Chapter 15: Abraham Maslow Flashcards
Third Force Psychology
Maslow’s goal was to round out psychology by making it focus on a subject it had ignored: the healthy, fully functioning human. This effort was psyschology’s third force (psychoanalysis being the first and behaviorism the second.
The third force of psychology is called humanistic psychology and Maslow believed it should be approached with a holistic-analytic approach (studies the person as a thinking, feeling totality) as opposed to to a reductive-analytic approach (reduces human to a collection of habits or conflicts)
Believed ppl who use the reductive-analytic approach desacralize people by making them less marvelous, beautiful, and awesome than they really are
1962 Founding of the American Association of Humanistic Psychology
Founded by Maslow, Allport, Kelly, Roger’s, May)
Principles:
1. Primary study of psychology should be the experiencing person
2. choice, creativity, and self-realization, rather than mechanistic reductionism, are the concern of humanistic psych
3. Only personally.& socially sig. problems should be studied—significance, not objectivity, is the watch word
4. The major concern of psych should be the dignity and enhancement of people
Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow contended that humans have a number of needs that are instinctoid (innate)
Choice the word instinctoid instead of instinctive to differentiate between humans and other animals
- Physiological Needs - directly related to survival (food, water, sex, elimination, sleep). If one of these needs is not met it completely dominates the person’s life
- Safety Needs - (needs for structure, order, security, and predictability). Ppl operating at this level primary goal is to reduce uncertainty in his or her life
- Belongingness & love Needs - need for friends, and companions, a supportive family, identification w/ a group, & intimate relationship (if not met person feels alone and empty)
- Esteem Needs - recognition from other people that results in feelings of prestige, acceptance and status, and self-esteem that results in feelings of adequacy. (Lack of satisfying these needs results in discouragement & feelings of inferiority)
- Self-Actualization - If all of the lower needs are adequately satisfied, the person can become one of hte rare ppl who experiences self-actualization
Characteristics of Self-Actualizing People
- Perceive reality accurately & fully
- Demonstrate greater acceptance of themselves, others, & nature in general
- Exhibit spontaneity, simplicity, & naturalness
- Concerned with problems rather than with themselves
- Quality of detachment and need for privacy
- Autonomous
- Exhibit a continued freshness of appreciation
- Periodic mystic or peak experiences
- Tend to identify with all of humankind
- Develop deep friendships with only a few individuals
- Tend to accept democratic values
- Strong ethical sense
- Well-developed, in hostile sense of humor
- Creative
- Resist enculturation/are nonconformist
Desire to know & understand
Maslow believed the desire to know & understand was related to the satisfaction of the basic needs. Ie: knowing and understanding were thought to be tools used in solving problems and overcoming obstacles, thereby allowing the satisfaction of basic needs. The needs to know and understand exist at all motivational levels but will be directed at the satisfaction of different needs depending on a person’s position in the hierarchy.
The Aesthetic Needs
The aesthetic needs are for order, symmetry, closure, structure, and for completion of actions, which are seen in some adults and almost universally in children.
It is not clear how the aesthetic needs relate to other needs. Two things are clear, however. First, Maslow believed the aesthetic needs are instinctoid, and second, they are given their fullest expression in self-actualizing individuals.
Being Motivation
When all of a person’s basic needs are met, they enter the realm of self-actualization and they become qualitatively different from those who are still attempting to meet their basic needs.
Self actualizing person’s life is governed by being values (B-values) that Maslow also labeled as metamotives—they aren’t primarily motivated by basic needs they are meta motivated by metaneeds. This affects personal inner growth and is also called growth motivation. Examples are beauty, truth, justice
Nonactualizing people are motivated by deficiency motives (D-motives). They are influenced by the absence of such things as food, love, or esteem. Their perception is influenced by their deficiencies and is therefore called need-directed perception, D-perception, or D-cognition). It’s a highly focused searchlight darting here and there, seeking the objects which will satisfy needs, ignoring everything irrelevant to the needs.
B-cognition is a more passive mode of perceive that involves letting oneself be reached, touched, or affected by which is there so that the perception is richer.
Metapathology
Failure to satisfy a metaneed (B-value).
Peak Experiences
Moments of intense B-cognition cause feelings of ecstacy or rapture. Maslow called these mystic or oceanic feelings peak expreiencs.
Eupsychia
Maslow believed all human needs including the need for self-actualization were instinctoid which means the environment (society & culture) determines the highest level of attainment in the hierarchy of needs that one will reach.
He believed that there could be a type of utopia established if 1,000 healthy families moved to a deserted island where they could determine their own destinies. They would live in complete synergy (working together) and there would be complete cooperation.
Ashrams
Retreats where people could escape the anxieties associated with every day life. Slower pace of living, meditation, reflection on the meaning of our lives. Each ashram is led by a guru who acts as a guide for those seeking inner peace. Maslow believed ashrams are places where the already healthy person can become healthier whereas psychoanalysis is for people who are emotionally disturbed.
The first ashram like place in the US was Esalen Institue in Big Sur CA named after the indigenous ppl of that region.
The western name for ashram has become growth center or wellness center
Transpersonal Psychology
Toward the end of his life Maslow began to realize that humanistic psychology could not adequately explain certain aspects of humans. Ex: mystical, ecstatic, or spiritual states were viewed by Maslow as experiences beyond self-actualization. THey’re experiences that transcend the customary limits of personal identity and experience. He believed the study of such experiences should constitute a fourth force in psychology: transpersonal psychology. It is centered in the cosmos rather than in human needs and interest. Goes beyond humanness
Empirical Reserach
Major criticism of Maslow’s theory is that his study of self-actualizing people is too subjective.
One response to this criticism was the development of the Personal Orientation Inventory (POI) by Everett Shostrom. Consists of 150 self-administered items that consist of two statements that you pick between. Yields two overall scores: “Inner-directed support” degree to which a person is her own source of support and “time competence” degree to which a person lives in the present. Has proven to be a reliable measure of the extent to which an individual is self-actualized as Maslow defined the term.
Criticisms
-Too many exceptions (too many ppl are highly productive or creative w/o their basic needs being met)
- unscientific appraoch
- overly optimistic view of human nature
-several unanswered questions (who can become self-actualized? Are less intelligent ppl capable of becoming self actualized? Can ppl intentionally become self actualized?)
-Concepts biased toward western culture (emphasis on personal achievement, autonomy, self-esteem)
Contributions
-vastly increased psychology’s Domain- took a position essentially opposite Freud’s—view of humans as basically good, nonagressive seekers of truth, beauty and perfection. Maslow extended the domain of psychology to the study of healthy humans
-Applied Value - highly influential in the areas of education, business, religion, child rearing
