The Humanistic Approach

17
Approaches to the Science of Psychology
WHY IS HE SO AGGRESSIVE?
Psychologists who take a cognitivebehavioral approach suggest that there
are several ways in which children learn
to be aggressive. Children might see
others being rewarded for acting aggressively and then might be rewarded themselves for doing the same. Aggressiveness
might also be made more likely if a child
constantly hears that other people can be
dangerous and that aggression is the
only way to deal with threats, disagreements, and other conflict situations
(Gifford-Smith et al., 2005).
were probably several better ways to deal with the problem of line cutting. The cognitive approach is especially important in the field of cognitive science, in which
researchers from psychology, computer science, biology, engineering, linguistics, and
philosophy study intelligent systems in humans and computers. Some of their progress
in creating artificial intelligence in computers is described in the chapter on thought,
language, and intelligence.
The Humanistic Approach
humanistic approach A view of behavior as controlled by the decisions that
people make about their lives based on
their perceptions of the world.
Mental processes play a different role in the humanistic approach to psychology (also
known as the phenomenological approach). Psychologists who favor the humanistic
approach see behavior as determined primarily by our capacity to choose how to
think and act. They don’t see these choices being guided by instincts, biological
processes, or rewards and punishments but by each person’s view of the world. So
if you perceive the world as a friendly place, you are likely to be optimistic and
secure. If you perceive it as full of hostile people, you will probably be defensive and
anxious, or perhaps unfriendly and aggressive. Like their cognitively oriented colleagues, then, psychologists taking a humanistic approach would agree that the
movie theater incident stemmed from someone’s perception that aggression was justified. However, instead of trying to find general laws governing all people’s thoughts
and actions, humanistic psychologists try to understand how each individual’s
unique perceptions guide that person’s thoughts and actions. In fact, many who prefer the humanistic approach claim that, because no two people are exactly alike, the
only way to understand behavior and mental processes is to focus on how they operate in each individual. Humanistic psychologists also believe that people are essentially good, that they are in control of themselves, and that they seek to grow toward
their fullest potential.
The humanistic approach began to attract attention in North America in the
1940s, mainly through the writings of Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. As you will
see in later chapters, their views have had a major influence on the way some psychologists think about the development of personality, about how to do psychotherapy, and about the reasons people are motivated to behave as they do. Overall, however, the humanistic approach to psychology is less influential today than the
biological, cognitive, behavioral, and evolutionary approaches. Many psychologists