Maslow’s Theory of Personality
The Maslow theory of personality postulates that a person strives to fulfill the potentials or achieve a state of self-actualization after meeting the basic needs in life. The theory assumes that human needs are arranged based on their importance. Essential requirements, such as the basic needs, which are shelter food and clothing, become first and rank first in the Maslow pyramid or hierarchy theory. A person must achieve the first step before moving to next until the last part of the pyramid, which is self-actualization. Maslow believed that the successful fulfillment of each layer of needs was vital in the development of personality in the human being’s life. The highest need for self-actualization represents the achievement of the fullest potential.
The Hierarchy of Needs
The Maslow hierarchy needs theory puts forward that people derive their motivation from five primary categories of needs: physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization. The psychological needs are the necessities in life, which include food, shelter, and cloths. The Maslow categorizes the psychological needs as the most essential needs for the body and human being. After the psychological needs are met, a person looks forward to security. The safe environment comes first after meeting the psychological necessities. It explains human actions such as insurance cover and savings accounts. After safety comes to love and belonging, which includes romantic relationships as well as ties to friends and family members. The next step after love and acceptance is the need to achieve self-esteem. It is a state where people feel good about what they have achieved in their lives. In this care, therefore, feeling valued and self-confident while in a group of people become critical. The last part is self-actualizations, which is a state where people think they live up to their potential.
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Humanism
Maslow is also known for his theory of humanism, which proposes that the root of studying and understanding human behaviors lies in the unique experiences of the human being. Proposing the humanism theory that closely links to the hierarchy of needs, Maslow claims that human beings have free will and, therefore, stress the ideas of choice, values, creativity, and self-realization as the foundation of human success and psychological stability. According to the theory of humanism, people have a sense of self-awareness and self-drive and motivation. It is such a drive and the motivation that pushes people towards making a constant attempt to achieve one need to the other until they reach a state where they achieve self-actualization. It is due to such consciousness among people that Maslow claims that a person can strive to fulfill all the needs in the hierarchy from psychology, safety, love, self-esteem, and self-actualization.
Theory of Self-actualization
The self-actualization theory defines the ability of people to become the best of their version. It is a situation where a person strives to achieve the best of themselves. Maslow describes self-actualization as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming. Maslow admits the fact that people are different, and this may lead to various means of achieving self-actualization. Maslow also agrees to the fact that people face a lot of challenges, and this means that not all people are capable of reaching the self-actualization state ( Hopper, 2019). Therefore, Maslow claims that the self-actualizers or those who reach a state of self-actualization share specific characteristics. Self-actualizers share the ability to achieve peak experiences or moments of joy and transcendence.
The Basic Needs Rooted in Biology
The basic needs have their foundation in the biological requirements. The lowest level of the Maslow Hierarchy pyramid is the psychological or the essential elements that people need. These include food, water, warmth, and rest. These are the primary biological requirements that the body needs for proper functionality. Biologically, the body requires some basic necessity to act as its motivational points to achieve psychological needs Hopper, E. (2019). The body needs food, air warmth, sex, energy, and sleep, as these are the foundation of better biological functioning. To achieve love, safety, self-esteem, and self-actualization, which are all psychological, people must first ensure that the biological needs are met fully. It implies that the biological needs set the foundation for success as a person to strive to achieve the state of self-actualization.
Meta needs
Meta needs come in after a person has fulfilled both cognitive and essentialobligations. The Meta needs come in at a stage where a person is approaching the point of self-actualization. Those people who derive their motivation from the Meta needs places their consideration on ideas such as beauty, truth, serenity, peace, growth, and orderliness. These are people who feel that society needs peace and justice as a means of protecting their achievement. According to Maslow, the motivation by the Meta needs arise from the fact that at a point where a person approaches self-actualization, the need to protect achievements arise and become the priority ( Hopper, 2019). According to the Mallow, these are needs with roots and foundation in the biological apparatus of the organism.
The Jonah Complex
Jonah Complex is the fear of potentials in life. It is a state where a person is afraid to step into the path of their success. It is due to such psychological fear that stands in the way for many people who strive to achieve success. In his book, Abraham states that “ We are generally afraid to become that which we glimpse in our most perfect moments, under the perfect conditions, under the conditions of greatest courage. We enjoy and even thrill to godlike possibilities we see in ourselves in such peak moments. And yet we simultaneously shiver with weakness, awe, and fear before these very same possibilities” (Logan & Everall, 2019). The implication is that some people cannot achieve their potential because they fear for their future and uncertainties. When a person has excellent potentials but allows fear to take over, it becomes difficult for such a person to achieve the potentials.
Conditions Necessary for Self-Actualization
The state of self-actualization is challenging to achieve, as noted by Maslow. Only a few people achieve the self-actualization state while others get distracted on the way. However, some conditions lead to self-actualization. For instance, a person must fulfill all the necessities or needs for them to achieve self-actualization. The basic needs set the foundation for the person to get what they want. They are the biological needs and are critical for body functionality. The next is the connectedness, which is the state to which people relate after achieving the state of basic necessity and safety. It also depends on the level of self-esteem.
Self-transcendence and the transcending self-actualizing person
Self-transcendence is a state where a person searches for something greater than oneself. Abraham Maslow places self-transcendence high than self-actualization. It implies that a person needs to achieve self-actualization first as they strive to advance to self-transcendence. Since self-transcendence is a state where a person works towards achieving something great such as serving others, Maslow realizes that a person can achieve the state of self-transcendence without attaining self-actualization. In that sense, therefore, it plays a role of self-actualization or t he transcending self-actualization.
References
Hopper, E. (2019). Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Explained. Viitattu , 12 , 2019. Retrieved from: https://www.thoughtco.com/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-4582571
Logan, J., &Everall, K. (2019). First Things First: Exploring Maslow’s Hierarchy as a Service Prioritization Framework. Weave: Journal of Library User Experience , 2 (2).
