SELF ACTUALIZATION

• What traits made Wertheimer and Benedict so special? To answer this question, Maslow began to take notes on these two people, and he hoped to find others whom he could call a " Good Human Being ”
• Maslow’s ideas on self-actualization began soon after he received his PhD, when he became puzzled about why two of his teachers in New York City - anthropologist Ruth Benedict and psychologist Max Wertheimer - were so different from average people. To Maslow, these two people represented the highest level of human development, and he called this level “self-actualization.
• Maslow was forced to conclude that emotional security and good adjustment were not dependable predictors of a Good Human Being.
• Criteria for Self Actualization

  • free from psychopathology
  • progressed through the hierarchy of needs
  • embracing of the B values
  • fulfilled their needs to grow
• B values - The values of self-actualizing people, including beauty, truth, goodness, justice, wholeness, and the like.
• metamotivation - The motives of self-actualizing people, including especially the B-values.
• Maslow termed B-values as “ metaneeds ” to indicate that they are the ultimate level of needs
• Metamotivation is characterized by expressive rather than coping behavior and is associated with the B-values.
• Deprivation of any of the B-values results in metapathology , or the lack of a meaningful philosophy of life.
• More Efficient Perception of Reality

  • Self-actualizing people can more easily detect phoniness in others. They can discriminate between the genuine and the fake not only in people but also in literature, art, and music. They are not fooled by facades and can see both positive and negative underlying traits in others that are not readily apparent to most people. They perceive ultimate values more clearly than other people do and are less prejudiced and less likely to see the world as they wish it to be.
  • Characteristic of Self Actualizing people
• Acceptance of Self, Others, and Nature

  • Self-actualizing people can accept themselves the way they are.
  • lack defensiveness, phoniness, and self-defeating guilt; have good hearty animal appetites for food, sleep, and sex; are not overly critical of their own shortcomings; and are not burdened by undue anxiety or shame.
  • they accept others and have no compulsive need to instruct, inform, or convert.
  • can tolerate weaknesses in others and are not threatened by others’ strengths.
  • accept nature, including human nature, as it is and do not expect perfection either in themselves or in others.
  • realize that people suffer, grow old, and die.
  • Characteristic of Self Actualizing people
• Spontaneity, Simplicity, and Naturalness

  • Self-actualizing people are spontaneous, simple, and natural.
  • are unconventional but not compulsively so; they are highly ethical but may appear unethical or nonconforming.
  • usually behave conventionally, either because the issue is not of great importance or out of deference to others
  • Characteristic of Self Actualizing people
• Problem Centering

  • A fourth characteristic of self-actualizing people is their interest in problems outside themselves.
  • are task-oriented and concerned with problems outside themselves.
  • This interest allows selfactualizers to develop a mission in life, a purpose for living that spreads beyond self-aggrandizement. Their occupation is not merely a means to earn a living but a vocation, a calling, and an end in itself.
  • Characteristic of Self Actualizing people
• The Need for Privacy

  • Self-actualizing people have a quality of detachment that allows them to be alone without being lonely. They feel relaxed and comfortable when they are either with people or alone. Because they have already satisfied their love and belongingness needs, they have no desperate need to be surrounded by other people. They can find enjoyment in solitude and privacy.
  • Character of SAP
• Autonomy

  • Self-actualizing people are autonomous and depend on themselves for growth even though at some time in their past they had to have received love and security from others. No one is born autonomous, and therefore no one is completely independent of people. This can be achieved only through satisfactory relations with others.
  • Character of SAP
• Continued Freshness of Appreciation

  • They are keenly aware of their good physical health, friends and loved ones, economic security, and political freedom.
  • retain their constant sense of good fortune and gratitude for it
  • Character of SAP
• The Peak Experience

  • As Maslow’s study of self-actualizers continued, he made the unexpected discovery that many of his people had had experiences that were mystical in nature and that somehow gave them a feeling of transcendence.
  • Character of SAP
• peak experience - An intense mystical experience, often characteristic of self-actualizing people but not limited to them
• Gemeinschaftsgefuhl

  • Self-actualizing people possess this, Adler’s term for social interest, community feeling, or a sense of oneness with all humanity.
  • Maslow found that his self-actualizers had a kind of caring attitude toward other people. Although they often feel like aliens in a foreign land, self-actualizers nevertheless identify with all other people and have a genuine interest in helping others—strangers as well as friends.
  • Character of SAP
• Profound Interpersonal Relations

  • Selfactualizers have a nurturant feeling toward people in general, but their close friendships are limited to only a few.
  • They have no frantic need to be friends with everyone, but the few important interpersonal relationships they do have are quite deep and intense.
  • They tend to choose healthy people as friends and avoid intimate interpersonal relationships with dependent or infantile people, although their social interest allows them to have a special feeling of empathy for these less healthy persons.
  • Character of SAP
• The Democratic Character Structure

  • Maslow found that all his self-actualizers possessed democratic values. They could be friendly and considerate with other people regardless of class, color, age, or gender, and in fact, they seemed to be quite unaware of superficial differences among people
  • Character of SAP
• Discrimination Between Means and Ends

  • Self-actualizing people have a clear sense of right and wrong conducts and have little conflict about basic values. They set their sights on ends rather than means and have an unusual ability to distinguish between the two.
  • Character of SAP
• Philosophical Sense of Humor

  • Another distinguishing characteristic of self-actualizing people is their philosophical, nonhostile sense of humor. Most of what passes for humor or comedy is basically hostile, sexual, or scatological.
  • Healthy people see little humor in put down jokes.
  • The humor of a self-actualizing person is intrinsic to the situation rather than contrived; it is spontaneous rather than planned.
  • Character of SAP
• Creativeness

  • All self-actualizing people studied by Maslow were creative in some sense of the word.
  • Character of SAP
• Resistance to Enculturation

  • A final characteristic identified by Maslow was resistance to enculturation. Self- actualizing people have a sense of detachment from their surroundings and are able to transcend a particular culture.
  • They are neither antisocial nor consciously nonconforming. Rather, they are autonomous, following their own standards of conduct and not blindly obeying the rules of others.
  • For this reason, these healthy people are more individualized and less homogenized than others.
  • Character of SAP
• D love - Deficiency love or affection (attachment) based on the lover’s specific deficiency and the loved one’s ability to satisfy that deficit.
• B love - Love between self-actualizing people and characterized by the love for the being of the other.