Humanistic and Positive Psychology Term Paper Proposal for PSY 336

Humanistic psychology and positive psychology have had a tense and conflicted history together. Reasons for this conflict can be found in the fundamentally dissimilar philosophical underpinnings of psychology’s two schools of thought. There are differences in ontology, which is how human nature is thought of in terms of people’s prospects and well-being; epistemology, which is the choice of research methods for studying these ideas in the real world; and practical philosophy, which is the goals and methods used when doing therapy or counseling (Waterman, 2013). It may be desirable for those who hold these two views to work on understanding and advancing human potential and well-being independently, given their philosophical differences.

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Two other APA presidents, Rogers and Maslow, are considered the major creators of Humanistic Psychology. Their ideas can be seen as precursors to the ideas articulated in a lecture on positive psychology. Maslow used the term “positive psychology” for the first time in his 1954 book Motivation and Personality. The last chapter of that book is called “Toward a Positive Psychology,” and it has a very similar plan to Seligman’s. At the beginning of the paper, there is a summary of the humanist movement and how it has always pushed for a more positive view of psychology. Then, based on the human experience’s preeminence in humanistic psychology, people explore the specific research methods and fields required by this theoretical framework (Jarden, 2012). They conclude by demonstrating the benefits to positive psychology of embracing experiential, process-oriented methodological approaches and, most importantly, of opening a broader dialogue with psychological theories to explore metapsychological issues like the nature of truth and methods of knowing, the function of values and meaning in positive social evolution, and so on.

References

Jarden, A. (2012). Positive psychologists on positive psychology. International Journal of Wellbeing, 2(2). http://www.internationaljournalofwellbeing.org/index.php/ijow/article/view/100

Waterman, A. S. (2013). The humanistic psychology–positive psychology divide: Contrasts in philosophical foundations. American Psychologist, 68(3), 124. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236200597_The_Humanistic_Psychology–Positive_Psychology_Divide_Contrasts_in_Philosophical_Foundations