This approach suggests that people are basically good and potential enough to make decisions about their lives and control their behaviors. Humanists reject the view that behavior is determined largely by biological functioning, or by unconscious processes, or by the environmental factors. Each person has his unique world of experience.

In order to understand his world, one needs to respect his feelings and interpretations. Every behavior and experience is as good as the other. A behavior considered abnormal by us may be very normal for the experiencing person. To help him move towards maturity is to accept his feelings with genuine regard.

Thus, every one has the power to reach higher levels of maturity, if given the right opportunity. Carl Rogers feels that a person is disturbed if there is a big gap between what he is, and what he thinks he should be. The psychologists’ job is to provide opportunities to the person so that he can make his own life choices, and use his free will for self-improvement.

More than any approach, this perspective stresses the role of psychology in enriching people’s lives and helping them to achieve self-fulfillment, it deals with the whole person. It takes psychology beyond the boundaries of science to include valuable lessons from literature, history, art, and music.