The Psychological Fields Of Self Actualization

Abraham Maslow focused on human experience, problems, potentials, and ideals. Throughout his study of Humanism, he created what is known as the “Hierarchy of Human Needs.” This hierarchy places the needs of humans in an ordered fashion based on their level of importance. At the bottom of the pyramid is a person’s physiological needs, then their safety needs, sense of love and belonging, self-esteem, and then at the final tier of the hierarchy is self-actualization. Maslow claimed

5. Self-actualisation – the need for personal fulfilment and the need to grow and develop.

With these few thoughts in mind Abraham Maslow made up a hierarchy of needs. (Boeree, Page 2) The hierarchy of needs has five levels: the bottom one is Physiological Needs, the next one up is Safety needs, the next one is Belonging needs, the next one is Esteem Needs and finally the last one is Self-actualization needs. As Maslow thought he “saw human beings needs arranged like a ladder”, the most basic needs at the bottom and at the top the need to fulfill yourself. (pbs.org, Page 1) Below is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

* The need for self actualisation is the pinnacle of human needs according to Maslow. To reach the point where these needs are met, one needs not only to have met the previous four, but needs to have mastered them as

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

Abraham Maslow was an American theorist that was one of the advocates of humanistic psychology. He believed that self-actualization is “a situation that exists when a person is acting in accordance with his or her full potential” (Hergenhahn & Olson, 2011). I will illustrate the key concepts of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs of humans, research the methodologies of his concept, and address how self-actualization has conceptualized on this type of personality development. His contribution

“Musician’s must make music, artists must paint, poets must write if they are to be ultimately at peace with themselves. What human beings can be, they must be. They must be true to their own nature. This need we may call self-actualization.” (Maslow, 1954)

According to Psychologist Abraham Maslow in “Self-actualization and Beyond,” self-actualization is a process in which one identifies his inner ability to do something productive. Once this inner talent comes out, that’s when a person actualizes himself. He believes that every individual self-actualizes, and while doing so one might make many wrong choices. Sonny and his older brother are faced with several obstacles while being on a journey to self-actualization in “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin. However, these obstacles not only come from their surroundings, but within themselves as well. The narrator himself and his younger brother, Sonny struggle with, and gradually develop their own

As odd as it sounds, disasters can lead someone to become the best that they can be. In Piers Paul Read’s book Alive, the story is about the real life events of the survivors of Uruguayan Flight 571’s crash in the Andes and the events that led to their survival. Gregory Boyle’s Tattoos of the Heart, tells stories of Boyle's encounters with different “Homeboys” who grew up in dangerous parts of Los Angeles and how God helped him in his mission to help the kids. Through these two books, both stories have shown traits and conditions that lead to self actualization, the importance of the mind during harsh times, and similarities between both.

Self-actualization refers to the desire to achieve one’s greatest potential or as Maslow writes “what a man can be, he must be” (Maslow). Abraham Maslow, a researcher and a pioneer in the field of psychology, strongly believed that people can control their own behavior and have the abilities to reach their full potential. Maslow is perhaps best known for his “Hierarchy of Needs” that culminates in self-actualization. This hierarchy begins with so-called “basic needs” - psychological, safety, social, and esteem - and concludes with the “growth need”. Among other characteristics, Maslow describes self-actualized people as highly creative, independent, genuine individuals who are resistant to enculturation and accept themselves for who

Maslow's foundation tier, the one upon which all others are built upon, is the physiological need. Air to breathe, food and water, and adequate sleep are all basic biological needs that the individual must have met. Not only to be motivated by the next level of need in the hierarchy, but to survive. The body's biological drives to fulfill these needs will predominate all other activities, as the very life of the organism is at stake. ( Boeree 1998, 2006)

When we do so, self actualisation will occur. Rogers likened this actualisation process to the growth of plants, having an innate tendency to grow from a seed to full potential when exposed to favourable conditions. Rogers believed that for a person to achieve self-actualisation they must be in a state of congruence, thus, self-actualisation occurs when a person’s ideal self is congruent with their actual behaviour and self-image. For the client to self actualise; key principals must be employed during the counselling process. Outlined as follows:

Maslow 's idea of self-actualization came with this pyramid that he established. In that pyramid were needs to reach self-actualization which is a state of happiness. His belief was that a person would have to go through each step in order and cannot go ahead without the prerequisite. He starts with Physiological needs which would be air, food, water, shelter, sex, sleep. If we don’t have any of these needs we won’t be able to focus on much else besides those needs.

He placed the most basic needs at the bottom of the pyramid and the most advanced needs at the top of the pyramid. According to Maslow , when people satisfy one level of need, they then move up to the next level. In his theory, the most basic need is the survive – to have enough money to buy food, shelter and necessary clothes. When they have satisfied the need for survival, they then need to feel safe and secure – perhaps from unemployment. So that second level of need is the security. After that, people need to belong to a group and to have friends – these are their social needs. They then move on the needing status. At this stage they need to be respected in the community, to be esteemed, and to be given recognition for what they do. When all these needs have been satisfied, people finally have self-actualization needs. This is ambition to achieve as much as they possibly can – perhaps to be promoted to high-level position with more responsibility. (Jane, 1999) 4

Many of us of heard of Abraham Maslow 's 'Pyramid of Human Needs. ' We know a little about the basic needs of food, shelter, et cetera. We know of feelings of belonging and self-esteem. We also know of self-actualization, though there is often confusion between self-actualization and self-realization. So I 'd like to explain a little about the difference here.