(Answer to Q. 1) ANS: Criticisms of Maslow's theory center on his research methods and lack of experimentally generated supporting data. The sample of self-actualizing people from which the data were derived, fewer than half of whom were interviewed in person, is too small for generalization to the population at large. Critics also charge that the ways in which Maslow amassed information about his original self-actualizing subjects are inconsistent and vague. He did not describe how he interpreted test results or analyzed biographical materials, nor did he indicate precisely what led him to identify those particular people as self-actualizing. However, as we have seen with other theorists, weakness in scientific methodology is not unique to Maslow.
For his subjects Maslow selected people he admired, according to his own personal criteria for self-actualization. These criteria were not specified at the time, and he later admitted that self-actualization was difficult to describe accurately. His list of characteristics of self-actualizers derives solely from his clinical interpretations of the data and may easily have been influenced by his personal philosophy and moral values. Thus, the descriptions may actually reflect Maslow's own ideal of the worthy and emotionally healthy individual.
Other criticisms have been directed at Maslow's definitions of various concepts such as metaneeds, metapathology, peak experiences, and self-actualization. His use of these terms could be inconsistent and ambiguous. Critics also have asked on what basis self-actualization is presumed to be innate. Why could it not be learned behavior, the result of some unique combination of childhood experiences?
(Answer to Q. 2) ANS: A contemporary outgrowth of the essence of Maslow's self-actualization theory is the self-determination theory, which suggests that people have an innate tendency to express their interests, to exercise and develop their capabilities and potentials, and to overcome challenge.
Research supporting the notion of self-determination has come from diverse groups such as football players in Australia, teenagers in India and Nigeria, and older women in the United States. Those who scored highest in self-determination showed the greatest improvement in overall behavior and subjective well-being.
More recent research studying people in the United States, Belgium, China, Peru, Australia, Mexico, Venezuela, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Japan have provided further support for the role of self-determination in facilitating positive growth needs and self-actualization. The self-determination theory posits three needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness.
(Answer to Q. 3) ANS: Maslow's research on emotionally healthy people formed the basis of his personality theory. He did not find many examples of self-actualizers and estimated that they constitute 1 percent or less of the population. However, he concluded that they share certain characteristics. They are as follows:
- An efficient perception of reality. Self-actualizers perceive their world, including other people, clearly and objectively, unbiased by prejudgments or preconceptions.
- An acceptance of themselves, others, and nature. Self-actualizers accept their strengths and weaknesses. They do not try to distort or falsify their self-image, and they do not feel guilty about their failings. They also accept the weaknesses of other people and of society in general.
- A spontaneity, simplicity, and naturalness. The behavior of self-actualizers is open, direct, and natural. They rarely hide their feelings or emotions or play a role to satisfy society, although they may do so to avoid hurting other people. Self-actualizers are individualistic in their ideas and ideals but not necessarily unconventional in their behavior. They feel secure enough to be themselves without being overly assertive.
- A focus on problems outside themselves. Self-actualizers have a sense of mission, a commitment, to which they devote their energy. This dedication to a cause or vocation is a requirement for self-actualization. Self-actualizers find pleasure and excitement in their hard work. Through their intense dedication, self-actualizers are able to satisfy the metaneeds. Their commitment challenges and develops their abilities and helps define their sense of self.
- A sense of detachment and the need for privacy. Self-actualizers can experience isolation without harmful effects and seem to need solitude more than persons who are not self-actualizing. Self-actualizers depend on themselves, not on others, for their satisfactions. This independence may make them seem aloof or unfriendly, but that is not their intent. They are simply more autonomous than most people and do not crave social support.
- A freshness of appreciation. Self-actualizers have the ability to perceive and experience the world around them with freshness, wonder, and awe. An experience may grow stale for someone who is not self-actualizing, but self-actualizers will enjoy each recurrence as though it was the first. Whether it is a sunset, a painting, a symphony, a baseball game, or a birthday giftall of these experiences can be viewed with delight. Self-actualizers appreciate what they have and take little for granted.
- Mystical or peak experiences. Self-actualizers know moments of intense ecstasy, not unlike deep religious experiences, that can occur with virtually any activity. Maslow called these events peak experiences, during which the self is transcended and the person feels supremely powerful, confident, and decisive.
- Social interest. Maslow adopted Alfred Adlers concept of social interest to indicate the sympathy and empathy self-actualizing persons have for all humanity. Although often irritated by the behavior of other people, self-actualizers feel a kinship with and an understanding of others as well as a desire to help them.
- Profound interpersonal relations. Although their circle of friends is not large, self-actualizers have deep, lasting friendships. They tend to select as friends those with personal qualities similar to their own, just as we all choose as friends the people we find compatible. Self-actualizers often attract admirers or disciples. These relationships are usually one-sided; the admirer asks more of the self-actualizer than the self-actualizer is able or willing to give.
- Creativeness. Self-actualizing people are highly creative and exhibit inventiveness and originality in their work and other facets of their lives. They are flexible, spontaneous, and willing to make mistakes and learn from them. They are open and humble, in the way children are before society teaches them to be embarrassed or shy about possibly doing something foolish.
- Resistance to enculturation. Self-actualizers are autonomous, independent, and self-sufficient. They feel free to resist social and cultural pressures to think or behave in a certain way. They do not openly rebel against cultural norms or social codes, but they are governed by their own nature rather than the strictures of society.
(Answer to Q. 4) ANS: According to Maslow's theory, self-actualizers differ from others in terms of their basic motivation. Maslow proposed a distinct type of motivation for self-actualizers which he called metamotivation (sometimes called B-motivation or Being). The prefix meta means after or beyond. Metamotivation, then, indicates that it goes beyond psychologys traditional idea of motivation.
Metamotivation implies a condition in which motivation, as we know it, plays no role. Self-actualizers are not motivated to strive for a particular goal. Instead, they are said to be developing from within. Maslow described the motivation of people who are not self-actualizers as a condition of D-motivation or Deficiency. D-motivation involves striving for something specific to make up for something that is lacking within us. For example, failure to eat produces a deficiency in the body that we feel as discomfort. This feeling motivates us to take some action to reduce the resulting tension.
Self-actualizers are concerned with fulfilling their potential and with knowing and understanding their environment. In their state of metamotivation, they are not seeking to reduce tension, satisfy a deficiency, or strive for a specific object. Their goal is to enrich their lives by acting to increase tension so as to experience a variety of stimulating and challenging events. Because their lower-order deficiency needs have been met, self-actualizers function at a level beyond striving for specific goal objects to satisfy a deficit. Thus, they are in a state of being, spontaneously, naturally, and joyfully expressing their full humanity.
Having explained that self-actualizers are thus, in a sense, unmotivated, Maslow proposed a list of metaneeds toward which self-actualizers evolve. Metaneeds are states of beingsuch as goodness, uniqueness, and perfectionrather than specific goal objects. Failure to satisfy metaneeds is harmful and produces a kind of metapathology, which thwarts the full development of the personality. Metapathology prevents self-actualizers from expressing, using, and fulfilling their potential. They may come to feel helpless and depressed, unable to pinpoint a source for these feelings or identify a goal that might alleviate the distress.
(Answer to Q. 5) ANS: Maslow proposed a hierarchy of five innate needs that activate and direct human behavior. They are the physiological, safety, belongingness and love, esteem, and self-actualization needs. The needs are arranged in order from strongest at the bottom to the weakest at the top. Lower needs must be at least partially satisfied before higher needs become influential. We are not driven by all the needs at the same time. In general, only one need will dominate our personality at any one point in time. Which one it will be depends on which of the others have been satisfied. The order of the needs can be changed.
Maslow later proposed a second set of innate needs, the cognitive needsto know and to understand, which exist outside the hierarchy we have described. The need to know is stronger than the need to understand, and must therefore be at least partially satisfied before the need to understand can emerge. The hierarchy of these two needs overlaps the original five-need hierarchy. Knowing and understandingessentially, finding meaning in our environmentare basic to interacting with that environment in an emotionally healthy, mature way to satisfy physiological, safety, belongingness and love, esteem, and self-actualization needs.
Quick Reply
