Positive Psychology and Humanistic Psychology: Evil Twins, Sibling Rivals, Distant Cousins, or Something Else?

Abstract

This article builds on earlier work by Rich in the Journal of Humanistic Psychology on relations between positive psychology and humanistic psychology and examines both developments and challenges over the past 15 years, including discussion of leading critics of positive psychology such as Brown, Friedman, Held, Kagan, Waterman, and Wong. The discipline of positive psychology is contextualized with respect to the history of psychology in general, and humanistic psychology in particular, and several notable examples of well-being research are examined critically, including work by Fredrickson on the positivity ratio, and mixed-methods research by anthropologists. The article explores some limitations of the use of quantitative methods in positive psychology, notes some advantages of the use of qualitative methods for positive psychology, and discusses issues regarding the relationship between positive psychology and humanistic psychology, including how, whether, if, and when scholars from the two disciplines could collaborate in meaningful and effective ways.