| Abstract: | ![]()
Notes that the three previous major forces setting the direction of applied psychology have been psychoanalytic, behavioral, and humanistic. All of them have been blended to some extent, but all, over time, have retained their basic flavors. The persons today most closely associated with each of the three forces are S. Freud, B. F. Skinner, and A. Maslow, respectively. Behaviorism was an attempt to make psychology more scientific. Humanistic psychology, the third force, is a reaction or really the antithesis to the first two. The current author describes "interactionistic psychology" or "force four psychology" as a possible synthesis of the previous three forces. A working definition of interactionism, taken from a quote by S. Chess (1979), is proposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
