Previously there were two philosophical movement, phenomenology and existentialism, which follows its impact on psychology in Europe and America. The second movement is very attractive philosophy for a party of American psychologists who are not satisfied with and alienated from behavioristic psychology and psychoanalysis and the search for alternatives in psychology that focus should be human and existential characteristics. This group provides a sympathetic response to phenomenology and existentialism, and ready to absorb from both the ideas and philosophical concepts and approaches which corresponds to metodologisnya tendencies own theoretical and practical. As a result of these developments as well as from other forces, a new movement is slowly emerged in the United States and began to grow significantly. While covering the intellectual currents of the heterogeneous, this movement has two basic characteristics, namely: First, dissatisfaction with the existing behavioristic orientation in contemporary psychology and second, making the study of human beings, about nature and its existence as the main point of psychology. This movement became known as humanisik psychology.
Humanistic psychology is often referred to as the third school in psychology after Behaviorism and Psychoanalysis. This humanistic psychology's birth as a critique of these two thoughts that tend dehumanis. Humanistic psychology recognizes not only the external behavior of the objective, but also the life or subjective inner experience, with this psychology will thus entered the realm of research of the phenomena generally ignored by Western psychology in the twentieth century, namely, personal meaning, reason, imagination, fantasy , religious beliefs and mystical experience.
Humanistic psychologists try to see human life as human beings see their lives. They tend to hold on to an optimistic perspective on human nature. They focus on the human ability to think consciously and rationally for the biological control of desires, and in reaching their full potential. In the humanistic view, people responsible for the lives and actions and have the freedom and ability to change their attitudes and behavior.