ABSTRACT

Social and experimental psychology and many other branches of psychology provide an account of why people behave in the same way in different situations. Personality psychology and the psychology of individual differences provide an account of why people behave differently in the same situation. It is a self-evident truth that in some ways everyone is unique. Uniqueness is one of the ideas explored in humanistic psychology. Humanistic psychology developed in the late 1940s and 1950s describing itself as ‘the third force in psychology’ – the other two forces being behaviourism and psychoanalysis. The chapter describes the methodology used by humanistic psychologists, some of their achievements, and its relevance today. The uniqueness of the therapeutic encounter is emphasised in Roger's psychotherapy, an approach that underpins modern counselling and the contextual model of psychotherapy. A common theme in humanistic psychologists is that finding meaning in life is important.