H Humanistic Perspective

The humanistic perspective on personality emphasizes the individualized qualities of optimal well-being and the use of creative potential to benefit others, as well as the relational conditions that promote those qualities as the outcomes of healthy development. The humanistic perspective serves as an alternative to mechanistic and/or reductionistic explanations of personality based on isolated, static elements of observable behavior (e.g., traits) or self-concept. Humanistic psychologists contend that personality formation is an ongoing process motivated by the need for relative integration, guided by intentionality, choice, the hierarchical ordering of values, and an everexpanding conscious awareness. Humanistic psychologists employ an intersubjective, empathic approach in their therapeutic and research practices to understand the lived experiences of individuals as active participants in their lifeworld – i.e., situated in sociocultural and ecopsycho-spiritual contexts. From its inception, humanistic psychology has been “a diverse amalgam of secular, theistic, individualistic, and communalistic strands” (Schneider et al. 2015, pp. xviii–xix) in both its range of influences and its proponents. It is best understood as a broad-based yet theoreticallydelineated movement rather than a highly specialized school. Humanistic psychologists share a vision of psychology as a holistic, phenomenological exploration of the processes that organically promote psychological health and growth in accordance with people’s innate nature and potentials. Such an intentionally non-exclusive approach has been preferred in order “to keep things open and flexible” (Bühler 1971, p. 378), with the deliberate goal of continuous revision and elaboration in order to “establish itself anew for each generation” (Criswell 2003, p. 43). Contemporary humanistic psychology is a “concerted brew” of three ontologies: