Criticisms

As with any viewpoint, humanistic psychology hasits critics. One major criticism of humanistic psychology is that its conceptsare too vague. Critics argue that subjective ideas such as authentic and realexperiences are difficult to objectify; an experience that is real for oneindividual may not be real for another person. For this reason, critics believethat conclusions drawn from subjective experiences are almost impossible toverify, making research in humanistic psychology unreliable. In addition,critics claim that humanistic psychology is not a true science because itinvolves too much common sense and not enough objectivity.

Strengths

One of the greatest strengths of humanisticpsychology is that it emphasizes individual choice and responsibility. Humanistic psychology satisfies most people's idea of what being human meansbecause it values personal ideals and self-fulfillment. Finally, humanisticpsychology provides researchers with a flexible framework for observing humanbehavior because it considers a person in the context of his environment and inconjunction with his personal perceptions and feelings.