Module 3: PERSONALITY

Definition

According to Allport (1937), personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of
those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustment to the environment.

Psychoanalytic Theory

Proposed by Sigmund Freud

Focused on unconscious conflicts

He explained personality as fixed and not flexible

He also emphasized more on past childhood experiences

Major Theoretical Concepts-

Instinctual Theory (or Instincts)

Instincts are the basic elements of the personality, the motivating forces that drive behavior and
determine its direction. When a need such as hunger is aroused in the body, it generates a
condition of physiological excitation or energy. The mind transforms this bodily energy into a
wish. It is this wish—the mental representation of the physiological need—that is the instinct or
driving force that motivates the person to behave in a way that satisfies the need. A hungry
person, for example, will act to satisfy his or her need by looking for food. The instinct is not the
bodily state; rather, it is the bodily need transformed into a mental state, a wish. That is, when the
body is in a state of need, the person experiences a feeling of tension or pressure. The aim of an
instinct is to satisfy the need and thereby reduce the tension. Freud’s theory can be called a
homeostatic approach insofar as it suggests that we are motivated to restore and maintain a
condition of physiological equilibrium, or balance, to keep the body free of tension.

Types of Instincts:

Life Instincts or Eros: The drive for ensuring survival of the individual and the species by
satisfying the needs for food, water, air, and sex. . The life instincts are oriented toward growth
and development. The psychic energy manifested by the life instincts is the libido.

Libido- it is the form of psychic energy, manifested by the life instincts, that drives a person
toward pleasurable behaviors and thoughts.

Death Instincts or Thanatos: The unconscious drive toward decay, destruction, and aggression.
One component of the death instincts is the aggressive drive, described as the wish to die turned
against objects other than the self. The aggressive drive compels us to destroy, conquer, and kill.
Levels of Consciousness

Freud’s original conception divided personality into three levels: the conscious, the
preconscious, and the unconscious.

Consciousness

The conscious, corresponds to its ordinary everyday meaning. It includes all the sensations and
experiences of which we are aware at any given moment. Freud considered the conscious a
limited aspect of personality because only a small portion of our thoughts, sensations, and
memories exists in conscious awareness at any time

Unconsciousness

More important, according to Freud, is the unconscious, that larger, invisible portion below the
surface. This is the focus of psychoanalytic theory. Its vast, dark depths are the home of the
instincts, those wishes and desires that direct our behavior. The unconscious contains the major
driving power behind all behaviors and is the repository of forces we cannot see or control.

Pre-consciousness

Between these two levels is the preconscious. This is the storehouse of memories, perceptions,
and thoughts of which we are not consciously aware at the moment but that we can easily
summon into consciousness.

Structure of Personality

Basic structures of the personality include: the id, the ego, and the superego

The Id:

The aspect of personality allied with the instincts; the source of psychic energy. Because the id
is the reservoir of the instincts, it is vitally and directly related to the satisfaction of bodily needs.
That is, tension is produced when the body is in a state of need, and the person acts to reduce this
tension by satisfying the need. The id operates in accordance with pleasure principle; through
its concern with tension reduction, the id functions to increase pleasure and avoid pain. The id
strives for immediate satisfaction of its needs and does not tolerate delay or postponement of
satisfaction for any reason. It knows only instant gratification; it drives us to want what we want
when we want it, without regard for what anyone else wants. The id is a selfish, pleasure-seeking
structure and primitive. The id has no awareness of reality.

Primary-process thought: Childlike thinking by which the id attempts to satisfy the instinctual
drives.

The Ego:
Ego is the rational aspect of the personality, responsible for directing and controlling the
instincts. The ego does not prevent id satisfaction. Rather, it tries to postpone, delay, or redirect it
in terms of the demands of reality. It perceives and manipulates the environment in a practical
and realistic manner and so is said to operate in accordance with the reality principle. The ego is
never independent of the id. It is always responsive to the id’s demands and derives its power
and energy from the id.

The Superego

Superego is the powerful and largely unconscious set of dictates or beliefs—that we acquire in
childhood: our ideas of right and wrong. That is, the moral aspect of personality; the
internalization of parental and societal values and standards. Superego works on the basis of
moral principle. Two aspects of superego include conscience and superego.

Conscience: A component of the superego that contains behaviors for which the child has been
punished.

Ego-ideal: A component of the superego that contains the moral or ideal behaviors for which a
person should strive. It consists of good, or correct, behaviors for which children have been
praised or encouraged.

Anxiety and Defense Mechanisms

Anxiety

Any threat to ego causes anxiety. Freud explains 3 types of anxieties.

o Reality Anxiety- Anxiety causes by the fear of real danger.

o Neurotic Anxiety- anxiety caused by an imagined danger, that it is the conflict between
id and ego.
o Moral Anxiety- Anxiety caused by the conflict between id and superego (intrapsychic
conflict)

Defense Mechanisms

Strategies the ego uses to defend itself against the anxiety provoked by conflicts of everyday life.
Defense mechanisms involve denials or distortions of reality.

Freudian Defense Mechanisms

Repression: Involves unconscious denial of the existence of something that causes

anxiety.
Denial: Involves denying the existence of an external threat or traumatic event.
Reaction Formation: Involves expressing an id impulse that is the opposite of the one
truly driving the person.
 Projection: Involves attributing a disturbing impulse to someone else.
Regression: Involves retreating to an earlier, less frustrating period of life and displaying
the childish and dependent behaviors characteristic of that more secure time.
Rationalization: Involves reinterpreting behavior to make it more acceptable and less
threatening.
Displacement: Involves shifting id impulses from a threatening or unavailable object to a
substitute object that is available.
Sublimation: Involves altering or displacing id impulses by diverting instinctual energy
into socially acceptable behaviors.

Psychosexual Developmental Stages

To Freud, the oral, anal, phallic, and genital stages through which all children pass. In these
stages, gratification of the id instincts depends on the stimulation of corresponding areas of the
body.

Fixation: A condition in which a portion of libido remains invested in one of the psychosexual
stages because of excessive frustration or gratification.

1. ORAL STAGE

The oral stage, the first stage of psychosexual development, lasts from birth until sometime
during the second year of life. During this period the infant’s principal source of pleasure is the
mouth. The infant derives pleasure from sucking, biting, and swallowing. The infant is in a state
of dependence on the mother or caregiver who becomes the primary object of the child’s libido.

There are two ways of behaving during this stage: oral incorporative behavior and oral
aggressive or oral sadistic behavior.

Adults fixated at the oral incorporative stage are excessively concerned with oral activities, such
as eating, drinking, smoking, and kissing. If, as infants, they were excessively gratified, their
adult oral personality will be predisposed to unusual optimism and dependency.

Persons who become fixated at this level are prone to excessive pessimism, hostility, and
aggressiveness. They are likely to be argumentative and sarcastic, making so called biting
remarks and displaying cruelty toward others. They tend to be envious of other people and try to
exploit and manipulate them in an effort to dominate.

2. ANAL STAGE

Around the age of 18 months to 3 years, when toilet training is given to the child. Freud believed
that the experience of toilet training during the anal stage had a significant effect on personality
development. Defecation produces erotic pleasure for the child, but with the onset of toilet
training, the child must learn to postpone or delay this pleasure.
Two personalities develop as a result of fixation during this stage:

Anal Retentive: withholding of feces and Individual becomes orderly, neat and perfect in all
activities later.

Anal Expulsive: Causes uncontrolled bowel movement and leads to messy, disordered
personality.

3. PHALLIC STAGE

Around 3 to 5 years and the focus of pleasure shifts from the anus to the genitals. The is a great
conflict between id and social expectations during this period. The child becomes curious about
birth and about why boys have penises and girls do not. The child may talk about wanting to
marry the parent of the opposite sex.

Oedipus complex

During the phallic stage (ages 4 to 5), the unconscious desire of a boy for his mother,
accompanied by a desire to replace or destroy his father.

Castration Anxiety: A boy’s fear during the Oedipal period that his penis will be cut off.

Electra Complex

During Phallic stage ( age 4 to 5),the unconscious desire of a girl for her father, accompanied by
a desire to replace or destroy her mother.

Penis Envy: The envy the female feels toward the male because the male possesses a penis; this
is accompanied by a sense of loss because the female does not have a penis.

The child later identifies oneself with same sexed parent and resolves the conflict.

4. LATENCY STAGE

The period from approximately age 5 to puberty, during which the sex instinct is dormant,
sublimated in school activities, sports, and hobbies, and in developing friendships with members
of the same sex.

5. GENITAL STAGE

The final psychosexual stage of development, begins at puberty. The body is becoming
physiologically mature, and if no major fixations have occurred at an earlier stage of
development, the individual may be able to lead a normal life. Freud believed that the conflict
during this period is less intense than in the other stages. The adolescent must conform to
societal sanctions and taboos that exist concerning sexual expression, but conflict is minimized
through sublimation. The sexual energy pressing for expression in the teenage years can be at
least partially satisfied through the pursuit of socially acceptable substitutes and, later, through a
committed adult relationship with a person of the opposite sex. The genital personality type is
able to find satisfaction in love and work, the latter being an acceptable outlet for sublimation of
the id impulses.

ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY

Proposed by Carl Jung

Jung’s term for self- psyche

Jung drew on ideas from physics to explain the functioning of psychic energy. He proposed three
basic principles: opposites, equivalence, and entropy.

Opposition Principle: Jung’s idea that conflict between opposing processes or tendencies is
necessary to generate psychic energy.

Equivalence Principle: The continuing redistribution of energy within a personality; if the energy
expended on certain conditions or activities weakens or disappears, that energy is transferred
elsewhere in the personality.

Entropy Principle: A tendency toward balance or equilibrium within the personality; the ideal is
an equal distribution of psychic energy over all structures of the personality.

THE SYSTEMS OF PERSONALITY

 EGO

The ego is the center of consciousness, the part of the psyche concerned with perceiving,
thinking, feeling, and remembering. It is our awareness of ourselves and is responsible for
carrying out the normal activities of waking life.

Attitudes of Ego

Much of our conscious perception of and reaction to our environment is determined by the
opposing mental attitudes of extraversion and introversion.

Extraversion: An attitude of the psyche characterized by an orientation toward the external world
and other people.

Introversion: An attitude of the psyche characterized by an orientation toward one’s own

thoughts and feelings.

Psychological Functions
Jung explained 4 different functions of the ego

1. Thinking 3. Sensing

2. Feeling 4. Intuiting

Psychological Types

Jung proposed eight psychological types, based on the interactions of the two attitudes and four
functions.

Extraverted thinking: Logical, objective, dogmatic

Extraverted feeling: Emotional, sensitive, sociable; more typical of women than men

Extraverted sensing: Outgoing, pleasure-seeking, adaptable

Extraverted intuiting: Creative, able to motivate others and to seize opportunities

Introverted thinking: More interested in ideas than in people

Introverted feeling: Reserved, undemonstrative, yet capable of deep emotion

Introverted sensing: Outwardly detached, expressing themselves in aesthetic pursuits

Introverted intuiting: Concerned with the unconscious more than everyday reality

 PERSONAL UNCONSCIOUS

Personal Unconscious is the reservoir of material that was once conscious but has been forgotten
or suppressed.

Complexes

To Jung, a core or pattern of emotions, memories, perceptions, and wishes in the personal
unconscious organized around a common theme, such as power or status. For example, we might
say that a person has a complex about power or status, meaning that he or she is preoccupied
with that theme to the point where it influences behavior. The person with a complex is generally
not aware of its influence, although other people may easily observe its effects.

 COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS

The deepest level of the psyche containing the accumulation of inherited experiences of human
and pre-human species

Archetypes
The ancient experiences contained in the collective unconscious are manifested by recurring
themes or patterns Jung called archetypes. Archetypes can be defined as images of universal
experiences contained in the collective unconscious.

Different archetypes-

1. Persona: the public face or role a person presents to others.

2. Anima: Feminine aspect of male psyche

3. Animus: masculine aspect of female psyche

4. Shadow: dark or evil side of personality, the archetype that contains primitive animal instincts.

5. Self Archetype: the archetype that represents the unity, integration, and harmony of the total
personality.

INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY

Proposed by Alfred Adler

Adler called his approach individual psychology because it focused on the uniqueness of each
person and denied the universality of biological motives and goals ascribed to us by Sigmund
Freud.

In Adler’s opinion, each individual is primarily a social being. Our personalities are shaped by
our unique social environments and interactions, not by our efforts to satisfy biological needs.

Inferiority Feelings

Inferiority feeling is the normal condition of all people; the source of all human striving. Adler
believed that inferiority feelings are always present as a motivating force in behavior.

Compensation

A motivation to overcome inferiority, to strive for higher levels of development. Compensation

is our attempt to overcome real or imagined inferiority.

Inferiority Complex

A condition that develops when a person is unable to compensate for normal inferiority feelings.

Superiority Complex

A condition that develops when a person overcompensates for normal inferiority feelings.
Striving For Superiority or Perfection: The urge toward perfection or completion that
motivates each of us. This innate goal, the drive toward wholeness or completion, is oriented
toward the future.

Fictional Finalism

The idea that there is an imagined or potential goal that guides our behavior.

Style of Life

Style of Life is the unique character structure or pattern of personal behaviors and characteristics
by which each of us strives for perfection. Basic styles of life include the dominant, getting,
avoiding, and socially useful types.

The dominant type displays a dominant or ruling attitude with little social awareness. Such a
person behaves without regard for others.

The getting type expects to receive satisfaction from other people and so becomes dependent on
them.

The avoiding type makes no attempt to face life’s problems. By avoiding difficulties, the person
avoids any possibility of failure.

The socially useful type cooperates with others and acts in accordance with their needs. Such
persons cope with problems within a well-developed framework of social interest.

Social Interest

Our innate potential to cooperate with other people to achieve personal and societal goals.

KAREN HORNEY’S THEORY

Feminine psychologist

Explained concept of womb envy

The Childhood Safety Needs

Horney thought childhood was dominated by the safety need, by which she meant the need for
security and freedom from fear. Whether the infant experiences a feeling of security and an
absence of fear is decisive in determining the normality of his or her personality development. A
child’s security depends entirely on how the parents treat the child. The major way parents
weaken or prevent security is by displaying a lack of warmth and affection for the child.
Parents can act in various ways to undermine their child’s security and thereby induce hostility.
These parental behaviors include obvious preference for a sibling, unfair punishment, erratic
behavior, promises not kept, ridicule, humiliation, and isolation of the child from peers.

Basic Anxiety

Basic Anxiety is the pervasive feeling of loneliness and helplessness; the foundation of neurosis.

In childhood we try to protect ourselves against basic anxiety in four ways:

■ Securing affection and love: There are several ways by which we may gain affection, such as
trying to do whatever the other person wants, trying to bribe others, or threatening others into
providing the desired affection.

■ Being Submissive: Being submissive as a means of self-protection involves complying with

the wishes either of one particular person or of everyone in our social environment. Submissive
persons avoid doing anything that might antagonize others. Most people who act submissive
believe they are unselfish and self-sacrificing.

■ Attaining power: By attaining power over others, a person can compensate for helplessness
and achieve security through success or through a sense of superiority. Such persons seem to
believe that if they have power, no one will harm them

■ Withdrawing: The withdrawn person achieves independence with regard to internal or

psychological needs by becoming aloof from others, no longer seeking them out to satisfy
emotional needs. The process involves a blunting, or minimizing, of emotional needs. By
renouncing these needs the withdrawn person guards against being hurt by other people.

Neurotic Needs

Ten irrational defenses against anxiety that become a permanent part of personality and that
affect behavior. 10 neurotic needs are as follows:

1. Affection and approval 6. Admiration

2. A dominant partner 7. Achievement or ambition

3. Power 8. Self-sufficiency

4. Exploitation 9. Perfection

5. Prestige 10. Narrow limits to life

The neurotic needs encompass the four ways of protecting ourselves against anxiety. Gaining
affection is expressed in the neurotic need for affection and approval. Being submissive includes
the neurotic need for a dominant partner. Attaining power relates to the needs for power,
exploitation, prestige, admiration, and achievement or ambition. Withdrawing includes the needs
for self-sufficiency, perfection, and narrow limits to life.

Neurotic Trends

Three categories of behaviors and attitudes toward oneself and others that express a person’s
needs.

The neurotic trends are:

■ Movement toward other people (the compliant personality),

■ Movement against other people (the aggressive personality), and

■ Movement away from other people (the detached personality)

Compliant Personality: Behaviors and attitudes associated with the neurotic trend of moving
toward people, such as a need for affection and approval.

Aggressive Personality: Behaviors and attitudes associated with the neurotic trend of moving
against people, such as a domineering and controlling manner.

Detached Personality: Behaviors and attitudes associated with the neurotic trend of moving
away from people, such as an intense need for privacy.

Idealized Self-Image

For normal people, the self-image is an idealized picture of oneself built on a flexible, realistic
assessment of one’s abilities. For neurotics, the self-image is based on an inflexible, unrealistic
self appraisal.

TRAIT THEORY BY ALLPORT

Proposed by Gordon Allport

TRAITS: Traits are consistent and enduring ways of reacting to our environment. Personality
traits are real and exist within each of us. Traits determine or cause behavior. Traits are
interrelated; they may overlap, even though they represent different characteristics. Initially,
Allport proposed two types of traits: individual and common. Individual traits are unique to a
person and define his or her character. Individual traits are later called as personal dispositions.
Common traits are shared by a number of people, such as the members of a culture. It follows
that people in different cultures will have different common traits. Common traits are also likely
to change over time as social standards and values change. This demonstrates that common traits
are subject to social, environmental, and cultural influences. Common traits were simply called
as ‘Traits’ by Allport.

Personal Dispositions: Traits that are peculiar to an individual, as opposed to traits shared by a
number of people. Individual traits are divided into 3

Cardinal Traits The most pervasive and powerful human traits.

Central Traits The handful of outstanding traits that describe a person’s behavior.

Secondary Traits The least important traits, which a person may display inconspicuously and
inconsistently

HABITS AND ATTITUDES

Habits

Specific, inflexible responses to specific stimuli; several habits may combine to form a trait.
Attitudes

To Allport, attitudes are similar to traits. However, attitudes have specific objects of reference
and involve either positive or negative evaluations.

MOTIVATION AND PERSONALITY

Functional Autonomy of Motives:

The idea that motives in the normal, mature adult are independent of the childhood experiences
in which they originally appeared.

Two types of Functional Autonomy of Motives

Perseverative Functional Autonomy: The level of functional autonomy that relates to low-level
and routine behaviors.

Propriate Functional Autonomy: The level of functional autonomy that relates to our values,
self-image, and lifestyle. propriate functional autonomy The level of functional autonomy that
relates to our values, self-image, and lifestyle. “Proprium” is Allport’s term for the ego or self.

Our propriate functioning is an organizing process that maintains our sense of self. It determines
how we perceive the world, what we remember from our experiences, and how our thoughts are
directed. These perceptual and cognitive processes are selective. This organizing process is
governed by the following three principles:

■ Organizing the energy level: how we acquire new motives. These motives arise from necessity,
to help consume excess energy that we might otherwise express in destructive and harmful ways
■ Mastery and competence: refers to the level at which we choose to satisfy motives. It is not
enough for us to achieve at an adequate level. Healthy, mature adults are motivated to perform
better and more efficiently, to master new skills, and to increase their degree of competence

■ Propriate patterning: describes a striving for consistency and integration of the personality. We
organize our perceptual and cognitive processes around the self, keeping what enhances our self-
image and rejecting the rest. Thus, our propriate motives are dependent on the structure or
pattern of the self.

TRAIT THEORY BY CATTELL

Proposed by Raymond B. Cattell

Factor Analysis was introduced

Trait: Cattell defined traits as relatively permanent reaction tendencies that are the basic
structural units of the personality.

Classification of traits

1st classification: Common Traits and Unique Traits

Cattell distinguished between common traits and unique traits. A common trait is one that is
possessed by everyone to some degree. Intelligence, extraversion, and gregariousness are
examples of common traits. Everyone has these traits, but some people have them to a greater
extent than others.

Unique traits are those aspects of personality shared by few other people. Unique traits are
particularly apparent in our interests and attitudes. For example, one person may have a
consuming interest in genealogy, whereas another may be passionately interested in baseball.

2nd Classification: Ability, Temperament, and Dynamic Traits

Ability traits determine how efficiently we will be able to work toward a goal. Intelligence is an
ability trait; our level of intelligence will affect the ways in which we strive for our goals.
Temperament traits describe the general style and emotional tone of our behavior, for example,
how assertive, easygoing, or irritable we are. These traits affect the ways we act and react to
situations. Dynamic traits are the driving forces of behavior. It is defined as our motivations,
interests, and ambitions.

3rd Classification: Surface Traits and Source Traits

A third class of traits is surface traits versus source traits according to their stability and
permanence. Surface traits are personality characteristics that correlate with one another but do
not constitute a factor because they are not determined by a single source. For example, several
behavioral elements such as anxiety, indecision, and irrational fear combine to form the surface
trait labeled neuroticism. Thus, neuroticism does not derive from a single source. Because
surface traits are composed of several elements, they are less stable and permanent and therefore
less important in describing personality.

Of greater importance are source traits, which are unitary personality factors that are much more
stable and permanent. Each source trait gives rise to some aspect of behavior. Source traits are
those individual factors derived from factor analysis that combine to account for surface traits.

Source traits are classified by their origin as either constitutional traits or environmental-mold
traits. Constitutional traits originate in biological conditions but are not necessarily innate.
Environmental-mold traits derive from influences in our social and physical environments.
These traits are learned characteristics and behaviors that impose a pattern on the personality.

DYNAMIC TRAITS: MOTIVATING FORCES

Ergs and Sentiments

Cattell proposed two kinds of dynamic, motivating traits: ergs and sentiments.

ERGS

Permanent constitutional source traits that provide energy for goal-directed behavior. Ergs are
the basic innate units of motivation.

SENTIMENTS

To Cattell, environmental-mold source traits that motivate behavior.

Attitudes: To Cattell, attitudes are our interests in and emotions and behaviors toward some
person, object, or event.

Subsidiation: To Cattell, the relationships among ergs, sentiments, and attitudes, in which some
elements are subordinate to others.

Self-Sentiment: The self-concept, which is the organizer of our attitudes and motivations.

TRAIT THEORY BY EYSENCK

Proposed by Hans Eysenck

Eysenck explained personality theory based on three dimensions, defined as combinations of

traits or factors:
E—Extraversion versus introversion

N—Neuroticism versus emotional stability

P—Psychoticism versus impulse control (or superego functioning)

Extraversion: sociable, lively, active, assertive, sensation seeking, carefree, dominant

He found that extraverts have a lower base level of cortical arousal than introverts
do. Because the cortical arousal levels for extraverts are low, they need, and actively seek,
excitement and stimulation. In contrast, introverts shy away from excitement and stimulation
because their cortical arousal levels are already high.

Neuroticism: anxious, guilt feeling, depressed, low self esteem, tense, shy, moody

People high in neuroticism seem to have greater activity in the brain areas that
control the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system. This is the body’s alarm
system, which responds to stressful or dangerous events by increasing breathing rate, heart rate,
blood fl ow to the muscles, and release of adrenaline.

Psychoticism: aggressive, cold, egocentric, impersonal, impulsive, antisocial, tough minded

it has been found that those who scored high in psychoticism had more
authoritarian and controlling parents than those who scored low, thus supporting the influence of
the childhood environment.

HUMANISTIC THEORIES

MASLOW’S THEORY

Abraham Maslow proposed a hierarchy of five innate needs that activate and direct human
behavior. They are the physiological, safety, belongingness and love, esteem, and self-
actualization need. Maslow described these needs as instinctoid, by which he meant that they
have a hereditary component. The needs are arranged in order from strongest to weakest. Lower
needs must be at least partially satisfied before higher needs become influential.

Characteristics of Needs

Maslow described several characteristics of needs.

■ The lower the need is in the hierarchy, the greater are its strength, potency, and priority. The
higher needs are weaker needs.
■ Higher needs appear later in life. Physiological and safety needs arise in infancy.
Belongingness and esteem needs arise in adolescence. The need for self-actualization does not
arise until midlife.

■ Because higher needs are less necessary for actual survival, their gratification can be
postponed. Failure to satisfy a higher need does not produce a crisis. Failure to satisfy a lower
need does produce a crisis. For this reason, Maslow called lower needs deficit, or deficiency,
needs; failure to satisfy them produces a deficit or lack in the individual.

■ Although higher needs are less necessary for survival, they contribute to survival and growth.
Satisfaction of higher needs leads to improved health and longevity. For this reason, Maslow
called higher needs growth, or being, needs.

■ Satisfaction of higher needs is also beneficial psychologically. Satisfaction of higher needs

leads to contentment, happiness, and fulfillment.

■ Gratification of higher needs requires better external circumstances (social, economic, and
political) than does gratification of lower needs.

■ A need does not have to be satisfied fully before the next need in the hierarchy becomes
important

Cognitive Needs

Maslow also proposed a second set of innate needs, the cognitive needs —to know and to
understand, which exist outside the hierarchy we have described.

Self Actualization: The highest need in Maslow’s hierarchy, self-actualization, depends on the
maximum realization and fulfillment of our potentials, talents, and abilities.

Metamotivation: The motivation of self-actualizers, which involves maximizing personal

potential rather than striving for a particular goal object.

Characteristics of Self Actualizing persons

Clear perception of reality

Acceptance of self, others, and nature
Spontaneity, simplicity, and naturalness
Dedication to a cause Independence and need for privacy
Freshness of appreciation
Peak experiences
Social interest
Deep interpersonal relationships
Tolerance and acceptance of others
Creativeness and originality
 Resistance to social pressures

Jonah complex: The fear that maximizing our potential will lead to a situation with which we
will be unable to cope.

ROGER’S SELF ACTUALIZATION THEORY

Rogers believed people are motivated by an innate tendency to actualize, maintain, and enhance
the self. This drive toward self-actualization is part of a larger actualization tendency, which
encompasses all physiological and psychological needs.

Organismic Valuing Process: The process by which we judge experiences in terms of their
value for fostering or hindering our actualization and growth.

Development of Self in childhood

The formation of the self-concept involves distinguishing what is directly and immediately a part
of the self from the people, objects, and events that are external to the self. The self-concept is
also our image of what we are, what we should be, and what we would like to be. The self is a
consistent pattern, an organized whole. All aspects of the self strive for consistency.

Positive Regard

As the self emerges, infants develop a need for what Rogers called positive regard. This need is
probably learned. The need for positive regard is universal and persistent. It includes acceptance,
love, and approval from other people, most notably from the mother during infancy.

Unconditional Positive Regard: Approval granted regardless of a person’s behavior. In Rogers’s

person-centered therapy, the therapist offers the client unconditional positive regard.

Positive Self-Regard: The condition under which we grant ourselves acceptance and approval.

Conditions of Worth

To Rogers, a belief that we are worthy of approval only when we express desirable behaviors
and attitudes and refrain from expressing those that bring disapproval from others; similar to the
Freudian superego.

Conditional Positive Regard: Approval, love, or acceptance granted only when a person
expresses desirable behaviors and attitudes.

Incongruence
Incongruence is the discrepancy between a person’s self-concept and aspects of his or her
experience. Experiences that are incongruent or incompatible with our self-concept become
threatening and are manifested as anxiety.

Characteristics of Fully Functioning Individuals

 Awareness of all experience;

 open to positive as well as negative feelings
 Freshness of appreciation for all experiences
 Trust in one’s own behavior and feelings
 Freedom of choice, without inhibitions
 Creativity and spontaneity
 Continual need to grow, to strive to maximize one’s potential