aslow

MABRAHAM HAROLD MASLOW

Theory critique

Biography concept of
humanity

Details of the case examples

theory

applications references
 THEORY:

B R A H A M
A ' S
S L O W
MA
I S T I C -
HO L
M I C
DYNA
THE O R Y

assumes that the whole person is

constantly being motivated by one need or
another and that people have the
potential to grow toward psychological
health, that is, self-actualization.
BIOGRAPHY:
A LOOK BACK IN
MASLOW'S LIFE
ABRAHAM
HAROLD
MASLOW

BIRTHDATE: April 1, 1908

BIRTHPLACE: Manhattan, New York

PARENTS: Samuel Maslow - a

Russian-Jewish immigrant who made
a living preparing barrel
Rose Schilosky Maslow

DEATH: June 8, 1970

BIOGRAPHY:
A LOOK BACK IN
MASLOW'S LIFE
Abaraham Maslow was best known because of his Hierarchy of
needs, a theory of psychological health predicated on
fulfilling innate human needs in priority, culminating in self-
actualization.
He spent his unhappy childhood in Brooklyn.
Eldest son of Samuel Maslow and Rose Schilosky.
Grew up with intense shyness, inferiority and depression.
He was not close with his parents specially with his mother.
Up until to the death of his mother, hatred still lies on his
heart towards her.
According to a friend named Edward Hoffman, when Maslow
was still a child, he brought home two street kittens and fed
them but his mother saw them and killed the kittens in front
of him.
He grew up as an atheist and do not trust religion.
Maslow was a psychology professor at Brandeis University,
Brooklyn College, New School for Social Research and
Columbia University.
He stressed the importance of focusing on the positive
qualities in people, as opposed to treating them as a "bag of
symptoms."
Maslow's parents had decided to live in New York City and in a
multiethinic, working-class neighbourhood.
His parents were poor and not intellectually oriented, but
they valued education. It was a tough time for Maslow, as he
experienced anti-semitism from his teachers and from other
children around the neighborhood.
He had various encounters with anti-semitic gangs who would
chase and throw rocks at him.
Maslow and other optimistic youngsters at the time with his
background were in the struggle to overcome such acts of
racism and ethnic prejudice in the attempt to establish an
idealistic world based on widespread education and monetary
justice.
BIOGRAPHY:
A LOOK BACK IN
MASLOW'S LIFE
In 1967, Maslow had an almost fatal heart attack, and knew
his time was limited.
Maslow considered himself to be a psychological pioneer. He
gave future psychologists a push by bringing to light
different paths to ponder upon.
He built the framework that later allowed other psychologists
to add in more information.
Maslow long believed that leadership should be non-
intervening.
He rejected a nomination in 1963 to be president of the
Association for Humanistic Psychology because he felt that
the organization should develop an intellectual movement
without a leader.
He had many concerns about leadership even though he was
elected President of the APA.
He died of a heart attack on June 8, 1970.8. 
Maslow’s Contribution to Psychology Humanistic theories of
self- actualization Humanistic psychologists believe that
every person has a strong desire to realize his or her full
potential, to reach a level of "self-actualization".
 D ET AIL S OF
TH E T HE OR Y
Maslow's view of motivation
BASIC ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING MOTIVATION.
1. A holistic approach to motivation
- The whole person, not any single part or function, is motivated.
2. Motivation is usually complex
- meaning that a person’s behavior may spring from several separate motives.
3. People are continually motivated by one need or another
- When one need is satisfied, it ordinarily loses its motivational power and is then
replaced by another need.
4. All people everywhere are motivated by the same basic needs
- The manner in which people in different cultures obtain food, build shelters, express
friendship, and so forth may vary widely, but the fundamental needs for food, safety,
and friendship are common to the entire species
5. Needs can be arranged on a hierarchy
- some human needs are more imperative than others.
 D ET AIL S OF
TH E T HE OR Y
Hierarchy of needs

1. Physiological needs
- these are biological requirements for human survival. If these needs are not
satisfied the human body cannot function optimally.
- Maslow considered physiological needs the most important as all the other needs
become secondary until these needs are met.

2. Safety needs
- Once an individual’s physiological needs are satisfied, the needs for security and
safety become salient. People want to experience order, predictability and control in
their lives. These needs can be fulfilled by the family and society.
 D ET AIL S OF
TH E T HE OR Y
Hierarchy of needs
3. Love and belongingness needs
- after physiological and safety needs have been fulfilled, the third level of human
needs is social and involves feelings of belongingness.
- The need for interpersonal relationships motivates behavior

4. Esteem needs
- are the fourth level in Maslow’s hierarchy - which Maslow classified into two
categories: (i) esteem for oneself and (ii) the desire for reputation or respect from
others
- Maslow indicated that the need for respect or reputation is most important for
children and adolescents and precedes real self-esteem or dignity.

5. Self-actualization needs
- are the highest level in Maslow's hierarchy, and refer to the realization of a person's
potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.
- Maslow (1943) describes this level as the desire to accomplish everything that one
can, to become the most that one can be.
- Individuals may perceive or focus on this need very specifically.
 D ET AIL S OF
TH E T HE OR Y
Other cathegories of needs
Cognitive needs
- knowledge and understanding, curiosity, exploration, need for meaning and
predictability.

Aesthetic needs
- appreciation and search for beauty, balance, form, etc.

Transcendence needs
- A person is motivated by values which transcend beyond the personal self

85% of Physiological Needs met

70% of Safety Needs met
50% of Love and Belongingness Needs met
40% of Esteem Needs met
10% of us are Self-Actualized

Sometimes the order is reversed, too.

Maslow differentiated between unmotivated behavior and motivated behavior,
between expressive (serves no purpose) and coping behavior (is unlearned,
spontaneous, and determined in part by the environment).
Also suggested that even instinctual behavior (i.e., instinctiod), can be modi ed
through learning
 D ET AIL S OF
TH E T HE OR Y
Other cathegories of needs
SELF-ACTUALIZATION
- Very diCcult to achieve
- Looked closely at admired individuals to see why they were SA and then, why they
were not!
- Developed some criteria for Self-Actualizationo
Free from psychopathologyo
Had progressed through the hierarchy of needso
Embrace B-values
Ful'lled their needs to grow, to develop, and to increasingly become what they are
capable of becoming

Fourteen B-Values
1. Truth 8. Completion
2. Goodness 9. Justice and order
3. Beauty 10. Simplicity
4. Wholeness or the transcendence 11. Richness or totality
of dichotomies 12. Effortlessness
5. Aliveness or spontaneity 13. Playfulness or humor
6. Uniqueness 14. Self-suCciency or autonomy
7. Perfection
 D ET AIL S OF
TH E T HE OR Y
Other cathegories of needs
Self-actualized people have unique characteristics
More efficient perception of reality
Acceptance of self, others, and nature
Spontaneity, simplicity, and naturalness
Problem centering Need for privacy
Autonomy
Continued freshness of appreciation
The Peak Experience
Gemeinschaftgefuhl (a community feeling or oneness with all of humanity
Profound interpersonal relations
The democratic character structure
Discrimination between means and ends
Philosophical sense of humor
Creativeness
Resistance to enculturation
Self-actualization
- allows individual to have a deeper, more profound sense of love and sex. It
transcends the usual importance and is not at all motivated by defociency or
importance
 D ET AIL S OF
TH E T HE OR Y
The Jonah Complex
the fear of being one’s best
characterized by attempts to run away from one’s destiny just as the biblical Jonah
tried to escape from his fate.
which is found in nearly everyone, represents a fear of success, a fear of being one’s
best, and a feeling of awesomeness in the presence of beauty and perfection

Philosophy of Science
Maslow believed that scientists should care about the people and topics that they
investigate
Place more emphasis on the individual and less on the study of the larger group
It should emphasize the wholeness of the individual as seen from the person’s
subjective view
Psychology should take on more of a Taoistic attitude which is more noninterfering,
passive, and receptive
 MEASURING SELF-
ACTUALIZATION
Personal Orientation Inventory
APPLICATIONS
an attempt to measure the values and behaviors of self-
actualizing people.
This inventory consists of 150 forced-choice items
2 major scales and 10 subscales. The first major scale—the
Time Competence/Time Incompetence scale—measures the
degree to which people are present oriented. The second
major scale—the Support scale—is “designed to measure
whether an individual’s mode of reaction is characteristically
‘self’ oriented or ‘other’ oriented”

Short Index of Self-Actualization

borrows 15 items from the POI that are most strongly
correlated with the total self-actualization score
created by Alvin Jones and Rick Crandall
a useful scale for assessing self-actualization.

Brief Index of Self-Actualization

inventory yields four factors: (I) Core Self-Actualization, or
the full use of one’s potentials; (II) Autonomy; (III) Openness
to Experience; and (IV) Comfort with Solitude.
 PSYCHOTHERAPY
Clients must be free from their dependency on others and
move naturally toward growth and self-actualization
APPLICATIONS
All people have an inherent tendency to move toward a better,
more enriching condition (SA)
The goals of psychology follow from the client’s position on
the hierarchy of needs. Full the lower needs and then the
higher ones.
Because the lower needs are typically already met,
psychotherapy is usually an interpersonal process between
the client and therapist
A healthy interpersonal relationship between the client and
therapist is therefore the best psychological medicine
This accepting relationship gives the client a feeling of being
worthy of love andfacilitates their ability to establish other
healthy relationships outside of therapy

RELATED RESEARCH
Positive Psychology
Personality Development, Growth, and Goals
 Critique
Generate Research

Falsifiability

Organize Knowledge

Guide Action

Internally Consistent

Parsimony

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 Concept of
Humanity
Maslow believed that all of us can
be self-actualizing; our human nature
carries with it a tremendous potential
for being a Good Human Being. If we
have not yet reached this high level of
functioning, it is because we are in
some manner crippled or pathological.
We fail to satisfy our self-actualization
needs when our lower level needs
become blocked: that is, when we
cannot satisfy our needs for food,
safety, love and belongingness, and
esteem. This insight led Maslow to
postulate a hierarchy of basic needs
that must be regularly satisfied before
we become fully human.
References
Feist, J., & Feist, G. J. (2008). Theories of Personality
(7th ed). United States of America: The McGraw-Hill
Companies, Inc.

https://www.studocu.com/ph/document/southwestern
-university-phinma/bs-psychology/summaries/maslow-
holistic-dynamic-theory/2733599/view
References
(2017, February 11). Psychology 405: Theories of
Personality, The Concept of Humanity of Karen
Horney in Psychoanalytic Social Theory. Retrieved
from https://owlcation.com/social-
sciences/Psychology-405-Theories-of-Personality-The-
Concept-of-Humanity-of-Karen-Horneyy in
Psychoanalytic Social Theory.

(2019, August 19). Why Karen Horney Is Important to

Feminine Psychology. Retrieved from
https://www.verywellmind.com/karen-horney-
biography-2795539.