Abraham Maslow Maslow's Life Professional Influences

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Abraham Maslow

Personality Theory: Hierarchy of Needs and Self‐ Actualizing

Maslow’s Life

• Born in Brooklyn 1908 • Oldest of seven children • Father immigrated from Russia • Difficu lt childhoo d, rejijecting mother • Athletic compensation didn’t work • Early academic interest

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 • WkdWorked wihith Thorndik e • 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

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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

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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 • Fulfillment – Hunger, thirst – Relaxation – Sexual frustration – Pleasure – Tension – Comfort – Fatigue – Illness – Homeless

Safety Need

• Deficiency • Fulfillment – Insecurity – Security – Yearning – Comfort – Sense of loss – Balance – Fear – Poise – Obsession – Calm – Compulsion – Tranquility

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Belongingness Needs Who is to say that a lack of love is less important than a lack of vitamins

• Deficiencies • Fulfillment – self‐consciousness – Free emotional – Feel unwanted expression – Feel worthless – Wholeness – Emptiness – Warmth – Loneliness – Life and strength – Isolation – Growing together – Incomplete

Esteem Needs status, education, achievement • Deficiency • Fulfillment – Incompetence – Confidence – Negativism – Mastery – Inferiority – 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‐or‐ none affair • Deficiency • Fulfillment – Alienation – Healthy curiosity – Metapathologies – Peak experiences – Absence of meaning of – Potentials realized life – Work is pleasurable – Boredom – Creative living – Routine living – Limited activities

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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 wihith others, love and be ldloved • 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 kkldnowledge, people put phhilysical 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” • Higher scores 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

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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. 207‐218.

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 self‐ confidence • Higher self‐esteem= greater self‐worth and self‐ confidence, 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

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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 self‐ esteem have greater self‐worth and self‐ confidence.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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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 • Conditions of Worth: Our behaviors/attitudes elicit approval/disapproval • Incongruence: anxiety produced when self‐concept and experience don’t mesh

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Incongruence leads to neuroses

The core of Roger’s person‐ centered therapy is

UdiilUnconditional Positive Regard http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mYo0KyEgas&feature=related

Table 12.1 Characteristics of fully functioning people

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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

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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 clin ic ian ddiiescriptions, the better adjuste 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.

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Research on the Theory

• Defense mode hypothesis – College students had better memory after 7 days of adjectives that matched their own self concept • Open to 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 confdfidence, hflhopeful about ablbilities • 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 Schultz & Schultz Theories of Personality and Development, 9th Edition recognized.Copyright 2009 Wadsworth, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

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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)

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Fundamental Postulate

Our ppysycholo gical 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‐

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Ways of Anticipating Life Events

• Fundamental Postulate: Psychological processes are directed by the ways in which we anticipate events. • PliPersonality is a flow ing, 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 organitiization corollary: reltilations hips 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.

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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.

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.

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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 bhbehav ior. • We are motivated by being alive. • Rational mental processes form our personality.

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

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Assessment Techniques

• Kelly used the interview • Developed role play technique – Self‐characterization sketch – Fidixed Role Therapy • Role Construct Repertory Test – Construct diagram

Questions about Human Nature

Reflections on Kelly’s Theory

Contributions • Unique theory. • A very personal view. • Broad support in Europe, Canada, and Asia.

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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

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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”

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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.

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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.

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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.