Abraham Maslow. Maslow s Life. Professional Influences 7/12/2010. Personality Theory: Hierarchy of Needs and Self Actualizing

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1 Abraham Maslow Personality Theory: Hierarchy of Needs and Self Actualizing Born in Brooklyn 1908 Oldest of seven children Father immigrated from Russia Difficult childhood, d rejecting mother Athletic compensation didn t work Early academic interest Maslow s Life Professional Influences Influenced by John B. Watson s behaviorism But moved away from it I d say anyone who had a baby couldn t be a behaviorist Read Freud, Wertheimer (Gestalt), Philosophers Worked with ihthorndike Met Fromm, Horney, Adler Began generating ideas about self actualization as a result of personal contacts with anthropologist Ruth Benedict and Gestalt psychologist Max Wertheimer 1

2 Humanism Founder and spiritual leader of humanistic psychology. Critical of behaviorism Outlook too sterile and narrow Viewed people as robots Critical of psychoanalysis Only studied disturbed people Focused on neurosis and psychosis Studied healthy, mature, creative people. Hierarchy of Needs Maslow proposed a hierarchy of 5 innate needs that activate and direct human behavior Needs = Instinctoids (inherited) Deficit needs: Failure to satisfy the lower needs produces a deficit or lack in the person Stronger than higher needs Once obtained, loses power over behavior Being (growth) needs: Satisfaction of higher needs contribute to growth and survival Higher needs have weaker strength More present in later life Can live without them Leads to self actualization Need gratification depends on social, economic conditions More about the hierarchy Needs get weaker as you go up the pyramid Need does not have to be 100% fulfilled before moving to next Needs not necessarily in successive order Failure to satisfy a lower need produces a crisis Moving up the hierarchy is correlated with age 2

3 Need for self Actualization Esteem Needs (from Self and others) Belongingness And love needs Safety needs: security, order And stability Physiological needs: food Water, and sex Physiological Needs Deficiency Hunger, thirst Sexual frustration Tension Fatigue Illness Homeless Fulfillment Relaxation Pleasure Comfort Safety Need Deficiency Insecurity Yearning Sense of loss Fear Obsession Compulsion Fulfillment Security Comfort Balance Poise Calm Tranquility 3

4 Belongingness Needs Who is to say that a lack of love is less important than a lack of vitamins Deficiencies self consciousness Feel unwanted Feel worthless Emptiness Loneliness Isolation Incomplete Fulfillment Free emotional expression Wholeness Warmth Life and strength Growing together Esteem Needs status, education, achievement Deficiency Incompetence Negativism Inferiority Fulfillment Confidence Mastery Positive self regard Self respect Self extension Self Actualization Are you part of the 1%? Self actualization is a matter of degree and of frequency rather than an all ornone affair Deficiency Alienation Metapathologies Absence of meaning of life Boredom Routine living Limited activities Fulfillment Healthy curiosity Peak experiences Potentials realized Work is pleasurable Creative living 4

5 Self actualization possible when Free of constraints from society and ourselves Free of distraction from lower level needs Secure in our self image and our relations with ihothers, love and be loved Realistic knowledge of our strengths and weaknesses Cognitive need: need to know is stronger than the need to understand These are a second set of innate needs As demonstrated with lab animals driven by curiosity In search of knowledge, people put physical self at risk Bored emotionally, healthy adults did better when they fulfilled need to know and understand by increasing challenging activities Research on Maslow s Theory Maslow s own research not well articulated nor scientifically sound POI measures time competence (living in the present) and inner directedness Higherscores on the POI positively correlated with emotional health, creativity, well being following therapy, academic achievement, autonomy, racial tolerance Higher scores on POI negatively correlated with alcoholism, psych hospitalization, neuroticism, depression, hypochondriasis 5

6 Sample items from the Personal Orientation Inventory Source: From An Inventory of the Measurement of Self Actualization by E. L. Shostrum, 1964, Educational and Psychological Measurement, 24, pp Research Support of Hierarchy of Needs Satisfaction of safety, belonging, and esteem needs negatively correlated with neuroticism and depression Using the Needs Satisfaction Inventory and Eysenck Personality Inventory, found higher need satisfaction correlated with lower neuroticism General Population sample supported the order of the needs and the increasing weakness of needs as they go up the hierarchy Esteem Research Made up of two components: self liking and selfconfidence Higher self esteem= greater self worth and selfconfidence, more job offers, more favorably recruiter reports, better coping with job loss Lower self esteem= higher feelings of rejection in a lab experiment of exclusion Higher self esteem more likely to remember positive feedback 6

7 Research on Maslow s Theory Pilot studies vs. case study. Correlational studies support characteristics of actualizers. Subjects high in need satisfaction are low in neuroticism. Belongingness needs satisfied by association with and acceptance of others. Research support for idea that people high in selfesteem have greater self worth and selfconfidence. Self Determination Theory Contemporary outgrowth of self actualization theory. Facilitated by intrinsic motivation. Three basic needs: Competence Autonomy Relatedness Satisfaction of these needs positively correlated with self actualization. Reflections on Maslow s Theory Contributions Humanistic approach very popular Influenced positive psychology movement Broad impact of Maslow s theory 7

8 Reflections on Maslow s Theory Criticisms Research methods lacked rigor, were too inconsistent and vague. Characteristics of actualizers lack specificity and are difficult to describe. Use of terms inconsistent and ambiguous; lacking in negative. Schultz & Schultz Theories of Personality and Development, 9th Edition Copyright 2009 Wadsworth, a division of Cengage Learning. Quotes If you deliberately plan on being less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you'll be unhappy for the rest of your life. We are not in a position in which we have nothing to work with. We already have capacities, talents, direction, missions, and callings. Every really new idea looks crazy at first. When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail. Carl Rogers Personality Theory: Person Centered Therapy 8

9 Roger s Life Brought up with strict religious views and moral behavior Parents promoted their influence in gentle ways Agricultural background and travel to China Studied agriculture, theology, teaching, and eventually psychology The Life of Rogers A Unique Approach to Counseling Original studies: ministry, then child study underprivileged children. Worked to bring clinical psychology to the mainstream. Inability to help client led to stress, illness, and seclusion. Clinical experience with college students. Distinguished career. Rogers s Contributions Rooted in humanistic psychology. Theory developed from therapeutic approach. Person directs change; therapist facilitates. Emphasis on the conscious & present. Inborn tendency to actualize. 9

10 Concept of Self Insight Past does not control present Self develops in interactions with others Self insight includes acceptance of self and reality Identified child s self insight as critical to recovery in delinquent children (over family environment, health, intellectual development, economics, cultural, social, level of education) The Actualization Tendency Innate Physiological Psychological Involves struggle Actualization is a process (a present tense verb) Important Terms Reality: reality of your environment depends on your perception of it (phenomenology) Positive regard: Unconditional and Conditional, need begins in infancy Positive self regard: granting self acceptance and approval Positive self regard: granting self acceptance and approval Conditions of Worth: Our behaviors/attitudes elicit approval/disapproval Incongruence: anxiety produced when self concept and experience don t mesh 10

11 Incongruence leads to neuroses The core of Roger s personcentered therapy is Unconditional i Positive Regard Table 12.1 Characteristics of fully functioning people 11

12 Figure 12.1 Rogers image of human nature Departure from Psychoanalysis (i.e., Freud) Conscious over unconscious Client not patient No predetermined theoretical structure People inherently good Assessment Within the context of person centered therapy Subjective Conscious Prone to therapist s own projections Dependent on client communication Not reliant on predetermined theoretical structure He rejected methods that did not center on the person s subjective experiences and personal direction 12

13 A tool he used and one he didn t Used Encounter Groups Loose group structure Self expression goal Self insight goal No regard for psychological tests Others developed tools to assess his ideas of fully functioning What research on his approach tells us I never learned anything from research First to tape/video sessions The greater agreement between patient and clinician i i descriptions, i the better adjusted d the patient was found to be Q sort research on therapy efficacy Self concept evolves during therapy Perceived self and ideal self became more similar after therapy Table 12.2 Mrs. Oak s Q sort statements of her perceived self before and after therapy Source: From The Case of Mrs. Oak: A Research Analysis by C. R. Rogers. In Psychotherapy and Personality Change by C. R. Rogers and R. F. Dymond, 1954, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 13

14 Research on the Theory Defense mode hypothesis College students had better memory after 7 days of adjectives that matched their own self concept Opento experiences hypothesis College students divided into good and poor adjusters. Poorly adjusted responded slower to threatening words. Less defensiveness in well adjusted group. Theory Research continued Acceptance of self hypothesis Self accepting mothers more accepting of their child Accepted children had a greater degree of self acceptance Adolescents with parents expressing unconditional positive regard had developed greater creative potential, more confidence, fd hopeful about abilities bl Incongruent self and ideal self = poor emotional adjustment hypothesis Greater discrepancy correlated with more psychological disorders/symptoms Reflections on Rogers s Theory Lack of clarification of mechanisms. Criticized for influences outside of person s perspectives. Person centered therapy became popular; highly accessible. Core concepts accepted by other orientations. Emphasis on self concept widely recognized. 14

15 George Kelly Cognitive Processes and the Personal Construct Theory It occurred to me that what seemed true of myself was probably no less true of others. If I initiated my actions, so did they. George Kelly Kelly s Life and Work Only child Diverse, atypical education Many jobs before becoming a psychologist Patients/subjects were the worried well students Don t get confused He did not develop a fully fleshed out theory, nor was he apologetic for it He was not part of the cognitive movement (i.e. Beck, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) 15

16 Fundamental Postulate Our psychological py processes are directed by the ways in which we anticipate events What are Personal Constructs? Cognitive Help interpret and organize events/social Help predict what will happen, what others will do Interpretation of events more important than actual events Many, many constructs to help us deal with life Constructs Intellectual/cognitive hypothesis used to interpret life events Changeable, flexible if we have constructive alternativism and permeability The 11 Corollaries 16

17 Ways of Anticipating Life Events Fundamental Postulate: Psychological processes are directed by the ways in which we anticipate events. Personality is a flowing, moving process. We use constructs to predict the future. Ways of Anticipating Life Events, Cont d. The individuality corollary: Individual differences in interpreting events People perceive events in different ways The organization corollary: relationships lti among constructs We arrange our constructs in patterns, according to our view of their similarities and differences Ways of Anticipating Life Events, Cont d. Corollaries of personal construct theory The construction corollary: Similarities among repeated events Because repeated events are similar, we can predict or anticipate how we will experience such an event in the future. 17

18 Ways of Anticipating Life Events, Cont d. The dichotomy corollary: Two mutually exclusive alternatives Constructs are bipolar (e.g. honesty vs dishonesty) The choice corollary: Freedom of choice We choose the alternative for each construct that works best for us, the one that allows us to predict the outcome of anticipated events. Ways of Anticipating Life Events, Cont d. The range corollary: The range of convenience. Our constructs may apply to many situations or people, or they may be limited to a single person or situation. The experience corollary: Exposure to new experiences. We continually test our constructs against life s experiences to make sure they remain useful. Schultz & Schultz Theories of Personality and Development, 9th Edition Copyright 2009 Wadsworth, a division of Cengage Learning. Ways of Anticipating Life Events, Cont d. The modulation corollary: Adapting to new experiences. Our constructs may apply to many situations or people, or limited to a single person or situation. The fragmentation corollary: Competition among constructs We may have contradictory or inconsistent subordinate constructs within our overall construct system. Schultz & Schultz Theories of Personality and Development, 9th Edition Copyright 2009 Wadsworth, a division of Cengage Learning. 18

19 Ways of Anticipating Life Events, Cont. The commonality corollary: Similarities among people in interpreting events. Although our individual constructs are unique to us, people in compatible groups or cultures may hold similar constructs. The sociality corollary: Interpersonal relationships. We try to understand how other people think and predict what they will do, and we modify our behavior accordingly. Questions about Human Nature Optimism We are the authors not the victims of our destiny. Past events are not determinants of present bh behavior. We are motivated by being alive. Rational mental processes form our personality. Schultz & Schultz Theories of Personality and Development, 9th Edition Copyright 2009 Wadsworth, a division of Cengage Learning. Research on his work REP not well constructed Cognitive complexity means ability to perceive differences among people Cognitive Simplicity means relative inability to do the same Complexity correlated with age, diverse experiences in childhood, less authoritarian parenting, predicting behavior, liberal thinking 19

20 Assessment Techniques Kelly used the interview Developed role play technique Self characterization sketch Fixed Role Therapy Role Construct Repertory Test Construct diagram Questions about Human Nature Optimism We are the authors not the victims of our destiny. Past events are not determinants of present bh behavior. We are motivated by being alive. Rational mental processes form our personality. Reflections on Kelly s Theory Contributions Unique theory. A very personal view. Broad support in Europe, Canada, and Asia. 20

21 Reflections on Kelly s Theory Criticisms The theory focuses too much on the intellectual and rational to the exclusion of the emotional. Based on Midwestern young adults. Leaves many unanswered questions. Too different from prevailing ideas. His writing is too scholarly. Martin Seligman Positive Psychology and Learned Helplessness Martin Seligman Learned Helplessness: condition resulting from the perception that we have no control over our environment Learned Optimism: the concept that the attitude of optimism can be learned and shaped 21

22 Research on Learned Helplessness Dog research Elderly research Dental patients Seligman s Explanatory Style A way of explaining to ourselves our lack of control over our environment. Optimism prevents learned helplessness and pessimism increases it. I think therefore I am, You are what you think 22

23 Important Research Religious influence Depression Internal and external attribution (like Locus of Control) Importance of childhood experiences Authentichappiness.com Learned Helplessness Optimism everyone has the potential to attain strengths. Possible positive outcome at each stage, regardless of earlier stage resolution. Less control earlier stages More free will adolescence onward. Psychosocial experiences determine more than heredity. Learned Helplessness, Cont d. Development of learned helplessness in children: early learned helplessness can predispose us to a pessimistic explanatory style. Style affected by genetics and learning. Can also develop later in childhood as a result of negative experiences. 23

24 Learned Helplessness, Cont d. Reflections: Concepts have generated hundreds of research studies. Very similar to Rotter s concept of locus of control. Leaves several unanswered questions. Supported by a large body of data. Positive Psychology Advanced by Seligman. Focuses on human strengths and virtues. Relies on rigorous experimental research and findings indicate: Money does not buy happiness. Health affects happiness. Happiness does not decline with age. Physical activity affects happiness. Married people are happier. Positive Psychology, Cont d. Happiness varies between countries and regions. Extraverts score higher on measures of subjective well being. Differences in terms of motivation and goals. Happiness leads to behaviors that bring about success. 24

25 Comment Different kinds of happiness. Positive emotion: the pleasant life. Engagement: the engaged life. Meaning: the meaningful life. Research on happiness and other positive emotions has increased substantially. A new approach to the study of personality. 25