” are effective ways to prompt the client to continue their dialogue (Fitzgerald & Leudar, 2010).

Looking at the client, nodding occasionally, using facial expressions, being aware of posture, paraphrasing, and asking questions are also ways to maintain active listening.

Reflective understanding

Similar to active listening, reflective understanding includes restating and clarifying what the client is saying. This technique is important, as it draws the client’s awareness to their emotions, allowing them to label. Employing Socratic questioning would ensure a reflective understanding in your practice (Bennett-Levy et al., 2009).

Unconditional positive regard

Unconditional positive regard considers the therapist’s attitude toward the patient. The therapist’s enduring warmth and consistent acceptance shows their value for humanity and, more specifically, their client.

Some may assert that humanistic psychology is not exclusively defined by the senses or intellect (Taylor, 2001).

Humanistic psychology was also once thought of as a touchy-feely type of psychology. Instead, internal dimensions such as self-knowledge, intuition, insight, interpreting one’s dreams, and the use of guided mental imagery are considered narcissistic by critics of humanistic psychology (Robbins, 2008; Taylor, 2001).

Further, studying internal conditions, such as motives or traits, was frowned upon at one time (Polkinghorne, 1992).

Aanstoos et al. (2000) note Skinner’s thoughts concerning humanistic psychology as being the number one barrier in psychology’s stray from a purely behavioral science. Religious fundamentalists were also opposed to this new division and referred to people of humanistic psychology as secular humanists.

Humanistic psychology is sometimes difficult to assess and has even been charged as being poor empirical science (DeRobertis, 2021). That is because of the uncommon belief that the outcome should be driven more by the participants rather than the researchers (DeRobertis & Bland, 2021).

If you find this topic intriguing and want to find out even more, then take a look at the following books.

1. Becoming an Existential-Humanistic Therapist: Narratives From the Journey – Julia Falk and Louis Hoffman

If you’re interested in becoming an existential-humanistic psychologist or counselor, you may want to refer to this collection of therapists and counselors who have already made this journey.

Perhaps you are a student who is considering pursuing this direction in psychology.

Regardless, this book contains reflective exercises for individuals considering pursuing a career as an existential-humanistic counselor or therapist, as well as exercises for current therapists to reflect on their own journey.

Find the book on Amazon .

2. On Becoming a Person: A Therapist’s View of Psychotherapy – Carl Rogers

If your intent is to explore client-centered therapy more in depth, you may want to pick up this book by one of humanistic psychology’s founders.

In this text, Rogers sheds light on this important therapeutic encounter and human potential.

3. Man’s Search for Meaning – Viktor Frankl

Also by one of humanistic psychology’s founders, Man’s Search for Meaning provides an explanation of Logotherapy.

With his actual horrific experiences in Nazi concentration camps, Frankl declares that humans’ primary drive in life is not pleasure, but the discovery and pursuit of what they personally find meaningful.

If you’re interested in learning more about the history of humanistic psychology, our article The Five Founding Fathers and a History of Positive Psychology would be an excellent reference, as the roots of humanistic and positive psychology are entangled.

In humanistic psychology, self-awareness and introspection are important. Try using our Self-Awareness Worksheet for Adults to learn more about yourself and increase your self-knowledge.

Journaling is an effective way to boost your internal self-awareness. Try using this Gratitude Journal and Who Am I? worksheet as starting points.

Perhaps you would benefit from our science and research-driven 17 Meaning & Valued Living Exercises . Use them to help others choose directions for their lives in alignment with what is truly important to them.

17 Tools To Encourage Meaningful, Value-Aligned Living

This 17 Meaning & Valued Living Exercises [PDF] pack contains our best exercises for helping others discover their purpose and live more fulfilling, value-aligned lives.

Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

Humanistic psychology is a total package because it encompasses legends of the field, empirical research, strong philosophical foundations, and arts and literature connections (Bargdill, 2011).

Some may refute this statement, but prior to humanistic psychology, there was not an effective method for truly understanding humanistic issues without deviating from traditional psychological science (Kriz & Langle, 2012).

Humanistic psychology offers a different approach that can be used to positively impact your therapeutic practice or enhance your classroom practice. We hope you find these theories and techniques helpful in facilitating self-actualization, dignity, and worth in your clients and students.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Meaning and Valued Living Exercises for free .

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Carl Rogers Humanistic Theory and Contribution to Psychology

Saul Mcleod, PhD

Editor-in-Chief for Simply Psychology

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Saul Mcleod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

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Olivia Guy-Evans is a writer and associate editor for Simply Psychology. She has previously worked in healthcare and educational sectors.

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Carl Rogers (1902-1987) was a humanistic psychologist best known for his views on the therapeutic relationship and his theories of personality and self-actualization.

Rogers (1959) believed that for a person to “grow”, they need an environment that provides them with genuineness (openness and self-disclosure ), acceptance (being seen with unconditional positive regard), and empathy (being listened to and understood).

Without these qualities, relationships and healthy personalities will not develop as they should, much like a tree will not grow without sunlight and water.

Rogers believed that every person could achieve their goals, wishes, and desires in life. When, or rather if they did so, self-actualization took place. This was one of Carl Rogers most important contributions to psychology, and for a person to reach their potential a number of factors must be satisfied.

Person-Centered Therapy

Rogers developed client-centered therapy (later re-named ‘person-centered’), a non-directive therapy, allowing clients to deal with what they considered important, at their own pace.

This method involves removing obstacles so the client can move forward, freeing him or her for normal growth and development. By using non-directive techniques, Rogers assisted people in taking responsibility for themselves.

He believed that the experience of being understood and valued gives us the freedom to grow, while pathology generally arises from attempting to earn others’ positive regard rather than following an ‘inner compass’.

Rogers recorded his therapeutic sessions, analyzed their transcripts, and examined factors related to the therapy outcome. He was the first person to record and publish complete cases of psychotherapy .

Rogers revolutionized the course of therapy. He took the, then, radical view that it might be more beneficial for the client to lead the therapy sessions rather than the therapist; as he says, ‘the client knows what hurts, what directions to go, what problems are crucial, what experiences have been buried’ (Rogers, 1961).

Personality Development

Central to Rogers’ personality theory is the notion of self or self-concept . This is “the organized, consistent set of perceptions and beliefs about oneself.”

Carl Rogers’ self-concept is a central theme in his humanistic theory of psychology. It encompasses an individual’s self-image (how they see themselves), self-esteem (how much value they place on themselves), and ideal self (the person they aspire to be).

The self is the humanistic term for who we really are as a person. The self is our inner personality, and can be likened to the soul, or Freud’s psyche . The self is influenced by the experiences a person has in their life, and out interpretations of those experiences.

Two primary sources that influence our self-concept are childhood experiences and evaluation by others.

According to Rogers (1959), we want to feel, experience, and behave in ways consistent with our self-image and which reflect what we would like to be like, our ideal self. The closer our self-image and ideal self are to each other, the more consistent or congruent we are and the higher our sense of self-worth.

Discrepancies between self-concept and reality can cause incongruence, leading to psychological tension and anxiety. A person is said to be in a state of incongruence if some of the totality of their experience is unacceptable to them and is denied or distorted in the self-image.

The humanistic approach states that the self is composed of concepts unique to ourselves. The self-concept includes three components:

Self-worth (or self-esteem ) is the value or worth an individual places on themselves. It’s the evaluative aspect of self-concept, influenced by the individual’s perceived successes, failures, and how they believe others view them.

High self-esteem indicates a positive self-view, while low self-esteem signifies self-doubt and criticism.

Rogers believed feelings of self-worth developed in early childhood and were formed from the interaction of the child with the mother and father.

Self-image refers to individuals’ mental representation of themselves, shaped by personal experiences and interactions with others.

It’s how people perceive their physical and personality traits, abilities, values, roles, and goals. It’s their understanding of “who I am.”

How we see ourselves, which is important to good psychological health. Self-image includes the influence of our body image on our inner personality.

At a simple level, we might perceive ourselves as a good or bad person, beautiful or ugly. Self-image affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves in the world.

Self-image vs. Real self

The self-image can sometimes be distorted or based on inaccurate perceptions . In contrast, the real self includes self-awareness of who a person truly is.

The real self represents a person’s genuine current state, including their strengths, weaknesses, and areas where they might struggle.

The ideal self is the version of oneself that an individual aspires to become.

It includes all the goals, values, and traits a person deems ideal or desirable. It’s their vision of “who I want to be.”

This is the person who we would like to be. It consists of our goals and ambitions in life, and is dynamic – i.e., forever changing. The ideal self in childhood is not the ideal self in our teens or late twenties.

According to Rogers, congruence between self-image and the ideal self signifies psychological health.

If the ideal self is unrealistic or there’s a significant disparity between the real and ideal self, it can lead to incongruence, resulting in dissatisfaction, unhappiness, and even mental health issues.

Therefore, as per Rogers, one of the goals of therapy is to help people bring their real self and ideal self into alignment, enhancing their self-esteem and overall life satisfaction.

Positive Regard and Self Worth

Carl Rogers (1951) viewed the child as having two basic needs: positive regard from other people and self-worth.

How we think about ourselves and our feelings of self-worth are of fundamental importance to psychological health and the likelihood that we can achieve goals and ambitions in life and self-actualization.

Young woman embraces a big red heart with mindfulness and love. Self acceptance and confidence concept.

Self-worth may be seen as a continuum from very high to very low. To Carl Rogers (1959), a person with high self-worth, that is, has confidence and positive feelings about him or herself, faces challenges in life, accepts failure and unhappiness at times, and is open with people.

A person with low self-worth may avoid challenges in life, not accept that life can be painful and unhappy at times, and will be defensive and guarded with other people.

Rogers believed feelings of self-worth developed in early childhood and were formed from the interaction of the child with the mother and father. As a child grows older, interactions with significant others will affect feelings of self-worth.

Rogers believed that we need to be regarded positively by others; we need to feel valued, respected, treated with affection and loved. Positive regard is to do with how other people evaluate and judge us in social interaction. Rogers made a distinction between unconditional positive regard and conditional positive regard.

Unconditional Positive Regard

Unconditional positive regard is a concept in psychology introduced by Carl Rogers, a pioneer in client-centered therapy.

Unconditional positive regard is where parents, significant others (and the humanist therapist) accept and loves the person for what he or she is, and refrain from any judgment or criticism.

Positive regard is not withdrawn if the person does something wrong or makes a mistake.

Unconditional positive regard can be used by parents, teachers, mentors, and social workers in their relationships with children, to foster a positive sense of self-worth and lead to better outcomes in adulthood.

For example

In therapy, it can substitute for any lack of unconditional positive regard the client may have experienced in childhood, and promote a healthier self-worth.

The consequences of unconditional positive regard are that the person feels free to try things out and make mistakes, even though this may lead to getting it worse at times.

People who are able to self-actualize are more likely to have received unconditional positive regard from others, especially their parents, in childhood.

Examples of unconditional positive regard in counseling involve the counselor maintaining a non-judgmental stance even when the client displays behaviors that are morally wrong or harmful to their health or well-being.

The goal is not to validate or condone these behaviors, but to create a safe space for the client to express themselves and navigate toward healthier behavior patterns.

This complete acceptance and valuing of the client facilitates a positive and trusting relationship between the client and therapist, enabling the client to share openly and honestly.

Limitations

While simple to understand, practicing unconditional positive regard can be challenging, as it requires setting aside personal opinions, beliefs, and values.

It has been criticized as potentially inauthentic, as it might require therapists to suppress their own feelings and judgments.

Critics also argue that it may not allow for the challenging of unhelpful behaviors or attitudes, which can be useful in some therapeutic approaches.

Finally, some note a lack of empirical evidence supporting its effectiveness, though this is common for many humanistic psychological theories (Farber & Doolin, 2011).

Conditional Positive Regard

Conditional positive regard is a concept in psychology that refers to the expression of acceptance and approval by others (often parents or caregivers) only when an individual behaves in a certain acceptable or approved way.

In other words, this positive regard, love, or acceptance is conditionally based on the individual’s behaviors, attitudes, or views aligning with those expected or valued by the person giving the regard.

According to Rogers, conditional positive regard in childhood can lead to conditions of worth in adulthood, where a person’s self-esteem and self-worth may depend heavily on meeting certain standards or expectations.

These conditions of worth can create a discrepancy between a person’s real self and ideal self, possibly leading to incongruence and psychological distress.

Conditional positive regard is where positive regard, praise, and approval, depend upon the child, for example, behaving in ways that the parents think correct.

Hence the child is not loved for the person he or she is, but on condition that he or she behaves only in ways approved by the parent(s).

For example, if parents only show love and approval when a child gets good grades or behaves in ways they approve, the child may grow up believing they are only worthy of love and positive regard when they meet certain standards.

This may hinder the development of their true self and could contribute to struggles with self-esteem and self-acceptance.

At the extreme, a person who constantly seeks approval from other people is likely only to have experienced conditional positive regard as a child.

Congruence & Incongruence

A person’s ideal self may not be consistent with what actually happens in life and the experiences of the person. Hence, a difference may exist between a person’s ideal self and actual experience. This is called incongruence.

Where a person’s ideal self and actual experience are consistent or very similar, a state of congruence exists. Rarely, if ever, does a total state of congruence exist; all people experience a certain amount of incongruence.

The development of congruence is dependent on unconditional positive regard. Carl Rogers believed that for a person to achieve self-actualization, they must be in a state of congruence.

According to Rogers, we want to feel, experience, and behave in ways which are consistent with our self-image and which reflect what we would like to be like, our ideal-self.

The closer our self-image and ideal-self are to each other, the more consistent or congruent we are and the higher our sense of self-worth. A person is said to be in a state of incongruence if some of the totality of their experience is unacceptable to them and is denied or distorted in the self-image.

Incongruence is “a discrepancy between the actual experience of the organism and the self-picture of the individual insofar as it represents that experience.

As we prefer to see ourselves in ways that are consistent with our self-image, we may use defense mechanisms like denial or repression in order to feel less threatened by some of what we consider to be our undesirable feelings.

A person whose self-concept is incongruent with her or his real feelings and experiences will defend himself because the truth hurts.

Self Actualization

The organism has one basic tendency and striving – to actualize, maintain, and enhance the experiencing organism (Rogers, 1951, p. 487).

Rogers rejected the deterministic nature of both psychoanalysis and behaviorism and maintained that we behave as we do because of the way we perceive our situation. “As no one else can know how we perceive, we are the best experts on ourselves.”

Carl Rogers (1959) believed that humans have one basic motive, which is the tendency to self-actualize – i.e., to fulfill one’s potential and achieve the highest level of “human-beingness” we can.

According to Rogers, people could only self-actualize if they had a positive view of themselves (positive self-regard). This can only happen if they have unconditional positive regard from others – if they feel that they are valued and respected without reservation by those around them (especially their parents when they were children).

Self-actualization is only possible if there is congruence between the way an individual sees themselves and their ideal self (the way they want to be or think they should be). If there is a large gap between these two concepts, negative feelings of self-worth will arise that will make it impossible for self-actualization to take place.

The environment a person is exposed to and interacts with can either frustrate or assist this natural destiny. If it is oppressive, it will frustrate; if it is favorable, it will assist.

Like a flower that will grow to its full potential if the conditions are right, but which is constrained by its environment, so people will flourish and reach their potential if their environment is good enough.

However, unlike a flower, the potential of the individual human is unique, and we are meant to develop in different ways according to our personality. Rogers believed that people are inherently good and creative.

They become destructive only when a poor self-concept or external constraints override the valuing process. Carl Rogers believed that for a person to achieve self-actualization, they must be in a state of congruence.

This means that self-actualization occurs when a person’s “ideal self” (i.e., who they would like to be) is congruent with their actual behavior (self-image).

Rogers describes an individual who is actualizing as a fully functioning person. The main determinant of whether we will become self-actualized is childhood experience.

The Fully Functioning Person

Rogers believed that every person could achieve their goal. This means that the person is in touch with the here and now, his or her subjective experiences and feelings, continually growing and changing.

In many ways, Rogers regarded the fully functioning person as an ideal and one that people do not ultimately achieve.

It is wrong to think of this as an end or completion of life’s journey; rather it is a process of always becoming and changing.

Rogers identified five characteristics of the fully functioning person:

Open to experience : both positive and negative emotions accepted. Negative feelings are not denied, but worked through (rather than resorting to ego defense mechanisms).
Existential living : in touch with different experiences as they occur in life, avoiding prejudging and preconceptions. Being able to live and fully appreciate the present, not always looking back to the past or forward to the future (i.e., living for the moment).
Trust feelings : feeling, instincts, and gut-reactions are paid attention to and trusted. People’s own decisions are the right ones, and we should trust ourselves to make the right choices.
Creativity : creative thinking and risk-taking are features of a person’s life. A person does not play safe all the time. This involves the ability to adjust and change and seek new experiences.
Fulfilled life : a person is happy and satisfied with life, and always looking for new challenges and experiences.

For Rogers, fully functioning people are well-adjusted, well-balanced, and interesting to know. Often such people are high achievers in society.

Critics claim that the fully functioning person is a product of Western culture. In other cultures, such as Eastern cultures, the achievement of the group is valued more highly than the achievement of any one person.

Carl Rogers Quotes

The very essence of the creative is its novelty, and hence we have no standard by which to judge it. (Rogers, 1961, p. 351)

I have gradually come to one negative conclusion about the good life. It seems to me that the good life is not any fixed state. It is not, in my estimation, a state of virtue, or contentment, or nirvana, or happiness. It is not a condition in which the individual is adjusted or fulfilled or actualized. To use psychological terms, it is not a state of drive-reduction , or tension-reduction, or homeostasis. (Rogers, 1967, p. 185-186)

The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction not a destination. (Rogers, 1967, p. 187)

Unconditional positive regard involves as much feeling of acceptance for the client’s expression of negative, ‘bad’, painful, fearful, defensive, abnormal feelings as for his expression of ‘good’, positive, mature, confident, social feelings, as much acceptance of ways in which he is inconsistent as of ways in which he is consistent. It means caring for the client, but not in a possessive way or in such a way as simply to satisfy the therapist’s own needs. It means a caring for the client as a separate person, with permission to have his own feelings, his own experiences’ (Rogers, 1957, p. 225)

Frequently Asked Questions

How did carl rogers’ humanistic approach differ from other psychological theories of his time.

Carl Rogers’ humanistic approach differed from other psychological theories of his time by emphasizing the importance of the individual’s subjective experience and self-perception.

Unlike behaviorism , which focused on observable behaviors, and psychoanalysis , which emphasized the unconscious mind, Rogers believed in the innate potential for personal growth and self-actualization.

His approach emphasized empathy, unconditional positive regard, and genuineness in therapeutic relationships, aiming to create a supportive and non-judgmental environment where individuals could explore and develop their true selves.

Rogers’ humanistic approach placed the individual’s subjective experience at the forefront, prioritizing their unique perspective and personal agency.

What criticisms have been raised against Carl Rogers’ humanistic approach to psychology?

Critics of Carl Rogers’ humanistic approach to psychology argue that it lacks scientific rigor and empirical evidence compared to other established theories.

Some claim that its emphasis on subjective experiences and self-perception may lead to biased interpretations and unreliable findings. Additionally, critics argue that Rogers’ approach may overlook the influence of external factors, such as social and cultural contexts, on human behavior and development.

Critics also question the universal applicability of Rogers’ theories, suggesting that they may be more relevant to certain cultural or individual contexts than others.

How has Carl Rogers’ humanistic approach influenced other areas beyond psychology?

Carl Rogers’ humanistic approach has had a significant impact beyond psychology, influencing various areas such as counseling, education, leadership, and interpersonal relationships.

In counseling, his emphasis on empathy, unconditional positive regard, and active listening has shaped person-centered therapy and other therapeutic approaches. In education, Rogers’ ideas have influenced student-centered learning, fostering a more supportive and individualized approach to teaching.

His humanistic principles have also been applied in leadership development, promoting empathetic and empowering leadership styles.

Moreover, Rogers’ emphasis on authentic communication and understanding has influenced interpersonal relationships, promoting empathy, respect, and mutual growth.

What is the current relevance of Carl Rogers’ humanistic approach in modern psychology?

Carl Rogers’ humanistic approach maintains relevance in modern psychology by emphasizing the importance of individual agency, personal growth, and the therapeutic relationship.

It continues to inform person-centered therapy and other humanistic therapeutic modalities. Rogers’ focus on empathy, acceptance, and authenticity resonates with contemporary approaches that prioritize the client’s subjective experience and self-determination.

Additionally, his ideas on the role of positive regard and the creation of a safe, non-judgmental environment have implications for various domains, including counseling, education, and interpersonal relationships.

The humanistic approach serves as a reminder of the significance of the individual’s unique perspective and the power of empathetic connections in fostering well-being and growth.

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Rogers, C. R. (1957). The necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change . Journal of consulting psychology , 21 (2), 95.
Rogers, C. (1959). A theory of therapy, personality and interpersonal relationships as developed in the client-centered framework. In (ed.) S. Koch, Psychology: A study of a science. Vol. 3: Formulations of the person and the social context . New York: McGraw Hill.
Rogers, C. R. (1961). On Becoming a person: A psychotherapists view of psychotherapy . Houghton Mifflin.
Rogers, C. R., Stevens, B., Gendlin, E. T., Shlien, J. M., & Van Dusen, W. (1967). Person to person: The problem of being human: A new trend in psychology. Lafayette, CA: Real People Press.
Wilkins, P. (1997). Congruence and countertransference: similarities and differences. Counselling, 8(1), 36±41.
Wilkins, P. (2000). Unconditional positive regard reconsidered . British Journal of Guidance & Counselling , 28 (1), 23-36.

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What Is Humanistic Therapy?

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Carly Snyder, MD is a reproductive and perinatal psychiatrist who combines traditional psychiatry with integrative medicine-based treatments.

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Types of Humanistic Therapy

What humanistic therapy can help with.

Benefits of Humanistic Therapy

Effectiveness

Things to consider, how to get started with humanistic therapy.

Humanistic therapy describes a range of different types of therapy that focus on a person as an individual with unique potential and abilities. Instead of concentrating on what is wrong with people, this type of therapy is more focused on helping them overcome their difficulties through personal growth.

Humanistic therapy grew out of humanistic psychology , a perspective that stresses that people are innately good. This approach tends to be more holistic and looks at the whole person rather than just a single area of a person's life. By emphasizing a person's skills and positive characteristics, it encourages people to heal and find personal fulfillment.

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There are a number of different types of humanistic therapy. Some of these include:

Client-centered therapy : Also known as person-centered therapy, this approach involves the therapist taking a non-directive approach to the therapy process. The individual acts as an equal partner, while the therapist offers empathy and unconditional positive regard.
Existential therapy : This is a philosophical approach to therapy that works to help people better understand their place in the universe. It works by helping people explore the things that bring meaning to their life. People learn to accept responsibility for their own choices and recognize that they have the power to make changes in order to bring more meaning and purpose to their lives.
Gestalt therapy : This form of humanistic therapy focuses on a person's current life and experiences rather than looking at their past. It places a great deal of emphasis on how the individual perceives and makes meaning out of their experiences.
Logotherapy : This type of therapy focuses on helping people find ways to endure life's difficulties and find a sense of purpose and meaning. It proposes that finding meaning in life can help improve mental well-being and relieve symptoms of conditions including depression, grief, and trauma.
Narrative therapy : This approach to therapy helps people identify their values and skills by focusing on their personal stories and experiences. It strives to help people see that they are separate from their problems.

Humanistic therapy is an umbrella term that encompasses a number of different types of therapy. The specific type of humanistic therapy that is right for you may depend on your goals and what symptoms are being treated.

Humanistic therapists use a number of techniques that are designed to support people as they work toward change. Some of the main techniques that are frequently used include:

Congruence : This technique is essential to humanistic therapy and involves the therapist being authentic, open, and genuine as they interact with the individual who is in therapy.
Empathetic understanding : This involves the therapist not only understanding what the client is feeling and saying, but also communicating that understanding to the client. The individual should feel heard, seen, and understood.
Reflective listening : This involves actively listening to the individual and then summarizing what the client has said in their own words. This strategy can help reinforce what the client is saying, allow them to reflect back on their own words, and clear up potential misunderstandings.
Unconditional positive regard : This technique involves the therapist accepting the individual without judgment. It is characterized by a caring attitude that plays an important role in fostering self-worth, personal growth, and self-awareness.

Because humanistic therapy is focused on the present, it may also utilize a practice known as mindfulness to help people become more aware of themselves and their environment.

Therapists utilize these techniques to support people as they develop greater self-awareness . These techniques are focused on solving specific problems; instead, their goal is to encourage people to view themselves as capable of directing their own behavior and achieving their unique goals.

There is not a great deal of research on the efficacy of humanistic therapy for specific conditions. This may be in part because these approaches focus less on measurable symptoms and outcomes. However, humanistic therapy has been used to treat a range of different mental health conditions. Some of these include:

Low self-esteem
Panic disorder
Personality disorders
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Relationship problems
Substance use

This approach can also be helpful for people who are not focused on treating a specific condition. Those who are interested in maximizing their potential and growing as a person may benefit from humanistic therapies.

Benefits of Humanistic Therapy

One benefit of humanistic therapy is that this approach can be a great source of empathy and support. Because therapists are trained to be non-judgemental and listen with understanding, you may feel more comfortable opening up and sharing your feelings.

Humanistic therapy also allows the individual to play an active role in their treatment, while the therapist acts as a knowledgeable, trusted guide.

Because humanistic therapy focuses on a person's positive qualities, it can help people feel more empowered and active in the process of making changes in their lives. Rather than feeling overwhelmed or dragged down by problems, it encourages people to focus on their strengths and use those skills to fulfill their needs.

This approach to therapy can also be a good way to learn coping skills—including problem-solving and stress relief—that will be helpful whenever you are faced with problems in your life. Because it fosters self-esteem and self-efficacy , you'll feel more capable as you deal with challenges.

Research suggests that humanistic therapy can be an effective treatment approach when dealing with a range of disorders and other difficulties.

A 2013 review of the research found that client-centered therapy was an effective approach in the treatment of depression, psychosis, relationship problems, and trauma.
A 2017 study found that young people experiencing psychological distress showed improvement in emotional symptoms after receiving humanistic counseling .
A 2019 exploratory trial compared client-centered therapy to trauma-focused cognitive behavior therapy in the treatment of mothers and children who had experienced trauma. While the results indicated that client-centered therapy led to significant symptom reduction in children, CBT was found to be much more effective at reducing symptoms in mothers.

Humanistic therapy is a type of talk therapy. It is holistic, so expect it to cover many different aspects of your life. However, it tends to focus more on the here-and-now rather than delving into the burdens and difficulties of the past. Some may find this challenging because it emphasizes taking personal responsibility and direct action to make your present life better rather than placing blame.

Because humanistic therapists are often less directive than other types of therapists, you will play an active role in guiding your treatments. Your therapist will act as a supportive and empathetic guide. Rather than viewing your therapist as a teacher or authority figure, they will instead be equal. This may be difficult if you prefer a more structured approach.

It is important to recognize that humanistic therapy doesn't address specific problems. If you are having problems that would be better addressed by a more problem-oriented, structured type of therapy, then humanistic therapy might not be right for your needs.

Humanistic therapy can help you achieve personal growth, but it doesn't tend to focus on solving specific disorders or symptoms. You should consider your needs and goals before deciding if humanistic therapy is right for you.

If you are interested in trying this type of therapy, your first step is to find a therapist who practices humanistic therapy. You might ask your primary health care provider for a referral to a professional in your area. Another option is to search an online therapist directory.

If you prefer to try online therapy , check with the therapy platform or look for providers in your area who offer an online therapy option.

If possible, ask for an initial consultation so that you can decide if the therapist is a good match. A therapist who is non-judgmental, empathetic, warm, and understanding can help build a stronger therapeutic alliance . Research suggests that it is this rapport between the therapist and the client that plays a critical role in therapy outcomes.

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By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

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How will you know if your market research methods are outdated.

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Founder and CEO of market research consultancy, Alter Agents ; believer that powerful insights can change businesses.

If you’re still focusing on the brand, and not the consumers you want to reach, that’s your first clue that you may need to reimagine your insights approach. My company's research has shown that just about half of consumers start their purchase journey feeling ambivalent about brand, and it is low on their list of considerations. They’re making decisions that are grounded in their personal needs at that moment, influenced by a wide variety of contextual circumstances. So why do researchers continue to ask so many questions about brand?

Part of it is just plain habit. We "grew up" asking questions that related back to the pillars of brand awareness, consideration and preference. While this model has been updated slightly to reflect the massive changes in the consumer landscape, all most have done is simply tart up old ways of doing things. There’s a desire to make sense of the shopping landscape by using neat, familiar categories, but as researchers, we really need to start from scratch with our approach.

It's Time To Shift Our Thinking

Nothing is the same as it used to be. For example, our surveys used to show that shoppers were focused on price, and somewhat on brand consideration. However, back then, shoppers didn't have as many choices as they do now: They went to the store, saw a set number of brands on the shelf and had to choose among them. When choices are restricted, our stories and our possibilities become quite narrow. But in today’s economy, things have changed. Unlimited options, a huge abundance of information, a growing number of purchase channels and even personal values now come into play.

Think about the massive direct-to-consumer market, which some say will make up 50% of all sales within the next three years. And that’s just one example. Social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and others now have e-commerce initiatives, some with native payment solutions. Predicting what brands and shopping channels will emerge over the next decade is impossible. But we know shoppers are becoming more accustomed to the new and unorthodox. We're seeing them adapt to new channels and technologies in real time. And this just touches the surface of all the changes occurring in the consumer and shopping ecosystem. Shoppers are becoming more and more promiscuous with all of these choices.

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We need to start shifting our thinking as researchers by asking ourselves the question: Is my brand narcissistic? Many of us have a visceral negative reaction to the concept of narcissism—ever since we heard the myth of Narcissus peering into the pool of water, becoming entranced by his own reflection and ultimately perishing. But here, I'm not talking about anything quite so drastic as fatal self-love … or am I? Focusing on the brand in market research can be fatal to success.

Reimagining Your Approach To Insights

So how do you update your research methods for today’s consumer? Here are some good practices to implement:

• Prioritize the consumer: This is about how you ask questions and how you approach the research problem as a whole. If you run a tracker or consumer satisfaction surveys, take a look at whether your metrics are inherently narcissistic. Always ask yourself whether the data you seek is focused on your shoppers—their likes, wants, needs, barriers, motivations, circumstances and values—and less on your brand. Everything you do should feed into your understanding of consumer and shopper needs.

• Use a mix of research methods: Consumers are complex. The shopping landscape is complex. A single methodology, like a survey, is usually not enough to build understanding. Consider employing multimodal studies that blend quantitative data, neuroscience and qualitative interviews to tackle the questions you need answered. The more methods you employ, the better your understanding will be.

• Adapt research practices for the digital age: Just like we need to evolve away from narcissistic models, we must also embrace emerging technologies and online platforms to gather insights in new ways. For example, reevaluate the necessity of in-person research post-pandemic and explore innovative qualitative alternatives to maximize efficiency and expand sample sizes while preserving the depth of understanding.

When insights no longer positively affect business outcomes, our jobs as researchers become obsolete. Staying a step ahead of your consumer audience by seeking a deep understanding of them—not your brand—can give you powerful insights that engage stakeholders and raise the value of research programs across organizations. As my company's chief strategy officer and I wrote in our book, your insights can ensure that “the voice of the shopper is not the last place brands come to but the first.”

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Column generation based solution for bi-objective gate assignment problems

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Published: 29 April 2024

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Gülesin Sena Daş 1 , 2 &
Fatma Gzara 3

In this paper, we present a column generation-based algorithm for the bi-objective gate assignment problem (GAP) to generate gate schedules that minimize squared slack time at the gates while satisfying passenger expectations by minimizing their walking distance. While most of the literature focuses on heuristic or metaheuristic solutions for the bi-objective GAP, we propose flow-based and column-based models that lead to exact or near optimal solution approaches. The developed algorithm calculates a set of solutions to approximate the Pareto front. The algorithm is applied to the over-constrained GAP where gates are a limited resource and it is not possible to serve every flight using a gate. Our test cases are based on real data from an international airport and include various instances with flight-to-gate ratios between 23.9 and 34.7. Numerical results reveal that a set of solutions representing a compromise between the passenger-oriented and robustness-oriented objectives may be obtained with a tight optimality gap and within reasonable computational time even for these difficult problems.

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The first author is supported by Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) (Grant No. 1059B191700275) 2219 Post Doctoral Research Fellowship Program during her research at WAnOpt Lab, University of Waterloo.

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Daş, G.S., Gzara, F. Column generation based solution for bi-objective gate assignment problems. Math Meth Oper Res (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00186-024-00856-1

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Cognito Therapeutics, a leader in technology-based therapeutic interventions for neurodegenerative diseases, announced today a poster presentation at the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) 2024 Meeting, held May 5-8 in Atlanta, GA.The presented research is a targeted literature review of the clinical, humanistic, and ...
A Method of Empirical Q-Matrix Validation for Multidimensional Item
In DCMs, different approaches have been proposed for validating the Q-matrix through iterative algorithms. This article presents a method of empirical Q-matrix validation for MIRT models. A simulation study and an application to real data of morphology skills of elementary students are conducted to examine the viability of the method.
Column generation based solution for bi-objective gate assignment
The epsilon-constraint method has not received attention in past work on multi-objective GAP as most research uses the weighted-sum method, probably due to its simplicity and ease of implementation. In this sense, our method is the first solution approach for the bi-objective GAP based on CG coupled with the epsilon-constraint method.

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Humanistic Psychotherapies: Handbook of Research and Practice

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Humanistic Psychology by Andrew M. Bland , Eugene M. DeRobertis LAST REVIEWED: 26 May 2023 LAST MODIFIED: 25 October 2018 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199828340-0225

How Humanistic Is Positive Psychology? Lessons in Positive Psychology From Carl Rogers' Person-Centered Approach—It's the Social Environment That Must Change

Introduction

Positive Psychology in the Context of Humanistic Psychology

Person-Centered Psychology

Meta-Theory of Human Nature and Development

Applications: Prevention, and Cure

Toward a More Person-Centered Positive Psychology

The Unspoken Positionality of Positive Psychology

The Hidden Politics of Positive Psychology

The Subtle Use of Power in Positive Psychology

Conclusions

Data Availability Statement

Conflict of Interest

Publisher's Note

Humanistic Psychology’s Approach to Wellbeing: 3 Theories

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Key focus of humanistic psychology

Who founded humanistic psychology?

Carl Rogers’s work

The Humanistic Theory by Carl Rogers – Mister Simplify

Humanistic psychology in therapy

Humanistic approach in education

Download 3 Meaning & Valued Living Exercises (PDF)

Download 3 Free Meaning Tools Pack (PDF)

Active listening

Reflective understanding

Unconditional positive regard

1. Becoming an Existential-Humanistic Therapist: Narratives From the Journey – Julia Falk and Louis Hoffman

2. On Becoming a Person: A Therapist’s View of Psychotherapy – Carl Rogers

3. Man’s Search for Meaning – Viktor Frankl

17 Tools To Encourage Meaningful, Value-Aligned Living

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Unconditional Positive Regard

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Limitations

Conditional Positive Regard

Congruence & Incongruence

Self Actualization

The Fully Functioning Person

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Column generation based solution for bi-objective gate assignment problems

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