ABRAHAM MASLOW

 American psych and philosopher

 Best known for self-actualization theory: argued—primary goal of psychotherapy should be
integration of the self
 He was drawn to behaviorism but rejected it v soon
 His research interests were driven by personal exp and shared exp—explains his
contribution to humanistic psych

Humanistic Psych

 He didn’t like the way other psych viewed ppl

 Behaviorists believed—ppls behav were purely determined by rewards and punishments—
viewed ppl as a simple product of conditioning—if ppl got rewarded, they would keep doing
the action over n over
 Psychoanalysts believed ppl were a slave to their urges—their sub conscious drove their
behav and feelings
 Maslow didn’t like the above stated views abt humans—believed humans had great
potential—there had to be more to humans than just rewards, punishments and sun
conscious urges
 To Maslow, ppl were full of positive potential
 Humanistic psych gained influence for its ‘appreciation for the fundamental inviolability of
human exp’—one of these factors—Gestalt psych influenced idea—humans are more than
just a sum of their parts
 Understanding humanity would take more than understanding each part of a person
 Maslow’s main contribution to the humanistic psych was his theory of motivation—focused
on his hierarchy of needs
 He developed humanistic psychology, which focuses on the potential of people to become
all that they can be.
 Other psychologists helped develop different elements of humanistic psychology, but
Maslow is largely considered to be the father of the humanist movement in psychology.
 his primary contributions to humanism, including his 'hierarchy of needs' and his work to
make humanism a recognized psychological model.

Deficiency needs vs growth needs:

 five stage model can be divided into deficiency needs and growth needs
 first four lvls—Deficiency needs (D-needs) and top lvl is known as growth or being needs (B-
needs)
 Deficiency needs arise due to deprivation and are said to motivate people when they are
unmet.
 the motivation to fulfil such needs will become stronger the longer the duration they are
denied
 he initially stated—person must satisfy lower needs before progressing onto meet higher
needs
 later he clarified that the need is not necessarily fulfilled 100% before moving onto the next
one
  When a deficit need has been 'more or less' satisfied it will go away, and our activities
become habitually directed towards meeting the next set of needs that we have yet to
satisfy.
 These then become our salient needs.
 However, growth needs continue to be felt and may even become stronger once they have
been engaged
 Growth doesn’t stem from lack of something—rather from a desire to grow as a person
 Once these growth needs are reasonably satisfied—one may reach the highest lvl of self-
actualization
 Everyone is capable and has a desire of moving up the hierarchy—towards self-actualization
 Progress maybe disrupted by failure to meet lower standard needs
 Anything can cause a person to fluctuate bw lvls of hierarchy
 Not everyone moves thru the hierarchy in a uni-directional fashion—may move back and
forth bw diff types of needs
 Acc to Maslow, avg no. of our society is most often partially satisfied and partially unsatisfied
in all of his wants

Hierarchy of needs:

 Perhaps Maslow's greatest and most famous contribution to psychology is his hierarchy of
needs, which says that some needs take priority over other needs.
 The seeds of the hierarchy of needs were planted when Maslow was a young psychologist
doing research on monkeys.
 He noticed that if a monkey was really hungry and really thirsty, it would work to quench its
thirst before working to satisfy its hunger. This made sense to Maslow.
 Though monkeys (and humans, too) can go long periods without food, they will die very
quickly from dehydration.
 He devep a hierarchy –usually represented as a pyramid/ladder—bottoms are the needs the
must be fulfilled first
 Moving up—needs become less abt survival and more abt becoming the best version of ‘self’
 Levels of hierarchy
o 1. Physical needs, which are those that involve base biological or physiological
needs. These are things like food, water, and shelter.
 o 2. Safety needs involve things like protection from the elements, security, law, and
stability.
o 3. Social needs fulfill the urge for love and belonging. This can come from romantic
relationships or from friendships, family, or work groups.
o 4. Esteem needs are related to your sense of self-worth. They include things like
self-esteem, achievement, and prestige.
o 5. Self-actualization needs, which are at the top of the hierarchy, focus on realizing
your full potential. People who are working towards meeting these needs are
looking for self-fulfillment and personal growth.
 When higher needs emerge—these are more of physiological hungers—dominate the org—
this goes on
 The order of hierarchy is not that rigid as he had earlier described
 He notes—order of needs might be flexible based on external circumstances or individual
differences
 For some ppl—self-esteem is more imp than need for love
 Also said—most behav is multi motivated and any behav is determined by all or several of
the basic needs rather than by only one of them
 This five-stage model has been expanded to include cognitive and aesthetic needs and later
transcendence needs

Changes in the five-stage model

 Changes to the original five-stage model are highlighted and include a seven-stage model
and an eight-stage model; both developed during the 1960s and 1970s.

1. Biological and physiological needs - air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep, etc.

2. Safety needs - protection from elements, security, order, law, stability, freedom from fear.

3. Love and belongingness needs - friendship, intimacy, trust, and acceptance, receiving and
giving affection and love. Affiliating, being part of a group (family, friends, work).

4. Esteem needs - which Maslow classified into two categories: (i) esteem for oneself
(dignity, achievement, mastery, independence) and (ii) the desire for reputation or respect
from others (e.g., status, prestige).

5. Cognitive needs - knowledge and understanding, curiosity, exploration, need for meaning
and predictability.

6. Aesthetic needs - appreciation and search for beauty, balance, form, etc.

7. Self-actualization needs - realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal

growth and peak experiences. A desire “to become everything one is capable of
becoming”(Maslow, 1987, p. 64).

8. Transcendence needs - A person is motivated by values which transcend beyond the

personal self (e.g., mystical experiences and certain experiences with nature, aesthetic
experiences, sexual experiences, service to others, the pursuit of science, religious faith,
etc.).

Self-actualization

 Maslow formulated a more positive acc of human behav

  Interested in human potential and how a person fulfils that potential
 Stated that human motivation—based on ppl seeking fulfillment and change thru personal
growth
 Self-actualized ppl are those—fulfilled and are doing all what they are capable of
 Growth of self-actualization—refers to need for personal growth and discovery
 For Maslow, a person is always becoming and never remains static
 Each person is unique—self-actualization leads everyone in diff ways
 He believed that self-actualization could be measured thru the concept of peak experiences
 This occurs when a person experiences the world totally for what it is, and there are feelings
of euphoria, joy, and wonder.
 Self-actualization—not a state of reaching a happily ever after—it’s a continuous process of
becoming
 He didn’t equate self-actualization w perfection—actualization involves reaching one’s
potential

Characteristics of self- actualized ppl:

 Not everyone can self-actualize—or do it only to a limited degree

 Maslow identified 15 charac of self-actualized ppl
 It is not necessary to display all 15 characteristics to become self-actualized, and not only
self-actualized people will display them. 
 1. They perceive reality efficiently and can tolerate uncertainty;
 2. Accept themselves and others for what they are;
 3. Spontaneous in thought and action;
 4. Problem-centred (not self-centred);
 5. Unusual sense of humor;
 6. Able to look at life objectively;
 7. Highly creative;
 8. Resistant to enculturation, but not purposely unconventional;
 9. Concerned for the welfare of humanity;
 10. Capable of deep appreciation of basic life-experience;
 11. Establish deep satisfying interpersonal relationships with a few people;
 12. Peak experiences;
 13. Need for privacy;
 14. Democratic attitudes;
 15. Strong moral/ethical standards.

Behav leading to self-actualization:

 Experience life like a child—w full absorptions and concentration

 Trying new things instead of sticking to safe paths
 Listening to own feelings in evaluating exp—rather than voice of tradition, majority,
authority etc
 Avoid pretense and being honest
 Being prepared that your views may not coincide w those of the majority
 Taking responsibility and working hard
 Trying to identify defenses and having courage to give them up
 Ppl reach self-actualization in diff ways but tend to share certain characteristics
Educational applications

 Maslow's (1962) hierarchy of needs theory has made a major contribution to teaching and
classroom management in schools. Rather than reducing behaviour to a response in the
environment, Maslow (1970a) adopts a holistic approach to education and learning. 
 Maslow looks at the complete physical, emotional, social, and intellectual qualities of an
individual and how they impact on learning.
 Applications of Maslow's hierarchy theory to the work of the classroom teacher are obvious.
Before a student's cognitive needs can be met, they must first fulfil their basic physiological
needs.
 For example, a tired and hungry student will find it difficult to focus on learning. Students
need to feel emotionally and physically safe and accepted within the classroom to progress
and reach their full potential.
 Maslow suggests students must be shown that they are valued and respected in the
classroom, and the teacher should create a supportive environment. Students with a low
self-esteem will not progress academically at an optimum rate until their self-esteem is
strengthened.

Critical evaluations:

 Most significant limitation—concerns his methodology

 He formulated charac of self-actualized ppl from undertaking a quali method called
biographical analysis
 Looked at biographies and writings of 18 ppl he identified as self-actualized—he then devep
a list of qualities that seemed charac of this specific grp of ppl
 The method used is extremely subjective as it is heavily based on the opinion of the
researcher
 Personal opinion is always prone to bias, which reduces the validity of any data obtained.
Therefore, Maslow's operational definition of self-actualization must not be blindly accepted
as scientific fact.
 A large portion of the sample were limited to highly educated white males—he did study
self-actualized females as well but they were a small proportion as compared to men in his
sample
 Makes it diff to generalize his theory
 Extremely diff to empirically test his concept of self-actualization to estb causal relations
 Maslow's assumption that the lower needs must be satisfied before a person can achieve
their potential and self-actualize. This is not always the case, and therefore Maslow's
hierarchy of needs in some aspects has been falsified.

CARL ROGERS

 Humanistic psych—agreed w main assumptions of Maslow

 Added that—in order to grow, a person requires an envir which provides:
o Genuineness (openness and self-disclosure
o Acceptance (seen w unconditional positive regard)
o Empathy (being listened to and understood)
 Without these, relationships and healthy personalities will not develop as they are supposed
to
  He believed everyone could achieve their goals, wishes and desires in life
 When they did so—they would achieve self-actualization
 This was one of the most imp contributions to psych
 For a person to reach their potential—a no. of factors must be satisfied
 Self-actualization: the organism has one basic tendency and strive—to actualize, maintain
and enhance the experiencing organism
 rejected the deterministic nature of psychoanalysis and behaviorism
 believed we behave the way we do bcz of the way we perceive our situation
 Rogers believed that ppl are inherently good and creative
 Became destructive only when a poor self-concept or external constraints override the
valuing process
 To achieve self-actualization—a person has to be in a state of congruence
 Actualization occurs when a person’s ideal self is in congruence with their self-image (their
actual self)
 An actualizing person is a fully functioning person
 Main determinant of becoming actualized—childhood exp

Fully func person

 Believed that every person can achieve their goal

 The person is in touch w their subjective feelings, experiences which are continuously
growing and changing
 He regarded a fully func person as an ideal and one that ppl do not ultimately achieve
 Its not the end or completion of life, it is a process of always becoming and changing
Characteristics of fully func person:

1. Open to exp: both positive and negative emotions are accepted—neg feeling aren’t denied
but worked thru—rather than responding to ego defense mechanisms
2. Existential living: in touch w diff experiences which occur in life—avoiding judging and
forming preconceptions—live freely and appreciate the present—not always looking back at
the past or forward to the future
3. Trust Feelings: feelings, instincts and gut reactions are paid attention to and trusted—ppl’s
own decision are the right ones—trust themselves to make the right decision
4. Creativity: creative thinking and risk taking—features of a person’s life—person doesn’t play
safe all the time—involves ability to adjust and change—seek new experiences
5. Fulfilled life: person is happy and satisfied w life—always looking for new challenges and
experiences
6. For Rogers, fully func ppl are well adjusted, well balanced and interesting to know
7. Often such ppl are high achievers in society
8. Critics believe that fully func person is a part of western culture—in eastern culture the
achievement of grp is highly valued over the achievement of only one person
Personality devep

 Central to Roger’s personality theory is the notion of self/self-concept

 Defined as the organized, consistent set of perceptions and beliefs abt oneself
 Self is humanistic term for who we really are as a person—it is our inner personality—can be
linked to the soul, or Freud’s psyche
 Self is influenced by experiences a person has in their life and our interpretations of those
experiences
  Primary sources influencing our self-concept—childhood exp and evaluation by others
 Acc to Rogers, we ant to—feel, exp and behav in ways which is consistent w our self-image
and reflects our ideal self
 The closeness of our self-image and ideal self tells abt the consistency or congruency of
ourself and the level of our sense of self-worth
 State of incongruence—if some total of the exp is unacceptable to them and is denied or
distorted in the self-image
 Self-concept includes three components:
 Self-worth
o Self-worth (or self-esteem) comprises what we think about ourselves. Rogers
believed feelings of self-worth developed in early childhood and were formed from
the interaction of the child with the mother and father.
 Self-image
o How we see ourselves, which is important to good psychological health. Self-image
includes the influence of our body image on inner personality.
o At a simple level, we might perceive ourselves as a good or bad person, beautiful or
ugly. Self-image affects how a person thinks, feels and behaves in the world.
 Ideal-self
o This is the person who we would like to be. It consists of our goals and ambitions in
life, and is dynamic – i.e., forever changing.
o The ideal self in childhood is not the ideal self in our teens or late twenties etc.
Congruence:

 A person’s ideal self may not be consistent with what actually happens in life and
experiences of the person.
 a difference may exist between a person’s ideal self and actual experience. This is called
incongruence.
 Where a person’s ideal self and actual experience are consistent or very similar, a state of
congruence exists.
 Rarely, if ever, does a total state of congruence exist; all people experience a certain
amount of incongruence.
 The development of congruence is dependent on unconditional positive regard. Carl Rogers
believed that for a person to achieve self-actualization they must be in a state of
congruence.
 According to Rogers, we want to feel, experience and behave in ways which are consistent
with our self-image and which reflect what we would like to be like, our ideal-self.
 The closer our self-image and ideal-self are to each other, the more consistent or congruent
we are and the higher our sense of self-worth. A person is said to be in a state of
incongruence if some of the totality of their experience is unacceptable to them and is
denied or distorted in the self-image.
 Incongruence is "a discrepancy between the actual experience of the organism and the self-
picture of the individual insofar as it represents that experience.
 As we prefer to see ourselves in ways that are consistent with our self-image, we may
use defence mechanisms like denial or repression in order to feel less threatened by some of
what we consider to be our undesirable feelings.
 A person whose self-concept is incongruent with her or his real feelings and experiences will
defend because the truth hurts.
Positive regard and self-worth

 Rogers believed child has two basic need: positive regard from other ppl and self-worth
 The way we think abt ourselves, feelings of self-worth are of fundamental imp to our psych
health and the likelihood that we can achieve goals and ambitions in life and achieve self-
actualization
 Self-worth may be seen as a continuum from v high to v low
 Acc to Rogers, person w high self-worth—has confidence, positive feelings abt themselves,
face challenges in life, accepts failure and unhappiness at times and is open to ppl
 Person w low self-worth—avoid challenges in life—not accept that life can be painful and
unhappy at times—will be defensive and guarded w other ppl
 He believed feelings of self-worth devep in early childhood and were formed by the
interaction of the child w their parents
 As the person grows older—interactions w significant others will affect the feelings of self-
worth
 He believed that we have to be positively regarded by others—need to feel valued,
respected—treated w affection and loved
Unconditional positive regard

 Its when parents, significant others accepts and loves the person for what who they are
 Positive regard is not withdrawn if the person does something wrong/makes a mistake
 Consequences of this—person feels free to try things out, makes mistakes even tho it may
lead to it getting worse at times
 Ppl who are able to self-actualize are more likely to have received unconditional positive
regard from others—esp their parents in childhood
Conditional Positive Regard

 Where positive regard, praise, approval, depend upon the child—ex: behav in ways the
parent think is correct
 Here, child is not loved for who they are but on the condition that they act according to the
rules approved by the parents
 A person constantly seeking approval from other ppl is likely only to have experienced
conditional positive regard as a child

Rollo May:
 Suffered from tuberculosis—spent three yrs in sanatorium—prolly the turning point of
his life
 May’s work stems from humanistic psych—focuses on capacity for growth and
achievement in human beings
 May saw people living in the world of present experiences and ultimately being
responsible for who they become.
 believed that may people lack the courage to face their destiny and while in the process
of fleeing from it, they give up much of their freedom.
 Having negated their freedom, they likewise run away from responsibility.
  Not being willing to make choices, they lose sight of who they are and develop a sense
of insignificance and alienation.

In contrast, healthy people challenge their destiny, cherish their freedom, and live authentically with
other people and themselves. They recognize the inevitability of death and have the courage to live
life in the present.

Biography
 Grew up in a family that did not value education
 Lonely childhood
 Wandered Europe
 Union Theological Seminary
 Influenced by many legendary philosophers
 Educated at Columbia University
 Contracted tuberculosis as an adult which stimulated his thinking about life and death
 Lectured around the world
 Died in 1975

May was influenced by many 19th and 20th Century philosophers

Existential Psych Theory

 Existence over essence (being > substance)
 No split between subject and object
 People search for meaning in their lives
 We are ultimately responsible for who we are and who we become
 Existentialists are anti-theoretical (dehumanizing)
 Proposed—anxiety emerged as a result of uncertainty in life and of looming death
 Said humans feared death—they couldn’t comprehend their own lack of existence
 He believed facing the feelings of anxiety and fear was a necessary experience for
personal growth
 He focused on the concept of freedom as the pinnacle of human existence
 Freedom in his theory refers—power to choose and direct one’s life
 Also explored the concepts of love and will as crucial in negotiating in life’s challenges
May’s Three Models of Existence:
 Umwelt: interaction w the physical world
 Mitwelt: interaction w other humans
 Eigenwelt: interaction w oneself
 Healthy ppl live in all three simultaneously
 Alienation: when a person is estranged of the aspect of nature—results in feeling lonely,
emptiness and despair—this happens bcz the three models of existence is alienated
from nature and from other ppl
 Lack of meaningful interpersonal relations
 Alienation from one’s authentic self

 Three modes of being-in-the-world

o In the environment
o In our relations with others
o In our relation with ourselves
  Not being-in-the-world leads to nonbeing or the dread of nothingness
Stages of Devep:

 Innocence:
o Pre-egoic, pre-conscious stage of infant—the innocence is premoral—its neither
good or bad
o An innocent only does what they must do—but they do have a degree of will of the
drive to fulfil their needs
 Rebellion:
o Childhood and adolescent stage—devep of ego and self-consciousness by means of
contrast w adults
o This stage wants freedom but has little understanding of the responsibilities that
come w it
 Ordinary:
o Normal adult ego—conventional, maybe a little boring
o Learned responsibility—find it too demanding—seek refuge in conformity and
traditional values
 Creative:
o Authentic adult—existential stage—beyond ego and self-actualizing
o This person accepts destiny and faces anxiety w courage

Conclusion:
 These stages are not in the traditional sense—child maybe innocent, creative, ordinary
at times
 An adult can be rebellious too
 The only attachments to certain age is in terms of salience—rebellious stands out in two
year old and the adolescent

Anxiety:
 May was very interested in anxiety
 Anxiety: apprehension cued off by a threat to some value or belief which the individual
holds essential to his existence as a self
 When we become aware of our existence or some value identified with it might be
destroyed
 Normal anxiety occurs when it is proportionate to the threat, doesn’t involve
repression, or other forms of intrapsychic conflict
 Neurotic anxiety occurs when it is disproportionate to the threat, does involve
repression, or does involve other forms of intrapsychic conflict

Guilt
 Arises when people deny their potential, fail to accurately perceive the needs of fellow
human, or remain oblivious to their dependence on the natural world

People act with intention. Intention and action are woven together.

Care, Love, & Will, too, are interrelated.

Love requires knowing how to care for someone. Care however is the source of love.

Will organizes one into action and toward a goal.

Love and Will
 Best ideas of May in his book, Love and Will
 Daimonic:
o basic motivational construct
o entire sys of motives and is diff for each individual
o composed of specific motives called daimons
o Daimon—Greek word—means little god
o Originally, daimon can be good or bad
o Daimon includes lower needs—food, sex as well as higher needs such as love
o Basically, it’s something which can take over a person—this situation is referred
as Daimonic possession by May
o When balance among the daimons is interrupted—they should be considered as
evil
 Eros:
o Most imp daimon
o Eros is love, in Greek, a minor God
o May understood love as the need to ‘become one’ w another person
o Eros is a good thing until it takes over the personality until we become obsessed
w it
 Will:
o Ability to organize oneself in order to achieve their goals
o Its roughly synonymous w ego and reality testing, but with its own store of
energy
o May suggests that will is a daimon as well that may potentially take over a
person
o Another definition of will is—ability to make wishes come true
o Many wishes come from eros—they req will to make it happen

Some personality types acc to May:

 Neo-Puritan:
o The person is all will and no love
o They have strong sense of self-discipline and can make things happen
o But have no wishes to act upon
o They become perfectionists, but empty
 Infantile:
o They are all wishes and no will
o They were filled w dreams and desires but have no self-discipline to make anything
happen out of their dreams
o They become dependent and conformist
o They love but it means little
 Creative
o May recommends that one should have balance of these two aspects of our
personalities

Forms of Love

 Sex (physical)
 Eros (psychological)
 Philia (intimacy between two people)
 Agape (concern for others, brotherly love)
Assertion of one’s freedom requires confronting one’s destiny!