Maslow (1908-1970)

1. Maslow (1908-1970) Need Hierarchy Theory

2. 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

3. 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)

4. 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

6. 1. physiological needs • Food • Water • Sex • Elimination • Sleep

7. 2. safety needs • Structure • Order • Security • Predictability

8. 3. belongingness & love needs • Friends • Companions • Supportive Family • Identification w/ a Group • Intimate Relationship

9. 4. esteem needs • Recognition from Other People • Prestige • Acceptance • Status • Self-Esteem • Adequacy • Competence • Confidence

10. Desire to Know and Understandtools used to solve problems with satisfying basic needssecrecy, censorship will prevent satisfying needs

11. Those are all deficiency needs. There is something higher.

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

13. 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

14. Self-actualization (B-Needs) Lower-order needs (D-Needs)

15. 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

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

17. 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”

18. Characteristics of self-actualized people

19. efficient perception of reality • Not colored by needs/defenses • Enables person to perceive deception, judge others accurately

20. 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

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

22. problem-centered • Committed to a task or a cause, not preoccupied with themselves

23. need for privacy (solitude) • Company of others not needed at all times • Rely on their own interpretations of events, rather than other peoples’

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

25. freshness of appreciation • Continuously experience events with awe, wonder • These experiences create energy

26. peak experiences • Embracing of B-values

27. human kinship • Desire to help all humanity

28. interpersonal relationships • Only a few, but deep, friendships

29. strong ethical sense • Awareness of ethical implications for all their actions

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

31. creativity • Found in all self-actualized people

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

33. But… self-actualized people are not perfect. -boring, stubborn, irritating, vain - occasionally ruthless - temper outburst - silly, wasteful, thoughtless habits

34. 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

35. Jonah complex • Fear of one’s own greatness, running from one’s destiny and best talents • Named after the biblical Jonah, who tried to escape his fate

36. Self-Actualized People Rare (1%) Why? continued • Choice between safety & growth • Freedom within limits 4. Cultural environment

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