Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionIII. Humanistic/Existential
Theories- Maslow: Holistic
Dynamic Theory
© The McGraw−Hill^285
Companies, 2009lar intervals his thoughts, opinions, feelings, social activities, important conversa-
tions, and concerns for his health (Maslow, 1979).
Despite achieving fame during the 1960s, Maslow became increasingly disen-
chanted with his life at Brandeis. Some students rebelled against his teaching meth-
ods, demanding more experiential involvement and less of an intellectual and scien-
tific approach.
In addition to work-related problems, Maslow suffered a severe but nonfatal
heart attack in December of 1967. He then learned that his strange malady more than
20 years earlier had been an undiagnosed heart attack. Now in poor health and dis-
appointed with the academic atmosphere at Brandeis, Maslow accepted an offer to
join the Saga Administrative Corporation in Menlo Park, California. He had no par-
ticular job there and was free to think and write as he wished. He enjoyed that free-
dom, but on June 8, 1970, he suddenly collapsed and died of a massive heart attack.
He was 62.
Maslow received many honors during his lifetime, including his election to
the presidency of the American Psychological Association for the year 1967–1968.
At the time of his death, he was well known, not only within the profession of
psychology, but among educated people generally, particularly in business manage-
ment, marketing, theology, counseling, education, nursing, and other health-related
fields.
Maslow’s personal life was filled with pain, both physical and psychological.
As an adolescent, he was terribly shy, unhappy, isolated, and self-rejecting. In later
years, he was often in poor physical health, suffering from a series of ailments, in-
cluding chronic heart problems. His journals (Maslow, 1979) are sprinkled with ref-
erences to poor health. In his last journal entry (May 7, 1970), a month before his
death, he complained about people expecting him to be a courageous leader and
spokesperson. He wrote: “I am not temperamentally ‘courageous.’ My courage is re-
ally an overcomingof all sorts of inhibitions, politeness, gentleness, timidities—and
it always cost me a lot in fatigue, tension, apprehension, bad sleep” (p. 1307).
Maslow’s View of Motivation
Maslow’s theory of personality rests on several basic assumptions regarding motiva-
tion. First, Maslow (1970) adopted a holistic approach to motivation:That is, the
whole person, not any single part or function, is motivated.
Second, motivation is usually complex,meaning that a person’s behavior may
spring from several separate motives. For example, the desire for sexual union may
be motivated not only by a genital need but also by needs for dominance, compan-
ionship, love, and self-esteem. Moreover, the motivation for a behavior may be un-
conscious or unknown to the person. For example, the motivation for a college stu-
dent to make a high grade may mask the need for dominance or power. Maslow’s
acceptance of the importance of unconscious motivation represents one important
way in which he differed from Gordon Allport (Chapter 13). Whereas Allport might
say that a person plays golf just for the fun of it, Maslow would look beneath the sur-
face for underlying and often complex reasons for playing golf.
A third assumption is that people are continually motivated by one need or an-
other.When one need is satisfied, it ordinarily loses its motivational power and is
Chapter 10 Maslow: Holistic-Dynamic Theory 279