Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionIII. Humanistic/Existential
Theories- Maslow: Holistic
Dynamic Theory
© The McGraw−Hill^303
Companies, 2009people should be allowed to tell about themselves in a holistic fashion instead of the
more orthodox approach that studies people in bits and pieces. Traditional psychol-
ogy has dealt with sensations, intelligence, attitudes, stimuli, reflexes, test scores,
and hypothetical constructs from an external point of view. It has not been much con-
cerned with the whole person as seen from that person’s subjective view.
When Maslow attended medical school, he was shocked by the impersonal at-
titude of surgeons who nonchalantly tossed recently removed body parts onto a table.
His observation of such a cold and calloused procedure led Maslow to originate the
concept of desacralization:that is, the type of science that lacks emotion, joy, won-
der, awe, and rapture (Hoffman, 1988). Maslow believed that orthodox science has
no ritual or ceremony; and he called for scientists to put values, creativity, emotion,
and ritual back into their work. Scientists must be willing to resacralizescience or
to instill it with human values, emotion, and ritual. Astronomers must not only study
the stars; they must be awestruck by them. Psychologists must not only study human
personality; they must do so with enjoyment, excitement, wonder, and affection.
Maslow (1966) argued for a Taoistic attitudefor psychology, one that would
be noninterfering, passive, and receptive. This new psychology would abolish pre-
diction and control as the major goals of science and replace them with sheer fasci-
nation and the desire to release people from controls so that they can grow and be-
come less predictable. The proper response to mystery, Maslow said, is not analysis
but awe.
Maslow insisted that psychologists must themselves be healthy people, able to
tolerate ambiguity and uncertainty. They must be intuitive, nonrational, insightful,
and courageous enough to ask the right questions. They must also be willing to
flounder, to be imprecise, to question their own procedures, and to take on the im-
portant problems of psychology. Maslow (1966) contended that there is no need to
do well that which is not worth doing. Rather, it is better to do poorly that which is
important.
In his study of self-actualizing people and peak experiences, Maslow em-
ployed research methods consistent with his philosophy of science. He began intu-
itively, often “skating on thin ice,” then attempted to verify his hunches using idio-
graphic and subjective methods. He often left to others the technical work of
gathering evidence. His personal preference was to “scout out ahead,” leaving one
area when he grew tired of it and going on to explore new ones (M. H. Hall, 1968).
Measuring Self-Actualization
Everett L. Shostrom (1974) developed the Personal Orientation Inventory(POI) in
an attempt to measure the values and behaviors of self-actualizing people. This in-
ventory consists of 150 forced-choice items, such as (a) “I can feel comfortable with
less than a perfect performance” versus (b) “I feel uncomfortable with anything less
than a perfect performance”; (a) “ Two people will get along best if each concentrates
on pleasing the other” versus (b) “Two people can get along best if each person feels
free to express himself ”; and (a) “My moral values are dictated by society” versus
(b) “My moral values are self-determined” (Shostrom, 1963). Respondents are asked
to choose either statement (a) or statement (b), but they may leave the answer blank
Chapter 10 Maslow: Holistic-Dynamic Theory 297