Chapter 10
Maslow: Holistic-Dynamic Theory
Despite being the best of the best, why do
some people still not able to reach their full
potential? What hinders them?
In his story, Abraham Maslow argues that
motivation is one likely the suspect. However,
he also emphasized that there are other
factors that affect one’s full potential.
The five needs of this hierarchy are
conative needs, meaning that they
have a striving or motivational
character.
Lower level needs have prepotency
over higher level needs; that is, they
must be satisfied or mostly satisfied
before higher level needs become
activated.
Overview of Holistic-Dynamic Theory
Being called by various names such as
humanistic theory, transpersonal theory, the
third force in psychology, the fourth force in
personality,
needs
theory,
and
selfactualization theory, Maslow’s holisticdynamic theory assumes that the whole
person is constantly being motivated by one
need or another and that people have the
potential to grow toward psychological health,
or self-actualization, if and only if people are
able to satisfy lower level needs such as
hunger, safety, love and esteem.
Maslow believed that human have higher
nature than either psychoanalysis or
behaviorism would suggest.
Maslow’s theory of personality rests on several
basic assumptions regarding motivation.




Maslow’s
adopted
a
holistic
approach to motivation: that is, the
whole person is motivated.
Motivation is usually complex,
meaning that a person’s behavior may
spring from several separate
motives. Furthermore, motivation for
a behavior may be unconscious or
unknown to a person.
People are continually motivated by
one need or another.
All people everywhere are motivated
by the same basic needs.
Motivational needs can be arranged
on a hierarchy.
A. Conative
Needs)
Needs
The most basic needs of any person
are physiological needs, including
food, water, oxygen, maintenance of
body temperature, and so on.
Physiological needs are the most
potent of all.
Maslow’s View of Motivation

Physiological Needs
(Hierarchy
of
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs concept
assumes that lower level needs must
be satisfied or at least relatively
satisfied before higher level needs
become motivators.
A truly hungry person will not be
overly particular about taste, smell,
temperature, or texture of the food.
When people do not have their
physiological needs satisfied, they live
primarily for those needs and strive
constantly to satisfy them.
Physiological needs differ from other
needs in at least two important
respects. (1) They are the only
needs that can be completely
satisfied or overly satisfied. (2)
Physiological
needs
have
a
recurring nature.
Safety Needs
When people partially satisfied their
physiological needs, they become
motivated by safety needs, including
physical
security,
stability,
dependency, protection, and freedom
from threatening forces. The needs for
law, order, and structure are also
safety needs.
Safety needs differ from physiological
needs in that they cannot be overly
satiated.
Once people meet their esteem
needs, they stand on the threshold of
self-actualization.
Self-Actualization Needs
When people are not successful in
their attempts to satisfy their safety
needs, they suffer from basic anxiety.
Love and Belongingness Needs
After people satisfy their physiological
and safety needs, they become
motivated by love and belongingness
needs, such as desire for friendship;
the wish for a mate and children; the
need to belong to a family, a club, a
neighborhood, or a nation. Love and
belongingness also include some
aspects of sex and human contact as
well as the need to both give and
receive love.
People who have had their love and
belongingness adequately satisfied
from early years do not panic when
denied love.
People who have never experienced
love and belongingness are incapable
of giving love.
People who have received love and
belongingness only in small doses
have stronger needs for affection and
acceptance.
When lower level needs are satisfied,
people proceed more or less
automatically to the next level.
However, once esteem needs are
met, they do not always move to the
level of self-actualization.
To
Maslow,
self-actualization
becomes potent, not when esteem
needs are met, but when people
embrace B-values.
People who highly respect B-values
become self-actualizing after esteem
needs are met, whereas people who
do not embrace these values are
frustrated in their self-actualization
needs even though they have satisfied
each of their basic needs.
Self-actualization needs include selffulfillment, the realization of all one’s
potential, and a desire to become
creative in the full sense of the word.
Self-actualizing people maintain their
feelings of self-esteem even when
scorned, rejected, and dismissed by
other people.
B. Aesthetic Needs
Esteem Needs
To the extent people satisfy their love
and belongingness needs, they are
free to pursue esteem needs, which
include
self-respect,
confidence,
competence, and the knowledge that
others hold them in high esteem.
Reputation is the perception of the
prestige, recognition, or fame a person
has achieved in the eyes of others.
Self-esteem is a person’s own
feelings of worth and confidence. It
reflects a desire for strength, for
achievement, for adequacy, for
mastery
and
competence,
for
confidence in the face of the world,
and for independence and freedom.
Aesthetic needs are not universal, but
at least some people in every culture
seem to be motivated by the need for
beauty and aesthetically pleasing
experiences.
People with strong aesthetical needs
desire
beautiful
and
orderly
surroundings, and when these needs
are not met, they become sick and
frustrated.
C. Cognitive Needs
Most people have a desire to know, to
solve mysteries, to understand, and to
be curious. When cognitive needs are
blocked, all needs on Maslow’s
hierarchy are threatened.
Maslow believed that healthy people
desire to know more, to theorize, to
test hypothesis, to uncover mysteries,
or to find out how something works
just for the satisfaction of knowing.
we would recognize that the needs are
not reversed.
Unmotivated Behavior
People who have not satisfied their
cognitive needs become pathological
in
the
form
of
skepticism,
disillusionment, and cynicism.
D. Neurotic Needs
The satisfaction of conative, aesthetic,
and cognitive needs is basic to one’s
physical and psychological health,
and their frustration leads to some
level of illness. However, neurotic
needs lead only to stagnation and
pathology.
Maslow believed that even though all
behaviors have a cause, some
behaviors are not motivated. These
behaviors are caused by other factors
such
as
conditioned
reflexes,
maturation, or drugs.
To Maslow, motivation is limited to the
striving for the satisfaction of some
need.
Expressive behavior is unmotivated.
Expressive and Coping Behavior
By definition, neurotic needs are
nonproductive. They serve no value
in the striving for self-actualization.
Neurotic needs are usually reactive;
that is, they serve as compensation for
unsatisfied basic needs.
E. General Discussion of Needs
Maslow
estimated
that
the
hypothetical average person has his
or her needs satisfied approximately
these levels:
Physiological
Safety
Love and Belongingness
Esteem
Self-actualization
85%
70%
50%
40%
10%
Needs emerge gradually, and a
person
may be
simultaneously
motivated by needs from two or more
levels.
Reversed Order of Needs
Even though needs are generally
satisfied in the hierarchical order,
occasionally they are reversed. An
enthusiastic artist may risk safety and
health to complete an important work
(self-actualization).
Reversals,
however,
are
more
apparent than real, and some
seemingly obvious deviations in the
order of needs are not variations at all.
If we understood the unconscious
motivation underlying the behavior,
Expressive behavior is often an end
in itself and serves no other purpose
than to be. It has no goals or aim but
is merely the person’s mode of
expression. It can continue even in the
absence of reinforcement or reward.
Furthermore,
they
are
usually
unlearned,
spontaneous,
and
determined by forces within the
person rather than by environment.
Coping
behavior
is
ordinarily
conscious, effortful, learned, and
determined
by
the
external
environment. It serves some aim or
goal (although not always conscious
or known to the person), and it is
always motivated by some deficit
need.
Deprivation of Needs
The lack of satisfaction of any of the
basic needs leads to some kind of
pathology.
Deprivation of physiological needs
results in malnutrition, fatigue, loss of
energy, obsession with sex, and so
on.
Threats to one’s safety lead to fear,
insecurity, and dread.
When love needs go unfulfilled, a
person becomes defensive, overly
aggressive, or socially timid.
Lack of esteem results in the illnesses
of self-doubt, self-depreciation, and
lack of confidence.
Deprivation of self-actualization needs
also leads to metapathology, the
absence of values, the lack of
fulfillment, and the loss of meaning of
life.
Instinctoid Nature of Needs
Maslow hypothesizes that some
human needs are innately determined
even though they can be modified by
learning. He called these needs
instinctoid needs.
Criteria for instinctoid needs:
 Instinctoid needs produces
pathology,
whereas
noninstinctoid needs do not.
 Instinctoid
needs
are
persistent
and
their
satisfaction
leads
to
psychological
health.
In
contrary,
non-instinctoid
needs are usually temporary
and their satisfaction is not a
prerequisite for health.
 Instinctoid needs are speciesspecific. Therefore, animal
instincts cannot be used as a
model for studying human
motivation.
 Instinctoid needs can be
molded, inhibited, or altered
by environmental influences.
Maslow insisted that society
should protect the weak,
subtle, and tender instinctoid
needs if they are not to be
overwhelmed by the tougher
more powerful culture.
Comparison of Higher and Lower
Needs
Higher needs (love, esteem, and selfactualization) are similar to lower ones
(physiological and safety) in that they
are instinctoid.
Differences between higher needs and
lower ones are those of degree and
not of kind.
1. Higher level needs appear later on
the phylogenetic or evolutionary
scale and during the course of
individual development. Lower
level needs must be cared for in
infants and children before higher
level needs become operative.
2. Higher level needs produce more
happiness
and
more
peak
experiences, although satisfaction
of lower level needs may produce
hedonistic pleasure. A person
who has reached the level of selfactualization would have no
motivation to return to lower stage
of development.
Self-Actualization
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, Ruth Benedict and Max
Wertheimer, were so different from average
people. To Maslow, these two people
represented the highest level of human
development called self-actualization.
Maslow’s Quest for the Self-Actualizing
Person
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 was forced to conclude that
emotional security and good adjustment
were not dependable predictors of a Good
Human Being.
After reading biographies of notable figures,
he suddenly had an “aha!” experience. Instead
of asking “What makes Wertheimer and
Benedict self-actualizing?” he turned the
question and asked, “Why are we not all selfactualizing?”
Criteria for Self-Actualization
1. They were free from psychopathology
– except those with psychosomatic
illnesses. They were neither neurotic
nor psychotic nor psychologically
disturbed.
2. Self-actualizing
people
had
progressed through the hierarchy of
needs and therefore lived above the
subsistence level of existence and had
no ever-present threat to their safety.
3. Self-actualizing people embraces Bvalues.
4. Self-actualizing people fulfilled their
needs to grow, to develop, and to
increasingly become what they were
capable of becoming.
Values of Self-Actualizers
Maslow held that self-actualizing people are
motivated by the “eternal verities,” what he
called B-values. These “being” values are
indicators of psychological health and are
opposed to deficiency needs, which motivate
non-self-actualizers.
Maslow termed B-values as “metaneeds” to
indicate that they are the ultimate level of
needs. He distinguished between ordinary
need motivation and the motives of selfactualizing
people,
which
he
called
metamotivation.
Metamotivation is characterized by expressive
behavior rather than coping behavior and is
associated with B-values.
Metamotivation was Maslow’s tentative
answer to the problem of why some people
could not pass over the threshold of selfactualization despite having satisfied lower
level needs.
Maslow identified 14 B-values, but the exact
number is not important because ultimately all
become one, or at least all are highly
correlated.
Justice and Order
Simplicity
Richness or Totality
Effortlessness
Playfulness or Humor
Self-sufficiency or Autonomy
Maslow hypothesized that when people’s
metaneeds are not met, they experience
existential illness.
All people have a holistic tendency to move
toward completeness or totality; and when this
movement is thwarted, they suffer feelings of
inadequacy, disintegration, and unfulfillment.
Characteristics of Self-Actualizing People
To be self-actualizing, Maslow believed that
people must be regularly satisfied in their other
needs and must also embrace B-values.
Maslow listed 15 tentative qualities that
characterize self-actualizing people to at least
some degree.
















More Efficient Perception of Reality
Acceptance of Self, Others, and
Nature
Spontaneity,
Simplicity,
and
Naturalness
Problem-Centering
The Need for Privacy
Autonomy
Continued Freshness of Appreciation
The Peak Experience
Gemeinschaftsgefuhl
Profound Interpersonal Relations
The Democratic Character Structure
Discrimination Between Means and
Ends
Philosophical Sense of Humor
Creativeness
Resistance to Enculturation
Love, Sex, and Self-Actualization
Philosophy of Science
Truth
Goodness
Beauty
Wholeness,
The
Transcendence
Dichotomies
Aliveness or Spontaneity
Uniqueness
Perfection
Completion
Maslow believed that value-free science does
not lead to the proper study of human
personality. Instead, he argued for a holistic,
humanistic approach that is not value free and
that has scientists who care about the people
and topics they investigate.
of
Maslow agreed with Allport that psychological
science should place more emphasis on the
study of the individual and less on the study of
large groups. Subjective reports should be
favored over rigidly objective ones.
Desacralization is the type of science that
lacks emotion, joy, wonder, awe, and rapture.
Maslow believed that orthodox science has no
ritual or ceremony; and he called for scientists
to put values, creativity, emotion, and ritual
back into their work. Scientist must be willing
to resacralize science or to instill it with
human values, emotion, and ritual.
Maslow argued for a Taoistic attitude for
psychology, one that would be noninterfering,
passive, and receptive.
Maslow insisted that psychologists must
themselves be healthy people, able to tolerate
ambiguity and uncertainty.
Measuring Self-Actualization
Everett L. Shostrom developed the Personal
Orientation Inventory (POI) in an attempt to
measure the values and behaviors of selfactualizing people. This inventory consists of
150 forced-choice items.
The POI has 2 major scales and 10
subscales. The first major scale – the Time
Competence/Time Incompetence scale –
measures the degree to which people are
present oriented. The second major scale –
the Support Scale – is designed to measure
whether an individual’s mode of reaction is
characteristically self oriented or other
oriented.
Brief Index of Self-Actualization, developed
by John Sumerlin and Charles Bundrick,
originally comprised of 40 items placed on a 6point Likert scale but now consists of 32 items.
This inventory yields four factors: (1) Core
Self-Actualization, or the full use of one’s
potentials; (2) Autonomy; (3) Openness to
Experience; and (4) Comfort with Solitude.
The Jonah Complex
Another obstacle that often blocks people’s
growth toward self-actualization is the Jonah
complex, or the fear of being one’s best.
The Jonah complex is characterized by
attempts to run away from one’s destiny. It
represents a fear of success, a fear of being
one’s best, and a feeling of awesomeness in
the presence of beauty and perfection.
Why do people run away from greatness and
self-fulfillment? Maslow offered the following
rationale.
1. The human body is simply not strong
enough to endure the ecstasy of
fulfillment for any length of time.
2. Most people have private ambition to
be great. However, when they
compare themselves with those who
have accomplished greatness, they
are appalled by their own arrogance.
Psychotherapy
The 10 subscales assess levels of (1) selfactualization values, (2) flexibility in
applying values, (3) sensitivity to one’s
own needs and feelings, (4) spontaneity in
expressing feelings behaviorally, (5) selfregard, (6) self-acceptance, (7) positive
view of humanity, (8) ability to see
opposites of life as meaningfully related,
(9) acceptance of aggression, (10) capacity
for intimate contact.
High scores on the 2 major scales and 10
subscales indicate some level of selfactualization; low scores do not necessarily
suggest pathology but give clues concerning a
person’s self-actualizing values and behaviors.
Alvin Jones and Rick Crandall created the
Short Index of Self-Actualization, which
borrows 15 items from the POI that are most
strongly correlated with the total selfactualization score. Items on the SIS are on a
6-point Likert scale.
To Maslow, the aim of therapy would be for
clients to embrace the B-values. To do so,
clients must be free from their dependency on
others so that their natural impulse toward
growth and self-actualization could become
active. Psychotherapy cannot be value free
but must take into consideration the fact that
everyone has an inherent tendency to move
toward a better, more enriching condition,
namely self-actualization.
The goals of psychology follow from the
client’s position on the hierarchy of needs.
Most people who seek therapy have the two
lower level needs relatively well satisfied but
have some difficulty achieving love and
belongingness. Therefore, psychotherapy is
largely an interpersonal process.
Related Research
and revolves around one’s ability to feel better
about one’s life.
Generally speaking, according to Maslow’s
theory the lower level needs must be met early
in life, whereas the higher level needs such as
self-actualization tend to be fulfilled later in life.
Reiss and Havercamp conducted a study to
measure the need fulfillment of 1, 749 people
of all age groups. The findings supports the
theory of Maslow that younger people have
stronger lower level needs, whereas the older
people have stronger higher level needs. In
conclusion, if people can secure the most
basic needs early in life, they have more time
and energy to focus on achieving the highest
reaches of human existence later in life.
Positive Psychology
Positive psychology is a relatively new field
of psychology that combines an emphasis on
hope, optimism, and well-being with scientific
research and assessment.
Burton and King conducted a study based on
Maslow’s idea of positive experiences in
people’s lives. In the study, participants were
instructed to write about their positive
experiences for three consecutive days. The
findings show that simply recalling such events
from the past by writing about them can also
enhance positive emotion. Furthermore, they
found out that those who write about positive
experiences have better health.
Sonja
Lyubomirsky
and
colleagues
investigated whether thinking about past
positive experiences have benefits. Findings
show that those who did think about their
positive experiences reported greater wellbeing, but not physical health benefits.
Personality
Goals
Development,
Growth,
and
Implicit in Maslow’s concept of selfactualization is the assumption that people
acquire greater levels of psychological health
as they become older.
Jack Bauer and Dan McAdams assumed the
existence of two kinds of approaches to
growth and development – extrinsic and
intrinsic.
Extrinsic development is primarily cognitive
and revolves around one’s ability to think
complexly about one’s life goals, whereas
intrinsic development is primarily emotional
They conducted a study to determine whether
age and personality development have a
positive relationship, and whether personality
development
and
well-being
changes
depending on their strivings.
Findings show that intrinsic and exploratory
goals were positively correlated with maturity
and personality development. With regard to
age and personality development, results
generally showed that older people were
indeed higher in ego-development and wellbeing than younger people.
Bauer and McAdams concluded that growth
goals open a window for researchers and
therapists to understand whether people’s
intentions are likely to lead in personally
desirable directions.