Humanistic psychology

This movement in psychology, its popularity dating from the 1960's, assumes that people are active interpreters of their own behaviour and can usefully participate with a researcher in exploring their worlds and the meanings they find in them. This contrasts with a psychodynamic model in which people are seen as passive and not able to see or articulate much of what makes their lives as they are. While both models have been influential in qualitative market research, many accepted interviewing practices in fact adapt methods and ways of thinking drawn from humanistic psychology.

Related Terms

• Non-directive interviewing
• Group dynamics
• Conative model