Abraham Harold Maslow and Self-Actualization Essay

Abraham Maslow was one of the pioneers of the humanist movement. He developed a pathway of needs that people must meet in order to achieve self-actualization or congruence. It starts

To achieve self-actualization, or in easier term: happiness, one must go up the five stages of “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs” by Abraham Maslow. The challenges society faces to be successful today are similar to the struggles of the characters in Mary Shelley’s, “Frankenstein.” Everyone has a common goal: prosperity. In Victor Frankenstein’s case, first he accomplishes the first stage of the pyramid by meeting his physiological needs thanks to his father’s wealth. Then, he completes the second stage of safety and stability through schooling and his pursuit of knowledge. Victor has also met the third stage of belonging and love with the help of four important beings in his life. When it was time to reach the fourth stage and accomplish something worthy of recognition, Victor crosses paths with failure. This failure destroys Victor and his ambition, causing him to take a U-turn down the mountain of success. Although Victor Frankenstein lived an eventful life, he could not manage to fully climb up Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs because failure to achieve the next stage can result in descending the pyramid and having to start all over again due to discouragement.

Maslow’s idea about self-actualization is being resilient by picking oneself up after facing adversities. He displays that even though people tend to get fearful because of their thoughts of change or ordeal they may face so they tend to not face their fears. However, it actually emerges a person’s growth as a person if they encounter them. Just like the author Baldwin in “Sonny Blues,” shows that Sonny did drugs and lost himself, but, he did not let that fear get in his way to become a Jazz musician. Instead, he used his adversities as a coping mechanism by expressing his suffering through music. Maslow states that “there may be a movement toward defense, toward safety, toward being afraid; but over on the other side, there is the growth choice.

Rampant child rape, indiscreet public sex, gangs of thieving children, mobs of murderous men and women, these are the images that characterize the mining community set forth in Germinal, by Emile Zola. The graphic images presented by Zola leaves the reader wondering about a society that could allow such harsh conditions for their young. Everyone worked yet they could afford not meat but just bread from their earnings. Food was scarce and the only activity besides work was sex. The workload increased at any time and the worker was at the absolute mercy of the manager or owner of the mine where he worked. These conditions led to the revolution of the mining community. According to Dr. Abraham Maslow's theory of self-actualization,

Abraham Maslow theorized the concept of self-actualization which is the term used to describe the state of self-fulfillment in which people realize their highest potentials in their own unique way. Maslow’s theory includes sublevels that must be achieved before reaching self-actualization. In this paper, I will explain how each of his previous levels have affected my life, and give an idea of when I may hope to achieve self-actualization. Self-actualization is the term that Abraham Maslow used to describe the state of self-fulfillment in which people realize their highest potentials in their own unique way. The personal reflections accommodate to my perspective of the Maslow’s Theory.

He was never enamored with laboratory psychology. He went on to Columbia University as a Carnegie fellow where he worked with Alfred Adler, one of Sigmund Freud’s colleagues. Those days were spent in testing and measuring child and adult intelligence and their ability to learn. Between 1937 and 1951, Maslow was a faculty member at Brooklyn College. During that time he published several articles, on Human Motivation, higher and lower needs, and actualizing people . In 1947, he suffered a heart attack and was forced to take medical leave. He and his family relocated to California. He headed a division of the Maslow Cooperage Corporation, supervising men repairing wine barrels for a local winery. After he recuperated, he returned to Brooklyn College.

Abraham Maslow, an American psychologist and at the forefront of the humanist movement in psychology, proposed a theory concerning basic human motivations that are based upon a hierarchy of needs. (Boeree 1998, 2006) Often described or pictured as a pyramid, basic physiological drives like thirst, hunger and sleep, as well as the need for safety, shelter and some feeling of security are the motivational needs that occupy the bottom tiers of the pyramid.. They provide the foundation for higher levels of needs to become present and available that the individual is aroused or driven to attain. Once those physiological and safety needs are met then the individual looks to love and be loved, to belong

I scored the highest in the humanistic approach after taking the Personal Theory Assessment, and I overall agree with this approach because it focuses on positive self-improvement behavior. Abraham Maslow, one of the founders of the humanism theory, explained our behavior through his “Hierarchy of Needs” pyramid. It examined what stages we must accomplish first before reaching the top, where fulfillment, happiness, and satisfaction with our lives is achieved. Maslow calls this ultimate goal “self-actualization”, which is becoming our own unique and wonderful selves. It makes sense for the lowest part of the pyramid to be our physiological needs. Without stable food supplies and without shelter, people do not have the time and energy to prioritize

Abraham Maslow was always visually examining the greater scope of human nature. Whereas most of his counterparts of his day seemed to be more concerned with a narrower scope, Maslow 's own vision was far-reaching. His lifetime of revelations in motivation and personality transcended academic psychology, and extended into the major business fields of management and marketing. Maslow additionally explored how and individual perceives their existence and beginning to display signs of future potential. Abraham Maslow is noted as the originator of such important ideas as the hierarchy of human needs, self-actualization, higher motivation, team decision-making, and business synergy.

The patient, Abraham Maslow, appears to have possessed an unresolved Oedipus complex and an oral aggressive fixation. Maslow has used the defense mechanisms of displacement and acknowledged using sublimation. Maslow used psychoanalysis intermittently, to address self-recognized anger issues. Further, his cardiologist suggested therapy as anger issues affected Maslow’s health. However, Maslow did not fully complete a course of psychoanalytical treatment and exhibited anger issues until he died of a coronary in 1970.

Abraham H. Maslow was born on April 1, 1908 in New York City, and passed away on June 8, 1970 in California. Dr. Maslow received all three (A.B., M.A. and Ph.D.) of his degrees from the University of Wisconsin. He was also the “founding editor of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology and the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology.” (Professional biography, 1970, p. 98). As a graduate student enthusiastic by the work of Alfred Adler and John B. Watson, Maslow became a dedicated behaviorist, and pursued his socialistic and humanistic (Maslow, 2000, p. 129). From 1933 to late 1936, Dr. Maslow spent most of his research on monkeys and primates, his topic of focus revolved around motivation, hunger, social interaction, sexual behaviour, and learning and reproduction of learned behaviours. In 1937, Dr. Maslow began his work on social psychology, and was a prominent figure and founder of individual psychology as well. His focus during that time included personality and culture, dominance, and personality and social behaviour in women. At the start of 1941, it was evident that his works began to broaden and he delved into abnormal psychology, leadership, human motivation, and developed his famous theory of self-actualization in 1943 (Professional biography, 1970, p. 100).

It is hard to imagine the science of psychology without many great contributors. Psychology is an academic discipline which seeks to understand individuals and groups by establishing general principles and researching specific cases. There are many questions about the human psyche, and brain that are unanswered, which is why we must appreciate those who have gave so much of their time, and studies spent towards figuring that out. So many people have gave their entire life to understand the human psyche, and one of those great people are Abraham Maslow. He is cited as one of the top ten psychologists of all time, which is not an easy task to achieve.

Psychologist Abraham H. Maslow is the developer of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The theory covers human behavior in terms of basic requirements for survival and growth (Cengage, 2002). The theory was developed in the early 1960’s. During this time psychology was taken over by two different views. One side was the human behavior and the other one was the behaviorist. Maslow explained that psychoanalysts had not accomplished the task to consider the behavior of healthy humans. He also mentioned that many subjective experiences that related with human behaviors were being ignored by behaviorist. In the beginning Maslow examined motivations and experience of many healthy individuals. He recognized that there are many requirements in this theory that are important for human survival and to help motivate individuals. He conceptualized different human needs as a pyramid with five levels in

Maslow’s self-actualization was developed from his hierarchy of needs. In the hierarchy of needs there are seven stages. Maslow did not feel that self-actualization determined one's life; rather, he felt that it gave the individual a desire, or motivation to achieve budding ambition (Gleitman and Reisberg). As a person moves up Maslow's hierarchy of needs, eventually they may reach the summit self-actualization (Gleitman and Reisberg). The first stage is physiological needs, which are where an individual will find food and water; also they will be able to use basic functions such as sleeping and breathing.

A first psychologist who looked at people’s behavior from a positive aspect was Abraham Harold Maslow. Maslow was a founder a humanistic psychology. Maslow was born in Brooklyn, New York on April 1, 1908. His parents were Jewish immigrants who came from Russia. Maslow was the oldest out of his seven siblings. He grew up in a non-Jewish community where he faced anti-Semitism. This type of unfavorable environment pushed him to isolate himself from people and indulge himself in books. Unfortunately, his life at home was not that much better. At home, Maslow did not have a good relationship with either of his parents. He did not receive any affection from his mother, who he grew to hate. Even in his adult years, Maslow never spoke anything positive about her. Growing up, he did not have a good relationship with his father, with whom he always fought. However, he made amends with his father in his adult years. Although he did not have a good relationship with his parents, his parents pushed him into education.