Abraham Maslow: One of the Most Important Psychologists of Modern Times - Coursework Example

Running Head: ABRAHAM MASLOW Abraham Maslow: One of the Most Important Psychologists of Modern Times SCHOOL Abraham Maslow is one of the founders of the school of transpersonal psychology. He changed the world’s outlook of the existing humanistic nature of behavior. He believed that mankind’s necessities for safety, love, esteem and self-actualization are top-priority than physiological necessities for food, water, sleep and oxygen. Maslow formulated a hypothesis of a “hierarchy of needs”, emphasizing the need for "self-actualization" as the ultimate peak. His natural approach of human behavior and spirituality gained more attention from millions of Americans especially from the field of psychology (“Maslow, Abraham,” 2008). This paper will provide discussions on Maslow’s biography, major works and contributions to psychology. Maslow’s views on “Hierarchy of Needs”, “Self-Actualization” and “Peak Experiences” will also be tackled. Abraham Maslow: One of the Most Important Psychologists of Modern Times Born on April 1, 1908 in Brooklyn, New York, Abraham Maslow was the eldest of seven children of uneducated Russian-born Jewish immigrant parents. He was pushed to succeed in the academic world. Maslow was a loner as a child and found his retreat in books. He spent most of his time in libraries (“Abraham Maslow Biography – Hierarchy of Needs,” 2009). To please his parents wish for a successful future, he pursued Law studies in the City College of New York and later continued Psychology studies at the University of Wisconsin where he earned his junior and senior degrees to PhD level in 1934. Maslow married his first cousin Bertha Goodman and had two children. At Wisconsin, Maslow and the popular Harry Harlow became interested in research on rhesus monkeys and their connection activities (“Abraham Maslow Biography – Hierarchy of Needs,” 2009). He became a lecturer and eventually a psychology professor at New York’s Columbia University where he partnered with E.L Thorndike on the research on sexuality of humans. Shortly thereafter, he worked as a psychology teacher at Brooklyn College. In Brooklyn, he worked with European psychologists, Alfred Adler, Erich Fromm, Horney and some Gestalt and Freudian psychologists (“Abraham Maslow Biography – Hierarchy of Needs,” 2009). From 1951 to 1961, Maslow became the Chairman of the Psychology Department at Brandeis, where he befriended Kurt Goldstein. Goldstein gave Maslow an idea on self-actualization which he later used in the formulation of his hierarchy of humanistic needs. Maslow began his study on human psychology. After spending his retirement years in California, he fell ill and died of a heart attack on June 8, 1970 (“Abraham Maslow Biography – Hierarchy of Needs,” 2009). Hierarchy of Needs Maslow’s “Heirarchy of Needs” is believed to be the foundation on the study of self-actualization. It sums up to the pattern of humanistic needs. According to Maslow, humans have needs of varying degrees in ascending order. Lower needs, which are very basic in nature, have to be met first; followed by higher level needs which are exclusive to every individual. Each next level in hierarchy serves as a motivating force. Listed in hierarchy are the needs of psychological, safety and security, belonging and love, esteem and self-actualization. Physiological Needs: In a person’s search for satisfaction, the physiological needs come first. These are the strongest and basic survival needs for food, water, oxygen, and sleep. Safety and Security Needs: These include our needs for a safe home, stability, security, good health, freedom from danger, and a dependable structure and order. If the physiological and safety/security needs are not achieved, the next level in hierarchy is impossible to attain. Belonging and Love Needs: After feeling safe and secure, the need for love, affection and belongingness emerge. Maslow asserts that humans search acceptance for conquering loneliness and estrangement. This entails both giving and receiving love and sense of belonging. When these needs are achieved, man goes on to the next level. Esteem Needs: These involve one’s needs for a high-level respect of self, respect from others and a feeling of being successful and well-accomplished in life. The person then feels self-confident and valuable in the world. Without having these needs met, the person feels inferior and worthless. After these needs are attained, man endeavors to attain more advancement in career, gain more knowledge and sense of self-value. Need for Self-Actualization: This is the last and final level in Maslow’s hierarchy. The final level in the hierarchy is called the need for self-actualization. Several individuals are already in this level but unfortunately, only a few could master it.  Self-actualization means to fully understand oneself. Self-actualizing is completely knowing the real you, where you belong in society and what accomplishments you have gained. It is acceptance of the real world, belief that humans are naturally good and see human beings without feelings of guilt, shame or inhibitions (“Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in Personality Synopsis,” 2004). Self-Transcendence The imprecision of the conservative account of Maslow’s (1943, 1954) “Hierarchy of needs” is explained in Maslow’s (1969a) “The farther reaches of human nature.” Maslow added self-transcendence as a “motivational step beyond self-actualization.” There are doubts to this reanalysis; however, probable resolutions are explained. Self-transcendence has a more complete perception of views on life significance; a wider knowledge of unselfishness, social growth; a more profound view of religiosity; interconnection between spiritual psychology into conventional psychology; and an integration of psychology and multiculturalism (Koltko-Rivera, 2006). Self-Actualization Abraham Maslow did a research on selected persons as self-actualized beings. As compared to ordinary people, he described self-actualized individuals as: 1. Self-actualized persons have more well-organized insight of veracity and more contented connections with it. They are logical, efficient, realistic, not intimidated, and have greater rationale and insight abilities. Self-actualizing people are more sensitive of their human and non-human environment. 2. Self-actualized persons have acceptance of themselves, others and the natural world as they are. They see everything as humanistic as it is without feelings of shame, guilt, regret or reserves. They are not critical and disrespectful of others. They value honesty, openness, and reality without pretenses. 3. Self-actualized persons are spontaneous, simple and natural. They are not hindered by principle. They are not superficially-motivated but they are driven by self-motivation towards actualization of their talents. 4. Self-actualized persons are peaceful, worry-free, and task-oriented and display full loyalty to responsibilities. They are not self-centered but focused on other’s problems. 5. Self-actualized persons prefer to be alone and private. They are unperturbed by things that are upsetting to others. They maintain self-respect despite perplexities. They possess strong responsibility for their actions. 6. Self-actualized persons rely on themselves for satisfaction. They are self-contained, self-sufficient from affection and admiration from others. They are self-reliant on their own improvement upon their capabilities and hidden reserves. 7. Self-actualized persons experience joy, wonder, and surprise with emotions of boundless possibilities. These experiences are reinforced even into their daily lives. 8. Self-actualized persons experience mystique feelings or oceanic feelings of varying degrees or frequencies. 9. Self-actualized persons express feelings of compassion, consideration, or kindness for others. 10. Self-actualized persons have profound intimate relationships with others, however they are selective. They make little circles of friends, usually with self-actualizing persons too. 11. Self-actualized persons are friendly, humble and willing to learn from others. They do not discriminate other people regarding their race, color, religion, beliefs, and education. 12. Self-actualized persons show no confusion between means and ends 13. Self-actualized persons have spontaneous sense of humor. Their humor is not intimidating and sarcastic. 14. Self-actualized persons are creative, unique, resourceful, and natural and they see reality easily. 15. Self-actualized persons do not view opposing forces as conflicts. For them, work is fun, and needs are motives. They are naturally childlike but very smart (“Self-Actualization,” 2009). Redefinition of Self-Actualization After the understanding of the periodic character of realization of oneself, Maslow altered the definition of “Self-Actualization” on the basis of the occurrence of peak experiences. In “Toward a Psychology of Being,” Maslow stated that: In other words, any person in any of the peak experiences takes on temporarily many of the characteristics which I found in self-actualizing individuals. That is, for the time they become self-actualizers. We may think of it as a passing characterological change if we wish, and not just as an emotional-cognitive-expressive state. Not only are these his happiest and most thrilling moments, but they are also moments of greatest maturity, individuation, fulfillment - in a word, his healthiest moments. (Maslow, 1968) Peak Experiences Peak experiences are incidences of bliss and thrill in anyone’s life. Maslow stated that peak experiences are aroused by powerful emotions of love, admiration to skillful sculpture or melody, or the irresistible splendor of life. In “Toward a psychology of being”, Maslow said that “all peak experiences may be fruitfully understood as completions-of the-act ... or as the Gestalt psychologists closure, or on the paradigm of the Reichian type of complete orgasm, or as total discharge, catharsis, culmination, climax, consummation, emptying or finishing” (Maslow, 1968, p. 111). Almost every person had experienced “peak experiences;” however, they are always ignored. An individual’s response while viewing the sunset in the late afternoon or a happy bride walking down the aisle are perfect illustrations of peak experiences. In accordance with Maslow’s theory, peak experiences are activated by strong, moving incidences: "It looks as if any experience of real excellence, of real perfection ... tends to produce a peak experience" (1971, p. 175). Sad and traumatic occasions may also trigger peak experiences. Surpassing death or severe sickness can exude climax of love and happiness. Sometimes, lives are packed with boredom, detachment, and distractions. On the other hand, peak experiences are instances when one becomes too involved, attached, and absorbed (Frager & Fadiman, 2005). The greatest peak experiences are comparatively uncommon. For Maslow, the utmost peaks comprise emotions of boundless possibilities. These peaks are feelings of immense rapture, marvel and fear, unmindful of passing time. For poets, these are elations and for the religious, unfathomable spiritual occurrences (Frager & Fadiman, 2005). Contribution to Psychology Maslow’s visualization of humanistic psychology is a psychology of the entire being. He studied fit, completely functioning and ingenious human beings, as opposed to other psychologists who he criticized for wasting time on studying the psychologically unwell and neurotic individuals, and for searching for explanation of advanced human experience by irrational methods. Maslow made a suggestion of examining better humans instead of the inferior specimens, as a way to comprehend the human being’s maximum potentials. Maslow shifted experimentally to the study of both living and non-living "self-actualized" individuals and their life patterns, choosing persons who have lived lives to their maximum boundaries. Maslow’s conclusion stated that the maximum potentials of humanistic nature comprised the ability for “self-transcending altruism” and “transpersonal experiencing”. In the 1960s, Abraham Maslow and Anthony Sutich, established the movement on transpersonal psychology, a division of humanistic psychology devoted to the study of an individual’s maximum potential (“Humanistic Psychology: Abraham Maslow,” n.d.). Most psychologists of Maslow’s time have almost entirely disregarded the regions of human being’s performance. Maslows strong point lies in his concern for these regions. He is one of the few psychologists who have sincerely examined the optimistic aspects of a person’s experience. His most important contributions are summed up in the following three fundamental thoughts: 1. Human beings have an inherent propensity to progress to advanced stages of strength, originality, concept, and self-realization. 2. Neurosis is principally an obstruction of the inherent inclination toward actualization of self. 3. Business competence and personal development are not mismatched. In reality, the self-actualization process takes every human being to better effectiveness, creativeness, and production (Frager & Fadiman, 2005). Conclusion If applied to real life, most people probably attempted to position themselves on one of the five levels of the Maslow’s “Heirarchy of Needs”.  Although, it may always seem effortless for some but for the majority, they fight with the highs and lows of life.  Life is not always trouble-free. Every individual experiences complications in life. Oftentimes, we have one foot up on one level, the other foot left behind in the lower level. We sometimes lose balance and fall backwards (“Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in Personality Synopsis,” 2004). In ascending the pyramid of life, we frequently make progress. Later, we become wiser and more aware that the first two easy steps up the ladder can falter and we lose one step in our struggles. Sometimes it may even seem that these two steps up means three steps down.  It is therefore everyone’s objective to always be on guard, focus on the pinnacle of the pyramid, and rise as little by little as possible. If we stumble along the way, we have to stand up and reach up. Even if we fall back, we should never be deterred. Remember that the road back up is not is hard as the first try. Every failure makes us wiser (“Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in Personality Synopsis,” 2004). References Abraham Maslow Biography – Hierarchy of Needs. (2009). Value Based Management. Retrieved 22 November 2009 from http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/leaders_maslow_hierarchy.html Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in Personality Synopsis. (2004). AllPsych ONLINE. Retrieved 22 November 2009 from http://www.allpsych.com/personalitysynopsis/maslow.html Frager, R. & Fadiman, J. (2005). Personality & Personal Growth (6th Ed.). New York: Pearson Prentice Hall. p342. Humanistic Psychology: Abraham Maslow. (n.d.). LYCOS RETRIEVER. Retrieved 22 November 2009 from http://www.lycos.com/info/humanistic-psychology--abraham-maslow.html Koltko-Rivera, Mark E. (2006). Rediscovering the Later Version of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: Self-Transcendence and Opportunities for Theory, Research and Unification. Review of General Psychology. Vol. 10, No. 4, 302-317. Maslow, A. H. (1943). A Theory of Human Motivation. Psychological Review, 50, 370-396. Maslow, A. H. (1954). Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper. Maslow, A. H. (1968). Toward a psychology of being. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. (Original work published 1962). Maslow, A. H. (1969a). The farther reaches of human nature. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 1(1), 1-9. Maslow, A.H. (1971). The farther reaches of human nature. New York: Viking. Maslow, Abraham. (2008). New World Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23 November 2009 from http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Abraham_Maslow Self-Actualization. (2009). Brain Meta.com. Retrieved 23 November 2009 from http://www.brainmeta.com/index.php?p=self-actualization   Read More