Final answer:
The humanistic approach to psychology emphasizes the positive potential and innate goodness in humans, focusing on personal growth and self-actualization as championed by theorists like Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers.
Step-by-step explanation:
An approach to understanding human nature that emphasizes the positive potential of humans describes the humanistic approach. Humanistic psychologists like Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers focused on personal growth and self-actualization, theorizing that all individuals naturally strive to achieve their fullest potential. This view contrasts with more deterministic psychological approaches by highlighting each person's innate capacity for self-directed change and fulfillment.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a component of humanistic psychology, proposes that humans have innate needs that must be fulfilled in a specific order, culminating in the need for self-actualization. In the humanistic perspective, positive characteristics such as creativity, love, acceptance, and empathy are seen as fundamental aspects of being human. The humanistic approach does not entirely dismiss other psychological perspectives but complements them by adding a richer understanding of the depth and potential of human experience.