Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionIII. Humanistic/Existential
Theories- Maslow: Holistic
Dynamic Theory
(^308) © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2009
Other researchers have followed up on the health effects of writing about ex-
tremely positive experiences. Sonja Lyubomirsky and colleagues investigated
whether or not just thinking about past positive experiences would have benefits
comparable to or even greater than the benefits derived from writing about such
experiences (Lyubomirsky, Sousa, & Dickerhoof, 2006). Although they did not
find physical health benefits for thinking about positive experiences, they did find
that those who were instructed to simply think about these experiences for 15 min-
utes a day for 3 consecutive days reported greater well-being 1 month later than
those who wrote about such experiences for the same time period. These results
suggest that you do not need to overanalyze or pick apart positive experiences to de-
rive benefits. Rather, casually recalling the experience in your head and remember-
ing how good the positive experience made you feel is enough to experience greater
well-being.
These studies demonstrate the importance of reflecting and reliving the most
positive or “peak” experiences in our lives. Recall from earlier in the chapter that
Abraham Maslow predicted that peak experiences often have a lasting impact on
people’s lives. The recent research in the area of positive psychology reviewed in this
section certainly supports this aspect of Maslow’s theory.
Personality Development, Growth, and Goals
Implicit in Maslow’s concept of self-actualization is the assumption that people ac-
quire greater levels of psychological health as they become older. Children and
young adults struggling to acquire an education, a job, and a mate are not likely to
have achieved the criteria for reaching self-actualization. Does empirical research
support this assumption?
Jack Bauer and Dan McAdams (2004a) assumed the existence of two kinds of
approaches to growth and development—extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic develop-
ment is primarily cognitive and revolves around one’s ability to think complexly
about one’s life goals, whereas intrinsic development is primarily emotional and re-
volves around one’s ability to feel better about one’s life. More specifically, extrinsic
growth focuses on fame, money, physical appearance, status, and power. By contrast,
intrinsic goals focus on satisfaction, happiness, personal growth, and healthy inter-
personal relationships. Cognitive-extrinsic growth and emotional-intrinsic growth
seem to be unrelated to one another; that is, one can be cognitively complex about
one’s life and not be happy or satisfied.
In their research on growth goals, Bauer and McAdams predicted a positive
relationship between age and personality development and psychological well-
being. But they predicted the relationship between personality development and
well-being would change depending on whether one was striving toward intrinsic or
extrinsic goals. In other words, only people with intrinsic growth goals would see
how getting older results in greater ego and personality development and well-being.
Similarly, for those with extrinsic growth goals, getting older would not lead to
greater personality development and psychological health.
Participants in Bauer and McAdams’s study included both college students and
volunteers from the community. The former had a mean age of about 20 years,
whereas the latter had a mean age of about 52 years, and both groups were about
302 Part III Humanistic/Existential Theories