Psychology is the study of how we think and behave in certain situations.

Because
psychology has such a vague definition it offers up the possibility of endless research and types
of psychologists in endless fields. The study of psychology has helped us to dive deeper into
behavioral issues like PTSD but on the other end of the spectrum has caused us to study why
blood rushes to our brains and our eyes dilate when were in a fight or flight state. The idea of
psychology has even changed over its fairly young history. Many early psychologists like
Sigmund Freud have contributed greatly to moving psychology forward and have brought up
ideas that are still in use today but as we have gotten more data and have created more in depth
experiments our options have changed. Fact has been turned into fiction.
Continuing to study and learn about psychology is very important because our
psychology shapes who we are, what our interests and disabilities are and what we need to do to
survive in our modern society. Just now we are starting to see a huge rise in depression and
anxiety in teens in the United States. If we were not studying psychology and why this is
happening, we would never have an answer to know how to cope with the changing world.
Because of psychology we can study this change in behavior and find new ways to fix it.
Californias largest school district, Los Angeles Unified, tallied more than 5,000
incidents of suicidal behavior last year. Thats huge increase since they began tracking these
issues in the 2010-2011 school year, when just 255 incidents were reported. These incidents
ranged from expressions of openness to suicide and self-harm, and acts of self-harm.
Specific incidents of self-harm, like superficial cutting and burning the skin are usually not
attempts at suicide, but the behavior does correlate with a higher risk of suicidal behavior.
Studies of self-harm are consistent in showing that people who injure themselves do so to
cope with anxiety or depression. (Schrobsdorff, 2016). This is just one example of episodes
taking place that if we were not paying attention to, due to psychology, we would have
missed and missing a example such as this could be catastrophic.
New studies are coming out every day with new ways to treat diseases of the mind
and body with psychological therapy and its amazing how much we have come to know
now and how much more we need to figure out. If we were to stop collection this
information for no reason, we would be throwing away hundreds of years of research that
could be arguably more important than many forms of modern medicine.
For my topic, I chose the topic of Humanistic psychology which is the interpretation of a
persons behavior or actions through the eyes of the individual behaving and acting rather than
the person observing the actions. I found this to be a very interesting approach to psychology and
one that I agree with and think is a very beneficial way to treat peoples psychosis. I learned
about this pretty early in the class while learning about different approaches to therapy and
psychology and really found this one to be interesting in many different ways. One being that it
is still not seen as one of the most correct forms of therapy because when taking a Humanistic
approach some believe that you are giving the patient too much power to interpret how they feel
or why they initiated the behaviors they did. Others believe that in order to truly diagnose a
patients problems they need to be observed by the therapist and give their input on how the
patient needs to act or carry on. I dont think that this is necessarily true. I have had therapy at
one point for my depression and when I was attending my therapy with this man I had no idea
that there were so many approaches to therapy. I thought that pretty much you went there laid
down on a couch and talked about your problems and unconscious thought (I guess I had the
stereotypical therapy session stuck in my head). After visiting a few times, I began to start to get
more comfortable and open up. This was when my therapist encouraged me to think of my
actions and think of ways on my own that I could fix the problem with myself. This required me
to truly self-reflect on my situation and think hard about how I could become a better person
based on me. Looking back in hindsight Im pretty positive that my therapist was taking a
humanistic approach and I never would have known that if I had not taken this class. Now
knowing that what I was being taught was using this Humanistic approach to psychology I am
now able to do more extensive research on ways that I can not only help empower myself but
also empower others.
I find the topic of Humanism and Humanistic psychology to be a very important topic
that I think everyone should look into like I have myself. After having it come up in my
psychology reading I found it oddly reminiscent of some treatment that I had myself when I was
actively participating in therapy. It caused me to do some more research on the topic, where it
came from, and more ways to help myself. The great thing about Humanism is that it is largely
dictated by you the patient. Now it is always great to have a therapist that can provide extra
support and guidance based on how you feel but just trying it yourself is great and I think this is
a really empowering way of thinking. It causes you to look within yourself, find the aspects of
yourself that you would like to improve on, and then find a way to fix it. While I was in high
school I went through a time where I was very depressed and anxious, which I think many
people could relate to. I didnt want to reach out to others because I was afraid of rejection and
people thinking poorly of me and whenever I did get the guts to tell someone about my issues I
was told how they would fix the problem. The issue with that was that it wasnt me. It wasnt
how I wanted to fix the problem and because of that I rejected their ideas and continued without
help.
We all want to answer the question of who am I?. It is common goal for most people
on this planet and that is what Carl Rogers believed to be our main goal in life, to reach self-
actualization. The goal to reach self-actualization and become the best person that we can be is
the basis of Humanism the Humanistic approach in psychology. Carl Rogers believed that we
are all inherently good and all want to become better individuals than we were yesterday so he
proposed that the way to better ourselves was through acceptance and being genuine. If we are
not genuine in our thoughts and actions then we are not truly pushing ourselves to become better
individuals and without the acceptance that we get from others we wont have the strength to
continue on in our course towards self-actualization. Now I bring this all up because I am
constantly trying to become the best person that I can and depression was and is a huge difficulty
for me to get past and to cope with but by know that the people I care about are there for me and
support me helps me with the acceptance that I need and by having the internal recognition of
my problem and that it needs to be fixed for me to become the best person I can fills my
genuineness needed to achieve self-actualization. I am not saying that I am anywhere near self-
actualization, because I am far from it, but I do that that by understanding this subject I am
getting closer each day to it. And that is why I believe that it is important for not just me but
everyone to know more about humanism and work towards self-actualization themselves.
With my own experiences being so great I cant help but want to spread the same ideas to
others that I believe they could benefit. By sharing Humanism with my family, we have all
come up with ideas to be more supportive of each others needs and stay focused on ourselves
and build up internal confidence to reach our goals and become our best selves. Could you
imagine a world where everyone was trying to achieve self-actualization? Its pretty hard to
imagine especially considering that Abraham Maslow, one of the inventors of the Humanistic
approach, believed that only 1% of the worlds population would achieve self-actualization. One
individual that I am sure would have definitely received self-actualization would have had to
been Martin Luther King jr. Martin was a civil rights activist that had a sense of himself and
knew who he was and what he stood for and I dont believe that he would have been able to have
the impact that he had on the people of America in his time or on history if he hadnt reached for
that enlightenment. Now if you think that Martin Luther King jr. was one of the few amazing
people that achieved this status what would the world be like if we were all as amazing as him?
So many more world issues would be able to be faced and taken on in peace because we all have
a sense of ourselves and can resolve things in a loving manner.
In conclusion, I think that Humanism and a Humanistic approach towards psychology is
one of the best ways that we can better ourselves and then ultimately society. I believe that only
when we are able to solve our own problems we will then be able to help others achieve a higher
level of ones self.
Refrences Page

Susanna Schrobsdorff (2016, November 16) Theres a Startling Increase in Major Depression
Among Teens in the U.S. Retrieved from
http://time.com/4572593/increase-depression-teens-teenage-mental-health/