Self in Humanistic-Existential School

ROLLO MAY
Rollo Reese May was born April 21, 1909, in Ada, Ohio, the first son of the
six children born to Earl Tittle May and Matie Boughton May. As a young
boy, May was not particularly close to either of his parents, who
frequently argued with each other and eventually separated. May
attributed his own two failed marriages to his mother’s unpredictable
behavior and to his older sister’s psychotic episode. In 1946, May opened
his own private practice and, 2 years later, joined the faculty of the
William Alanson White Institute. He earned a PhD in clinical psychology
from Columbia University. Prior to receiving his doctorate, May underwent
the most profound experience of his life. As May learned to listen to his
body, he discovered that healing is an active, not a passive, process. The
person who is sick, be it physiologically or psychologically, must be an
active participant in the therapeutic process. After May recovered from his
illness, he wrote his dissertation on the subject of anxiety and the next
year published it under the title The Meaning of Anxiety. In 1969, May
and his first wife, Florence DeFrees, were divorced after 30 years of
marriage. He later married Ingrid Kepler Scholl, but that marriage too
ended in divorce. May took issue with what he saw as Rogers’s naive view
that evil is a cultural phenomenon.
What Is Existentialism?
 First, existence takes precedence over essence. Existence means to
emerge or to become; essence implies a static immutable
substance. Existence suggests process; essence refers to a product.
Existence is associated with growth and change; essence signifies
stagnation and finality.
 Second, existentialism opposes the split between subject and
object. people are both subjective and objective and must search
for truth by living active and authentic lives.
 Third, people search for some meaning to their lives. They ask
(though not always consciously) the important questions concerning
their being.
 Fourth, existentialists hold that ultimately each of us is responsible
for who we are and what we become.
 Fifth, existentialists are basically antitheoretical. To them, theories
further dehumanize people and render them as objects.
Basic Concepts
Being-in-the-World
Existentialists adopt a phenomenological approach to understanding
humanity. To them, we exist in a world that can be best understood from
our own perspective. The basic unity of person and environment is
expressed in the German word Dasein, meaning to exist there. Hence,
Dasein literally means to exist in the world and is generally written as
being-in-the-world.
Alienation is the illness of our time, and it manifests itself in three areas:
(1) separation from nature,
(2) lack of meaningful interpersonal relations, and
(3) alienation from one’s authentic self.
Thus, people experience three simultaneous modes in their being-in-the-
world:
Umwelt, or the environment around us;
Mitwelt, or our relations with other people;
and Eigenwelt, or our relationship with our self.
Nonbeing
Being-in-the-world necessitates an awareness of self as a living, emerging
being. This awareness, in turn, leads to the dread of not being: that is,
nonbeing or nothingness.
Anxiety
People experience anxiety when they become aware that their existence
or some value identified with it might be destroyed. May (1958a) defined
anxiety as “the subjective state of the individual’s becoming aware that
his [or her] existence can be destroyed, that he can become ‘nothing’” (p.
50). At another time, May (1967) called anxiety a threat to some
important value. Anxiety, then, can spring either from an awareness of
one’s nonbeing or from a threat to some value essential to one’s
existence.
It exists when one confronts the issue of fulfilling one’s potentialities. This
confrontation can lead to stagnation and decay, but it can also result in
growth and change.
Normal Anxiety
May (1967) defined normal anxiety as that “which is proportionate to the
threat, does not involve repression, and can be confronted constructively
on the conscious level”.
Neurotic Anxiety
May (1967) defined neurotic anxiety as “a reaction which is
disproportionate to the threat, involves repression and other forms of
intrapsychic conflict, and is managed by various kinds of blocking-off of
activity and awareness”.
Guilt
Anxiety arises when people are faced with the problem of fulfilling their
potentialities. Guilt arises when people deny their potentialities, fail to
accurately perceive the needs of fellow humans, or remain oblivious to
their dependence on the natural world (May, 1958a). both anxiety and
guilt are ontological; that is, they refer to the nature of being and not to
feelings arising from specific situations or transgressions.
To understand the form of guilt that corresponds to Umwelt, recall that
ontological guilt need not stem from one’s own actions or failures to act;
it can arise from a lack of awareness of one’s being-in-the-world. As
civilization advances technologically, people become more and more
removed from nature, that is, from Umwelt. May (1958a) also referred to
it as separation guilt, a concept similar to Fromm’s notion of the human
dilemma
Mitwelt. Because we cannot unerringly anticipate the needs of others, we
feel inadequate in our relations with them. This then leads to a pervasive
condition of guilt, which is experienced by all of us to some extent.
The third form of ontological guilt is associated with our denial of our own
potentialities or with our failure to fulfill them. In other words, this guilt is
grounded in our relationship with self (Eigenwelt). Again, this form of guilt
is universal, because none of us can completely fulfill all our potentials.
This third type of guilt is reminiscent of Maslow’s concept of the Jonah
complex, or the fear of being or doing one’s best.
Concept of his theory Modes of existence
1. umwelt objective aspects of the internal and external environment
(nature); what the physical and biological sciences study
Concept of his theory Modes of existence
2. Mitwelt Social relationships, interpersonal relationships
Concept of his theory Modes of existence
3. Eigenwelt self-awareness, the subjective world of the self
Intentionality
The structure that gives meaning to experience and allows people to
make decisions about the future is called intentionality (May, 1969b).
Without intentionality, people could neither choose nor act on their
choice. Action implies intentionality, just as intentionality implies action;
the two are inseparable.
Care, Love, and Will
Care is an active process, the opposite of apathy. “Care is a state in which
something does matter”
May (1953) defined love as a “delight in the presence of the other person
and an affirming of [that person’s] value and development as much as
one’s own” (p. 206). Without care there can be no love—only empty
sentimentality or transient sexual arousal.
May (1969b) called will “the capacity to organize one’s self so that
movement in a certain direction or toward a certain goal may take place”.
Our task, said May (1969b, 1990b), is to unite love and will. This task is
not easy, but it is possible. Neither blissful love nor self-serving will have
a role in the uniting of love and will. For the mature person, both love and
will mean a reaching out toward another person. Both involve care, both
necessitate choice, both imply action, and both require responsibility.
Forms of Love
May (1969b) identified four kinds of love in Western tradition—sex, eros,
philia, and agape.
Sex
Sex is a biological function that can be satisfied through sexual
intercourse or some other release of sexual tension. Although it has
become cheapened in modern Western societies, “it still remains the
power of procreation, the drive which perpetuates the race, the source at
once of the human being’s most intense pleasure and his [or her] most
pervasive anxiety”.
Eros
Sex is a physiological need that seeks gratification through the release of
tension. Eros is a psychological desire that seeks procreation or creation
through an enduring union with a loved one. Eros is making love; sex is
manipulating organs. Eros is the wish to establish a lasting union; sex is
the desire to experience pleasure. Eros “takes wings from human
imagination and is forever transcending all techniques, giving the laugh to
all the ‘how to’ books by gaily swinging into orbit above our mechanical
rules”.
Philia
Eros, the salvation of sex, is built on the foundation of philia, that is, an
intimate nonsexual friendship between two people. Philia cannot be
rushed; it takes time to grow, to develop, to sink its roots. Examples of
philia would be the slowly evolving love between siblings or between
lifelong friends. “Philia does not require that we do anything for the
beloved except accept him, be with him, and enjoy him. It is friendship in
the simplest, most direct terms”.
Agape
Just as eros depends on philia, so philia needs agape. May (1969b)
defined agape as “esteem for the other, the concern for the other’s
welfare beyond any gain that one can get out of it; disinterested love,
typically, the love of God for man”.
Agape is altruistic love. It is a kind of spiritual love that carries with it the
risk of playing God. It does not depend on any behaviors or
characteristics of the other person. In this sense, it is undeserved and
unconditional.
Freedom and Destiny
A blend of the four forms of love requires both self-assertion and an
affirmation of the other person. It also requires an assertion of one’s
freedom and a confrontation with one’s destiny. Healthy individuals are
able both to assume their freedom and to face their destiny.
Freedom
May (1967) said that “freedom is the individual’s capacity to know that he
is the determined one” (p. 175). The word “determined” in this definition
is synonymous with what May (1981) would later call destiny. Freedom,
then, comes from an understanding of our destiny Freedom “entails being
able to harbor different possibilities in one’s mind even though it is not
clear at the moment which way one must act” (May, 1981, pp. 10–11).
This condition often leads to increases in anxiety, but it is normal anxiety,
the kind that healthy people welcome and are able to manage.
Existential Freedom
Existential freedom should not be identified with existential philosophy. It
is the freedom of action—the freedom of doing. freedom to act on the
choices that one makes.
Essential Freedom
Freedom to act, to move around does not ensure essential freedom: that
is, freedom of being.
Destiny
May (1981) defined destiny as “the design of the universe speaking
through the design of each one of us” (p. 90). Our ultimate destiny is
death, but on a lesser scale our destiny includes other biological
properties such as intelligence, gender, size and strength, and genetic
predisposition toward certain illnesses. In addition, psychological and
cultural factors contribute to our destiny.
May’s concept of myths is comparable to Carl Jung’s idea of a collective
unconscious in that myths are archetypal patterns in the human
experience; they are avenues to universal images that lie beyond
individual experience. And like archetypes, myths can contribute to
psychological growth if people will embrace them and allow them to open
up a new reality. Tragically, many people deny their universal myths and
thus risk alienation, apathy, and emptiness—the principal ingredients of
psychopathology.
May (1990a, 1991) believed that the Oedipus story is a powerful myth in
our culture because it contains elements of existential crises common to
everyone. These crises include (1) birth, (2) separation or exile from
parents and home, (3) sexual union with one parent and hostility toward
the other, (4) the assertion of independence and the search for identity,
and (5) death. The Oedipus myth has meaning for people because it deals
with each of these five crises. Like Oedipus, people are removed from
their mother and father and are driven by the need for self-knowledge.
People’s struggle for self-identity, however, is not easy, and it may even
result in tragedy, as it did for Oedipus when he insisted on knowing the
truth about his origins. After being told that he had killed his father and
married his mother, Oedipus put out his eyes, depriving himself of the
ability to see, that is, to be aware, to be conscious.
Psychopathology
According to May, apathy and emptiness—not anxiety and guilt—are the
malaise of modern times. When people deny their destiny or abandon
their myths, they lose their purpose for being; they become directionless.
Without some goal or destination, people become sick and engage in a
variety of self-defeating and self-destructive behaviors.
Psychotherapy
May suggested that psychotherapy should make people more human:
that is, help them expand their consciousness so that they will be in a
better position to make choices (M. H. Hall, 1967). These choices, then,
lead to the simultaneous growth of freedom and responsibility. May
believed that the purpose of psychotherapy is to set people free. He
argued that therapists who concentrate on a patient’s symptoms are
missing the more important picture.

1. May believed that many people have surrendered some of their

ability to choose, but that capitulation itself, he insisted, is a
choice. May, therefore, must be rated high on the dimension of
free choice.
2. Although he sometimes painted a rather gloomy picture of
humanity, May was not pessimistic.
3. Although May recognized the potential impact of childhood
experiences on adult personality, he clearly favored teleology
over causality.
4. May assumed a moderate stance on the issue of conscious
versus unconscious forces in personality development. By their
nature, people have enormous capacity for self-awareness, but
often that capacity remains fallow.
5. May also took an intermediate position on social versus
biological influences. Society contributes to personality
principally through interpersonal relationships.
6. On the dimension of uniqueness versus similarities, May’s view
of humanity definitely leans toward uniqueness. May’s emphasis
on phenomenology implies individual perceptions and therefore
unique personalities.
7. May did not formulate his views in a theoretical structure, and a
paucity of hypotheses is suggested by his writings. May’s
existential psychology receives a very low score
8. existential psychology in general and May’s theory in particular
must be rated very low on this criterion. The theory is too
amorphous to suggest specific hypotheses that could either
confirm or disconfirm its major concepts.
9. May would receive an average rating on organize what is
currently known about human nature.
10. As a practical guide to action, May’s theory is quite weak.
11. On the criterion of internal consistency, May’s existential
psychology again falls short. He offered a variety of definitions
for such concepts as anxiety, guilt, intentionality, will, and
destiny.
The final criterion of a useful theory is parsimony, and on this standard,
May’s psychology receives a moderate rating.
Stages of development
Like Freud, May defined certain "stages" of development.
 These stages are not as strict as Freud's psychosexual stages, rather
they signify a sequence of major issues in each individual's life:
 Innocence – the pre-egoic, pre-self-conscious stage of the infant:
An innocent is only doing what he or she must do. However, an
innocent does have a degree of will in the sense of a drive to fulfill
needs.
 Rebellion – the rebellious person wants freedom, but does not yet
have a good understanding of the responsibility that goes with it.
 Ordinary – the normal adult ego learned responsibility, but finds it
too demanding, so seeks refuge in conformity and traditional
values.
 Creative – the authentic adult, the existential stage, self-actualizing
and transcending simple egocentrism
The stages of development that Rollo May set out are not stages in the
conventional sense (not in the strict Freudian sense) i.e. a child may be
innocent, ordinary or creative at any given time.
An adult can also be rebellious as the expression "mid-life crisis" suggests
(Ellis & Abrams, 2009).
STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT REDISCOVERING SELFHOOD
Rediscovering selfhood involves rediscovering our own feelings and
desires and fighting against those things that prevent us from feeling and
wanting. May suggests four stages of consciousness of self:
1. Innocence --is before consciousness of self is born, the pre-egoic, pre-
self-conscious stage of the infant. The innocent is premoral, i.e. is neither
bad nor good. Like a wild animal who kills to eat, the innocent is only
doing what he or she must do. But an innocent does have a degree of will
in the sense of a drive to fulfil their needs!
2. Rebellion -- the childhood and adolescent stage of developing one’s ego
or self- consciousness by means of contrast with adults, from the “no” of
the two year old to the “no way” of the teenager. The rebellious person
wants freedom, but has as yet no full understanding of the responsibility
that goes with it. The teenager may want to spend their allowance in any
way they choose -- yet they still expect the parent to provide the money,
and will complain about unfairness if they don't get it!
Decision: a transitional stage during which a teenager or young adult
makes decisions about his or her life, while seeking further independence
from her parents.
3. Ordinary consciousness of self-- the normal adult ego, conventional
and a little boring, perhaps. They have learned responsibility, but find it
too demanding, and so seek refuge in conformity and traditional values.
4. Creative consciousness of self -- the authentic adult, the existential
stage, beyond ego and self-actualizing. This is the person who, accepting
destiny, faces anxiety with courage!
Not everyone achieves each level of consciousness. The fourth stage, is
achieved only rarely, and it is somewhat analogous to Maslows self
actualization stage.

CARL ROGERS
Carl Rogers (1902-1987) was a humanistic psychologist who agreed with
the main assumptions of Abraham Maslow.
However, Rogers (1959) added that for a person to "grow", they need an
environment that provides them with genuineness (openness and self-
disclosure), acceptance (being seen with unconditional positive regard),
and empathy (being listened to and understood).
Without these, relationships and healthy personalities will not develop as
they should, much like a tree will not grow without sunlight and water.
Rogers believed that every person could achieve their goals, wishes, and
desires in life. When, or rather if they did so, self actualization took place.
This was one of Carl Rogers most important contributions to psychology,
and for a person to reach their potential a number of factors must be
satisfied.
Self-Actualization
"The organism has one basic tendency and striving - to actualize,
maintain, and enhance the experiencing organism” (Rogers, 1951, p.
487).
Rogers rejected the deterministic nature of both psychoanalysis and
behaviorism and maintained that we behave as we do because of the way
we perceive our situation. "As no one else can know how we perceive, we
are the best experts on ourselves."
Carl Rogers (1959) believed that humans have one basic motive, that is
the tendency to self-actualize - i.e., to fulfill one's potential and achieve
the highest level of 'human-beingness' we can.
Like a flower that will grow to its full potential if the conditions are right,
but which is constrained by its environment, so people will flourish and
reach their potential if their environment is good enough.
However, unlike a flower, the potential of the individual human is unique,
and we are meant to develop in different ways according to our
personality. Rogers believed that people are inherently good and
creative.
They become destructive only when a poor self-concept or external
constraints override the valuing process. Carl Rogers believed that for a
person to achieve self-actualization they must be in a state of
congruence.
This means that self-actualization occurs when a person’s “ideal self” (i.e.,
who they would like to be) is congruent with their actual behavior (self-
image).
Rogers describes an individual who is actualizing as a fully functioning
person. The main determinant of whether we will become self-actualized
is childhood experience.
The Fully Functioning Person
Rogers believed that every person could achieve their goal. This means
that the person is in touch with the here and now, his or her subjective
experiences and feelings, continually growing and changing.
In many ways, Rogers regarded the fully functioning person as an ideal
and one that people do not ultimately achieve. It is wrong to think of this
as an end or completion of life’s journey; rather it is a process of always
becoming and changing.
Rogers identified five characteristics of the fully functioning person:
1. Open to experience: both positive and negative emotions accepted.
Negative feelings are not denied, but worked through (rather than
resorting to ego defense mechanisms).
2. Existential living: in touch with different experiences as they occur
in life, avoiding prejudging and preconceptions. Being able to live
and fully appreciate the present, not always looking back to the
past or forward to the future (i.e., living for the moment).
3. Trust feelings: feeling, instincts, and gut-reactions are paid
attention to and trusted. People’s own decisions are the right ones,
and we should trust ourselves to make the right choices.
4. Creativity: creative thinking and risk-taking are features of a
person’s life. A person does not play safe all the time. This involves
the ability to adjust and change and seek new experiences.
5. Fulfilled life: a person is happy and satisfied with life, and always
looking for new challenges and experiences.
For Rogers, fully functioning people are well adjusted, well balanced and
interesting to know. Often such people are high achievers in society.
Critics claim that the fully functioning person is a product of Western
culture. In other cultures, such as Eastern cultures, the achievement of
the group is valued more highly than the achievement of any one person.
Personality Development
Central to Rogers' personality theory is the notion of self or self-concept.
This is defined as "the organized, consistent set of perceptions and beliefs
about oneself."
The self is the humanistic term for who we really are as a person. The
self is our inner personality, and can be likened to the soul, or Freud's
psyche. The self is influenced by the experiences a person has in their
life, and out interpretations of those experiences. Two primary sources
that influence our self-concept are childhood experiences and evaluation
by others.
According to Rogers (1959), 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.
The humanistic approach states that the self is composed of concepts
unique to ourselves. The self-concept includes three components:
Self-worth
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
How we see ourselves, which is important to good psychological health.
Self-image includes the influence of our body image on inner personality.
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
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.
The ideal self in childhood is not the ideal self in our teens or late twenties
etc.
Positive Regard and Self Worth
Two Faces Illustrating High Self Esteem Saying - I am the best
Carl Rogers (1951) viewed the child as having two basic needs: positive
regard from other people and self-worth.
How we think about ourselves, our feelings of self-worth are of
fundamental importance both to psychological health and to the likelihood
that we can achieve goals and ambitions in life and achieve self-
actualization.
Self-worth may be seen as a continuum from very high to very low. For
Carl Rogers (1959) a person who has high self-worth, that is, has
confidence and positive feelings about him or herself, faces challenges in
life, accepts failure and unhappiness at times, and is open with people.
A person with low self-worth may avoid challenges in life, not accept that
life can be painful and unhappy at times, and will be defensive and
guarded with other people.
Rogers believed feelings of self-worth developed in early childhood and
were formed from the interaction of the child with the mother and father.
As a child grows older, interactions with significant others will affect
feelings of self-worth.
Rogers believed that we need to be regarded positively by others; we
need to feel valued, respected, treated with affection and loved. Positive
regard is to do with how other people evaluate and judge us in social
interaction. Rogers made a distinction between unconditional positive
regard and conditional positive regard.
Unconditional Positive Regard
Unconditional positive regard is where parents, significant others (and the
humanist therapist) accepts and loves the person for what he or she is.
Positive regard is not withdrawn if the person does something wrong or
makes a mistake.
The consequences of unconditional positive regard are that the person
feels free to try things out and make mistakes, even though this may lead
to getting it worse at times.
People who are able to self-actualize are more likely to have received
unconditional positive regard from others, especially their parents in
childhood.
Conditional Positive Regard
Conditional positive regard is where positive regard, praise, and approval,
depend upon the child, for example, behaving in ways that the parents
think correct.
Hence the child is not loved for the person he or she is, but on condition
that he or she behaves only in ways approved by the parent(s).
At the extreme, a person who constantly seeks approval from other
people is likely only to have experienced conditional positive regard as a
child.
Congruence
A person’s ideal self may not be consistent with what actually happens in
life and experiences of the person. Hence, 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 defense 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.
ABRAHAM MASLOW
Key Points
As a leader of humanistic psychology, Abraham Maslow approached the
study of personality by focusing on subjective experiences, free will, and
the innate drive toward self-actualization .
Maslow expanded the field of humanistic psychology to include an
explanation of how human needs change throughout an individual’s
lifespan, and how these needs influence the development of personality.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs ranks human needs from the most basic
physical needs to the most advanced needs of self-actualization. A person
must acquire and master each level of need before proceeding to the next
need.
Maslow studied the personalities of self-actualizers and found they had
many things in common; he believed self-actualizers indicate a coherent
personality syndrome and represent optimal psychological health and
functioning.
Maslow’s ideas have been criticized for their lack of scientific rigor, as well
as their Western cultural bias.
Key Terms
transcendence: Superior excellence; supereminence.
humanistic psychology: A psychological perspective which rose to
prominence in the mid-20th century in response to psychoanalytic theory
and behaviorism; this approach emphasizes an individual’s inherent drive
towards self-actualization and creativity.
self-actualization: According to humanistic theory, the realizing of one’s
full potential; can include creative expression, quest for spiritual
enlightenment, pursuit of knowledge, or the desire to give to society.
Often called the “third force” in psychology, humanism was a reaction to
both the pessimistic determinism of psychoanalysis, with its emphasis on
psychological disturbance, and to the behaviorists’ view of humans
passively reacting to the environment. Two of the leading humanistic
theorists who made advancements in the field of personality psychology
were Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers.
Abraham Maslow’s Humanism
As a leader of humanistic psychology, Abraham Maslow approached the
study of personality psychology by focusing on subjective experiences and
free will. He was mainly concerned with an individual’s innate drive
toward self-actualization—a state of fulfillment in which a person is
achieving at his or her highest level of capability. Maslow positioned his
work as a vital complement to that of Freud, saying: “It is as if Freud
supplied us the sick half of psychology and we must now fill it out with the
healthy half.”
In his research, Maslow studied the personalities of people who he
considered to be healthy, creative, and productive, including Albert
Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and
others. He found that such people share similar characteristics, such as
being open, creative, loving, spontaneous, compassionate, concerned for
others, and accepting of themselves.
Personality and the Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow is perhaps most well-known for his hierarchy of needs theory, in
which he proposes that human beings have certain needs in common and
that these needs must be met in a certain order. These needs range from
the most basic physiological needs for survival to higher-level self-
actualization and transcendence needs. Maslow’s hierarchy is most often
presented visually as a pyramid, with the largest, most fundamental
physiological needs at the bottom and the smallest, most advanced self-
actualization needs at the top. Each layer of the pyramid must be fulfilled
before moving up the pyramid to higher needs, and this process is
continued throughout the lifespan.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: Abraham Maslow developed a human
hierarchy of needs that is conceptualized as a pyramid to represent how
people move from one level of needs to another. First physiological needs
must be met before safety needs, then the need for love and belonging,
then esteem, and finally self-actualization.
Maslow believed that successful fulfillment of each layer of needs was
vital in the development of personality. The highest need for self-
actualization represents the achievement of our fullest potential, and
those individuals who finally achieved self-actualization were said to
represent optimal psychological health and functioning. Maslow stretched
the field of psychological study to include fully-functional individuals
instead of only those with psychoses, and he shed a more positive light
on personality psychology.
Characteristics of Self-Actualizers
Maslow viewed self-actualizers as the supreme achievers in the human
race. He studied stand-out individuals in order to better understand what
characteristics they possessed that allowed them to achieve self-
actualization. In his research, he found that many of these people shared
certain personality traits.
Most self-actualizers had a great sense of awareness, maintaining a near-
constant enjoyment and awe of life. They often described peak
experiences during which they felt such an intense degree of satisfaction
that they seemed to transcend themselves. They actively engaged in
activities that would bring about this feeling of unity and meaningfulness.
Despite this fact, most of these individuals seemed deeply rooted in
reality and were active problem-seekers and solvers. They developed a
level of acceptance for what could not be changed and a level of
spontaneity and resilience to tackle what could be changed. Most of these
people had healthy relationships with a small group with which they
interacted frequently. According to Maslow, self-actualized people indicate
a coherent personality syndrome and represent optimal psychological
health and functioning.
Criticism of Maslow’s Theories
Maslow’s ideas have been criticized for their lack of scientific rigor. As
with all early psychological studies, questions have been raised about the
lack of empirical evidence used in his research. Because of the subjective
nature of the study, the holistic approach allows for a great deal of
variation but does not identify enough constant variables in order to be
researched with true accuracy. Psychologists also worry that such an
extreme focus on the subjective experience of the individual does little to
explain or appreciate the impact of society on personality development.
Furthermore, the hierarchy of needs has been accused of cultural bias—
mainly reflecting Western values and ideologies. Critics argue that this
concept is considered relative to each culture and society and cannot be
universally applied.