Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionIII. Humanistic/Existential
Theories- Maslow: Holistic
Dynamic Theory
© The McGraw−Hill^283
Companies, 2009Despite his atheistic views, he felt the sting of anti-Semitism not only in child-
hood but also during his adult years. Possibly as a defense against the anti-Semitic
attitudes of his classmates, he turned to books and scholarly pursuits. He loved to
read, but to reach the safety of the public library, he had to avoid the anti-Semitic
gangs that roamed his Brooklyn neighborhood and that needed no excuse to terror-
ize young Maslow and other Jewish boys.
Being intellectually gifted, Abe found some solace during his years at Boys
High School in Brooklyn, where his grades were only slightly better than average.
At the same time, he developed a close friendship with his cousin Will Maslow, an
outgoing, socially active person. Through this relationship, Abe himself developed
some social skills and was involved in several school activities (Hoffman, 1988).
After Maslow graduated from Boys High School, his cousin Will encouraged
him to apply to Cornell University, but lacking self-confidence, Maslow selected the
less prestigious City College of New York. At about this time, his parents divorced
and he and his father became less emotionally distant. Maslow’s father had wanted
his oldest son to be a lawyer, and while attending City College, Maslow enrolled in
law school. However, he walked out of law classes one night, leaving his books be-
hind. Significantly, he felt that law dealt too much with evil people and was not suf-
ficiently concerned with the good. His father, although initially disappointed, even-
tually accepted Maslow’s decision to quit law school (M. H. Hall, 1968).
As a student at City College, Maslow did well in philosophy and other courses
that sparked his interest. However, in courses he did not like, he performed so poorly
that he was placed on academic probation. After three semesters, he transferred to
Cornell University in upstate New York partly to be closer to his cousin Will, who
attended that school, but also to distance himself from his first cousin Bertha Good-
man, with whom he was falling in love (Hoffman, 1988). At Cornell, too, Maslow’s
scholastic work was only mediocre. His introductory psychology professor was Ed-
ward B. Titchener, a renowned pioneer in psychology who taught all his classes in
full academic robes. Maslow was not impressed. He regarded Titchener’s approach
to psychology as cold, “bloodless,” and having nothing to do with people.
After one semester at Cornell, Maslow returned to the City College of New
York, now to be nearer to Bertha. After the fortuitious event described in the open-
ing vignette, Abe and Bertha were soon married but not before overcoming his par-
ents’ resistance. Maslow’s parents objected to the marriage partly because he was
only 20 and she 19. However, their strongest fear was that a marriage between first
cousins might result in hereditary defects in any possible offspring. This fear was
ironic in light of the fact that Maslow’s parents themselves were first cousins and had
six healthy children. (One daughter died during infancy but not because of any ge-
netic defect.)
One semester before his marriage, Maslow had enrolled at the University of
Wisconsin, from which he received a BA degree in philosophy. In addition, he was
quite interested in John B. Watson’s behaviorism, and this interest prompted him to
take enough psychology courses to meet prerequisites for a PhD in psychology. As
a graduate student, he worked closely with Harry Harlow, who was just beginning
his research with monkeys. Maslow’s dissertation research on dominance and sexual
behavior of monkeys suggested that social dominance was a more powerful motive
than sex, at least among primates (Blum, 2002).
Chapter 10 Maslow: Holistic-Dynamic Theory 277