Humanist Approach Vs Humanistic Psychology

Humanistic Psychology states that in order to understand a person, you must understand his or her personal view of reality or an individual’s meaning of their life. This approach places great focus on a person’s phenomenology, or lived conscious experience of the world such as what they hear, feel, see and think. These perceptions and experiences of one moving through the world is thought to be more important than the world itself. This grounds the center of an individual and according to Funder, may be the basis of free will (Funder, 436. 2013). Unlike other theories, the humanistic approach places value in more of the unspoken dimensions of the individual; feelings, intuition, creativity, imagination, thoughts, etc. These are all considered …show more content…
The idea of thrown-ness, or the time, place, circumstance or situation by which you were born (Funder, 443.2013), plays a large role in the humanistic approach and when it comes to understanding an individual. This is highly important because culture, race, assigned gender at birth, location, socioeconomic standing, parental circumstances, and plenty of other factors greatly impact ones personality and the experiences that an individual will encounter in their life. Thrown-ness is used to have people ask deeper existential questions about themselves. These questions are intended for the individual to evaluate and find meaning for their life while simultaneously being influenced by their reality. This helps one address their situation and see the ways it is influential. When an individual struggles to answer those questions, they may experience “Angst”, or feelings of anguish, despair, and forlornness (Funder, 444. 2013). Many people struggle with this idea of thrown-ness. We did not choose where or how we were thrown. We didn’t even choose to exist, let alone in our particular body with our particular family at a particular time and place. We are innocent in how we are thrown, but we have total responsibility over how we relate to our thrown-ness. Acceptance of and relating to their thrown-ness is the conscious decision that I see a lot of people struggle …show more content…
2013). People are driven by satisfaction. We see that in our culture daily. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, in addition to psychotherapy, strives to help people become a “fully functioning person”, one who lives an authentic existence. In order to become one, the individual must have experienced unconditional positive regard, meaning that important people in your childhood have valued you, made you feel smart, good, attractive, etc. Through experiencing that, the individual can live a life free of worry and anxiety and can instead be happy, full of emotion, creative and understanding of other and themselves (Funder, 453. 2013). As someone who spends a lot of time in the elementary education system and is pursuing a career as a teacher, I think Maslow’s theory is important for success in these types of communities. The most important overarching educational goal is for students to learn, ideally in a purposeful and meaningful way that will be retained and used throughout their lives. Motivation becomes essential to students as it drives their learning. This is where we see this theory in action. In order to maximize educational effectiveness of teaching programs, educators must consider student needs and their hierarchical order. For example, if a student didn’t have breakfast