humanistic movement

humanistic movement

an influential movement within psychology which emphasizes the SELF and the power of individuals to realize their human potential (see SELF-ACTUALIZATION). In psychology these ideas have been developed, in particular, by MASLOW and ROGERS who recognized that psychology was over-concerned with the abnormal (see PSYCHOANALYSIS) and the mechanistic (see BEHAVIOURISM). The humanistic school rectifies this imbalance in concerning itself primarily with human values, with understanding through EMPATHY and with the complexities of the person operating in a unique phenomenological field. See also PHENOMENOLOGY.