Psychological influence on American humanist education

Abstract

This paper is meant to outline the modalities in which psychology has influenced humanist education in the USA, starting with a historical background and presenting its major trends: positive psychology, transcendentalism, and the trend based on new discoveries in genetics and neurology with special focus on the third force psychology. It encourages self-actualization, enabling students to express themselves, to act, to experiment, to make mistakes, to discover, and to self-discover. The major objectives of humanist education work together for the free manifestation of human individuality and the elimination of any coercion and oppression that may suppress the individual.