Chapter 9 Maslow: Holistic-Dynamic Theory 257C
ollege professors and students have long recognized that some intellectually
“average” students are able to make good grades, whereas some intellectually
superior students make only average grades, and some bright students actually flunk
out of school. What factors account for this situation? Motivation is one likely
suspect. Personal health, death in the immediate family, and too many jobs are
other possibilities.
Some years ago, a brilliant young college student was struggling through his
third school. Although he performed reasonably well in courses that aroused his
interest, his work was so poor in other classes that he was placed on academic
probation. Later, this young man took an IQ test on which he scored 195, a score
so high that it can be achieved by only about one person in several million. There-
fore, lack of intellectual ability was not the reason for this young man’s lackluster
college performance.
Like some other young men, this student was deeply in love, a condition that
made it difficult to concentrate on school work. Being hopelessly shy, the young
man could not muster the courage to approach his beloved in any romantic fashion.
Interestingly, the young woman who was the object of his affections was also his
first cousin. This situation allowed him to visit his cousin on the pretext of calling
on his aunt. He loved his cousin in a distant, bashful sort of way, having never
touched her nor expressed his feelings. Then, suddenly a fortuitous event changed
his life. While visiting his aunt, his cousin’s older sister shoved the young man
toward his cousin, virtually ordering him to kiss her. He did, and to his surprise
his cousin did not fight back. She kissed him, and from that time on his life became
meaningful.
The bashful young man in this story was Abraham Maslow, and his cousin
was Bertha Goodman. After the fortuitous first kiss, Abe and Bertha were quickly
married, and this marriage changed him from a mediocre college student to a bril-
liant scholar who eventually shaped the course of humanistic psychology in the
United States. This story should not be seen as a recommendation for marrying
one’s first cousin, but it does illustrate how brilliant people sometimes need only
a small shove to reach their potential.Overview of Holistic-Dynamic Theory
The personality theory of Abraham Maslow has variously been called humanistic
theory, transpersonal theory, the third force in psychology, the fourth force in
personality, needs theory, and self-actualization theory. However, Maslow (1970)
referred to it as a holistic-dynamic theory because it assumes that the whole
person is constantly being motivated by one need or another and that people have
the potential to grow toward psychological health, that is, self-actualization. To
attain self-actualization, people must satisfy lower level needs such as hunger,
safety, love, and esteem. Only after they are relatively satisfied in each of these
needs can they reach self-actualization.
The theories of Maslow, Gordon Allport, Carl Rogers, Rollo May, and
others are sometimes thought of as the third force in psychology. (The first force
was psychoanalysis and its modifications; the second was behaviorism and its
various forms.) Like these other theorists, Maslow accepted some of the tenets