Maslow Holistic Dynamic Theory

Personality theory of Abraham Maslow

• humanistic theory

• transpersonal theory

• third force in psychology

• fourth force in personality

• needs theory

• self-actualization theory

Holistic dynamic theory

• assumes that the whole person is constantly being motivated by one need or another, and that people have the potential to grow toward psychological health—self-actualization

Self-actualization

• people must satisfy lower level needs such as hunger, safety, love, esteem

Maslow’s View of Motivation/assumptions

• adopted holistic approach: whole person. not any single part or function, motivated

• motivation is complex—separate motives

• people are continually motivated by one need or another —when one need is satisfies, it loses when replaced another need

• all people everywhere are motivated by the same basic needs.

• needs can be arranged on hierarchy

Hierarchy of needs/basic needs

• lower-level needs must be satisfied or at least relatively satisfied before higher-level needs become motive

• Lower-level needs have prepotency over higher-level needs

• physiological, safety, love and belongingness, esteem, and self-actualization

conative needs

• meaning that they have a striving or motivational character.

Physiological needs

• food, water—maintenance of body

• most prepotent

  Two important respects

• they are the only needs that can be completely satisfied or even overly satisfied.

• recurring nature-when people eaten they will be hungry again

Safety needs

• physical security, stability, dependency, protection, and freedom from threatening forces such as war, terrorism, illness, fear, anxiety, danger, chaos, and natural disasters

• needs for law, order, and structure

• cannot overly satiated

  Basic anxiety-trying to satisfy safety needs, and when they are not successful in their attempts, they suffer

Love and belongingness

• desire for friendship; the wish for a mate and children; the need to belong to a family, a club, a neighborhood, or a nation

• sex and human contact

Groups

• People who have had their love and belongingness needs adequately satisfied

  from early years do not panic when denied love

• A second group of people consists of those who have never experienced love

  and belongingness, and, therefore, are incapable of giving love

• third category includes those people who have received love and belong

  ingness only in small doses

Esteem needs

• self-respect, confidence, competence, and

  the knowledge that others hold them in high esteem

• two levels of esteem need: reputation and self-esteem

• based on competency

Self-actualization

• self-fulfillment, the realization of all one’s

  potential, and a desire to become creative in the full sense of the word

• they express their human needs

• do not depends on satisfaction

3 other categories of needs

aesthetic, cognitive, and neurotic.

Aesthetic needs

• not universal

• motivated by the need for beauty and aesthetically pleasing experiences

Cognitive needs

• Most people have a desire to know, to solve mysteries, to understand, and to be

  curious

• if blocked Maslow’s hierarchy is threatened

Neurotic needs

• lead to stagnation and pathology

• nonproductive, unhealthy, reactive

Reversed Order of Needs

• the drive for creativity may take precedence over safety and physiological

  needs

• unconscious motivation underlying the behavior, we would recognize that the

  needs are not reversed.

Unmotivated Behavior

• some behaviors are not motivated

• motivation is limited

• expressive behavior

Expressive behavior

• no purpose, goals, or aim

• unconscious

• little efforts

• slouching, looking stupid, being

  relaxed, showing anger, and expressing joy

• usually unlearned, spontaneous, and determined by forces within the person

Coping behavior

• ordinarily conscious, effortful, learned,

  and determined by the external environment.

• have aim or goal

Metapathology

• the absence of values, the lack of fulfillment, and the loss of meaning in life

Instinctoid need

• some human needs are innately determined even though they can be modified by learning

• produces pathology

• persistent

• species specific

Higher needs

• instinctoid

• appear later during the course of individual development

• produce more happiness

Lower needs

• instinctoid

• must be cared for in infants

• degree of pleasure but temporary and not comparable to happiness of high level

Criteria for self-actualization

• free from psychopathology

• self-actualizing people had progressed through the hierarchy of needs

• embracing of the B-values.

• full use and exploitation of talents, capacities, potentialities, etc.”

B-values

• self-actualizing people are motivated by the “eternal verities

• indicators of psychological health

• metaneeds—ultimate level of needs

• capable of metamotivation

Metamotivation

characterized by expressive rather than coping behavior and is associated with the B-values.

values of self-actualizing people/ 14 B-values

truth, goodness, beauty, wholeness or the transcendence of dichotomies, aliveness spontaneity, uniqueness, perfection, completion, justice and order, simplicity, richness or totality, effortlessness, playfulness or humor. self-sufficiency or autonomy

More Efficient Perception of Reality

• Self-actualizing people can more easily detect phoniness in other

• can discriminate between genuine and fake

• not fooled by facades

• suited to be philosophers, explorers, or scientists.

Acceptance of Self, Others, and Nature

• Self-actualizing people can accept themselves the way they are

• lack defensiveness, phoniness, and self-defeating guilt; have good hearty animal appetites for food, sleep, and sex

• can tolerate weakness

• accept nature

Spontaneity, Simplicity, and Naturalness

• Self-actualizing people are spontaneous, simple, and natural.

• they behave conventionally

• They ordinarily live simple lives

• unpretentious

Problem centering

• self-actualizing people is their interest in problems outside themselves.

• task-oriented and concerned with problems outside themselves

• develop a mission or purpose in life

• extend their frame of reference far beyond self.

• concerned with eternal problems

The Need for Privacy

• Self-actualizing people have a quality of detachment that allows them to be alone

  without being lonely

• they feel comfortable when they are alone or people

Continued Freshness of Appreciation

• self-actualizing people have the wonderful capacity to appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic goods of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder, and even ecstasy

The Peak Experience

• unmotivated, non-striving, and nonwishing

• seen only as beautiful, good, desirable,

  worthwhile, etc., and is never experienced as evil or undesirable

Gemeinschaftsgefühl

• Adler’s term for social interest,

• self-actualizers had a kind of caring attitude toward other people

Profound Interpersonal Relations

• Self-actualizers have a nurturant feeling toward people in general, but their close friendships are limited to only a few.

The Democratic Character Structure

• self-actualizers possessed democratic values

• They could be friendly and considerate with other people regardless of class, color, age, or gender, and in fact, they seemed to be quite unaware of superficial differences among people

Discrimination Between Means and Ends

• Self-actualizing people have a clear sense of right and wrong conduct and have

  little conflict about basic values

• they set their sights on ends rather than means

Philosophical Sense of Humor

• The humor of a self-actualizing person is intrinsic to the situation rather than

  contrived

Creativeness

• all are creative in their own way

• They have a keen perception of truth, beauty, and reality—ingredients that form the foundation of true creativity.

Resistance to Enculturation

Resistance to Enculturation

• detachment from their surroundings and transcend in particular time

• anti social nor consciously non-conforming

• do not waste energy fighting against insignificant customs

• these healthy people are more individualized and less homogenized

D-love

• no longer motivated by deficiency love

B-love

• self-actualizing people are capable of ____

• “Being”

• mutually felt and shared and not motivated by a deficiency

• it is unmotivated, expressive behavior.

Jonah Complex

• fear of being one’s best

• which is found in nearly everyone, represents a fear of success, a fear of being one’s best, and a feeling of awesomeness in the presence of beauty and perfection