Humanistic and Behaviouristic Approach to Human Behaviour

... Humanistic and Behaviouristic Approach to Human Behaviour The humanistic and behaviouristic approaches have different perspectives on the study of human behaviour. This essay will describe and contrast behaviourist and humanistic approaches to the study of human behaviour. It will give a clear description of both theories and describe the main ways in which they differ in their approach to psychology. Behaviourists say people are not inherently good or evil; their behaviour is the result of a continuous interaction between personal and environmental variables. Environmental conditions shape behaviour through learning, in turn; a person's behaviour shapes the environment. Persons and situations influence each other. The behaviouristic approach to psychology was first established by J.B. Watson in 1913, in which he argued that to be truly scientific, psychology should only concern itself with behaviour that could be directly observed, not the mind, (Gross 2005). He thought Wundt's work, based on introspection, that is to

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