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Manual
r
" .Self-Actual ization Inventory
(SEAl)

7
Dr. K. N. Sharma
Dept. of Psycbology
•I University of Rajasthan
-f·, JAIPUR

I
!
ANKUR PSYCHOLOGICAL AGENCY
221481 Indira Nagar, t.ucknow-Le
•

MANUAL
for
Self~Actualization Inventory (SEAl)

Introd1lctioll

Self-actualization has been variously thought of-a need, a cogni-

-live style, a trait, a life process etc. It may either cover one or more
'such components. Maslo N (1954) who started with need theory
thought of- self-actualization only as a highest order need but later on
.in 19iO he extended its concept to be a source of well being. His
-piramid of need-hierarchy Indicated physiological, security, socialf
rbelonginguese, esteem, and self-actualization as needs placed respec-
.tively in order of their degree of highness and chronological origins.
He believed that without the fulfilment of a lower need, a higher need
next to it could not be fulfilled. He postulated. "A person who
-does not have a basic need fulfilled is sick, just as a man is sick who
'lacks vitamins and minerals" (Maslow, 1954). Although this con-
cept can neither be acceptable theoretically nor tenable practically in
'its basic formats, but its enlarged and revised concept is more flexible,
.adequate and considerable. to talk of. For example, in the ancient
ages, and even middle ages, the self-actualized persons were of diffe-
rent breeds than what we find in the later part of the twentieth
-century. Therefore. the concept seems to be more applicable to the
new situations. More prominently we may believe that in the so
-called highly developed and cultural societies, its explanation may be
worthwhile to think of.

Although self-actualizatlon indicates highest motivating indivi-

dual. its explanation is not so simple. Who are then self-actualized?
Maslow has given fifteen characteristics to be found in self-actualized
individuals.

_ 1. Efficient perception of reality : It is ability to perceive other

'people correctly and efficiently, to see reality as it is rather than as
they wish to be. Le3S emotional and more objective people have
-comfortable relatio a s. Their desires and hopes do not distort their
I' •
( 4 )
observations. They are more readily able to detect fake, pbony and'
dishonest motives in others.
2. Acceptance of self. others and nature : Healthy persons dis~-
playa sense of respect to self and others. They accept their own
nature with all shortcomings, frailities and weaknesses. There is.
freedom from overriding guilt, crippling shame, debilitating anxiety
etc. They have hearty appetites, sleep well and enjoy sexual life'
without unnecessary inhibition.
3. Spontaniety, simplicity, naturalness : The efforts are not-
artificially strained. They may be conforming if something protects.
self and others. They may be unconformmg ifthey are not hurting.
others. They refuse to be hampered by social convention. if it ,inter-·
feres with some act which is important or basic to them.
4. Problem ccntering : They are committed to some task, duty.
vocation or beloved job. They are not ego-centered but rather-
oriented towards problems beyond their immediate needs and!
problems to which they are dedicated.
5. Detachment: need.for privacy: At time they want to be-
aloof. They also remain calm and serene during periods Qf'
personal misfortunes.
6. Autonomy : independence of culture and environment: They
. rely on their own potentialities. than the environment. They can do
anywhere because they have 'themselves'. They have self-direction
and free will. They regard themselves as self-governed, active, respo-
nsible and self-disciplined agents determining their own destinies.
They show honours, status, prestige, popularity. Such extrinsic
satisfactions are perceived as less significant than self-developmenn
and minor growth.
7. Continued Freshness of appreciation: They appreciate-
even most ordinary things. They seldomly become bored with their
life experiences and are open to them.
8. Peak of Mystic Experiences: They have intense excitmenn
and high tension as well as those of relaxation, peacefulness, blissful-
ness and stillness. They are n~t necessarily religious or spiritual in
nature. Such experiences call be found through books, music, .art•.
intellectual endeavour and human relationships.
( 5 )
9. Socz'al interest : They are sometimes troubled by the
shortcomings of human race ; they experience deep feeling of
kinship with humanity. They have genuine desire to help people.
They: have a feeling 0[" compassion, sympathy and affection for
humanity'.
10. Intemersonat relations: They form deeper and 'closer
personal relations. Usually they have less friends, because self-
actualizing needs more time. When forced into distressing and
distasteful relations, they are kind enough and pleased but try to
avoid them as gracefully nc; possible. They also become very harsh
withthose who deserve it.
1.1 Democratic character structure: They are free of prejudice ;
they tend to have respect for all persons. They are willing to learn.
from anybody who can teach them.
12. Discrimination between means and ends: They show less'.
confusion, inconSistency and confiict. They have definite moraI~
ethical standards. They know the goals what they are striving for
and means of accomplishing them.
13. Sense of philosophical humour: Their humour does not
poke on other's inferiority, or ridiCUles, or cut dirty jokes. They
express foolishness of humanity•
14. Creativeness: It appears in every day life 10 every indivi-
dual. It is expression of personality which is perceptive, spontaneous,
curious and innovative. .
15. ReSistance to enculturation : They have harmony with
culture Whilemaintaining detachment from it. They like their own.
decisions than popular opinions. They remain within limits of eon-
formity with respect to food, clothes, speeches etc. They resist when
they feel basic issues are involved.
Maslow emphasized that the need (or self-actualization is a
healthy man's prime motivation. Self-actualization means actuali-
zing ones potentials, becoming everything one is capable of becoming:
He said, "What a man can be he must be". It is person's desire for
self improvement, or actual use of potentials, talents and capacities.
To actualize is to become the total kind of person that one wants to
become to reach the peak of his or her putential; a musican must
make music. an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be at
 • > • •
( 6 )
peace with himself. What a man can be. he must be. He must be
'true to his own nature. , risks, to make mistakes. and to treat old habits. They lack courage.
Self-actualization need not take the form of creative aqd,
: artistic endeavours. A parent, an athelete, a student. a teacher, and
'_an ardent labourer may be actualizing their potential abilities in doing,
well what they each can do best. Since specific (OrIllS of self·actuali-
:zation vary greatly from person to person, it is at this level 01
_Maslow's need hierarchy that individual differences are greatest.
It is self-fulfilment and becoming "more and more what one
~is". The person who has achieved this highest Ievel presses toward
::attaining the value of "the true", "the good", "the beautiful" and
"the iperfect" (Maslow, ) 962). Achieving this level, the person
'becomes more self-sufficient: less dependent on his lower needs, less
'needful of others. and less reactive to his environment. Thus self-
actualization is not some static unreal paradise. There are pains and
.sufferinga, but they are over real problems. and not over superficial
ma tters. There are movemen ts and changes, but they are inner direc-
ted growth and not outer instigated motions.
Cangemi (\976) studied tile characteristics of self- actualized
individuals. He found that such individuals have become fully
human and have used their capacities to the maximum. Such indivi-
dual'l have cl.iscovered their latent potentials and perfected their
uniqueness. They have learned what is possible and what is not and have
'taken appropriate steps to bring about the possible. Cangemi and
'Englander (1974) concluded that adequate self-awareness is the
first step toward self-actualization or self-fulfilment. The intervening
steps are insight, self-understanding, self-acceptance, psychological
growth, and psychological health. Therefore education must teach
this., The individual must feel he is very important and useful
specimen Qf the nature and is made for the work he is doing. He
thas all adequate potentials to do the taken up job, and he can be
,,8 successful man in that profession.
Mankind has a need for and strives towards inner fulfilment.
"The impulse towards realizing one's potentialities is both natural and
'Deces~ary. Yet very few, only specially gifted ones, achieve self-
actuali'zation. Their percentage may be only less than one. There are
some reasons to it. In fact people do not realize their own abilities.
and preclude a fair chance of becoming self-actualized. The social
environment also strifies development towards self-actualization of all
its members. Some societies may be superior to others in terms of
( 7 )
providing opportunities for individual self-fulfilment only. Safety
need also inhibits self-actualization. It restricts individuals to take
IIndividuals fear and .anxiety also increase their tendency to regress
'toward safety and security Most people exhibit to continue specific
'habits-« to persist to past behaviour. For example, children reared in
'secure, warm. friendly atmosphere have healthy growth. Realization
-of one's own potential requires openness to novel ideas and experiences
which ultimately helps in development of self-actualization. Indian
'conditions never suit this. Neither education, society nor organiza- '
'tions ·provide ipdependence or facility for self-development. There-
fore, it is the need' to improve the environments. to make them
to suit individual potentials to develop and make every individual his
own.
The advantages of Maslow's concept of self-actualization are
rthat .it is a positive goal, not a negative concept. It avoids the
.ditficulties of the adjustment model, it combines interpersonal goals,
lit regards the goa I as a process, it allows for individualization, it ca n
'be applied to life, it relates all individuals, and it is core around which
.other needs are built and clustered.
'Construction of the Inventory
At present, there is only one inventory, the Personal Orienta-
tion Inventory, which can measure self-actualization as one dimension.
The Inve;ntory contains in all 300 items put in the form of 150 pairs.
Under the Indian situations, the Inventory has many flaws. The
first is that it is very lengthy, and takes one and a half to twohours
to complete the Items. This bores most of the Ss, and there remain
more chances of leaving much part blank. Secondly, being in
Bngfish, it is heavily culturally loaded because there are many items
which are relevant in the American culture but are meaningless in
the Indian Culture. Thus, responses on them remain unworthy.
Thirdly, it measures many other dimensions also, but if one is
interested only in measuring self-actualization, he has to administer
the whole Inventory and score only one factor. This wastes adminis-
tration. Therefore a great need was felt to construct the present
Inventory, specially for Hindi Speaking and Knowing people. Due
help was taken from the Personal Orientation Inventory in construc-
tion ofitems in the form of statements on the basis of the fifteen
.characteristics of a self-actualized individual as given by Maslow,
 ( 8 ) ( 9 )
but the items had only Indian cultural load, if at all they had some It has also been seen that because of self-exposition. th
ince thCfy'were in simple Hindi, about 115 in number. ,. on the items are obtained on a little higher side of the score contin-
Twenty psychologists, almost teachers and research scholars, uum. The trend being in general, it does not, affect the results.
However, the degree of self-actualization of a porson can be
were then asked to rate all those constructed items on a five-point
compared to the three degrees obtained by Flanagan's method given
cale and put in any of the fifteen S-A characteristic group they cclt. '
in the table below :
The items which got ranking below three on either of the S-A charac-'
ter istics were rejected. Out of the remaining 93 items, the upper five TABLE 1
(or each S-A characteristic, were selected for the- final Inventory"
thus comprising of 75 items in total. A three-point rating scale Degrees of self-actuaUzatloD
Indicating 'equal to nil', 'some' and 'much' degrees of S-A characteris-
tics has been provided infront of each of the statements.' The statt-·
High S-A Medium S-:-A LowS-A
ments were mixed randomly. Raw Score 163-186 82-
187+
AdxninistratioD and Instruction.
Instructions are written overleaf of the Inventory in Hindi. It
.nn be administered either in group or individual situations, and given,
the following instructions:
I The cut values
group, and therefore,
groups.
of these degrees may vary from group to
the users may find them afresh for their own

"Below are some statements. Infornt of them there are places.

or three possible answers: 'equal to nil', 'some', and 'much'.
mark. in a respective column after going through each statement
carefully of a degree of which you think of yourself on that state-
Tick.
l
j
Reliability
The test-retest reliability of the Inventory
of 100 eighth class students was found to be '85.
on a small sample

Validity
"lent. Mark only at one place for one statement. Your answer
IIIUst be accurate after well thought. There is less time. Therefore •. Since there is no test of self-actualization available except POI
which has its own limitations, criterion validation could not be done.
"lease hurry up." However, the content validation of the items has already been made
Although there is no time limit for the administration of the thoroughly. f\, correlation of ~27 was found against Kakkar's Self-
Inventory, but the Ss take about 30 minutes to complete it. Acceptance Inventory, and '29 with NCERT'S Self-Perception Inven-
coring ,,~1'/ . I ~I .1 r \' . tory.
d /' 1
NorlDs
The scoring is simple. The three alternatives- IF&r1 ~, sn~
Percentile norms are available on a sample of 200 Ss of mixed
Iq'f Olft.rCfi have been assigned
1, 2,3 weights respectively- The scorer
group compresing of students, workers etc. with educational qualifi-
has to count and put the totals of the tick marks on each page in the cations from primary class pass to M. A, pass with an age range of
Ihree respective boxes prOVIded for the purpose. At the end, the grand
17 - 30 years, and an average age of 22'71 years (see Table 2). The
totals of the marks should be multiplied by the above weights, i.e,
,l-spective obtained frequencies of the three total response categories TABLE 2
respective weights. QualificatioDwise distribution 01 the SalDple
Since some of the S- A dimensions were not highly correlated
Primary Middle Higher Secondary B. A. M. A.
I"'cause (If heterogeDeity and diversions of their functionality, their
14 61 99 22 4
1i1l'H'nsionalapproach was not found feasible.
 ,
( 10 )

.actual percentiife or a score can be obtained by a user by interpolation.

"
Norms for specific groups can be prepared by the users according
·to their needs. Supply of such data to the author will be incorpor-
ated in future publications of the manual under due acknowledge-
ments. The users are, therefore. requested to do it.

TABLE 3

Percentile NorD1s

Percentile Raw Score

99 202
90 196
80 190
7Q' 186
60 181
50 176
40 170
30 165
20 159
10 146

REFERENCES
'Cangemi, Joseph P. 1976. Characteristics of self actualizing indivi-
duals. Span Ravista Psychologica General Applicada, 31, 138.
88-90 .
.Cangemi, Joseph P. and Englander Maryl R. 1914. From self-
awareness to self-actualization. Col/ege Student J. 82. 88·92.
Maslow, A. H. 1954. Motivatian and Personality. N_ J. Harper
& Row •
.Maslow, A. H. 1962. (Towards 0 Psychology of' being, N. J., D. Van
Nostrand .
.Khurana. Amuly, 1986. Self Actualization Among Teachers. Agra,
National Psychological Corp.