M2. Lesson 1: Holistic-Dynamic Theory

Question 1

What did Maslow assume about motivation?

Answer 1

Maslow assumed that motivation affects the whole person; it is complete, often unconscious, continual, and applicable to all people.

Question 2

What are the 4 dimensions of needs that people are motivated by?

Answer 2

People are motivated by four dimensions of needs: conative (willful striving), aesthetic (the need for order and beauty), cognitive (the need for curiosity and knowledge), and neurotic (an unproductive pattern of relating to other people).

Question 3

What can the conative needs be arranged by?

Answer 3

The conative needs can be arranged on a hierarchy, meaning that one need must be relatively satisfied before the next need can become active.

Question 4

What are the five conative needs?

Answer 4

The five conative needs are physiological, safety, love and belongingness, esteem, and self-actualization.

Question 5

Needs on the hierarchy can be reversed. True or False?

Answer 5

True. Occasionally, needs on the hierarchy can be reversed, and they are frequently unconscious.

Question 6

What is coping behavior?

Answer 6

Coping behavior is motivated and is directed toward the satisfaction of basic needs.

Question 7

What is expressive behavior?

Answer 7

Expressive behavior has a cause but is not motivated; it is simply one’s way of expressing oneself.

Question 8

True or False. Not all conative needs are instinctoid.

Answer 8

False. Conative needs, including self-actualization, are instinctoid.

Question 9

What does instinctoid mean?

Answer 9

Their deprivation leads to pathology

Question 10

What does the frustration of self-actualization lead to?

Answer 10

The frustration of self-actualization needs results in metapathology and a rejection of the B-values.

Question 11

What separates self-actualizers from merely psychologically healthy people?

Answer 11

Acceptance of the B-values (truth, beauty, humor, etc.) is the criterion that separates self-actualizing people from those who are merely healthy but mired at the level of esteem.

Question 12

What are the characteristics of self-actualizers? (Holistic-Dynamic)

Answer 12

The characteristics of self-actualizers include:
(1) a more efficient perception of reality;
(2) acceptance of self, others, and nature;
(3) spontaneity, simplicity, and naturalness;
(4) a problem-centered approach to life;
(5) the need for privacy;
(6) autonomy;
(7) freshness of appreciation;
(8) peak experiences;
(9) social interest;
(10) profound interpersonal relations;
(11) a democratic attitude;
(12) the ability to discriminate means from ends;
(13) a philosophical sense of humor;
(14) creativeness; and
(15) resistance to enculturation.

Question 13

What did Maslow argue for in his philosophy of science?

Answer 13

In his philosophy of science, Maslow argued for a Taoistic attitude, one that is noninterfering, passive, receptive, and subjective.

Question 14

What is the Personal Orientation Inventory (POI)?

Answer 14

The Personal Orientation Inventory (POI) is a standardized test designed to measure self-actualizing values and behavior.

Question 15

What is the Jonah Complex?

Answer 15

The Jonah complex is the fear of being or doing one’s best.

Question 16

What should be done in psychotherapy according to Maslow’s perspective?

Answer 16

Psychotherapy should be directed at the need level currently being thwarted, in most cases love and belongingness needs.

Question 17

What were the various names that were used to refer to Abraham Maslow’s theory? And what did Abraham Maslow, himself, call it?

Answer 17

The personality theory of Abraham Maslow has variously been called humanistic theory, transpersonal theory, the third force in psychology, the fourth force in personality, needs theory, and self-actualization theory. However, Maslow (1970) referred to it as a holistic-dynamic theory.

Question 18

Why did Maslow refer to his theory as the “holistic-dynamic theory”?

Answer 18

Maslow (1970) referred to it as a holistic-dynamic theory because it 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.

Question 19

Only when can people attain self-actualization according to Maslow?

Answer 19

To attain self-actualization, people must satisfy lower level needs such as hunger, safety, love, and esteem. Only after they are relatively satisfied in each of these needs can they reach self-actualization.

Question 20

What are the theories of Maslow, Gordon Allport, Carl Rogers, and Rollo May thought of as?

Answer 20

The theories of Maslow, Gordon Allport, Carl Rogers, Rollo May, and others are sometimes thought of as the third force in psychology.

Question 21

What was the first and second forces of psychology, respectively?

Answer 21

The first force was psychoanalysis and its modifications; the second was behaviorism and its various forms.

Question 22

What tenets of psychology did Maslow accept as he made his theory?

Answer 22

Like these other theorists, Maslow accepted some of the tenets of psychoanalysis and behaviorism.

Question 23

What did Maslow study as a graduate student?

Answer 23

As a graduate student, he had studied Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams (Freud, 1900/1953) and became keenly interested in psychoanalysis. In addition, his graduate-level research with primates was greatly influenced by the work of John B. Watson (Watson, 1925).

Question 24

In his mature theory, what did Maslow criticize and why did he?

Answer 24

In his mature theory, however, Maslow criticized both psychoanalysis and behaviorism for their limited views of humanity and their inadequate understanding of the psychologically healthy person.

Question 25

What did Maslow believe about humans?

Answer 25

Maslow believed that humans have a higher nature than either psychoanalysis or behaviorism would suggest; and he spent the latter years of his life trying to discover the nature of psychologically healthy individuals.