Entry 9 : Humanistic assumptions

The first assumption of the humanist approach is that behavior should be understood in terms of the subjective experience of the individual. This means that if a behavior is to be understood, the person producing the behavior should be understood such as how he/she views the world (phenomenological viewpoint). This assumption greatly contrasts the assumptions of the psychodynamic perspective and the learning perspective which paid no attention to the individual's subjective experience. Another assumption is that people are not dependent on past experiences or current circumstances and that their acts are not merely response to a stimuli. This assumption also greatly contrasts the learning perspective which believed in stimuli/response behavior and the psychodynamic perspective which stated that people are dependent on past experiences.