Maslow's Self-Actualization

theory of self-actualization

process whereby the healthy development of people's abilities enables them to fulfill their own true natures

The hierarchy of human needs

-self-actualization and growth needs

-esteem needs

-belongingness and love needs

-safety needs

-physiological needs

2 basic sets of needs rooted in our biology

1. deficiency needs (basic needs): include physiological drives, safety needs, belongingness and love needs and esteem needs

2. growth needs (meta needs): the need for self-actualization and cognitive understanding

physiological needs (basic needs)

-include hunger, thirst, and sex

-when hungry will think of nothing else

safety needs (basic needs)

need for security, protection, structure, law, order, limits and freedom from fear, anxiety and chaos

need for belongingness and love (basic needs)

-belongingness: need to feel wanted and accepted by others

-love: begins selfishly with seeking love from others (D-love or deficiency love)

-once capable of loving others, B-love (being love)

Esteem needs (basic needs)

divided into 2 sets:

-esteem based on respect for our own competence

-esteem based on others' evaluations

Self-actualization and cognitive understanding

meta needs

self-actualization

need to reach one's fullest potential and highest level of functioning

Maslow believed that those high in self-actualization are more capable of...

-giving affection, intimately relating to others, more capable of mature love

-less resentful to former lovers

the Jonah complex

-as a result of fear

-reluctance to make full use of one's intellectual abilities and potential because achievement may bring on new responsibilities and duties we cannot handle and the fear of the unknown

Maslow's conditions for self-actualization

-the environment must allow for those basic needs to be met as well as be supportive and guide behavior toward positive methods

-without basic freedoms such a as freedom of speech, satisfaction of the basic needs is virtually impossible

self-transcendence

seeks to further a cause beyond the self and experience a communion with others and nature, and goes beyond the boundaries of the self

transcending self-actualizing person

the most fully developed psychologically healthy person who can transcend their own selfish concerns and work to better humankind

personal orientation inventory (POI)

self-report questionnaire that reflects the values and behavior of major importance, determines extent of self-actualization

problems with Maslow's assessment techniques

1. assessment procedures for self-actualizers are ambiguous and imprecise

2. no one knows how Maslow assessed those he used in his research

3. it is believed that Maslow simply based self-actualizing characteristics on his own value system