Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionIII. Humanistic/Existential
Theories- Maslow: Holistic
Dynamic Theory
© The McGraw−Hill^311
Companies, 2009Concept of Humanity
Maslow believed that all of us can be self-actualizing; our human nature carries
with it a tremendous potential for being a Good Human Being. If we have not yet
reached this high level of functioning, it is because we are in some manner crip-
pled or pathological. We fail to satisfy our self-actualization needs when our lower
level needs become blocked: that is, when we cannot satisfy our needs for food,
safety, love and belongingness, and esteem. This insight led Maslow to postulate
a hierarchy of basic needs that must be regularly satisfied before we become fully
human.
Maslow concluded that true human nature is seen only in self-actualized
people, and that “there seems no intrinsicreason why everyone should not be this
way. Apparently, every baby has possibilities for self-actualization, but most get
it knocked out of them” (Lowry, 1973, p. 91). In other words, self-actualizing peo-
ple are not ordinary people with something added, but rather as ordinary people
with nothing taken away. That is, if food, safety, love, and esteem are not
taken away from people, then those people will move naturally toward self-
actualization.
Maslow was generally optimisticand hopeful about humans, but he recog-
nized that people are capable of great evil and destruction. Evil, however, stems
from the frustration or thwarting of basic needs, not from the essential nature of
people. When basic needs are not met, people may steal, cheat, lie, or kill.
Maslow believed that society, as well as individuals, can be improved, but
growth for both is slow and painful. Nevertheless, these small forward steps seem
to be part of humanity’s evolutionary history. Unfortunately, most people “are
doomed to wish for what they do not have” (Maslow, 1970, p. 70). In other words,
although all people have the potential for self-actualization, most will live out
their lives struggling for food, safety, or love. Most societies, Maslow believed, em-
phasize these lower level needs and base their educational and political systems on
an invalid concept of humanity.
Truth, love, beauty, and the like are instinctoid and are just as basic to
human nature as are hunger, sex, and aggression. All people have the potential
to strive toward self-actualization, just as they have the motivation to seek food
and protection. Because Maslow held that basic needs are structured the same for
all people and that people satisfy these needs at their own rate, his holistic-
dynamic theory of personality places moderate emphasis on both uniquenessand
similarities.
From both a historical and an individual point of view, humans are an evo-
lutionary animal, in the process of becoming more and more fully human. That is,
as evolution progresses, humans gradually become more motivated by metamoti-
vations and by the B-values. High level needs exist, at least as potentiality, in
everyone. Because people aim toward self-actualization, Maslow’s view can be
considered teleological and purposive.
Maslow’s view of humanity is difficult to classify on such dimensions as de-
terminism versus free choice, conscious versus unconscious, or biological versus
Chapter 10 Maslow: Holistic-Dynamic Theory 305