Maslow 19081970

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Maslow (1908-1970)

• Need Hierarchy Theory

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Early Influences

• 1941 horrified by hatred in WWII,
• wanted to find and study best specimens of
  mankind
• While studying two of his most admired people
  (Wertheimer Benedict) he noticed patterns that
  could be applied to all people

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Scientific Approaches

• Reductive-analytic approach to science
• Reduce object to component parts
• Psychoanalytic
• Behaviorist
• Desacralize to distort human nature and make it
  less marvelous and dignified
• Holistic-analytic approach to science
• Totality of object (both pos. neg.)
• Humanistic (Third Force)

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Needs

• Human needs are instinctoid (or innate)
• Different from animal instincts b/c they are
  weaker, less absolute
• Hierarchy of human needs
• Bottom strongest, humans and animals
• Top weakest, humans only

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(No Transcript)
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1. physiological needs

• Food
• Water
• Sex
• Elimination
• Sleep

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2. safety needs

• Structure
• Order
• Security
• Predictability

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3. belongingness love needs

• Friends
• Companions
• Supportive Family
• Identification w/ a Group
• Intimate Relationship

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4. esteem needs

• Recognition from Other People
• Prestige
• Acceptance
• Status
• Self-Esteem
• Adequacy
• Competence
• Confidence

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Desire to Know and Understand tools used to
solve problems with satisfying basic
needs secrecy, censorship will prevent
satisfying needs
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Those are all deficiency needs.
There is something higher.
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5. self-actualization

• Develop potentials and talents
• Fulfill mission (call) in life
• Understand and accept own nature
• Create unity or integration within self

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• Growth occurs spontaneously, if lower order needs
  are met.
• However, lower needs do not have to be 100
  satisfied to move on to a higher need
• Person usually addressing more than one level at
  a time
• People long deprived of a need may never progress
  to higher needs
• Very talented people may proceed directly to
  self-actualization w/o satisfying lower needs

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Self-actualization (B-Needs)
Lower-order needs (D-Needs)
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Differences between D-motivation B-motivation

• D-motivation deficiency
• Need-directed perception D perception D
  cognition deficiency motives (D motives)
• Person motivated by absence of needed elements
  non-self-actualizing
• B-motivation being
• Growth motivation B perception "metamotivated
• Person motivated by personal inner growth
  self-actualizing

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• D-love is jealous (selfish, self-directed need
  for love and belongingness)
• B-love is trusting (nonpossessive allows partner
  to grow)

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• Metapathology
• Failure to satisfy a b-need
• Truth Dishonesty (cynicism, distrust)
• Justice Injustice (jungle worldview)
• Playfulness Humorlessness (depression, loss of
  zest in life)
• Peak Experience
• Being experiences that have intense feelings of
  ecstasy
• Catching the winning touchdown at the Superbowl
• Performing a song just right

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Characteristics of self-actualized people
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efficient perception of reality

• Not colored by needs/defenses
• Enables person to perceive deception, judge
  others accurately

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acceptance

• Recognize who they and others really are
• Not burdened by undue guilt, anxiety, shame
• Feel no need to convert others
• Accept both weaknesses and strengths in others
  without feeing threatened

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spontaneity

• Tend to be true to their feelings
• Do not hide behind a mask

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problem-centered

• Committed to a task or a cause, not preoccupied
  with themselves

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need for privacy (solitude)

• Company of others not needed at all times
• Rely on their own interpretations of events,
  rather than other peoples

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autonomy

• Independence from culture environment
• Outside rewards (acclaim from others) less
  important than inner growth and development

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freshness of appreciation

• Continuously experience events with awe, wonder
• These experiences create energy

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peak experiences

• Embracing of B-values

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human kinship

• Desire to help all humanity

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interpersonal relationships

• Only a few, but deep, friendships

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strong ethical sense

• Awareness of ethical implications for all their
  actions

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sense of humor

• Being able to laugh at yourself
• Not finding humor in events that degrade or harm
  others

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creativity

• Found in all self-actualized people

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resistance to enculturation

• Tend to be nonconformists (i.e., if cultural
  norm contradicts what they believe, they will not
  conform)

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But self-actualized people are not perfect.
- boring, stubborn, irritating, vain -
occasionally ruthless - temper outburst -
silly, wasteful, thoughtless habits
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Self-Actualized People Rare (1)

• Why?
• Obstacles to Self-Actualization
• Self-actualization is at the top of the
  hierarchy, which makes it weaker than any of the
  other needs
• Most people fear uncertainty, esp. when it is
  related to personal self-knowledge
• Threat to self-concept
• Jonah complex

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Jonah complex

• Fear of ones own greatness, running from ones
  destiny and best talents
• Named after the biblical Jonah, who tried to
  escape his fate

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Self-Actualized People Rare (1)

• Why? continued
• Choice between safety growth
• Freedom within limits
• 4. Cultural environment

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Criticisms

• Biased toward Western cultures
• Overly optimistic
• Unscientific
• Exceptions exist
• Who can be self-actualized?