Humanistic and Positive Psychology: The Methodological and Epistemological Divide

Humanistic and positive psychology both focus on similar concerns, but have differences regarding methodology and epistemology. In terms of methodology, humanistic psychologists tend to prefer qualitative over quantitative approaches, whereas positive psychologists tend to hold the opposite preference. Likewise, in terms of epistemology, humanistic psychologists tend to prefer postpositivism, whereas positive psychologists tend to prefer logical positivism. However, much of the perceived differences between humanistic and positive psychology have been based on generalizations that do not hold in every case, notably that humanistic psychology has rich quantitative research traditions, and positive psychology does contain some qualitative approaches. Methodological and epistemological pluralism is presented as a way to bring together these closely related, but now largely separate, areas of psychology.