Personality Theory - Essay Example

 Personality Theory Human behavior is directed and triggered by certain innate needs, which Abraham Maslow described in his hierarchy of needs theory to explain the humanistic psychology that describes an individual’s personality. The present elucidation focuses on Maslow’s theory in order to understand how human personality is evolved and shaped by the needs. This theory focuses on both extrinsic and intrinsic factors that shape human personality (Woolfolk & Daiz-Ric, 1995). In the present context, this theory will be explained in brief along with highlighting the background of its origin; further, its application in different fields will be identified before concluding with personal opinion about the theory. The psychoanalytic conceptualization received a different dimension with Maslow’s theory of needs that emphasizes the process of gradual shaping of one’s personality according to the level of satisfaction achieved, unlike behaviorist and psychoanalytic conceptualizations made by others prior to Maslow. While criticizing the psychoanalytic theorization, Maslow focused and emphasized the positive aspects of psychological development despite his own bad experiences during childhood, just like other psychologists’, thereby challenging human nature conceptualized by his psychologist counterparts. Even Abraham Maslow, like few other psychologists, was born during the World War season to immigrants from Russia and settled in New York. Maslow had a tough childhood that faced all sorts of challenges including financial, social and family atmosphere. His utmost agony was due to his mother that seemed to be highly insensitive to children’s needs and thinking. Despite a tough and unpleasant childhood, Maslow’s study, observation and learning related to human psychology entailed positive aspects such as happiness, satisfaction, and serenity along with emotions. Basically, Maslow’s proposition emphasizes the fulfillment of basic needs in order for human beings to feel satisfied, happy and prepared to embark on the journey to achieve or learn what interests them; these basic needs are universally similar but differ in terms of the methods adopted by individuals to fulfill these needs (Schultz, D.P & Schultz, S.E, 2005). In his theory, Maslow attributed self-actualization as the highest form of need, which an individual will strive to achieve only after other needs are achieved. The basic form of needs in this hierarchy is the psychological needs such as breathing, food, water, sleep, etc. Once an individual fulfills these needs, he/she will be provoked to achieve the next level needs, which include safety needs such as security, order, stability in terms of health, employment, wealth etc. The third level of needs include love and/or belongingness needs, which the individual strives to achieve through friendship, relationships, familial ties etc. Once these are established, the fourth level that the individual progresses into is esteem needs, which the individual strives to achieve through improving self worth, achieving recognition and particular status. Individuals strive for these by learning or acquiring specific skills, earning promotion or a reward etc. Such achievements usually have a great impact on the individual’s personality because they make the individual more confident as well as competent, thereby earning greater strength, worth and sufficiency. Ideally, these achievements must lead to inner self-fulfillment and self-confidence rather than those derived from external recognition or fame. The last and highest level of needs in Maslow’s hierarchy is the self-actualization, which relates to the realization or fulfillment of the actual potential possessed by the individual. This realization ultimately helps the individual to be at peace with him/herself; to be highly content and happy; and be able to give back to others in whatever form possible. Achievement of this stage actually helps the individual to develop a unique personality that is identical to the being in that individual, and hence bring the individual at peace with him/herself. To attain this stage, one must have passed through other levels and should be free from constraints and needs of lower levels. At this stage, the individuals would have also acquired a fair understanding of one’s strengths and weaknesses (Schultz, D P & Schultz, S.E, 2005). Maslow’s theory of hierarchy of needs that explains the personality of an individual based on the level of need he/she is pursuing has received much criticism from various perspectives. Firstly, this theory has been regarded as too idealistic way of representing human nature without much empirical evidences supporting the same Secondly, these conceptualizations are biased towards certain ethnic groups and do not consider cultural differences and their impact on people’s thinking, preferences and perspectives related to life, other individuals, needs and nature (Hofstede, 1984). Moreover, this study seems to be focused on self-actualized people, rather than considering perspectives of psychopathology (Friedman & Schustack, 2009). Nevertheless, Maslow’s theory has found significant application in medicine, psychology as well as business management aspects. As explained by Friedman and Schustack (2009), Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory has been helpful in studying general physical and mental health of individuals, and in managing health through right interventions to create wellness among people. The self-actualization perspective described by Maslow has highlighted spirituality and optimism perspectives that were displayed by some renowned personalities. These personalities were considered as fully mature individuals that were successful in their endeavors. This humanistic psychology has also helped in studying and understanding individuals’ behavior from consumer, manager, employee and business administration perspectives. Maslow’s theory has found wide application in understanding consumerism in marketing. This theory has also set foundation to understand human behavior on international grounds, especially helpful for conduction of international business (Hofstede, 1984). Opinionating Maslow’s theory of hierarchy of needs with respect to understanding humanistic personality is quite challenging because this theory on one hand highlights human behavior based on level of need he/she is striving to pursue and on the other hand explains about the motive that drives human behavior. This two-dimensional approach is effective in explaining human behavior based on needs but ineffective in explaining the personality of the individual. Secondly, this theory purports that individuals tend to retreat from higher levels to lower levels of needs; this means their personality and behavior would also change as per the level of needs they would be pursuing at that point in time. However, it is possible that an individual strives to achieve higher order need by foregoing lower level needs. For instance, there are many parents in this world that strive to provide higher education and security to their children while trading off their basic needs. The humanistic personality of these parents cannot be identified with any one specific level in Maslow’s hierarchy. To conclude, Maslow’s theory is a good concept to understand human personality at various stages based on the needs being pursued. It is also true that human beings tend to constantly move up and down the hierarchy based on the situation. Therefore, the hierarchy or order explained in this theory becomes void; however, all needs explained by Maslow are certainly universal and probably shape the individual’s personality to certain extent. References Friedman, H. S. and Schustack, M. W., (2009) Personality; Classic Theories and Modern Research. 4th Ed. Boston, MA: Pearson Higher Education Hofstede, G (1984). The cultural relativity of the quality of life concept. Academy of Management Review 9 (3), pp: 389–398. Retrieved 30 May 2012 from, http://rc.usf.edu/~jdorio/Articles/The%20cultural%20relativity%20of%20the%20quality%20of%20life%20concept.pdf Schultz, D.P and Schultz, S.E. (2005). Theories of Personality. 8th Ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth. Woolfolk, A and Daiz-Ric, L.T. (1995). Educational Psychology. 6th Ed. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon. Read More