PSYCH-UA 1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 15: Humanistic Psychology, Prefrontal Cortex, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Document Summary
Both trait theorists and psychodynamic theorists have lost sight of what is truly human about human beings. Humanists argued that healthy individuals want to feel free to choose and determine their own lives rather than to exist as mere pawns pushed around by stimuli from without or driven by demons from within. They seek more than food and sex,and strive for more than mere adjustment--they want to grow and develop their potential. Heart of the humanistic approach is phenomenology, understanding a person"s own unique rst-person perspective on his life. Goal is to understand a person"s conscious experience by understanding his construal, or interpretation, of the world around him. Second is its conception of human motivation. Drive theories commonly view humans as being engaged in a never-ending struggle to remove some internal tension or make up for some de cit. Lower-order physiological needs are at the bottom and striving for self-actualization--realizing one"s potential to the fullest--is at the top.