Self-Actualization

Abraham Maslow (1908–1970) originated the concept of self-actualization from his study of humanistic psychology. This element of psychology focuses on the well-being of people and purports that humans are intrinsically good and have unrealized potential. When humans meet this unrealized potential, selfactualization occurs.

In 1943, while a professor at Brooklyn College, Maslow developed a keen interest in two mentors: anthropologist Ruth Benedict and psychologist Max Wertheimer. He viewed them as being highly fulfilled people and began extensive studies on understanding their characteristics, habits, personalities, and abilities as well as those of other adults who were similarly exceptional. From those early studies, his theory of the self-actualization arose.

In “A Theory of Human Motivation,” Maslow characterized self-actualization as a motivational state that comes forth when the more basic needs have been satisfied. He contended that all people are born with a set of basic needs that they seek to fulfill. Once the lower needs have been gratified, then the next set of higher needs emerge and fulfillment of them is sought. Maslow described the five basic needs in his “Hierarchy of Human Needs.” The first set of needs, physiological, include food, water, shelter, sex, and sleep. Second are the safety needs, which include feelings of security, stability, dependency, protection, and freedom from fear. Third are the belongingness and love needs. Love, friendship, and affectionate relationships with others in a family or group are characteristics at this level. The fourth category of needs, the esteem needs, is classified into two categories: self-esteem and esteem from others. Satisfaction of self-esteem needs leads to feelings of self-confidence. Esteem from others leads to feelings of recognition, attention, importance, dignity, or appreciation. The need for self-actualization is the final stage in the hierarchy of human needs. Those who have reached this stage are no longer motivated to gratify the needs for safety, belongingness, love, status, and self-respect. Therefore, the individual is free to advance toward the highest potential.

Maslow believed that gratification of one need leads to only a temporary happiness that is followed by another higher level of discontent that involves the individual being consumed with the desire for gratification at the next level of needs. When the individual is dominated by obtaining gratification of a set of needs, his or her motivation increases, and unmet needs on the hierarchy cease to exist. Maslow felt that people function best when they are striving for something lacking, when wishing for something they are not in possession of, and when they are putting forth energies to gratify that wish.

Maslow described 18 characteristics of selfactualizing (SA) people in Motivation and Personality:

• 1.
  Realistic. Self-actualizing (SA) people have a more efficient perception of reality and are comfortable with it. They are able to distinguish the concrete from the abstract, are able to see what is there rather than their own wishes, and are logical and efficient.
• 2.
  Acceptance. They accept themselves, others, and the natural world the way they are. They see human nature as it is, do not experience guilt or shame, enjoy life without regret or apology, and are without any unnecessary inhibitions.
• 3.
  Spontaneity, simplicity, naturalness. SA people are spontaneous in their inner lives, thoughts, and impulses. They are not deterred by convention and do not allow it to inhibit them from doing anything that they consider to be important.
• 4.
  Problem centering. SA people focus on problems outside themselves. They are problem centered rather than ego centered. They have a mission in life requiring energy because it is the sole reason for their existence.
• 5.
  Detachment: The need for privacy. They are alone but are not lonely. They find it easy to be aloof, reserved, calm, and almost serene. They are unflappable and retain dignity amid confusion.
• 6.
  Autonomy: Independent of culture and environment. SA people are not dependent on the external world for their fulfillment. Rather, they rely on the inner self for satisfaction. They are independent of others' love and opinions.
• 7.
  Continued freshness of appreciation. They have a fresh appreciation of people and things. They appreciate and are inspired by the basic good in life and view moment-to-moment living as thrilling.
• 8.
  Mystic (peak) experiences. SA people experience episodes of feeling ecstasy, wonder, and awe. These moments cause them to lose placement in time and space while feeling that something extremely important and valuable has happened. These experiences allow them to become transformed and strengthened in their daily lives.
• 9.
  Gemeinschaftsgefuhl (feeling of community, brotherhood). SA people have sympathy and affection for all mankind and have a genuine desire to help the human race.
• 10.
  Interpersonal relations. SA people prefer a few profound friendships to many superficial ones. They are capable of greater love than others consider possible
• 11.
  Democratic values and attitudes. They are able to learn from anyone and are humble and friendly with all regardless of class, education, political belief, race, or color.
• 12.
  Discrimination: Means and ends, good and evil. SA people do not confuse means and ends. They enjoy the present and the process of achieving a goal, not just the result. They transform the most tedious task into an enjoyable game. They are strongly ethical and have their own inner moral standards.
• 13.
  Philosophical, unhostile sense of humor. They view jokes as teaching metaphors, intrinsic to the situation and spontaneous. They can laugh at themselves and never engage in jokes that are hostile, superior, or authoritative in nature.
• 14.
  Creativity. SA people have a special creativeness or originality that carries over into everything they do. They are inventive and uninhibited.
• 15.
  Resistance to enculturation: Transcendence of any particular culture. SA people have an inner detachment from culture. They are not driven by the rules of society. They observe folklores but are not controlled by them.
• 16.
  Imperfections. SA people show many of the lesser human failings (stubbornness, vanity, ruthlessness, etc.).
• 17.
  Values. SA people have a strong value system because of a philosophical acceptance of self, human nature, social life, physical reality, and nature.
• 18.
  Resolution of dichotomies. For SA people, polar opposites merge into a third, higher phenomenon, as if the two have united. For example, work becomes play, desires are in accord with reason, and they retain childlike qualities while remaining wise.

Maslow felt that self-actualization is a characteristic only in people who are approximately 60 years of age or more and that everyone else is in the process of working toward this goal; they are moving toward maturity and the discovery of the true self. Examples of those, in Maslow's judgment, who achieved self-actualization include Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Jane Addams, among others. He also identified several potential or possible [Page 925]cases of those who were, at the time, developing in the direction of self-actualization. Those included G. W. Carver, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Frederick Douglass, George Washington, Harriet Tubman, Pierre Renoir, Walt Whitman, and Benjamin Franklin.

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