Chapter Summary oxygen, food, water, and so on; (2) safety

needs, which include physical security,

I. Overview of Maslow's Holistic-Dynamic stability, dependency, protection, and
Theory freedom from danger, and which result in
basic anxiety if not satisfied; (3) love and
Abraham Maslow's holistic-dynamic theory belongingness needs, including the desire for
holds that people are continually motivated friendship, the wish for a mate and children,
by one or more needs, and that, under the and the need to belong; (4) esteem needs,
proper circumstances, they can reach a level which follow from the satisfaction of love
of psychological health called self- needs and which include self-confidence and
actualization. the recognition that one has a positive
reputation; and (5) self-actualization needs,
II. Biography of Abraham H. Maslow which are satisfied only by the
psychologically healthiest people. Unlike
Abraham H. Maslow was born in New York in other needs that automatically are activated
1908, the oldest of seven children of Russian when lower needs are met, self-actualization
Jewish immigrants. After two or three needs do not inevitably follow the satisfaction
mediocre years as a college student, his of esteem needs. Only by embracing such B-
work improved at about the time he was values as truth, beauty, oneness, and justice,
married. He received both a bachelor's can people achieve self-actualization. The
degree and a Ph.D. from the University of five needs on Maslow's hierarchy are
Wisconsin where he worked with Harry conative needs. Other needs include
Harlow conducting animal studies. Most of aesthetic needs, cognitive needs, and
his professional career was spent at Brooklyn neurotic needs.
College and at Brandeis University. Poor
health forced him to move to California where B. Aesthetic Needs
he died in 1970 at age 62.
Aesthetic needs include a desire for beauty
III. Maslow's View of Motivation and order, and some people have much
stronger aesthetic needs than do others.
Maslow's theory rests on five basic When people fail to meet their aesthetic
assumptions about motivation: (1) the whole needs, they become sick.
organism is motivated at any one time; (2)
motivation is complex, and unconscious C. Cognitive Needs
motives often underlie behavior; (3) people
are continually motivated by one need or Cognitive needs include the desire to know,
another; (4) people in different cultures are to understand, and to be curious. Knowledge
all motivated by the same basic needs; and is a prerequisite for each of the five conative
(5) needs can be arranged on a hierarchy. needs. Also, people who are denied
knowledge and kept in ignorance become
A. Hierarchy of Needs sick, paranoid, and depressed.

Maslow held that lower level needs have D. Neurotic Needs

prepotency over higher level needs; that is,
they must be satisfied before higher needs With each of the above three dimensions of
become motivators. Maslow's hierarchy needs, physical or psychological illness
includes (1) physiological needs, such as
results when the needs are not satisfied. and that they produce more genuine
Neurotic needs, however, happiness and more peak experiences.
lead to pathology regardless of whether they
are satisfied or not. Neurotic needs include IV. Self-Actualization
such motives as a desire to dominate, to
inflict pain, or to subject oneself to the will of Maslow believed that a very small
another person. Neurotic needs are percentage of people reach an ultimate level
nonproductive and do not foster health. of psychological health called self-
actualization.
E. General Discussion of Needs A. Values of Self-Actualizers

Maslow believed that most people satisfy Maslow held that self-actualizers are
lower level needs to a greater extent than metamotivated by such B-values as truth,
they do higher levels needs, and that the goodness, beauty, justice, and simplicity.
greater the satisfaction of one need, the
more fully the next highest need is likely to B. Criteria for Self-Actualization
emerge. In certain rare cases, the order of
needs might be reversed. For example, a Four criteria must be met before a person
starving mother may be motivated by love achieves self-actualization: (1) absence of
needs to give up food in order to feed her psychopathology, (2) satisfaction of each of
starving children. However, if we understood the four lower level needs,
the unconscious motivation behind many (3) acceptance of the B-values, and (4) full
apparent reversals, we would see that they realization of one's potentials
are not genuine reversals at all. Thus, for growth.
Maslow insisted that much of our surface
behavior is actually motivated by more basic C. Characteristics of Self-Actualizing
and often unconscious needs. Maslow also People
believed that some expressive behaviors are
unmotivated, even though all behaviors have Maslow listed 15 qualities that characterize
a cause. Expressive behavior has no aim or self-actualizing people, although not all self-
goal but is merely a person's mode of actualizers possess each of the
expression. In comparison, coping behaviors characteristics to the same extent. These
(which are motivated) deal with a person's characteristics are (1) more efficient
attempt to cope with the environment. The perception of reality, meaning that self-
conative needs ordinarily call forth coping actualizers often have an almost uncanny
behaviors. Deprivation of any of the needs ability to detect phoniness in others, and they
leads to pathology of some sort. For are not fooled by sham; (2) acceptance of
example, people's inability to reach self- self, others, and nature; (3) spontaneity,
actualization results in metapathology, simplicity, and naturalness, meaning that
defined as an absence of values, a lack of self-actualizers have no need to appear
fulfillment, and a loss of meaning in life. complex or sophisticated; (4) problem-
Maslow suggested that instinctoid needs are centered which is the ability to view age-old
innately determined even though they can be problems from a solid philosophical position;
modified by learning. Maslow also believed (5) the need for privacy, or a detachment that
that higher level needs (love, esteem, and allows self-actualizing people to be alone
self-actualization) are later on the without being lonely; (6) autonomy, meaning
evolutionary scale than lower level needs that they no longer are dependent on other
people for their self-esteem; (7) continued to view participants with awe, joy, wonder,
freshness of appreciation and the ability to rapture, and ritual.
view everyday things with a fresh vision and
appreciation; (8) frequent reports of peak VI. Measuring Self-Actualization
experiences, or those mystical experiences
that give a person a sense of transcendence Maslow's method for measuring self-
and feelings of awe, wonder, ecstasy, actualization were consistent with his
reverence, and humility; (9) philosophy of science. He began his study of
Gemeinschaftsgefühl, that is, social interest self-actualizing people with little evidence
or a deep feeling of oneness with all that such a classification of people even
humanity; (10) profound interpersonal existed. He looked at healthy people, learned
relations, but with no desperate need to have what they had in common, and then
a multitude of friends; (11) the democratic established a syndrome for psychological
character structure, or the ability to disregard health. Next, he refined the definition of self-
superficial differences between people; (12) actualization, studied other people, and
discrimination between means and ends, changed the syndrome. He continued this
meaning that self-actualizing people have a process until he was satisfied that he had a
clear sense of right and wrong, and they clear definition of self-actualization. Other
experience little conflict about basic values; researchers have developed personality
(13) a philosophical sense of humor that is inventories for measuring self actualization.
spontaneous, unplanned, and intrinsic to the The most widely used of these is Everett
situation; (14) creativeness, with a keen Shostrom's Personal Orientation Inventory
perception of truth, beauty, and reality; (15) (POI), a 150-item forced-choice inventory
resistance to enculturation, or the ability to that assesses a variety of self-actualization
set personal standards and to resist the mold facets.
set by culture.
VII. The Jonah Complex
D. Love, Sex, and Self-Actualization
Because humans are born with a natural
Maslow compared D-love (deficiency love) to tendency to move toward psychological
B-love (love for being or essence of another health, any failure to reach self-actualization
person). Self-actualizing people are capable can technically be called abnormal
of B-love because they can love without development. One such abnormal syndrome
expecting something in return. B-love is is the Jonah complex, or fear of being or
mutually felt and shared and not based on doing one's best, a condition that all of us
deficiencies within the lovers. have to some extent. Maslow believed that
many people allow false humility to stifle their
creativity, which causes them to fall short of
V. Philosophy of Science self-actualization.

Maslow criticized traditional science as being VIII. Psychotherapy

value free, with a methodology that is sterile
and nonemotional. He argued for a Taoistic The hierarchy of needs concept has obvious
attitude for psychology in which ramifications for psychotherapy. Most people
psychologists are willing to resacralize their who seek psychotherapy probably do so
science, or to instill it with human values and because they have not adequately satisfied
their love and belongingness needs. This
suggests that much of therapy should involve related to openness to experience and to
a productive human relationship and that the seeking out new and exciting experiences.
job of a therapist is to help clients satisfy love
and belongingness needs. X. Critique of Maslow

IX. Related Research Maslow's theory has been popular in

psychology and other disciplines, such as
Researchers have investigated Maslow's management, nursing, and education. The
concept of self-actualization in many hierarchy of needs concept seems both
divergence settings and for a variety of elementary and logical, which gives Maslow's
purposes. theory the illusion of simplicity. However, the
theory is somewhat complex, with four
A. Self-Actualization and Intimate dimensions of needs and the possibility of
Interpersonal Relations unconsciously motivated behavior. As a
scientific theory, Maslow's model rates high
Michael Sheffield and his colleagues used in generating research but low in falsifiability.
the POI as a measure of self-actualization On its ability to organize knowledge and
and found that high scores on the POI were guide action, the theory rates quite high; on
inversely related its simplicity and internal consistency, it rates
to interpersonal relations. More specifically, only average.
people who approached self-actualization
tended to be self-motivated, accepted XI. Concept of Humanity
feelings of aggression, and were able to
sustain intimacy. Maslow believed that people are structured in
such a way that their activated needs are
B. Self-Actualization and Creativity exactly what they want most. Hungry people
desire food, frightened people look for safety,
Mark Runco and his colleagues used the and so forth. Although he was generally
Short Index of Self-Actualization to assess optimistic and hopeful, Maslow saw that
self-actualization and found a positive people are capable of great evil and
relationship between self-actualization scores destruction. He believed that as a species,
and two measures of creativity. Although the humans are becoming more and more fully
relationships were not strong, they suggest human and motivated by higher level needs.
that, as Maslow's hypothesized, creativity is In summary, Maslow's view of humanity rates
at least partly related to self-actualization. high on free choice, optimism, teleology, and
uniqueness and about average on social
C. Self-Actualization and Self-Acceptance influences.

Some researchers have tested Maslow's

assumption that self-actualizing people
accept themselves. One study (Sumerlin &
Bundrick, 2000) with African-American
businessmen found that those who scored
high on self-actualization tended to have
increased happiness and self-fulfillment.
Another study by William Compton and his
colleagues found that self-actualization