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Focusing on the Self: Humanism and Self-Actualization
Psychoanalytic models of personality were complemented during the 1950s and 1960s by the
theories of humanistic psychologists. In contrast to the proponents of psychoanalysis, humanists
embraced the notion of free will. Arguing that people are free to choose their own lives and make
their own decisions, humanistic psychologists focused on the underlying motivations that they
believed drove personality, focusing on the nature of the self-concept,the set of beliefs about who
we are, and self-esteem, our positive feelings about the self.
One of the most important humanists, Abraham Maslow (1908–1970), conceptualized
personality in terms of a pyramid-shaped hierarchy of motives(Figure 11.11 "Maslow’s
Hierarchy of Needs"). At the base of the pyramid are the lowest-level motivations, including
hunger and thirst, and safety and belongingness. Maslow argued that only when people are able
to meet the lower-level needs are they able to move on to achieve the higher-level needs of self-
esteem, and eventually self-actualization, which is the motivation to develop our innate potential
to the fullest possible extent.
Maslow studied how successful people, including Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, Martin
Luther King Jr., Helen Keller, and Mahatma Gandhi had been able to lead such successful and
productive lives. Maslow (1970) [11] believed that self-actualized people are creative,
spontaneous, and loving of themselves and others. They tend to have a few deep friendships
rather than many superficial ones, and are generally private. He felt that these individuals do not
need to conform to the opinions of others because they are very confident and thus free to
express unpopular opinions. Self-actualized people are also likely to have peak experiences, or
transcendent moments of tranquility accompanied by a strong sense of connection with others.