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Abraham Harold Maslow (; April 1, 1908 – June 8, 1970) was an American psychologist who was best known for creating Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a theory of psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human needs in priority, culminating in self-actualization. Maslow was a
psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...
professor at
Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , ...
, Brooklyn College, New School for Social Research, and
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
. He stressed the importance of focusing on the positive qualities in people, as opposed to treating them as a "bag of symptoms". Hoffmann (1988), p. 109. A ''
Review of General Psychology ''Review of General Psychology'' is the quarterly scientific journal of the American Psychological Association Division 1: The Society for General Psychology. The journal publishes cross-disciplinary psychological articles that are conceptual, the ...
'' survey, published in 2002, ranked Maslow as the tenth most cited psychologist of the 20th century.


Biography


Youth

Born in 1908 and raised in
Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, Maslow was the oldest of seven children. His parents were first-generation
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
immigrants from Kiev, then part of the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
(now
Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Kyi ...
,
Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
), who fled from Czarist persecution in the early 20th century. They had decided to live in New York City and in a multiethnic, working-class neighborhood. His parents were poor and not intellectually focused, but they valued education. He had various encounters with anti-Semitic gangs who would chase and throw rocks at him. Maslow and other young people with his background were struggling to overcome such acts of racism and ethnic prejudice in the attempt to establish an idealistic world based on widespread education and economic justice. The tension outside his home was also felt within it, as he rarely got along with his mother, and eventually developed a strong revulsion towards her. He is quoted as saying, "What I had reacted to was not only her physical appearance, but also her values and world view, her stinginess, her total selfishness, her lack of love for anyone else in the world—even her own husband and children—her narcissism, her Negro prejudice, her exploitation of everyone, her assumption that anyone was wrong who disagreed with her, her lack of friends, her sloppiness and dirtiness...". He also grew up with few friends other than his cousin Will, and as a result "... egrew up in libraries and among books." It was here that he developed his love for reading and learning. He went to
Boys High School Single-sex education, also known as single-gender education and gender-isolated education, is the practice of conducting education with male and female students attending separate classes, perhaps in separate buildings or schools. The practice of ...
, one of the top high schools in Brooklyn, where his best friend was his cousin
Will Maslow Will Maslow (September 27, 1907 – February 23, 2007) was an American lawyer and civil rights leader who fought for "full equality in a free society" for Jews, blacks, and other minorities at positions he held in government and as an executive of ...
. Here, he served as the officer to many academic clubs, and became editor of the Latin Magazine. He also edited ''Principia,'' the school's Physics paper, for a year. He developed other strengths as well:


College and university

Maslow attended the City College of New York after high school. In 1926 he began taking legal studies classes at night in addition to his undergraduate course load. He hated it and almost immediately dropped out. In 1927 he transferred to Cornell, but he left after just one semester due to poor grades and high costs. He later graduated from City College and went to graduate school at the
University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...
to study
psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...
. In 1928, he married his first cousin Bertha, who was still in high school at the time. The pair had met in Brooklyn years earlier. Maslow's psychology training at UW was decidedly experimental-behaviorist. At Wisconsin he pursued a line of research which included investigating
primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians ( monkeys and apes, the latter including ...
dominance behavior and sexuality. Maslow's early experience with behaviorism would leave him with a strong positivist mindset. Upon the recommendation of Professor Hulsey Cason, Maslow wrote his master's thesis on "learning, retention, and reproduction of verbal material". Maslow regarded the research as embarrassingly trivial, but he completed his thesis the summer of 1931 and was awarded his master's degree in psychology. He was so ashamed of the thesis that he removed it from the psychology library and tore out its catalog listing. However, Professor Cason admired the research enough to urge Maslow to submit it for publication. Maslow's thesis was published as two articles in 1934.


Academic career

He continued his research at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
on similar themes. There he found another mentor in
Alfred Adler Alfred Adler ( , ; 7 February 1870 – 28 May 1937) was an Austrian medical doctor, psychotherapist, and founder of the school of individual psychology. His emphasis on the importance of feelings of belonging, family constellation and birth orde ...
, one of
Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts ...
's early colleagues. From 1937 to 1951, Maslow was on the faculty of Brooklyn College. His family life and his experiences influenced his psychological ideas. After
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, Maslow began to question the way psychologists had come to their conclusions, and although he did not completely disagree, he had his own ideas on how to understand the human mind. He called his new discipline
humanistic psychology Humanistic psychology is a psychological perspective that arose in the mid-20th century in answer to two theories: Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory and B. F. Skinner's behaviorism. Thus, Abraham Maslow established the need for a "third force ...
. Maslow was already a 33-year-old father and had two children when the United States entered World War II in 1941. He was thus ineligible for the military. However, the horrors of war inspired a vision of peace in him leading to his groundbreaking psychological studies of self-actualizing. The studies began under the supervision of two mentors, anthropologist
Ruth Benedict Ruth Fulton Benedict (June 5, 1887 – September 17, 1948) was an American anthropologist and folklorist. She was born in New York City, attended Vassar College, and graduated in 1909. After studying anthropology at the New School of Social Re ...
and Gestalt psychologist
Max Wertheimer Max Wertheimer (April 15, 1880 – October 12, 1943) was an Austro-Hungarian psychologist who was one of the three founders of Gestalt psychology, along with Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler. He is known for his book, ''Productive Thinking'', and ...
, whom he admired both professionally and personally. They accomplished a lot in both realms. Being such "wonderful human beings" as well, they inspired Maslow to take notes about them and their behavior. This would be the basis of his lifelong research and thinking about
mental health Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. It likewise determines how an individual handles stress, interpersonal relationships, and decision-making. Mental hea ...
and human potential. He extended the subject, borrowing ideas from other psychologists and adding new ones, such as the concepts of a hierarchy of needs, metaneeds, metamotivation, self-actualizing persons, and peak experiences. Maslow was a professor at
Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , ...
from 1951 to 1969. He became a resident fellow of the Laughlin Institute in California. In 1967, Maslow had a serious heart attack and knew his time was limited. He considered himself to be a psychological pioneer. He gave future psychologists a push by bringing to light different paths to ponder. He built the framework that later allowed other psychologists to conduct more comprehensive studies. Maslow believed that leadership should be non-intervening. Consistent with this approach, he rejected a nomination in 1963 to be the president of the Association for
Humanistic Psychology Humanistic psychology is a psychological perspective that arose in the mid-20th century in answer to two theories: Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory and B. F. Skinner's behaviorism. Thus, Abraham Maslow established the need for a "third force ...
because he felt that the organization should develop an intellectual movement without a leader.


Death

While jogging, Maslow had a severe
heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...
and died on June 8, 1970, at the age of 62 in
Menlo Park, California Menlo Park is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County within the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south ...
. He is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery.


Maslow's contributions


Humanistic psychology

Most psychologists before him had been concerned with the abnormal and the ill. He urged people to acknowledge their basic needs before addressing higher needs and ultimately self-actualization. He wanted to know what constituted positive mental health.
Humanistic psychology Humanistic psychology is a psychological perspective that arose in the mid-20th century in answer to two theories: Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory and B. F. Skinner's behaviorism. Thus, Abraham Maslow established the need for a "third force ...
gave rise to several different therapies, all guided by the idea that people possess the inner resources for growth and healing and that the point of therapy is to help remove obstacles to individuals' achieving them. The most famous of these was client-centered therapy developed by
Carl Rogers Carl Ransom Rogers (January 8, 1902 – February 4, 1987) was an American psychologist and among the founders of the humanistic approach (and client-centered approach) in psychology. Rogers is widely considered one of the founding fathers of ps ...
. The basic principles behind humanistic psychology are simple: # Someone's present functioning is their most significant aspect. As a result, humanists emphasize the here and now instead of examining the past or attempting to predict the future. # To be mentally healthy, individuals must take personal responsibility for their actions, regardless of whether the actions are positive or negative. # Each person, simply by being, is inherently worthy. While any given action may be negative, these actions do not cancel out the value of a person. # The ultimate goal of living is to attain personal growth and understanding. Only through constant self-improvement and self-understanding can an individual ever be truly happy. Humanistic psychology theory suits people who see the positive side of humanity and believe in free will. This theory clearly contrasts with Freud's theory of
biological determinism Biological determinism, also known as genetic determinism, is the belief that human behaviour is directly controlled by an individual's genes or some component of their physiology, generally at the expense of the role of the environment, whether i ...
. Another significant strength is that humanistic psychology theory is compatible with other schools of thought. Maslow's Hierarchy is also applicable to other topics, such as finance, economics, or even in history or criminology. Humanist psychology, also coined ''positive psychology'', is criticized for its lack of empirical validation and therefore its lack of usefulness in treating specific problems. It may also fail to help or diagnose people who have severe mental disorders. Humanistic psychologists believe that every person has a strong desire to realize their full potential, to reach a level of " self-actualization". The main point of that new movement, that reached its peak in 1960s, was to emphasize the positive potential of human beings. Maslow positioned his work as a vital complement to that of Freud: However, Maslow was highly critical of Freud, since humanistic psychologists did not recognize spirituality as a navigation for our behaviours. To prove that humans are not blindly reacting to situations, but trying to accomplish something greater, Maslow studied mentally healthy individuals instead of people with serious psychological issues. He focused on self-actualizing people. Self-actualizing people indicate a ''coherent personality syndrome'' and represent optimal psychological health and functioning. This informed his theory that a person enjoys "
peak experience A peak experience is an altered state of consciousness characterized by euphoria, often achieved by self-actualizing individuals. The concept was originally developed by Abraham Maslow in 1964, who describes peak experiences as "rare, exciting, oc ...
s", high points in life when the individual is in harmony with himself and his surroundings. In Maslow's view, self-actualized people can have many peak experiences throughout a day while others have those experiences less frequently. He believed that psychedelic drugs like
LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), also known colloquially as acid, is a potent psychedelic drug. Effects typically include intensified thoughts, emotions, and sensory perception. At sufficiently high dosages LSD manifests primarily mental, vi ...
and
Psilocybin Psilocybin ( , ) is a naturally occurring psychedelic prodrug compound produced by more than 200 species of fungi. The most potent are members of the genus ''Psilocybe'', such as '' P. azurescens'', '' P. semilanceata'', and '' P.&nbs ...
can produce peak experiences in the right people under the right circumstances.


Peak and plateau experiences

Beyond the routine of needs fulfillment, Maslow envisioned moments of extraordinary experience, known as Peak experiences, which are profound moments of love, understanding, happiness, or rapture, during which a person feels more whole, alive, self-sufficient and yet a part of the world, more aware of truth, justice, harmony, goodness, and so on. Self-actualizing people are more likely to have peak experiences. In other words, these "peak experiences" or states of flow are the reflections of the realization of one's human potential and represent the height of personality development. In later writings, Maslow moved to a more inclusive model that allowed for, in addition to intense peak experiences, longer-lasting periods of serene Being-cognition that he termed ''plateau experiences''. He borrowed this term from the Indian scientist and yoga practitioner, U. A. Asrani, with whom he corresponded. Maslow stated that the shift from the peak to the plateau experience is related to the natural aging process, in which an individual has a shift in life values about what is actually important in one's life and what is not important. In spite of the personal significance with the plateau experience, Maslow was not able to conduct a comprehensive study of this phenomenon due to health problems that developed toward the end of his life.


B-values

In studying accounts of peak experiences, Maslow identified a manner of thought he called "Being-cognition" (or "B-cognition"), which is holistic and accepting, as opposed to the evaluative "Deficiency-cognition" (or "D-cognition"), and values he called "Being-values". He listed the B-values as: * Truth: honesty; reality; simplicity; richness; oughtness; beauty; pure, clean and unadulterated; completeness; essentiality * Goodness: rightness; desirability; oughtness; justice; benevolence; honesty * Beauty: rightness; form; aliveness; simplicity; richness; wholeness; perfection; completion; uniqueness; honesty * Wholeness: unity; integration; tendency to one-ness; interconnectedness; simplicity; organization; structure; dichotomy-transcendence; order * Aliveness: process; non-deadness; spontaneity; self-regulation; full-functioning * Uniqueness: idiosyncrasy; individuality; non-comparability; novelty * Perfection: necessity; just-right-ness; just-so-ness; inevitability; suitability; justice; completeness; "oughtness" * Completion: ending; finality; justice; "it's finished"; fulfillment; finis and telos; destiny; fate * Justice: fairness; orderliness; lawfulness; "oughtness" * Simplicity: honesty; essentiality; abstract, essential, skeletal structure * Richness: differentiation, complexity; intricacy * Effortlessness: ease; lack of strain, striving or difficulty; grace; perfect, beautiful functioning * Playfulness: fun; joy; amusement; gaiety; humor; exuberance; effortlessness * Self-sufficiency: autonomy; independence; not-needing-other-than-itself-in-order-to-be-itself; self-determining; environment-transcendence; separateness; living by its own laws


Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow described human needs as ordered in a prepotent hierarchy—a pressing need would need to be mostly satisfied before someone would give their attention to the next highest need. None of his published works included a visual representation of the hierarchy. The pyramidal diagram illustrating the Maslow needs hierarchy may have been created by a psychology textbook publisher as an illustrative device. This now iconic pyramid frequently depicts the spectrum of human needs, both physical and psychological, as accompaniment to articles describing Maslow's needs theory and may give the impression that the Hierarchy of Needs is a fixed and rigid sequence of progression. Yet, starting with the first publication of his theory in 1943, Maslow described human needs as being relatively fluid—with many needs being present in a person simultaneously. The hierarchy of human needs model suggests that human needs will only be fulfilled one level at a time. According to Maslow's theory, when a human being ascends the levels of the hierarchy having fulfilled the needs in the hierarchy, one may eventually achieve self-actualization. Late in life, Maslow came to conclude that self-actualization was not an automatic outcome of satisfying the other human needs. Human needs as identified by Maslow: * At the bottom of the hierarchy are the "Basic needs or Physiological needs" of a human being: food, water, sleep, sex, homeostasis, and excretion. * The next level is "Safety Needs: Security, Order, and Stability". These two steps are important to the physical survival of the person. Once individuals have basic nutrition, shelter and safety, they attempt to accomplish more. * The third level of need is "Love and Belonging", which are psychological needs; when individuals have taken care of themselves physically, they are ready to share themselves with others, such as with family and friends. * The fourth level is achieved when individuals feel comfortable with what they have accomplished. This is the "Esteem" level, the need to be competent and recognized, such as through status and level of success. * Then there is the "Cognitive" level, where individuals intellectually stimulate themselves and explore. * After that is the "Aesthetic" level, which is the need for harmony, order and beauty. * At the top of the pyramid, "Need for Self-actualization" occurs when individuals reach a state of harmony and understanding because they are engaged in achieving their full potential. Once a person has reached the self-actualization state they focus on themselves and try to build their own image. They may look at this in terms of feelings such as self-confidence or by accomplishing a set goal. The first four levels are known as ''Deficit needs'' or ''D-needs''. This means that if you do not have enough of one of those four needs, you will have the feeling that you need to get it. But when you do get them, then you feel content. These needs alone are not motivating. Maslow wrote that there are certain conditions that must be fulfilled in order for the basic needs to be satisfied. For example, freedom of speech, freedom to express oneself, and freedom to seek new information are a few of the prerequisites. Any blockages of these freedoms could prevent the satisfaction of the basic needs. Maslow's Hierarchy is used in higher education for advising students and student retention as well as a key concept in student development. Maslow's Hierarchy has been subject to internet memes over the past few years, specifically looking at the modern integration of technology in our lives and humorously suggesting that Wi-Fi was among the most basic of human needs.


Self-actualization

Maslow defined Self-actualization as achieving the fullest use of one's talents and interests—the need "to become everything that one is capable of becoming." As implied by its name, self-actualization is highly individualistic and reflects Maslow's premise that the self is "sovereign and inviolable" and entitled to "his or her own tastes, opinions, values, etc." Indeed, some have characterized self-actualization as "healthy narcissism."


Qualities of self-actualizing people

Maslow realized that the self-actualizing individuals he studied had similar personality traits. Maslow selected individuals based on his subjective view of them as self-actualized people. Some of the people he studied included
Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...
,
Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
, and
Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...
. In his daily journal (1961–63) Maslow wrote: "Eupsychia club, heroes that I write for, my judges, the ones I want to please: Jefferson, Spinoza, Socrates, Aristotle, James, Bergson, Norman Thomas, Upton Sinclair (both heroes of my youth)." All were "reality centered," able to differentiate what was fraudulent from what was genuine. They were also "problem centered," meaning that they treated life's difficulties as problems that demanded solutions. These individuals also were comfortable being alone and had healthy personal relationships. They had only a few close friends and family rather than a large number of shallow relationships. Self-actualizing people tend to focus on problems outside themselves; have a clear sense of what is true and what is false; are spontaneous and creative; and are not bound too strictly by social conventions. Maslow noticed that self-actualized individuals had a better insight of reality, deeply accepted themselves, others and the world, and also had faced many problems and were known to be impulsive people. These self-actualized individuals were very independent and private when it came to their environment and culture, especially their very own individual development on "potentialities and inner resources". According to Maslow, self-actualizing people share the following qualities: * Truth: honest, reality, beauty, pure, clean and unadulterated completeness * Goodness: rightness, desirability, uprightness, benevolence, honesty * Beauty: rightness, form, aliveness, simplicity, richness, wholeness, perfection, completion, * Wholeness: unity, integration, tendency to oneness, interconnectedness, simplicity, organization, structure, order, not dissociated, synergy * Dichotomy: transcendence, acceptance, resolution, integration, polarities, opposites, contradictions * Aliveness: process, not-deadness, spontaneity, self-regulation, full-functioning * Uniqueness: idiosyncrasy, individuality, non comparability, novelty * Perfection: nothing superfluous, nothing lacking, everything in its right place, just-rightness, suitability, justice * Necessity: inevitability: it must be just that way, not changed in any slightest way * Completion: ending, justice, fulfillment * Justice: fairness, suitability, disinterestedness, non partiality, * Order: lawfulness, rightness, perfectly arranged * Simplicity: abstract, essential skeletal, bluntness * Richness: differentiation, complexity, intricacy, totality * Effortlessness: ease; lack of strain, striving, or difficulty * Playfulness: fun, joy, amusement * Self-sufficiency: autonomy, independence, self-determining. Maslow based his theory partially on his own assumptions about human potential and partially on his case studies of historical figures whom he believed to be self-actualized, including
Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...
and Henry David Thoreau. Consequently, Maslow argued, the way in which essential needs are fulfilled is just as important as the needs themselves. Together, these define the human experience. To the extent a person finds cooperative social fulfillment, he establishes meaningful relationships with other people and the larger world. In other words, he establishes meaningful connections to an external reality—an essential component of self-actualization. In contrast, to the extent that vital needs find selfish and competitive fulfillment, a person acquires hostile emotions and limited external relationships—his awareness remains internal and limited.


Metamotivation

Maslow used the term metamotivation to describe self-actualized people who are driven by innate forces beyond their basic needs, so that they may explore and reach their full human potential. Maslow's theory of motivation gave insight on individuals having the ability to be motivated by a calling, mission or life purpose. It is noted that metamotivation may also be connected to what Maslow called B-(being) creativity, which is a creativity that comes from being motivated by a higher stage of growth. Another type of creativity that was described by Maslow is known as D-(deficiency) creativity, which suggests that creativity results from an individual's need to fill a gap that is left by an unsatisfied primary need or the need for assurance and acceptance.


Methodology

Maslow based his study on the writings of other psychologists,
Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...
, and people he knew who e feltclearly met the standard of self-actualization. Maslow used Einstein's writings and accomplishments to exemplify the characteristics of the self-actualized person.
Ruth Benedict Ruth Fulton Benedict (June 5, 1887 – September 17, 1948) was an American anthropologist and folklorist. She was born in New York City, attended Vassar College, and graduated in 1909. After studying anthropology at the New School of Social Re ...
and
Max Wertheimer Max Wertheimer (April 15, 1880 – October 12, 1943) was an Austro-Hungarian psychologist who was one of the three founders of Gestalt psychology, along with Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler. He is known for his book, ''Productive Thinking'', and ...
work was also very influential to Maslow's models of self-actualization. In this case, from a quantative-sciences perspective there are numerous problems with this particular approach, which has caused much criticism. First, it could be argued that biographical analysis as a method is extremely subjective as it is based entirely on the opinion of the researcher. Personal opinion is always prone to bias, which reduces the validity of any data obtained. Therefore, Maslow's operational definition of Self-actualization must not be uncritically accepted as quantitative fact.


Transpersonal psychology

During the 1960s Maslow founded with Stanislav Grof, Viktor Frankl, James Fadiman, Anthony Sutich, Miles Vich and Michael Murphy, the school of
transpersonal psychology Transpersonal psychology, or spiritual psychology, is a sub-field or school of psychology that integrates the spiritual and transcendent aspects of the human experience with the framework of modern psychology. The '' transpersonal'' is defined ...
. Maslow had concluded that humanistic psychology was incapable of explaining all aspects of human experience. He identified various mystical, ecstatic, or spiritual states known as " peak experiences" as experiences beyond self-actualization. Maslow called these experiences "a fourth force in psychology", which he named transpersonal psychology. Transpersonal psychology was concerned with the "empirical, scientific study of, and responsible implementation of the finding relevant to, becoming, mystical, ecstatic, and spiritual states" (Olson & Hergenhahn, 2011). In 1962 Maslow published a collection of papers on this theme, which developed into his 1968 book ''Toward a Psychology of Being''. In this book Maslow stresses the importance of transpersonal psychology to human beings, writing: "without the transpersonal, we get sick, violent, and nihilistic, or else hopeless and apathetic" (Olson & Hergenhahn, 2011). Human beings, he came to believe, need something bigger than themselves that they are connected to in a naturalistic sense, but not in a religious sense: Maslow himself was an atheist and found it difficult to accept religious experience as valid unless placed in a positivistic framework. In fact, Maslow's position on God and religion was quite complex. While he rejected organized religion and its beliefs, he wrote extensively on the human being's need for the sacred and spoke of God in more philosophical terms, as beauty, truth and goodness, or as a force or a principle. Awareness of transpersonal psychology became widespread within psychology, and the ''Journal of Transpersonal Psychology'' was founded in 1969, a year after Abraham Maslow became the president of the American Psychological Association. In the United States, transpersonal psychology encouraged recognition for
non-western The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania.
psychologies, philosophies, and religions, and promoted understanding of "higher states of consciousness", for instance through intense
meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm ...
. Transpersonal psychology has been applied in many areas, including transpersonal business studies.


Positive psychology

Maslow called his work positive psychology. Since 1968 his work has influenced the development of
Positive Psychotherapy Positive psychotherapy (PPT after Peseschkian, since 1977) is a psychotherapeutic method developed by psychiatrist Nossrat Peseschkian and co-workers in Germany beginning in 1968. It can be described as a humanistic psychodynamic psychotherapy, wh ...
, a transcultural, humanistic based psychodynamic psychotherapy method used in mental health and psychosomatic treatment founded by
Nossrat Peseschkian Nossrat Peseschkian ( fa, نصرت پزشکیان; June 18, 1933 – April 27, 2010) lived in Germany since 1954. He was a specialist in neurology, psychiatry, psychotherapy and psychosomatic medicine. Peseschkian founded Positive Psychothera ...
. Since 1999 Maslow's work enjoyed a revival of interest and influence among leaders of the positive psychology movement such as Martin Seligman. This movement focuses only on a higher human nature. Positive psychology spends its research looking at the positive side of things and how they go right rather than the pessimistic side.


Psychology of science

In 1966, Maslow published a pioneering work in the psychology of science, ''The Psychology of Science: A Reconnaissance'', the first book ever actually titled 'psychology of science'. In this book Maslow proposed a model of 'characterologically relative' science, which he characterized as an ardent opposition to the ''historically, philosophically, sociologically and psychologically naıve'' positivistic reluctance to see science ''relative to time, place, and local culture''. As Maslow acknowledged, the book was greatly inspired by Thomas Kuhn's ''The Structure of Scientific Revolutions'' (1962), and it offers a psychological reading of Kuhn's famous distinction between "normal" and "revolutionary" science in the context of his own distinction between "safety" and "growth" science, put forward as part of a larger program for the psychology of science, outlined already in his 1954 ''magnum opus'' ''Motivation and Personality''. Not only that Maslow offered a psychological reading of Kuhn's categories of "normal" and "revolutionary" science as an aftermath of Kuhn's ''Structure'', but he also offered a strikingly similar dichotomous structure of science 16 years before the first edition of ''Structure'', in his nowadays little known 1946 paper "Means-Centering Versus Problem-Centering in Science" published in the journal ''Philosophy of Science''.


Maslow's hammer

Abraham Maslow is also known for Maslow's hammer, popularly phrased as " if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" from his book ''The Psychology of Science'', published in 1966.


Criticism

Maslow's ideas have been criticized for their lack of scientific rigor. He was criticized as too soft scientifically by American empiricists. In 2006, author and former philosophy professor
Christina Hoff Sommers Christina Marie Hoff Sommers (born 1950) is an American author and philosopher. Specializing in ethics, she is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
and practicing psychiatrist Sally Satel asserted that, due to lack of empirical support, Maslow's ideas have fallen out of fashion and are "no longer taken seriously in the world of academic psychology." Positive psychology spends much of its research looking for how things go right rather than the more pessimistic view point, how things go wrong. Furthermore, the Hierarchy of Needs has been accused of having a cultural bias—mainly reflecting Western values and ideologies. From the perspective of many cultural psychologists, this concept is considered relative to each culture and society and cannot be universally applied. However, according to the University of Illinois researchers Ed Diener and Louis Tay, who put Maslow's ideas to the test with data collected from 60,865 participants in 123 countries around the world over the period of five years (2005-2010), Maslow was essentially right in that there are universal human needs regardless of cultural differences, although the authors claim to have found certain departures from the order of their fulfillment Maslow described. In particular, while they found—clearly in accordance with Maslow—that people tend to achieve basic and safety needs before other needs, as well as that other "higher needs" tend to be fulfilled in a certain order, the order in which they are fulfilled apparently does not strongly influence their subjective well-being (SWB). As put by the authors of the study, humans thus Maslow, however, would not be surprised by these findings, since he clearly and repeatedly emphasized that the need hierarchy is not a rigid fixed order as it is often presented: Maslow also regarded that the relationship between different human needs and behaviour, being in fact often motivated simultaneously by multiple needs, is not a one-to-one correspondence, i.e., that "these needs must be understood not to be exclusive or single determiners of certain kinds of behavior". Maslow's concept of self-actualizing people was united with Piaget’s developmental theory to the process of initiation in 1993. Maslow's theory of self-actualization has been met with significant resistance. The theory itself is crucial to the humanistic branch of psychology and yet it is widely misunderstood. The concept behind self-actualization is widely misunderstood and subject to frequent scrutiny. Maslow was criticized for noting too many exceptions to his theory. As he acknowledged these exceptions, he did not do much to account for them. Shortly prior to his death, one problem he tried to resolve was that there are people who have satisfied their deficiency needs but still do not become self-actualized. He never resolved this inconsistency within his theory.


Bias

Social psychologist David Myers has pointed out Maslow's selection bias, rooted in the choice to study individuals who lived out his own values. If he had studied other historical heroes, such as
Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
,
Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...
, and
John D. Rockefeller John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American business magnate and philanthropist. He has been widely considered the wealthiest American of all time and the richest person in modern history. Rockefeller was ...
, his descriptions of self-actualization might have been significantly different.


Legacy

Later in life, Maslow was concerned with questions such as, "Why don't more people self-actualize if their basic needs are met? How can we humanistically understand the problem of evil?" In the spring of 1961, Maslow and Tony Sutich founded the ''Journal of Humanistic Psychology'', with Miles Vich as editor until 1971. The journal printed its first issue in early 1961 and continues to publish academic papers. Maslow attended the Association for Humanistic Psychology's founding meeting in 1963 where he declined nomination as its president, arguing that the new organization should develop an intellectual movement without a leader which resulted in useful strategy during the field's early years. In 1967, Maslow was named Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association.


Writings

* * ''
Motivation and Personality ''Motivation and Personality'' is a book on psychology by Abraham Maslow, first published in 1954. Maslow's work deals with the subject of the nature of human fulfillment and the significance of personal relationships, implementing a conceptualiz ...
'' (1st edition: 1954, 2nd edition: 1970, 3rd edition 1987) * '' Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences'', Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press, 1964. * '' Eupsychian Management'', 1965; republished as '' Maslow on Management'', 1998 * ''The Psychology of Science: A Reconnaissance'', New York:
Harper & Row Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins based in New York City. History J. & J. Harper (1817–1833) James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishin ...
, 1966; Chapel Hill: Maurice Bassett, 2002. * ''Toward a Psychology of Being'', (1st edition, 1962; 2nd edition, 1968; 3rd edition, 1999) * ''The Farther Reaches of Human Nature'', 1971 * ''Future Visions: The Unpublished Papers of Abraham Maslow'' by E. L. Hoffman (editor) 1996 * ''Personality and Growth: A Humanistic Psychologist in the Classroom'', Anna Maria, FL: Maurice Bassett, 2019.


See also

* Clayton Alderfer *
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Mihaly Robert Csikszentmihalyi (, hu, Csíkszentmihályi Mihály Róbert, ; 29 September 1934 – 20 October 2021) was a Hungarian-American psychologist. He recognized and named the psychological concept of "flow", a highly focused mental ...
*
Frederick Herzberg Frederick Irving Herzberg (April 18, 1923 – January 19, 2000) was an American psychologist who became one of the most influential names in business management. He is most famous for introducing job enrichment and the Motivator-Hygiene theory ...
*
Human Potential Movement The Human Potential Movement (HPM) arose out of the counterculture of the 1960s and formed around the concept of an extraordinary potential that its advocates believed to lie largely untapped in all people. The movement takes as its premise the be ...
* Law of the instrument *
Manfred Max-Neef Artur Manfred Max Neef (; 26 October 1932 – 8 August 2019) was a Chilean economist of German descent. Max-Neef was born in Valparaíso, Chile. He started his career as a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley in the ea ...
*
Rollo May Rollo Reece May (April 21, 1909 – October 22, 1994) was an American existential psychologist and author of the influential book '' Love and Will'' (1969). He is often associated with humanistic psychology and existentialist philosophy, ...
* Organismic theory * Organizational behavior * Positive Disintegration *
Post-materialism In sociology, postmaterialism is the transformation of individual values from materialist, physical, and economic to new individual values of autonomy and self-expression. The term was popularized by the political scientist Ronald Inglehart in ...
* Reverence * Self-esteem *
Victor Vroom Victor Harold Vroom (born August 9, 1932, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada) is a business school professor at the Yale School of Management. He holds a PhD from University of Michigan and an MS and BS from McGill University. Work Vroom's primary res ...
* Erich Fromm *
Humanistic psychology Humanistic psychology is a psychological perspective that arose in the mid-20th century in answer to two theories: Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory and B. F. Skinner's behaviorism. Thus, Abraham Maslow established the need for a "third force ...


References


Sources

* * * * * *


Further reading

* * DeCarvalho, Roy Jose (1991) ''The Founders of Humanistic Psychology''. Praeger Publishers * Grogan, Jessica (2012) ''Encountering America: Humanistic Psychology, Sixties Culture, and the Shaping of the Modern Self''. Harper Perennial * Hoffman, Edward (1999) ''The Right to Be Human''. McGraw-Hill * * Wilson, Colin (1972) ''New Pathways in Psychology: Maslow and the post-Freudian revolution''. London: Victor Gollancz


External links


Comprehensive bibliography of Maslow's works


adapted from the Editor's Introduction to ''Toward a Psychology of Being'' (3rd ed.)

* *

* . Rare documentary about Abraham Maslow in a conversation with Warren Bennis of the University of Cincinnati from 1968.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maslow, Abraham 1908 births 1970 deaths 20th-century psychologists Jewish American atheists American humanists American male non-fiction writers American people of Russian-Jewish descent American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent American psychology writers Boys High School (Brooklyn) alumni Brandeis University faculty Brooklyn College faculty Cornell University alumni Humanistic psychologists Jewish American social scientists Jewish American writers Motivation theorists People from Brooklyn People from Menlo Park, California Positive psychologists Presidents of the American Psychological Association Transpersonal psychologists University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery