Within this assignment, there will be a critical evaluation of three different perspectives from the psychological approaches within psychology. The Humanistic approach being the first to be evaluated with a brief description then the Cognitive approach is described and evaluated. The last approach to be described and evaluated was the Behaviourist. Three approaches will have pros and cons within the evaluation given
Humanism is a psychological approach that emphasises on the study of the whole person. Humanistic psychologists look at human behaviour not only through the eyes of the observer, but also through the eyes of the person doing the behaviour. Yet, they also believe that an individual’s behaviour is connected to their inner feelings. However, the Humanistic approach was developed as a rebellion against what some psychologists saw as limitations of the behaviourist and psychodynamics approaches within psychology. Therefore, this approach is often called the “third force” in psychology after psychoanalysis and behaviourism. One of the leading humanistic psychologist, Carl Rogers, was trained as a psychoanalyst and a leading therapist (Saul McLeod, 2007). Humanistic psychologists believe, that people have free will and are capable of choosing their own actions, although they may not realise this. They also take the view that people also have a tendency towards growth and fulfilment of their own potential (Sammons, 2011)
The humanistic approach promotes a positive image of human being and the human condition the apparent lack of objectivity in the humanistic methods is a significant criticism of this approach. Other approaches would regard their method as unscientific, vague and open to bias and there attempt to alter the way other peoples view of perceiving the world is misguided and meaningless. Humanistic psychologists would reject these criticisms because