Presentation Thematic section

Practice and research in the humanistic and phenomenological approach in psychology: Some proposals to contemporary challenges

Abstract

 Are psychologists prepared to experience and find answers to the serious crises that currently challenge humanity, even if threatening their own survival? In the article entitled “Responding to contemporary challenges: new people for new times”, Maureen O’Hara, a renowned university professor, psychologist, researcher, and social scientist, now a professor at the National University in California, and member of the International Futures Forum, reflects on what she considers “serious world problems that threaten human civilization today”. She acknowledges the relevance of her mentors ideas in the fields of Biology and Psychology, especially those from the North American psychologist Carl Rogers, for having developed a new theoretical and methodological paradigm that proposed an equal subject-subject relationship between the researcher and the research participants and the researcher’s not-knowing position as a premise for triggering new knowledge from personal and collective experiences. This approach to human problems not only promotes new knowledge but also helps the researcher to acquire more appropriate skills and competences to understand the complex and seemingly insoluble crises of the 21st century. Maureen states that, to potentialize the possibility of transformation, a new type of Psychology, more adapted to the current conditions, is needed. The People of Tomorrow, a term coined by humanistic psychologist Carl R. Rogers during the conflicts of the1960’s, are characterized by a keen awareness of events and creative ability to make change.