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JHPXXX10.1177/0022167817696836Journal of Humanistic PsychologyHowell et al.

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Journal of Humanistic Psychology
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Self-Actualization and © The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/0022167817696836
https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167817696836
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Brittany M. Howell1, Rhett Diessner1,

and Rachel M. Robinson1

Abstract
A tragedy of beauty has occurred in Western culture and perhaps worldwide:
The importance of beauty for a flourishing and self-actualizing life is largely going
unnoticed by both the general public and by psychologists. Philosophers, sacred
scriptures, and a range of empirical findings point to the centrality of engaging
with beauty for a meaningful life and suggest engagement with beauty as a means
of pursuing self-actualization. However, not only American culture but humanistic
psychologists have severely undervalued the fulfillment of aesthetic needs and a
life engaged by beauty. We examined the relationship between the Engagement
with Beauty Scale and the Short Index of Self-Actualization (N = 252). Very
small, nonsignificant correlations were found between the Short Index of Self-
Actualization and engagement with natural beauty, engagement with artistic
beauty, and engagement with moral beauty. This indicates that persons high in self-
actualization have no more interest in beauty than those low in self-actualization;
this implies that those in our sample do not take the importance of beauty into
account as they make choices to grow as a person. We conclude that American
culture has been infected by a tragedy of beauty, which is a serious impediment
toward fully self-actualizing, and to moving toward self-transcendence.

Keywords
self-actualization, natural beauty, artistic beauty, moral beauty, aesthetic
needs, self-transcendence

1Lewis–Clark State College, Lewiston, ID, USA

Corresponding Author:
Rhett Diessner, Lewis–Clark State College, Social Science Division, 500 8th Avenue,
Lewiston, ID 83501, USA.
Email: diessner@lcsc.edu
2 Journal of Humanistic Psychology 

A tragedy of beauty is occurring throughout the West, perhaps throughout the

world, and certainly in America. The tragedy is that the importance of beauty for
a flourishing and potentially self-actualizing life is largely unnoticed in Western
culture. As documented below, aesthetic needs are overlooked or disregarded by
both the general populace as well as by humanistic psychology. The importance
of a life filled with beauty has been emphasized by philosophers, religious lead-
ers, and empirically supported by modern social scientists. Not only American
culture but humanistic psychology has undervalued the fulfillment of aesthetic
needs and a life engaged by beauty. This tragedy of beauty will be demonstrated
by empirical evidence of the disconnect between self-actualization and appre-
ciation of, and engagement with, beauty (in the Results section).

The Importance of Beauty: Philosophers and Prophets

Engagement with beauty has played an especially important role in the flour-
ishing of human beings. As Danto (2003) has written in the Abuse of Beauty:

Beauty is an option for art and not a necessary condition. But it is not an option
for life. It is a necessary condition for life as we would want to live it. That is
why beauty, unlike the other aesthetic qualities, the sublime included, is a
value. (p. 160)

Danto is implying that anyone intending to create a self-actualizing and flour-

ishing life must not only value beauty but must enact that value in their lives.
Throughout the course of Western history, philosophers have argued for
the centrality and importance of beauty (e.g., Aquinas, ca. 1260/1947;
Aristotle, ca. 340 BCE/2002 CE; Augustine, 400/1964; Dewey, 1934/1958;
Ficino, ca. 1475/1964; Hegel, ca. 1835/1993; Kant, 1790/1987; Plotinus, ca.
250/1964; Santayana, 1896/1961; Schopenhauer, 1819/1969). Rollo May
(1985) went so far as to interpret Beauty as more important than either Truth
or the Good in Platonic philosophy: “When Plato considered the great trilogy
of Beauty, Truth, and Goodness, he placed Beauty at the top because Beauty
is harmony, and whether Truth or Goodness are harmonious is the test of their
integrity” (p. 27). Beauty has also been crucial to philosophy in the East:
Confucius emphasized the idea of “integrating beauty and goodness, cultivat-
ing goodness from beauty” (Ames, 2010, p. 25).

Cognitive Needs and Unity-in-Diversity.  Many philosophers have defined beauty

as being equivalent to unity-in-diversity. The importance of beauty as a
source for creating unity out of diversity, and creating a flourishing life, has
been emphasized by Plotinus (1964, p. 143); by Augustine in both his, De
Howell et al. 3

Ordine (1964a, p. 175) and his De Musica (1964b, p. 191); by Marsilio Ficino
(1964, p. 207); by Francis Hutcheson (Dickie, 1997, p. 14); by Schopenhauer
(1995, p. 148); by Harvard professor of aesthetics, George Santayana (1961,
p. 77); by Benedetto Croce (1960, p. 16, 20); and by Susanne Langer (1952,
p. 396).
Experiencing or creating beauty involves being able to see or create a
unity out of a diversity of content and form. For example, to create a beautiful
painting, one must take a diversity elements, such as color and various forms,
and organize them in such a way that they create a unity. To appreciate the
beauty of such a painting, the viewer must perceive the various elements of
the painting and organize it into a unity in one’s mind. Rollo May describes
unity-in-diversity by referring to “beauty as harmony:” “all the parts are in
harmony with all the other parts” (p. 27).
John Dewey (1934/1958) explicitly attributes beauty to unity-in-diversity.
He writes, “ . . . beauty is the response to that which to reflection is the con-
summated movement of matter integrated through its inner relations into a
single qualitative whole” (p. 130). He goes on to note,

There is an old formula for beauty in nature and art: Unity in variety. . . . The
formula has meaning only when its terms are understood to concern a relation
of energies. . . . For the unity in variety that characterizes a work of art is
dynamic. (p. 161)

Dewey points out that simply because there are elements and a unity in, for
example, coins in a pocket, that it will not be beautiful. Rather, the distinc-
tions among the diverse elements of a unity must have relational energies
between them, what Dewey (1934/1958) calls “reciprocal resistances” (p.
161), for something to be worthy of the appellation “beautiful.” He states,
“The ‘one’ of the formula is the realization through interacting parts of their
respective energies. The ‘many’ is the manifestation of the defined individu-
alizations due to opposed forces that finally sustain a balance” (p. 161).
In his later work, Maslow (1970) noted that cognitive needs arise follow-
ing self-actualization needs. Such cognitive needs express the human need to
continuously learn, to explore the world, to reach for new discoveries, and to
create new knowledge on the path to achieving an ever better understanding
of the world around us. Maslow appears to note the importance of unity-in-
diversity with regard to cognitive needs when he wrote, “[t]his process has
been phrased by some as the search for meaning. We shall then postulate a
desire to understand, to systematize, to organize, to analyze, to look for rela-
tions and meanings” (1970, p. 25). Maslow states that first, we have a need to
“know,” and then arises a need to “understand.” We “understand” by creating
4 Journal of Humanistic Psychology 

coherent thought through organizing diverse perceptions and cognitions into

a unity (perhaps akin to what Piaget called a schema). Etcoff (2000) summa-
rizes Plato’s view of beauty by writing, “Plato said that beauty resided in
proper measure and proper size, of parts that fit harmoniously into a seamless
whole [unity-in-diversity]” (p. 15).

The Importance of Beauty Emphasized in Sacred Texts. Merriam-Webster’s

Third New International Dictionary (Gove, 1993) defines “glory: 4a(1):
great beauty” (p. 967). Beauty, often in its denotation of glory, has been an
important concept in the sacred texts of most of humanity’s regional and
world religions and spiritual traditions. In the Buddha’s Dhammapada (ca.
400-200 BCE/1999 CE), “Buddha, the Awakened, is bright with splendour
[beauty] day and night” (chap. 26, line 397, n.p.). Hinduism’s Bhagavad
Gita (Arjuna & Krishna) states, “Fain would I see, as thou Thyself declar’st
it, Sovereign Lord! The likeness of that glory [great beauty] of Thy Form
wholly revealed. O Thou Divinest One!” (chap. 11, n. p.). In King David’s
Psalms of Judaism, “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; wor-
ship the Lord in the beauty of holiness” (Holy Bible, 29:2, King James
version, n.d.). From the Christian Bible, “And the Word was made flesh,
and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory [great beauty], the glory as
of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth” (John, 1:14, King
James Version, ca. 50/n.d.). From Muhammad’s Qur’án, “And he said,
‘Truly do I love the love of good, with a view to the glory [great beauty] of
my Lord’” (38:32). In Bahá’u’lláh’s Seven Valleys (ca. 1860/1978), “In
every face, he seeketh the beauty of the Friend” (p. 7). Besides notions of
spiritual and moral beauty, religions have inspired great art in music, paint-
ing, and the gloriously beautiful architecture of many churches, temples,
houses of worship, synagogues, and mosques (e.g., St. Peter’s in Rome,
Ankor Wat in Cambodia, the Lotus Temple in India, Westminister Cathe-
dral in London, White Pagoda Temple in Beijing, The Blue Mosque in
Istanbul, Jubilee Synagogue in Prague, etc.). They are a great heritage of
beauty to all humankind. These considerations suggest that the experience
of engagement with beauty involves an expansion of consciousness that
may be likened to a spiritual experience (cf. Mattis, 2004) or peak experi-
ence as described by Maslow (1964) in his Religions, values, and peak
experiences. Maslow (1970) has described aesthetic needs as a level
between self-actualization and self-transcendence. This implies that engag-
ing with various forms of beauty produced in association with various reli-
gions (the art, music, and architecture inspired by such religions) may have
fueled many a person’s self-actualizing movement toward self-transcen-
dence throughout the past millennia.
Howell et al. 5

Cognitive and Aesthetic Needs and Positive Psychology

Both cognition and aesthetic perception/conception can be represented as
creating unity out of diversity. Indeed, as we described above, many philoso-
phers define beauty as unity-in-diversity, and the inductive processes of gain-
ing knowledge and understanding create unities (schemas, hypotheses,
theories) from diverse observations. Maslow (1970) wrote that aesthetic
needs are “seen almost universally in healthy children” (p. 25), but then he
seemed to waver about it being universal among adults and only noted that
“some” (p. 25) adults have aesthetic needs. This seems congruent with the
argument below about the tragedy of beauty in American culture—all chil-
dren have aesthetic needs but the culture and its media “educates” us to dis-
regard and ignore our need for aesthetics in our development to adulthood.
The intimate relationship between cognitive and aesthetic needs has been
demonstrated in a recent study by McGrath (2015). He analyzed the factor
structure of the values in action (VIA) questionnaire with an impressive sam-
ple size, N = 1,076,549. The VIA, in Peterson and Seligman’s (2004) original
schema, consisted of six major virtues, each with several derivative character
strengths; this organization was based on reason, but not on empirical
grounds. For example, their virtue of Knowledge/Wisdom, comprised the
character strengths of Creativity, Curiosity, Judgment/Open Mindedness,
Love of Learning, and Perspective/Wisdom. Their virtue of Transcendence
comprised Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence, Gratitude, Hope, Humor,
and Religiousness and Spirituality. What McGrath’s factor analytic study has
shown is that the VIA does not resolve into factors that represent the original
six virtues posited by Peterson and Seligman (2004), but rather into three
major factors/virtues, which he has labelled Inquisitiveness, Caring, and
Self-Control. And the VIA subscales that comprise Inquisitiveness are
Curiosity, Love of Learning, Creativity, Perspective/Wisdom, and
Appreciation of Beauty. This appears to indirectly validate Maslow’s addition
of cognitive needs and aesthetic needs to his hierarchy as fundamental aspects
of human flourishing.

Engagement With Beauty

The empirical research regarding the benefits of beauty have three foci: nat-
ural beauty, artistic beauty, and moral beauty (the virtues). An empirically
based argument for the importance of beauty comes from the research on the
benefits of engaging with natural beauty to facilitate human flourishing.
Howell and Passmore (2013) summarize many studies noting that nature
experiences increase positive affect and feelings of respect and wonder, foster
6 Journal of Humanistic Psychology 

friendship and social engagement, heighten intrinsic aspirations, generosity,

and vitality, and increase cognitive abilities and concentration. The results of
recent studies by Zhang, Howell, and Iyer (2014) and Zhang, Piff, Iyer,
Koleva, and Keltner (2014) make clear that many of these highly desirable
effects of experiencing nature are only experienced by those who engage
with the beauty of nature.
Engaging with artistic beauty is highly associated with open-minded-
ness (Diessner, Iyer, Smith, & Haidt, 2013; Zabihian & Diessner, 2016), a
quality prized by scientists and integral to the scientific method (especially
through seeking disconfirmation of hypotheses; Popper, 1959).
Appreciating artistic beauty has been empirically related to valuing uni-
versalism, benevolence, and spirituality (three values of transcendence;
Diessner et al., 2013). Those who engage with artistic beauty strongly
identify with all humanity, as well as with their community, and also tend
to have a strong love for all humanity. They also feel connected to nature
(Diessner et al., 2013).
Iris Murdoch (1970) has emphasized the moral importance of unselfing
(self-transcendence) and considers that engaging with beauty in art and
nature provides excellent opportunities to unself. The moral emotion of ele-
vation is one of the unselfing emotions (Haidt, 2003). Those who engage
with moral beauty are much more susceptible to the moral emotion of eleva-
tion (Diessner et al., 2013) and those who experience elevation are much
more likely to strive to become morally better human beings, and to seek to
serve the needs of others (for a review of elevation studies, see Pohling &
Diessner, 2016). Such moral striving is a hallmark of serving something
greater than the self and thus fulfilling self-transcendence needs (Koltko-
Rivera, 2006).
Appreciation of beauty is considered one of the major character strengths
of the virtue of transcendence (Haidt & Keltner, 2004). Martínez-Martí, Avia,
and Hernández-Lloreda (2014) have recently collected data in Spain showing
that the more one appreciates beauty the higher is one’s level of self-transcen-
dence. Those higher in engagement with beauty tend to get more absorbed in
their activities and to lose awareness of time and self, they experience stron-
ger relationships with nature and the universe, and feel that everything seems
to be part of a living organism, and they also feel vitalized and comforted by
spiritual experiences. They show more love by being more empathic, sympa-
thetic, and actively concerned for the well-being of others; they have a stron-
ger belief in the sincerity and good intentions of others, and are less envious.
Diessner et al. (2013) also demonstrated that the more one is engaged by
beauty, the more sense of transcendence one has, and the stronger one’s love
for all humanity.
Howell et al. 7

The Tragedy of Beauty

A range of prominent philosophers and prophets, and many empirical find-
ings, point to the importance of beauty for the flourishing life. Engaging with
beauty is essential for well-rounded self-actualization and for moving into
self-transcendence. However, Western culture has increasingly ignored the
importance of beauty for the flourishing life (Danto, 2003; Steiner, 2001). As
Rollo May (1985) wrote, “[t]here is also a cultural reason why we do not talk
much about beauty. Our culture worships change” (p. 24). May goes on to
note that modern culture does not appreciate the eternality and timelessness
evoked by beauty. Instead, we focus on “time is money,” noting that “[o]ur
age is not one in which beauty has a firm place at the Board of Directors’
meeting” (p. 24). This point will be further illustrated below through the
statements of artists and art critics, and through describing the values
espoused and enacted by Americans.
Dickie (1997) explains that the decline of beauty, that is, the decline of its
importance to philosophers of aesthetics and to art critics, began with the
18th-century German and British philosophers who, frustrated with their
inability to define beauty, and their recognition of other relevant aesthetic
factors (the sublime, the picturesque, the aesthetic attitude, etc.), removed
beauty from its central position in art and aesthetics. By the 20th century,
beauty was seldom mentioned by philosophers of aesthetics, and it began to
be spurned by artists as well. Arthur Danto (1994, 2003) has explained how
many socially conscious and radical artists purposefully avoided creating
anything beautiful, and viewed a focus on beauty as naive and irresponsible.
He notes that the art of the last century is an art of activism, indignation, and
accusation. He believes that modern and postmodern artists perceive beauty
as consoling, but they do not want to console—they want to provoke and
accuse. Scarry (1999) appears to agree, offering her opinion that beauty was
banished from the humanities for the last two decades of the 20th century.
Danto (2003) notes that at the time of World War I artists were deeply
unsettled by the West’s hypocrisy in believing itself to be highly civilized, yet
creating and participating in the greatest carnage in history. Thus, beauty
became politicized by socially conscious avant-garde artists in 1915, and
abusing beauty was a way for them to dissociate themselves from a society
for which they had great contempt. This trend continued through the 20th
century—Danto notes that the Whitney Biennial of 1993 was full of shocking
works, that disturbed the viewers, but which demonstrated the commitment
of American artists to addressing injustices of race, class, and gender. Danto
appears sympathetic to this, implying that victimization is ugly, and thus to
make such works beautiful would be artistically wrong. Danto is at pains to
8 Journal of Humanistic Psychology 

show that beauty is not necessary in a work of art, but that nonetheless, beauty
is a fully appropriate goal for artists whose creative works are internally con-
gruent with a display of beauty (i.e., if the goal or intent of the work is
enhanced by making the artwork beautiful). He describes the spontaneous
appearance of improvised shrines throughout New York after the 9/11 attack,
stating that this was evidence of a deeply ingrained need for beauty in human
life:

I came to view that in writing about beauty as a philosopher, I was addressing

the deepest kind of issue there is. Beauty is but one of an immense range of
aesthetic qualities, and philosophical aesthetics has been paralyzed by focusing
as narrowly on beauty as it has. But beauty is the only one of the aesthetic
qualities that is also a virtue, like truth and goodness. It is not simply among the
values we live by, but one of the values that defines what a fully human life
means. (p. 14-15)

American Antibeauty Values.  Although some Americans must have been influ-
enced by the spurning of beauty in art in the 20th century, it is likely many
were not. However, throughout the 20th century, Americans became more
self-centered, more individualistic, hedonistic, materialistic, and power/
achievement hungry. A study of 2,594 (Diessner et al., 2013) people (85%
were Americans) show very low correlations between being engaged by
beauty and the values of power, hedonism, and individual achievement, in
other words, people who ignore beauty put much more emphasis on obtain-
ing power, being hedonistic, or seeking individual achievement. This same
study showed highly significant and substantial correlations between engage-
ment with beauty and the transcendental values of benevolence, universal-
ism, and spirituality (Schwartz, 1992). This implies that beauty is a gateway
to fulfilling self-transcendence needs. Likewise, two studies have shown
negative correlations between appreciating beauty and materialism, indicat-
ing that the more materialistic a person is the less they appreciate beauty
(Diessner, Parsons, Solom, Frost, & Davidson, 2008; Martínez-Martí,
Hernández-Lloreda, & Avia, 2015).
Alas, this spurning of beauty and aesthetic needs has infected the field of
psychology as well. A search in PsycINFO turns up a total of nine hits on
“aesthetic needs,” of which not a single article is in any journal related to
humanistic psychology. In fact, “beauty” or “aesthetic needs” are not listed as
keywords in any article in a humanistic psychology journal. And there is only
one article with the keyword “aesthetic” (Richards, 2001) in humanistic psy-
chology journal. In Koltko-Rivera’s (2006) seminal paper on revising the
conventional presentation of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to include the need
Howell et al. 9

for self-transcendence, he never once mentions beauty nor aesthetic needs

himself, and the words only briefly occur in one quotation from Maslow in
his article.
Although aesthetic needs and beauty have been mostly ignored by main-
stream psychology journals as well by humanistic psychology journals, it has
not be ignored by all humanistic psychologists at the end of the 20th century.
Rollo May’s (1985) My Quest for Beauty is a wide ranging tome with such
chapter titles as, Beauty Has Kept Me Alive, Beauty and Death, and Beauty,
Our Universal Language.
Maslow briefly mentions beauty many times in his articles and books,
especially as a B-value, and as an aspect of peak experiences. However, he
only very briefly wrote about aesthetic needs: after three pages on cognitive
needs in Motivation and Personality (1970), he devotes two short paragraphs
to aesthetic needs. In those two paragraphs, he assures us that “cravings” for
beauty occur “in every culture and every age,” are “seen almost universally
in healthy children,” and that “at least” in “some individuals there is a truly
basic aesthetic need” (p. 25).

Hypothesis Statement
Because engagement with beauty is essential to the flourishing life, it is
expected that a measure of self-actualization would correlate highly and posi-
tively with a measure of engagement with beauty. However, due to the deval-
uing of beauty in American and Western culture, a medium-sized positive
significant correlations between such measures is anticipated.

Method
Participants and Procedure
Initial data collection was from a convenience sample at a small college in the
rural Western United States in spring of 2015 (N = 97). The same population
was again tapped in Fall of 2015 (N = 155). The total sample (N = 252) was
59% women, 37% men, and 7% did not report; mean age was 21.6 (SD =
5.8); 5% Native American, 3% Asian or Asian American, 4% African
American, 8% Latino, 73% White, 1% other, and 6% not reporting.

Measures
The Engagement with Beauty Scale (EBS; Diessner et al., 2008) is a 14-item
self-report scale indicating various levels of cognitive and emotional
10 Journal of Humanistic Psychology 

engagement concerning beauty, and has subscales measuring Engagement

with Natural Beauty (EnB), Engagement with Artistic Beauty (EaB), and
Engagement with Moral Beauty (EmB). It measures these forms of engage-
ment with beauty as traits. The EBS uses a 7-point Likert-type scale ranging
from very unlike me to very much like me on questions such as “When per-
ceiving beauty in nature I feel changes in my body, such as a lump in my
throat, an expansion in my chest, faster heartbeat, or other bodily responses,”
“When perceiving beauty in a work of art I feel something like a spiritual
experience, perhaps a sense of oneness or being united with the universe or a
love of the entire world,” and “When perceiving an act of moral beauty I find
that I desire to become a better person.” The EmB subscale scores can range
from 6 to 42, and the other two subscales can range from 4 to 28. The EBS
total score ranges from 14 to 98. Higher scores indicate higher levels of
engagement with beauty. The EBS has good internal consistency and tempo-
ral validity across the scores of its subscales. International studies with trans-
lations of the EBS in Iran, Germany, Cyprus, India, Hong Kong, and Croatia,
as well as in English among bilingual Samoans, demonstrated alphas from
.85 to .94 for the total score and showed a similar factor structure across cul-
tures (Richel et al., 2008). Predictive validity has been shown for all three
subscales (Diessner, Davis, & Toney, 2009; Diessner et al., 2013; Diessner,
Rust, Solom, Frost, & Parsons, 2006; Zabihian & Diessner, 2015; Zhang,
Howell, et al., 2014; Zhang, Piff, et al., 2014). In the current study, the alphas
were .85 for the EnB subscale scores, .81; EaB, .89; EmB, .91; total score,
.91.
The Short Index of Self-Actualization (SISA; Jones & Crandall, 1986) is
a questionnaire consisting of 15 questions with a 6-point Likert-type scale
response format ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. These
questions focus on self-assessment of one’s own feelings regarding emotions
commonly associated with self-actualization. Questions include items such
as “I do not feel ashamed of any of my emotions,” “It is better to be yourself
than to be popular,” and “I am bothered by fears of being inadequate” (reverse
scored). Jones and Crandall (1986) reported an alpha of .65 in their validation
study of the SISA. In this study, the alpha was .64.

Results
See Table 1 for results. There are nonsignificant very low correlations
between the SISA and all subscales of the EBS in the first sample. In the
second sample, SISA had a small positive significant correlation with EaB,
and once combined, there is only a small positive significant correlation
between SISA and EBS total score.
Howell et al. 11

Table 1.  Self-Actualization (SISA) and Engagement With Beauty (EBS): Means, SD,
and Correlations.

Mean (SD) SISA × EBS r

Sample 1 (N = 97)
  Engagement with Natural Beauty 19.5 (4.9) .04
  Engagement with Artistic Beauty 16.0 (5.6) −.09
  Engagement with Moral Beauty 31.2 (7.0) .09
  EBS total score 66.7 (14.8) .02
  Self-actualization (SISA) 59.4 (6.9)  
Sample 2 (N = 155)
  Engagement with Natural Beauty 20.7 (5.1) .13
  Engagement with Artistic Beauty 17.3 (6.1) .19*
  Engagement with Moral Beauty 32.3 (7.4) .11
  EBS total score 70.4 (15.2) .16
  Self-actualization (SISA) 61.3 (8.5)  
Combined sample (N = 252)
  Engagement with Natural Beauty 20.3 (5.0) .11
  Engagement with Artistic Beauty 16.8 (6.0) .11
  Engagement with Moral Beauty 31.9 (7.3) .12
  EBS total score 69.0 (15.1) .14*
  Self-actualization (SISA) 60.5 (8.0)  

p < .05.

There was no gender difference on SISA: women (M = 60.3; SD = 7.7),

men (M = 60.6; SD = 8.5). However, as has been found in samples around the
world, women tend to score slightly higher than men on the EBS (Diessner
et al., 2013; Hui & Diessner, 2015; Richel et al., 2008), and they did so in this
sample as well: EnB t(232) = 1.95, p = .05, d = .26; EaB t(232) = 0.60, p = .55,
d = .08; EmB t(232) = 3.23, p = .001, d = .42; EBS total score t(232) = 2.44,
p = .02, d = .32.

Discussion
The hypothesis was incorrect. Medium size correlations between self-actual-
ization and engagement with various forms of beauty were not found. In fact,
negligible to very small nonsignificant correlations for EnB, with artistic
beauty, and with moral beauty were found. Only the EBS total score was
significant, but with a small correlation, in the combined (N = 252) sample. It
appears that the participants may have been successfully enculturated to
ignore or disregard beauty.
12 Journal of Humanistic Psychology 

In particular, this is worrisome for the development from self-actual-

izing to self-transcending. Appreciation of beauty is considered one of
the most important aspects of the virtue of transcendence by the Positive
Psychology movement (Diessner et al., 2008; Diessner et al., 2013; Haidt
& Keltner, 2004; Peterson & Seligman, 2004; Martínez-Martí et al.
2014); a movement which has its roots in Humanistic Psychology, and
Maslow in particular (see Peterson, 2006, p. 6). What positive psycholo-
gists call the meaningful life is very similar to what humanistic psy-
chologists call self-transcendence: Both are based on serving something
greater than the self.
If self-actualizers disregard beauty, it may retard their ability to serve
the environmental needs of our polluted planet, cutting off an important
avenue of self-transcendence. That which we find beautiful we love, and
that which we love, we will care for (cf. Richards, 2001). There is, how-
ever, hope: Weinstein, Legate, and Przybylski (2013) found that those who
have their relatedness (belonging), competence (esteem), and autonomy
(self-actualization) needs met are more likely to notice beauty in their
environmental spaces.
If self-actualizers disregard moral beauty they cut themselves off from the
moral emotion of elevation (Diessner et al., 2013; Haidt, 2003). The eliciting
condition for experiencing elevation is perceiving the moral beauty of others’
actions. Elevation causes us to try to become a better person and motivates us
to serve others—two key aspects of the movement from self-actualization
toward self-transcendence.

Limitations and Future Directions

A major limitation is the simplicity of the data analysis: simply correlational.
However, the main point is not so much empirical as rational–philosophical
regarding the importance of beauty in the self-actualizing, self-transcending,
meaningful life. The data indicate a disconnect between the participants and
self-actualization and engagement with beauty. The small convenience sam-
ple, however, prevents generalization and limits external validity. Thus, col-
lecting a large representative national sample is warranted, as would be an
international sample. Future research could investigate if the disregard for the
importance of aesthetic needs is a worldwide problem (i.e., measures of self-
actualization show no relationship to measures of engagement with beauty),
or is limited to particular cultures, and investigate the relationship between
the engagement with beauty and levels of self-actualization.
If aesthetic needs are as crucial to human flourishing as Arthur Danto
(2003) claimed, then interventions are warranted to help people both
Howell et al. 13

recognize those needs existing within them and help them fulfill those needs.
A few such interventions have been created and reported. Diessner et al.
(2006) used a form of weekly journaling about natural, artistic, and moral
beauty experiences. Martínez-Martí et al. (2014) conducted a web-based
intervention that included creating a beauty journal and a multimedia-based
beauty portfolio, along with a forum to share beauty experiences, as well as
didactic information in audio and video sessions. Diessner, Woodward, Stacy,
and Mobasher (2015) introduced focused beauty walks in green spaces.
Diessner, Kirk, Guenthner, Pohling, and Mobasher (in press) developed an
undergraduate senior-level positive psychology course devoted to the psy-
chology of beauty, and which utilized readings about engagement with
beauty, beauty walks, and student and professor presentations containing
beautiful stimuli. However, it is important that a wider variety of approaches
to helping people further engage with beauty be created and implemented.
We also need to discover a way in which to encourage an appreciation of
beauty at the system’s level, to help the culture notice and embrace the impor-
tance of beauty as primary cultural value.

Conclusion
The tragedy of ignoring and devaluing the importance of beauty in American
culture is impeding both the ability to self-actualize and the ability to move
from self-actualization to self-transcendence. This is a crisis for individual
development that has major implications for understanding the psychological
and sociological illnesses that are besetting American as a whole, such as
materialism (Diessner et al., 2008), hopelessness (Diessner et al., 2006), and
alienation from nature (Diessner et al., 2013). We need to bring beauty into
the daily consciousness of human being.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research,
authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publi-
cation of this article.

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Author Biographies
Brittany M. Howell is a graduate of Lewis–Clark State College
with a bachelor’s degree of science in psychology. Her research
interests include mindfulness, yoga, and art therapy with teenagers
exposed to trauma, as well as humanistic, existential, and feminist
psychology. She currently works in an acute psychiatric facility for
youth in Portland, Oregon.

Rhett Diessner has been a professor of psychology at Lewis–Clark

State College for 30 years. He has a master’s degree in educational
psychology from the University of Oregon and doctorate in human
development from Harvard University. His main research interests
focus on engagement with beauty: natural, artistic, and moral.

Rachel M. Robinson is from Colfax, WA and attended Lewis–

Clark State College, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in psy-
chology. She plans to pursue a master’s degree and career in the
Child Life field.