History and Meaning of the Word "Self Actualization" as Used in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

History of the word "Self Actualization" as used in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

What?

As Words

1. The term "Self Actualization" was created by Kurt Goldstein in 1940 and later widely used by Carl Rogers. The Self-Actualization as described in the hierarchy of needs is an ongoing process involved in a cause outside of his own skin. People on this level of Need, work at something very precious -- a vocation or a calling of sorts. As Maslow expressed it, "What a man can be, he must be."

A person at this level is constantly trying to maximize the potential of what is important to him at that time.

2. The way Self actualization is expressed can change over a person's life cycle. A self-actualized athlete may eventually look for other area in which to maximize potential as his or her physical attributes change over time or as his or her horizons broaden.

3. Maslow believes that anyone can momentarily become self-actualizers when he becomes "more truly himself, more perfectly actualizing his potentialities, closer to the core of his Being, more fully human."
In short, self-actualization is "a matter of degree and of frequency a kind of episode, or a spurt in which the powers of the person come together" in an extraordinary way.

How?

1. Maslow came to his conclusions by picking out a group of people, some historical figures, some people he knew, whom he felt clearly met the standard of self-actualization. Included in this august group were Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jane Adams, William James, Albert Schweitzer, Benedict Spinoza, and Alduous Huxley, plus 12 unnamed people who were alive at the time Maslow did his research.

2. He then looked at their biographies, writings, the acts and words of those he knew personally, and so on. From these sources, he developed a list of qualities that seemed characteristic of these people.

So What?

Maslow believe that B-cognition types of peak-experiences can furnish formulas and give a Objective Standard for Human Values. That means, Human Values are Objective instead of Relative.

Relative vs Objective

1. If the term "value" is intrinsically relational, a "value" cannot stand on its own but must be compared to something else. To use an analogy, if a value is a tree that falls in a forest when no one (not even a squirrel or a butterfly) is there to hear it, will there be any sound? If you think value is relative, then it you believe that the sound has to be heard by someone or something to be a "sound". Then clearly there will be no sound.

2. Thus, for an objective point of view, the sound is a sound even if no one hears it.
If self-actualizing people can and do perceive reality more efficiently, fully and with less motivational contamination than we others do, then we may possibly use them as biological essays.

We may also use ourselves in our most perceptive moments, in our peak- experiences, when, for the moment, we are self-actualizing, to give us a report of the nature of reality that is truer than we can ordinarily manage.

Thus, if we try to follow the examples of self-actualizers to develop qualities displayed by this objective value system, we can maximise our potential.

History and Meaning of the Word "Self Actualization" as Used in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs