SOUTHERN DE ORO PHILIPPINES COLLEGE

Julio Pacana Street, Licuan, Cagayan de Oro City

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Name: DULCE C. NOBLEZA Date: ______________
Course/Year: MAED 1 Time: 8:00 AM – 10:00 AM
Subject: EDUC 201 B: Philosophy of Education Professor: Norma Delima
Topic: HUMANISM Reporter:
Activity No.:

Reflection of Abraham Maslow’s 15 Characteristics of a Self-actualized Person

TASK ON HUMANISM: CHARACTERISTICS OF A SELF-ACTUALIZED PERSON, HOW
MANY OF THEM ARE IN YOU? DO YOU BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE ONE OF THE
LESS THAN TWO PERCENT OF THE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD WHO HAVE REACHED
THAT LEVEL OF MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS? SHARE YOUR REFLECTION
ON THIS.
Source: https://artsofthought.com/2018/04/22/maslow-15-traits-of-self-actualized-people/
1. More Efficient Perception of Reality and More Comfortable Relations With It.
“Self-actualizing people have an unusual ability to detect the spurious, the fake, and the
dishonest in personality, and in general to judge people correctly and efficiently” (Maslow,
1970).
Maslow suggests that this efficiency to detect falsehoods extended to many other areas of life,
including, art, music, scientific matters and even politics. Self-actualizing people could spot
inconsistencies or concealed realities more far more easily than the average person.
This trait can easily be mistaken for “good taste or good judgment,” but throughout the study, it
became clear to Maslow that this was in fact something beyond those two assumptions. He
concluded that this was based on these people’s very consistent perception. They seemed to
have a permanent view of what goes on behind the scenes.

2. Acceptance of Self, Others and Nature.

“They can accept their own human nature, with all its shortcomings, with all its discrepancies
from the ideal image without feeling real concern” (Maslow, 1970).
Self-actualizing people lack overriding guilt, crippling shame and extreme anxiety. They are
more content with life and all of its shortcomings. This is a direct contrast of the person who is
constantly crippled by anxieties and worries.
The self-actualizing person is also able to enjoy their “animal-nature,” without feelings of
regret, shame or apology. “They seem to have a uniformly good appetite for food; they seem to
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 SOUTHERN DE ORO PHILIPPINES COLLEGE
Julio Pacana Street, Licuan, Cagayan de Oro City
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sleep well; they seem to enjoy their sexual lives without unnecessary inhibition and so on.”
(Maslow 1970). This is not to say that they never experience guilt or shame, they just
experience it in appropriate amounts and are rarely hindered by it.

3. Spontaneity; Simplicity; Naturalness

“Their behavior is marked by simplicity and naturalness, and by lack of artificiality or straining
for effect. His unconventionality is not superficial but essential or internal… and he is perhaps
more human, more revealing of the original nature of the species” (Maslow 1970).
The self-actualizing person’s mind is inherently unconventional, and they may feel out of place
in normal social situations; but they tend to play along with them as not to hurt anyone who
thinks they are pleasing him. Though this person will never allow for a social convention to get
in the way of their doing something important; they can easily drop their facade in order to
achieve a goal.
The self-actualizing person is motivated by developing more fully into their own style, which is
in direct contrast to the non-self-actualizer, who is primarily motivated by basic needs
gratification (ie food, water, shelter, sex).

4. Problem Centering.
“Self-actualizing people are in general strongly focused on problems outside themselves… they
are not generally much concerned about themselves… These individuals customarily have some
mission in life, some task to fulfill, some problem outside themselves which enlists much of
their energies” (Maslow, 1970).
Self-actualizing people tend to be focused on what could be called philosophical questions; they
tend to live in the widest possible frame of reference. In other words, they see the big (biggest)
picture.
This ability to view the world with such a large frame of reference holds a very important social
and interpersonal importance. This ability of theirs has an innate way of imparting feelings of
serenity and lack of worry that makes life less painful for not only themselves, but for all those
who are associated with them.

5. The Quality of Detachment; the Need for Privacy

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Julio Pacana Street, Licuan, Cagayan de Oro City
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“For all my subjects it is true that they can be solitary without harm to themselves and without
discomfort… it is true for almost all that they positively like solitude and privacy to a definite
greater degree than the average person.” (Masolow 1970).
Self-actualized people are often undisturbed by that which produces stress in others. This is one
of the first things that people notice about self-actualizing people; they have an ability to remain
calm and serene through personal misfortunes without reacting violently like the average person
does. This can be due to their ability to stick with their own perception of events, rather than
relying upon how others view the matter.

6. Autonomy (Independence of Culture and Environment)

“Self-actualized people are not dependent for their main satisfactions on the real world, or other
people or culture or means to ends or, in general, on extrinsic satisfactions. Rather they are
dependent for their own development and continued growth of their own potentialities. ”
(Maslow 1970)
The self-actualizing person is not at all dependent on what others think of them. This state of
detachment can sometimes be mistaken for rebellion, especially by those who desire to control
others.

7. Continued Freshness of Appreciation

“Self-actualizing people have the wonderful capacity to appreciate again and again, freshly and
naively, the basic goods of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder and even ecstasy, however stale
these experiences may have become to others… for such a person, any sunset may be as
beautiful as the first one” (Maslow, 1970).
This “newness,” as C. Wilson had put it, is very refreshing for people who associate with self-
actualizing people. A husband of 60 years may be just as awe-struck by his wife’s beauty at 80,
as he was when he first married her. This is almost a child-like spirit or playfulness that never
seems to dull with age. As Maslow puts it, even the thousandth flower for the self-actualized
person is just as beautiful as the first.

8. Mystic Experiences (Peak Experiences)

“feelings of limitless horizons opening up to the vision, the feeling of being simultaneously
more powerful and also more helpless than one ever was before, the feeling of great ecstasy and
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Julio Pacana Street, Licuan, Cagayan de Oro City
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wonder and awe, the loss of placing in time and space with, finally, the conviction that
something extremely important and valuable had happened.” (Maslow, 1970).
These peak experiences were noted by subjects to have occurred during sexual orgasm, as well
as through intense enjoyment of music or art. These experiences even extended into a broader
range of any experience which included any time there is a loss of self; problem centering,
meditation or even intense concentration. Self-actualizing people tend to feel to the fullest
extent, and feel in such a way that is out of reach to the average person.
“Peaking self-actualized people tend to live in a realm of being; of poetry, esthetics; symbols;
transcendence’ “religion” of the mystical, personal, non-institutional sort; and of end-
experiences.” (Maslow 1905).

9. Gemeinschaftsgegühl
“Self-actualizing people have for human beings in general a deep feeling of identification,
sympathy, and affection in spite of the occasional anger, impatience, or disgust… because of
this they have a genuine desire to help the human race as if they were all members of a single
family.” (Maslow 1970).
Maslow goes on to say that self-actualizing people often feel distant and alien to the average
person. Very few people understand him, thus, he is often saddened and even enraged by the
self-imposed limitations of the average person. This causes the self-actualizing person to take
on a role of “the older brother/sister,” as Alfred Adler put it, because they see a truth that is very
clear to them which is veiled to the average person.

10. Interpersonal Relations

“Self-actualizing people have deeper and more profound interpersonal relations than any other
adults (although not necessarily deeper than those of children.) They are capable of more
fusion, greater love, more perfect identification, more obliteration of the ego boundaries than
other people would consider possible.” (Maslow, 1970).
Self-actualizing people tend to have very few close acquaintances, due to their extreme
selectiveness. Their bonds are often deeper, but compared to the average person, their circle of
friends is typically very small (if existent at all).
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Julio Pacana Street, Licuan, Cagayan de Oro City
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Self-actualized people also have no problem speaking “realistically and harshly of those who
deserve it, and especially of the hypocritical, the pretentious, the pompous, or the self-inflated.”
(Maslow, 1970). Social ranking is of no importance when the self-actualized person recognizes
deception; whether these be of a religious, political or work-based nature.

11. The Democratic Character Structure

“All my subjects may be said to be democratic people in the deepest possible sense… they can
be and are friendly with anyone of a suitable character regardless of class, education, political
belief, race or color… it is as if they are not even aware of these differences.” (Maslow, 1970).
These individuals often select friends of an elite nature, though not elite in birthright, race or
color; but rather eliteness of character, capacity and talent.
These people easily learn from anybody who has something to teach them, no matter what
characteristics they may have. This quality is often viewed as humility in the purest form. The
majority of Maslow’s subjects exhibited an ability to respect all humans, just based on the fact
that they are a fellow human being. This goes along with their very strong sense of right and
wrong, or good and evil. Self-actualized people “are more likely rather than less likely to
counterattack against evil men and evil behavior.” (Maslow, 1970).

12. Discrimination between Good and Evil

“These individuals are strongly ethical, they have definite moral standards, they do right and do
not do wrong. Needless to say, their notions of right and wrong and good and evil are often not
the conventional ones.” (Maslow, 1970).
Self-actualizing people rarely have to debate within themselves whether or not an action is right
or wrong. They seem to have an innate sense of right and wrong, though this sense may differ
from that of the religious nature. These people may not even be religious at all.

13. Philosophical, Unhostile sense of Humor

“Their sense of humor is not of the ordinary type. They do not consider funny what the average
man considers to be funny. They do not laugh at hostile humor or superiority humor…
characteristically what they consider humor is more closely allied to philosophy than anything
else… more akin to parables or fables.” (Maslow, 1970).
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Julio Pacana Street, Licuan, Cagayan de Oro City
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Self-actualized people tend to joke about humanity as a whole, and all of its shortcomings.
Abraham Lincoln was a great example of this, he probably never made a joke that hurt anyone.
His jokes always had a function beyond just invoking a laugh. They often carried with them
subtle gems of wisdom.

14. Creativeness
“Each one shows in one way or another a special kind of creativeness or originality or
inventiveness that has certain peculiar characteristics… which is akin to the universal
creativeness of unspoiled children.” (Maslow, 1970).
Maslow goes on to say that this creativeness is different than that of a musician, or an artist. It is
more related to the self-actualized person’s ability to do anything they are engaged in with a
certain style. It is as if they are less inhibited or don’t care as much about how other people
view them or their actions, this brings with their actions a certain freedom and beauty.
This creativeness is also closely akin to spontaneity, which is closely related to some of the
behaviors seen in children. They have an almost perfect ability of finding joy in even the most
monotonous of tasks.

15. The Transcendence of Culture; Resistance to Enculturation

“Self-actualizing people are not well adjusted (in the naive sense of approval of and
identification with the culture). They get along with the culture in various ways, but of all of
them it may be said that in a certain profound and meaningful sense they resist enculturation
and maintain inner detachment from the culture in which they are immersed.” (Maslow, 1970).
Although self-actualizing people tend to appear normal on the outside, they are the least bit
ordinary. Maslow also noted that the majority of his subjects never really “identified” with any
organization or culture, they always seemed to set themselves outside of it, as if they didn’t
belong to anything at all. This was noticed when he would ask them about American culture
versus that of other cultures. They didn’t hold American culture with any higher regard than
that of other cultures. This was quite odd, as the Vietnam was occurring during the time this
research was conducted.

REFLECTION

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Julio Pacana Street, Licuan, Cagayan de Oro City
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Abraham Maslow defined Self Actualization as “one’s full unique potential," and I've been
inspired to live this way since hearing his words. I don't know what my exact life goals are yet,
but I know that achieving my unique potential is how I'll find them. Mindset influences how
you experience life and can aid in discovering your passions. Living up to my full potential, I
believe, will make my life the most meaningful. My definition of reaching my full potential
entails doing what I can for others while being content with myself. I've recently found
inspiration in my passion for teaching.
To me, teaching is more than just a means of assisting others; it is also a means of preparing
them to survive in the harsh realities of life. I cannot claim to be a fully Self-actualized
individual; at this moment I only possess some of its characteristics. But what important thing
most to me is that I am living in this reality without hatred and that I value all of my hard work.
I socialized without faking myself and being able to survive on a daily basis, while developing
my potentials.
I may not possess all of the characteristics of a self-actualized person, but I am taking steps to
become one; it may not happen today, but it will undoubtedly happen in the future.

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