Theories of Personality
Maslow: Holistic-Dynamic Theory
Chapter 10
Outline
• Overview of Holistic-Dynamic
Theory
• Biography of Maslow
• Maslow’s View of Motivation
• Self-Actualization
• Philosophy of Science
• Measuring Self-Actualization
Outline
• The Jonah Complex
• Psychotherapy
• Related Research
• Critique of Maslow
• Concept of Humanity
Overview of Holistic-Dynamic Theory
• Assumes Whole Person Is Motivated by
One Need or Another
• People Have Potential to Grow toward
Psychological Health/Self-Actualization
• Lower Level Needs Must Be Satisfied
Before Higher Level Needs Can Be Met
Biography of Maslow
• Born in New York City in 1908
• Oldest of seven children of RussianJewish immigrants
• Harbors lifelong animosity toward
mother
• Received a PhD in 1934 in psychology
from University of Wisconsin where he
worked with Harry Harlow
Biography (cont’d)
• Returns to New York in 1935 and works
with E. L. Thorndike at Columbia University
• Met and was influenced by Alfred Adler,
Erich Fromm, and Karen Horney
• In 1951, became chairperson of the
psychology department at Brandeis
University
• President of American Psychological
Association 1967-1968
• Died in 1970 of a heart attack
Maslow’s View of Motivation
• Holistic Approach to Motivation
• Motivation Is Complex
• People Are Continually Motivated by
One Need or Another
• All People Everywhere Are Motivated by
the Same Basic Needs
• Needs Can Be Arranged on a Hierarchy
Hierarchy of Needs
• Conative or Basic Needs
–
–
–
–
–
Physiological
Safety
Love and belongingness
Esteem
Self-Actualization
• Aesthetic Needs
– The need for order and beauty
• Cognitive Needs
– The need for curiosity and knowledge
• Neurotic Needs
– An unproductive relating to other people
General Discussion of Needs
• Reversed Order of Needs
• Unmotivated Behavior
– Conditioned reflexes, maturation, drugs
• Expressive Behaviors
– An end in itself, no purpose than to be
– Person’s mode of expressions
– Looking stupid, being relaxed
• Coping Behaviors
– Effortful, learned and triggered by external environment
– Coping with the environment
• Instinctoid Nature of Needs
– Frustration of instinctoid need causes pathology
Self-Actualization
• Maslow’s Quest for the Self-Actualized Person
• Criteria for Self-Actualization
•
•
•
•
Free from psychopathology
Have progressed through hierarchy of needs
Embracing of the B-values
Full use of talents, capacities, and potentialities
• Values of Self-Actualizers
• Motivated by Eternal Verities or B-Values
• Metamotivation
Self-Actualization (cont’d)
• Characteristics of Self-Actualizing People
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
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
Self-Actualization (cont’d)
• Characteristics of Self-Actualizing People (cont.)
– Gemeinschaftsgefuhl
• social interest, community feeling, sense of oneness with all
humanity
–
–
–
–
–
–
•
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
• Maslow argued for a humanistic, holistic
approach that is not value free
• Psychological science should stress the
importance of individual procedures
• Scientists should put values, emotion, and
ritual back into their work and be creative in
their pursuit of knowledge
Measuring Self-Actualization
• Personal Orientation Inventory (POI)
• Comprehensive measure of the values and
behaviors of self-actualizing people
• Short Index of Self-Actualization
• Brief Index of Self-Actualization
Four factors:
1. Core self-actualization
2. Autonomy
3. Openness to experience
4. Comfort with solitude
The Jonah Complex
• The Jonah complex is an abnormal syndrome
defined as the fear of being or doing one’s
best
• Probably all of us have some timidity about
seeking perfection or greatness
• People allow false humility to stifle creativity,
and therefore they prevent themselves from
becoming self-actualizing
Psychotherapy
• The aim of therapy is for clients to embrace
the being-values
• Clients must be freed from their dependence
on others so that their natural impulse to grow
can become active
• Psychotherapy must not be value free
Critique of Maslow
• Maslow’s Theory Is:
– Very High on Organizing Knowledge
– High on Guiding Action
– Moderate on Generating Research,
Internal Consistency, and Parsimony
– Low on Falsifiability
Concept of Humanity
•
•
•
•
•
•
Free Choice over Determinism
Optimism over Pessimism
Teleology over Causality
Conscious over Unconscious
Equal Emphasis on Culture and Biology
Uniqueness over Similarity