What is the good life? Positive psychology and the renaissance of humanistic psychology

Bibliographic Data

ID19429520
AuthorsBrent Dean Robbins (0000-0002-2314-9049, Point Park University, corresponding author)
Year2008
Volume36
Issue2
Pages96-112
Publication date2008-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Humanistic Psychologist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0887-3267 • E-ISSN: 1547-3333
PublisherAmerican Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1080/08873260802110988
OpenAlexW2014501298
LanguageEN
Citations received29
References cited54

Positive and humanistic psychology overlap in thematic content and theoretical presuppositions, yet positive psychology explicitly distances itself as a new movement, despite the fact that its literature implicitly references its extensive historical grounding within humanistic psychology. Consequently, humanistic psychologists both celebrate diffusion of humanistic ideas furthered by positive psychology, and resent its disavowal of the humanistic tradition. The undeniably close alignment of these two schools of thought is demonstrated in the embracing of eudaimonic, in contrast to hedonic, conceptions of happiness by positive psychology. Eudaimonic happiness cannot be purely value-free, nor can it be completely studied without using both nomethetic and idiographic (i.e., quantitative and qualitative) methods in addressing problems of value, which identifies positive psychology clearly as a humanistic approach, despite its protestations

Cognitive psychology · Epistemology · Eudaimonia · Happiness · Humanism · Humanistic psychology · Nomothetic and idiographic · Positive psychology · Theoretical psychology · Optimism, Hope, and Well-being · Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs · Philosophy · Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction · Psychology · Social Psychology