Humanistic Psychology Is a View of Personality That Emphasizes Human

Humanistic psychology is a view of personality that emphasizes human potential, self-actualization, self-awareness, and free will. This approach differs from Freud's pessimistic view that people were motivated by unconscious sexual and destructive instincts. Rather, humanistic psychology posits that people are innately good. The humanistic approach focuses on the healthy personality rather than on psychologically troubled people. This approach also differs from the behaviorist view that human and animal behavior is driven largely by to environmental reinforcement and punishment. In contrast, humanistic psychologists believe that people are motivated by the need to grow psychologically. As a consequence, humanistic psychologists doubted the use of rats and pigeons as experimental models of the essence of human nature. In fact, humanistic psychologists held that the most important factor in personality is the individual's conscious subjective perception of his or her self.