Self Actualization : Maslow And The Human Potential Thinkers Alike Essay

In 1943 Humanistic Psychologist Abraham Maslow proposed his Theory of Human Motivation. In this paper he outlines what he believes to be a humans hierarchy of needs. Maslow suggests in his journal that one must meet the needs of the previous level before moving on to meet the needs of the next one on the hierarchy. According to Maslow there are 5 tiers of human needs: physiological, security, belonging, self-esteem, and self-actualization. In Welch, West Virginia Jeanette and her siblings must adjust their lifestyles in order to meet their human needs according to Maslow’s hierarchy.

Imagine a girl with a heart of compassion but a past filled with adversity. Imagine living in a childhood filled with sexual abuse and neglect; a home so broken there wasn’t enough tape and glue out there to put it back together. Picture laying in bed at night as a little girl shivering with fear and wondering if the struggle would ever end. Now picture her as an adult driving to a local mental health clinic on any given weekday. She gracefully walks into the building and saunters down the hall to a quaint little office in the corner of the building. She enters a room with walls that have heard experiences and stories of hundreds of others. These walls have seen enough tears to fill up an ocean with waves of anxiety and depression that can take you under in a single swoop. She proceeds to sit down in her office chair and gathers her schedule of clients she has to see for the day. She isn’t the client like you most likely expected. She is the clinician; a wounded healer. A past of adversity does not have to equate to perpetual anguish. I believe that life is about turning trials into triumph.

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.

Most of us live our life without truly living. We follow the path handed down from generations of social conformity. We are taught to aspire to a marriage, house full of descendants, and stable job that supports the aforementioned. Besides the majority leading a constraining lifestyle, there are few who sincerely enjoy their lives and celebrate their individuality. The renowned psychologist Abraham Maslow discusses that people live a fulfilling life because of self-actualization in his study “Self-Actualization and Beyond” in 1967. He notes that with self-awareness, a person “comes to know what [their] destiny is, who [their] wife or husband will be, what [their] mission in life will be” (Maslow 440). In the cases of those who aren’t aware

This was the beginning of one of the groundbreaking contributions to Psychology Abraham Maslow has done. Another way that Maslow has contributed to Psychology by making sure through gatherings, meetings, lectures, and theory that the matter of humanistic psychology is just as valuable and needed to be taught as that of Pavlov’s theory of behaviorism and that of Freudian’s psychoanalysis theory. “As a prophet of human potential, Maslow believed the realization of one’s total potential variously described as self-realization to be the ultimate goal of all human kind” (Dhiman, 2007). He did this with extensive research and by working with theorist that shared the same interests, like Carl Rogers. He did his bit on teaching at a university, but quickly found out that he did not like it very much and had the students teach the class as he monitored. The times that he did lecture the class, he asked questions that broaden the horizons of how the student saw themselves in the future.

In using Maslow 's theory of self actualization and definition of religious experience types (confirming, responsive, ecstatic, and revelational), found no differences between type of religious experience and self actualization. The concern itself is only with the incidence and centrality of a person 's self defined spiritual experience. It is hypothesized that the more people get older the more he or she finds his or her spiritual experience to be a central part of his or her life, the higher they will score on the self-actualization measure.

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.

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, 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

Maslow was one the few psychologist to put emphasis on positivism instead of focusing on human weakness like Freud or his followers. He thought that religion was full of hypocrisy which reminds me of the Roman

There have been many great psychologists, psychoanalysts, immunologists, endocrinologists, and psychotherapists that have made a name for themselves here in America. Sigmund Freud, Carl Rogers, Stanley Milgram, Walter Cannon, and Janice Glaser are just a few. However, the one who piques my interest more than Freud or any other person who has extensively studied psychology as in depth and thoroughly as the ones above mentioned is Mr. Abraham Harold Maslow. Out of all psychologists in the known world, there has never been and never will be anyone who comes close to his ideas, thoughts, actions, and psychoanalyses of the human mind.

This perspective focused on the view that humans were beings capable of rational thought and independent will, with the potential to grow on a personal level, distinct from animals (Weiten, 2013). While Freud was interested in people with problematic mental health, Maslow dedicated his time towards studying people who displayed the penchant for exceptional mental health (Human & Day, 2015). This was done by making use of different types of therapies, one of them being Existential therapy which focused on free will and one’s ability to propel themselves forward with the aim to succeed (Schneider & Krug, 2015). The goal of this perspective is to fully investigate the unique concepts of self, such as self-image, self-evaluation, a subjective frame of reference and self-actualisation (Weiten, 2013). This then lead to the idea that there is a positive desire to strive towards reaching our full potential which Rogers referred to as actualizing tendency (Human & Day, 2015). Roger’s work has, in the past, been disregarded as superfluous and artificial (Human & Day, 2015), however, later on was given credit as other psychologists began to see the merit in his ideas, this was catalyzed by Freud and Skinners experiments (Prilleltensky, 2015). The Humanistic approach is praised for the establishment of free will in psychological perspectives (Weiten, 2013), however, with all the their enthusiasm being focused on that concept, they did not seem to acknowledge that interpretations and deductions based on such subjective concepts are difficult to objectify and therefore cannot be verified or clinically trialed (Prilleltensky, 2015), as with the Psychoanalysis

Every person has some emotions and feelings and every living creature has some rights. To survive, every human being has some needs which are divided into physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs and self-actualisation needs according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory. Human being are also known as social animals because they have some social needs of love, affection, sense of belongingness in relationship with other people(WOOD et al. 2006). Therefore, people need emotional support from their co-workers to work with motivation and attention which can help them to work with more efforts.

Maslow, on the other hand, was an American psychologist. Maslow, just as Mayo, is one of the major “contributors to the Human Relations approach to management”. Often thought of revolutionary during his era. Maslow, in comparison to other psychologist, was engaged in the area of positive psychology, rather than merely looking at abnormalities. He was interested in way how development of the self influenced psychology.