Third Force Psychology: Humanistic Approach

• Chapter 17 discusses Humanistic (Third-Force) Psychology

Learning Objectives

• Comprehend the zeitgeist and various ideas that contributed to the development of humanistic psychology.
• Understand the direct antecedents of humanistic psychology.
• Discuss the theories of Abraham Maslow.
• Acquainted with Carl Rogers's theory of personality and views of the fully functioning person.
• Become familiar with comparisons of existential and humanistic psychology.
• Become familiar with criticisms of humanistic psychology.
• Become familiar with the contributions of humanistic psychology.

The Mind, the Body, and the Spirit

• Human nature comprises three major components: the mind (intellect), the body (biological makeup), and the spirit (emotional makeup).
• Third-force psychology emphasizes subjective reality.

Antecedents of Third-Force Psychology

• By the mid-20th century, structuralism, functionalism, and Gestalt psychology had lost their distinctiveness as schools of thought.
• Only behaviorism and psychoanalysis remained influential.
• In the troubled times of the 1960s, the views of humans provided by behaviorism and psychoanalysis were viewed by many as incomplete, distorted, or both.
• Many sought a new view emphasizing the human spirit over the mind or body.
• In the early 1960s, Abraham Maslow led a group of psychologists in a movement called third-force psychology as a reaction to the shortcomings of behaviorism and psychoanalysis in addressing the human condition.
• These psychologists needed a model of humans that emphasized their uniqueness and positive aspects.
• This third force combines the philosophies of romanticism and existentialism and is called humanistic psychology.
• Phenomenology focuses on cognitive experience in its intact form, not reduced to component parts.
  • Brentano focused on psychological acts like judging, recollecting, and expecting, including intentionality.
• Husserl believed phenomenology could bridge the physical and subjective worlds, developing "pure phenomenology" to discover the essence of conscious experience.
• This evolved into modern existentialism, concerned with the nature of human existence and the study of existence called ontology.

Existential Psychology

• Existentialism addresses two ontological questions: the nature of human nature and what it means to be a particular individual.
• Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus won Nobel Prizes in Literature for their writings in existentialism.
• Martin Heidegger posited that humans are always changing, and the Dasein refers to the space and time where existence happens as a complex, dynamic phenomenon.

The Authentic Life

• Realization of mortality leads to meaningful existence and constant personal growth, or becoming.
• Not exercising personal freedom can lead to guilt.
• Acceptance of eventual nothingness causes anxiety and takes courage.
• The concept of throwness denotes that we are thrown into personal circumstances beyond our control determining how we exercise our freedom.
• Ludwig Binswanger described three modes of existence: the Umwelt (around world), the Mitwelt (with world), and the Eigenwelt (own world).
  • Ground of existence: the circumstances into which one exercises personal freedom.
  • Individuals seek "being-beyond-the-world" to transform circumstances using free will, finding personal meaning regardless.
• Rollo May described "the human dilemma" where humans are both objects and subjects of experience, interpreting experiences and giving them meaning.
• Freedom brings responsibility and anxiety.
• Healthy individuals approach their full potential, causing normal, healthy anxiety conducive to personal growth.

Neurotic Anxiety and Myths

• Neurotic anxiety is not conducive to personal growth, since it comes from fear of freedom by reducing or eliminating personal freedom.
• Self-alienation occurs whenever people accept values dictated by society rather than those personally attained.
• Exercising free will may lead to normal anxiety; otherwise, people feel guilty.
• Myths provide the major vehicle for giving meaning in life
• Myths provide a sense of identity, community, support moral values and dealig with the mysteries of creation
• May supported studying humans scientifically but opposed using physical science methods.
• The emerging field of positive psychology aligns with May's suggestions.
• George Kelly's cornerstone is that psychological problems depend on how a person views things.
• The goal of all humans and scientists alike, is to reduce uncertainty.
• Scientists create theories to predict events, similar to nonscientists' construct systems.
• Kelly's concept of constructive alternativism aligned him with existentialists, highlighting the freedom to choose constructs and interpret events individually.
• Therapy often begins with self-characterization and may include fixed-role therapy.

Humanistic Psychology

• Abraham Maslow is recognized as the one most responsible for making humanistic psychology a formal branch of psychology.

Basic Tenets of Humanistic Psychology

• There is little value in learning about humans by studying nonhuman animals.
• Subjective reality is the primary guide for human behavior.
• Studying individuals provides more information than studying what groups of individuals have in common.
• Make a major effort to discover those things that expand and enrich human experience.
• Research should seek information that will help solve human problems.
• The goal of psychology should be to formulate a complete description of what it means to be a human being.

Hierarchy of Human Needs

• Human needs are arranged in a hierarchy.
• The lower the needs are in the hierarchy, the more basic and similar to animals’ needs they are.
• The higher the needs in the hierarchy, the more distinctly human they are.
• The order of the hierarchy is physiological needs → safety needs → belonging and love needs → esteem needs → self-actualization.
• Self-actualization meant to reach one's full, human potential.
• Self-actualized persons perceive reality accurately, accept themselves and others, need privacy, have few friends, and are creative.
• Transpersonal psychology focuses on the mystical, ecstatic, or spiritual aspects of human nature.
• Carl Rogers postulated an innate human drive toward self-actualization in this theory of personality.
• People living according to the organismic valuing process use this actualizing tendency as a frame of reference.
• Problems arise from conditions of worth imposed in childhood when positive regard depends on acting or thinking in certain ways, stunting the organismic valuing process.
• Unconditional positive regard is needed to avoid imposing conditions of worth.
• Only people who receive uncoditional positive regard can become fully functioning persons.
• An incongruent person is no longer true to his/her own feelings.
• Roger's person-centered psychology applies to diverse fields like religion, medicine, law enforcement, ethnic relations, politics, and organizational development.

Similarities between Existential and Humanistic Psychology

• Humans have free will and are responsible for their actions.
• The appropriate method to study humans is phenomenology.
• Humans must be studied as a whole.
• An authentic life is better than an inauthentic one.
• Humanists assume humans are good, while existentialists view human nature as neutral.
• Humanists believe the major motivation is the actualizing tendency; existentialists believe it is the "will to meaning."

Criticisms of Humanistic Psychology

• Critics equate behaviorism with Watson and Skinner and ignores other behaviorists who emphasized purpose in behavior.
• Insisting that scientific psychology does not care about the loftier human attributes overlooks the cumulative nature of science.
• The description of humans is like the more favorable ones found in poetry and literature, which represents a type of wishful thinking that is not factually correct.
• Humanistic psychology criticizes behaviorism, psychoanalysis, and scientific psychology in general.
• However, all three have significantly contributed to the betterment of the human condition.
• It rejects traditional scientific methodology, offering no substantive replacement.
• Animal research is rejected which turns backs on a valuable source of knowledge, because there is a rejection of animal research
• Many terms and concepts defy clear definitions and verification.

Contributions of Humanistic Psychology

• Humanistic psychology allowed an expansion of psychology's domain, which has led to a development of positive psychology.
• Positive psychology explores positive human attributes.
• Positive psychologists and early humanistic psychologists agree that mental health is more than the absence of mental illness.
• Flourishing is used to describe people who are free from mental illness, filled with vitality, and functioning optimally.

Explore the rise of third-force psychology as a response to behaviorism and psychoanalysis. Understand its focus on the human spirit and the integration of philosophical schools of thought. Identify the components of human nature according to this perspective.