An Empirical Analysis of Operating Values in Humanistic Education

Abstract

This article reports a factor-analytic study of 15 operating instructional values derived from 40 representative writers in Humanistic Education. The three factors that emerged were a general factor, the so-called "Humanistic Paradigm," and two subsidiary group approaches, one supporting individual expression and the other an externally-oriented approach to social change. In the author's view, high interrater reliability, high (70% to 80%) degree of agreement of confluent students with the 40 experts, and significant differentiation between behaviorally-oriented counseling students and confluent students empirically validate the humanistic value orientation as a highly coherent set of operating principles.