Chapter 9 - MAslow

Chapter 9 Maslow: Holistic-Dynamic Theory
Chapter 9
Maslow: Holistic-Dynamic Theory
Learning Objectives
After reading Chapter 9, you should be able to:
1. List and explain Maslow's five assumptions regarding

motivation.
2. List and explain the five needs in Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
3. Distinguish between conative, aesthetic, cognitive, and neurotic

needs.
4. Define instinctoid needs.
5. Describe Maslow's criteria for identifying self-actualizers.
6. List and describe the characteristics of self-actualizing people.
7. Describe the Jonah complex.
8. Discuss Maslow's philosophy of science.
9. Discuss Maslow's concept of humanity.
Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e Student Study

Guide-9 | 1
10. Explain the implications of Maslow's theory for psychotherapy.
11. Summarize research on self-actualization.
I. Overview of Maslow's Holistic-Dynamic Theory

Maslow's holistic-dynamic theory assumes that people are
continually motivated by one or more needs, and that under
the proper circumstances, they can reach a level of
psychological health called self-actualization.
II. Biography of Abraham H. Maslow
Abraham H. Maslow was born in New York City in 1908, the
oldest of seven children of Russian Jewish immigrants. After
2 or 3 mediocre years as a college student, Maslow improved
in his academic work at about the time he was married. He
received both a bachelor's degree and a PhD from the
University of Wisconsin, where he worked with Harry Harlow
conducting animal studies. Most of his professional career
was spent at Brooklyn College and Brandeis University. Poor
health forced him to move to California, where he died in
1970 at age 62.
III. Maslow's View of Motivation
Maslow's theory rests on five basic assumptions about
motivation: (1) the whole organism is motivated at any one
time; (2) motivation is complex, and unconscious motives
often underlie behavior; (3) people are continually motivated

Guide-9 | 2
by one need or another; (4) people in different cultures are

motivated by the same basic needs; and (5) the basic needs
can be arranged on a hierarchy.
A. Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow held that lower level needs have prepotency over
higher level needs; that is, lower needs must be satisfied
before higher needs become motivators. Maslow's hierarchy
includes: (1) physiological needs, such as oxygen, food,
water, and so on; (2) safety needs, which include physical
security, stability, dependency, protection, and freedom from
danger, and which result in basic anxiety if not satisfied; (3)
love and belongingness needs, including the desire for
friendship, the wish for a mate and children, and the need to
belong; (4) esteem needs, which result from the satisfaction
of love needs and which include self-confidence and the
recognition that we have a positive reputation; and (5) self-
actualization needs, which are satisfied only by the
psychologically healthiest people. Unlike other needs that
automatically are activated when lower needs are met, self-
actualization needs do not inevitably follow from the
satisfaction of esteem needs. Only by embracing such B-
values as truth, beauty, oneness, justice, etc., can people
achieve self-actualization. The five needs on Maslow's
hierarchy are conative needs. Other categories of needs
include aesthetic needs, cognitive needs, and neurotic needs.
B. Aesthetic Needs

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Aesthetic needs include a desire for beauty and order, and

some people have much stronger aesthetic needs than do
others. When people fail to meet their aesthetic needs, they
become sick.
C. Cognitive Needs
Cognitive needs include the desire to know, to understand,
and to be curious. Knowledge is a prerequisite for each of the
five conative needs. Also, people who are denied knowledge
and kept in ignorance become sick, paranoid, and depressed.
D. Neurotic Needs
Neurotic needs include a desire to dominate, to inflict pain, or
to subject oneself to the will of another person. With
conative, aesthetic, and cognitive needs, some type of illness
results when they are not satisfied. Neurotic needs, however,
lead to pathology whether or not they are satisfied.
E. General Discussion of Needs
Maslow believed that most people satisfy lower level needs to
a greater extent than they do higher needs, and that the greater
the satisfaction of one need, the more fully the next highest
need is likely to emerge. In certain rare cases, the order of
needs might be reversed. For example, a starving mother may
be motivated by love needs to give up food in order to feed
her starving children. However, if we understand the
unconscious motivation behind many apparent reversals, we
might see that they are not genuine reversals at all. Thus,
Maslow insisted that much of our surface behaviors are
actually motivated by more basic and often unconscious

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needs. Maslow also believed that some expressive behaviors

are unmotivated, even though all behaviors have a cause.
Expressive behaviors have no aim or goal but are merely a
person's mode of expression. In comparison, coping
behaviors deal with a person's attempt to cope with the
environment. The conative needs ordinarily call forth coping
behaviors. Deprivation of any of the needs leads to pathology
of some sort. For example, people's inability to reach self-
actualization results in metapathology; defined as an absence
of values, a lack of fulfillment, and a loss of meaning in life.
Maslow suggested that instinctoid needs are innately
determined even though they can be modified by learning.
Maslow also believed that higher level needs (love, esteem,
and self-actualization) are later on the evolutionary scale than
lower level needs and that they produce more genuine
happiness and more peak experiences.
IV. Self-Actualization
Maslow believed that a very small percentage of people reach
an ultimate level of psychological health called self-
actualization.
A. Values of Self-Actualizers
Maslow held that self-actualizing people are metamotivated
by such B-values as truth, goodness, beauty, justice, and
simplicity.
B. Definition and Description
Four criteria must be met before a person achieves self-
actualization: (1) absence of psychopathology, (2) satisfaction

Guide-9 | 5
of each of the four lower level needs, (3) full realization of

one's potentials for growth, and (4) acceptance of the B-
values.
C. Characteristics of Self-Actualizing People
Maslow listed 15 qualities that characterize self-actualizing
people, although not all self-actualizers possess each of these
characteristics to the same extent. The characteristics of self-
actualizing people are: (1) more efficient perception of
reality; they often have an almost uncanny ability to detect
phoniness in others, and they are not fooled by sham; (2)
acceptance of self, others, and nature; (3) spontaneity,
simplicity, and naturalness; they have no need to appear
complex or sophisticated; (4) problem-centered; they view
age-old problems from a solid philosophical position; (5) the
need for privacy, or a detachment that allows them to be
alone without being lonely; (6) autonomy; they have grown
beyond dependency on other people for their self-esteem; (7)
continued freshness of appreciation and the ability to view
everyday things with a fresh vision and appreciation; (8)
frequent reports of peak experiences, or those mystical
experiences that give a person a sense of transcendence and
feelings of awe, wonder, ecstasy, reverence, and humility; (9)
Gemeinschaftsgefühl, that is, social interest or a deep feeling
of oneness with all humanity; (10) profound interpersonal
relations but with no desperate need to have a multitude of
friends; (11) the democratic character structure, or the
ability to disregard superficial differences between people;

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(12) discrimination between means and ends, meaning that

self-actualizing people have a clear sense of right and wrong,
and they experience little conflict about basic values; (13) a
philosophical sense of humor, or humor that is spontaneous,
unplanned, and intrinsic to the situation; (14) creativeness;
they possess a keen perception of truth, beauty, and reality;
(15) resistance to enculturation; they have the ability to set
personal standards and to resist the mold set by the dominant
culture.
D. Love, Sex, and Self-Actualization
Maslow compared D-love (deficiency love) to B-love (love
for being or essence of another person). Self-actualizing
people are capable of B-love; that is, they have the ability to
love without expecting something in return. B-love is
mutually felt and shared and not based on deficiencies within
the lovers.
V. Philosophy of Science
Maslow criticized traditional science as being value-free, with
a methodology that is sterile and nonemotional. He argued for
a Taoistic attitude for psychology in which psychologists are
willing to resacralize their science, that is, to instill it with
human values and to view participants with awe, joy, wonder,
rapture, and ritual.
VI. Measuring Self-Actualization
Maslow's methods for measuring self-actualization were
consistent with his philosophy of science. He began his study
of self-actualizing people with little evidence that such a

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classification of people even existed. He looked at healthy

people, learned what they had in common, and then
established a syndrome for psychological health. Next, he
refined the definition of self-actualization, studied other
people, and changed the syndrome. He continued this process
until he was satisfied that he had a clear definition of self-
actualization. Other researchers have developed personality
inventories for measuring self actualization. The most widely
used of these is Everett Shostrom's Personal Orientation
Inventory (POI), a 150-forced-choice inventory that assesses
a variety of self-actualization facets.
VIII. The Jonah Complex
Because humans are born with a natural tendency to move
toward psychological health, any failure to reach self-
actualization can be technically called abnormal development.
One such abnormal syndrome is the Jonah complex, or fear
of being or doing one's best, a condition that all of us have to
some extent. Maslow believed that many people allow false
humility to stifle their creativity and to fall short of self-
actualization.
VIII. Psychotherapy
The hierarchy of needs concept has obvious ramifications for
psychotherapy. Most people who seek psychotherapy
probably do so because they have not adequately satisfied
their love and belongingness needs. This suggests that much
of therapy should involve a productive human relationship and

Guide-9 | 8
that he job of a therapist is to help clients satisfy love and

belongingness needs.
IX. Related Research
Recent research in positive psychology has reawakened an
interest in humanistic psychology including the work of
Maslow, Carl Rogers, Gordon Allport, and other person-
centered personality theorists.
A. Hierarchy of Needs
Reiss & Havercamp (2006) measured need fulfillment to test
the idea in Maslow’s theory that lower order needs must be
met early in life while higher order needs such as self-
actualization are fulfilled later in life. Their results supported
Maslow’s theory on this point.
B. Positive Psychology
One area of positive psychology where Maslow’s ideas have
been especially influential is in the role of positive
experiences in people’s lives. Burton & King (2004) found
support for their hypothesis that writing about positive
experiences would be associated with better physical health.
Lyubomirsky, Sousa, and Dickerhoof (2004) found
additionally that while simply thinking about past positive
experiences did not confer physical health benefits, it did
result in participants’ reporting greater well-being than those
who wrote about the positive experiences. This recent
research in positive psychology supports Maslow’s prediction
that peak experiences often have a lasting impact on people’s
lives.

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C. Personality Development, Growth, and Goals

Implicit in Maslow's theory of self-actualization is the
assumption that psychologically healthy people become more
self-actualizing as they grow older. Recently, Jack Bauer and
Dan McAdams (2004a) tested this hypothesis using college
students and middle-age and older community volunteers.
Their procedure called for measuring two kinds of growth—
extrinsic and intrinsic. External growth includes an interest in
money, fame, and physical appearance, whereas intrinsic
growth focuses on happiness and healthy interpersonal
relations. As hypothesized, Bauer and McAdams found that
older participants had higher intrinsic goals, whereas college
students tended to report needs for extrinsic goals.
X. Critique of Maslow
Maslow's theory has been popular in psychology and other
disciplines, such as marketing, management, nursing, and
education. The hierarchy of needs concept seems both
elementary and logical, which gives Maslow's theory the
illusion of simplicity. However, the theory is somewhat
complex, with four dimensions of needs and the possibility of
unconsciously motivated behavior. As a scientific theory,
Maslow's model rates high in generating research but low in
falsifiability. On its ability to organize knowledge and guide
action, the theory rates quite high; on its simplicity and
internal consistency, it rates only average.
XI Concept of Humanity

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Maslow believed that people are structured in such a way that

their activated needs are exactly what they want most.
Hungry people desire food, frightened people look for safety,
and so forth. Although he was generally optimistic and
hopeful, Maslow saw that people are capable of great evil and
destruction. He believed that, as a species, humans are
becoming more and more fully human and motivated by
higher level needs. In summary, Maslow's view of humanity
rates high on free choice, optimism, teleology, and uniqueness
and about average on social influences.
Test Items
Fill-in-the-Blanks
1. Maslow's ______________________ theory assumes that

people are continually motivated by one need or another.
2. Maslow felt ________________ toward his mother during his

entire life.
3. The most basic needs of any person are

_____________________.
4. The highest need on Maslow's hierarchy is

__________________.

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5. Maslow believed that motivation is usually

_________________, meaning that behavior is often an
expression of an unconscious or a more basic need.
6. When ________________________ needs are not met, a person

suffers from basic anxiety.
7. _______________________ needs are nonproductive, and their

satisfaction does not foster health.
8. The two levels of esteem needs are

________________________ and self-esteem.
9. Self-actualizing people embrace the

_______________________, a condition that separates them
from other people who have met esteem needs but who do not
achieve self-actualization.
10. Maslow distinguished between _________________________

behavior, which is often unmotivated, and coping behavior,
which is motivated.
11. People deprived of self-actualization suffer from

___________________ in the same sense that people deprived
of food suffer from malnutrition.

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12. As people advanced through history, they become more

motivated by ___________________ level needs.
13. Truth, goodness, and beauty are 3 of 14

____________________, all of which may ultimately be one
value.
14. Love between two self-actualizing people is called

___________________ love.
15. Although self-actualizers are free from

____________________, they could suffer some
psychosomatic illnesses.
16. Self-actualizers are ______________________-centered rather

than person-centered.
17. Maslow found that self-actualizers have a

__________________ sense of humor.
18. Shostrom's Personal __________________ Inventory is an

attempt to measure self-actualization.
19. The ___________________ complex is the fear of being or

doing one's best.

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20. Maslow advocated a ______________________ attitude for

psychology researchers, one that is noninterfering, passive, and
receptive.
21. Bauer and McAdams found that older people, in contrast to

younger people, were more likely to be motivated by
____________________ rather than extrinsic goals.
True-False
______1. Like Harry Stack Sullivan, Maslow was the most popular
person in his high school class.
_____ 2. As a child, Maslow was emotionally closer to his mother

than to his father.
______3. Maslow assumed that people in different cultures have

basically different needs.
______4. People who have never experienced love are most strongly
motivated by love and belongingness needs.
______5. People who have been partially loved are most strongly
motivated by love and belongingness needs.

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______6. When people have their esteem needs met, they

automatically cross the threshold to self-actualization.
______7. All people have a more or less equal desire to satisfy

aesthetic needs.
______8. A person can satisfy only one need at a time.
______9. Maslow believed that people are continually conscious of

their motives.
_____10. Needs on the hierarchy can occasionally be reversed,

according to Maslow.
_____11. Self-actualizing people strive hard to maintain their self-

actualization status.
_____12. Self-actualizing people would most likely agree with the

saying "knowledge for the sake of knowledge."
_____13. According to Maslow, all behavior is motivated.
_____14. Expressive behavior is often unmotivated.
_____15. One sure sign of self-actualization is having a peak

experience.

Guide-9 | 15
_____16. By faking self-actualization, some people actually become

self-actualizing.
_____17. Maslow believed that all people have the potential for
self-actualization, but most people never achieve it.
_____18. Most self-actualizing people do not have their esteem

needs met.
_____19. A person who has never had love and belongingness

needs satisfied could nevertheless become self-actualizing
by satisfying safety needs.
_____20. Maslow's theory rates low on its ability to organize

knowledge.
Multiple Choice
______1. As a young man, Maslow experienced a fortuitous event

that changed his life. This event happened when he
a. met Alfred Adler.
b. first kissed his cousin Bertha Goodman.
c. made the Dean's honor roll at Cornell.
d. converted from Judaism to Protestantism.

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_____ 2. Maslow regarded his mother as

a. a very religious person.
b. a kind and genteel person.
c. a mystic who could forecast future events.
d. a self-actualizing person.
e. none of these.
______3. During childhood and adolescence, Maslow was

a. shy and socially backward.
b. pampered by his mother.
c. overly combative with his older brothers
d. more interested in sports than in books.
______4. In his theory of motivation, Maslow assumed that

a. people in different cultures have different basic needs.
b. motivation is nearly always conscious.
c. people are motivated by one need at a time.
d. people are continually motivated by one need or another.
e. all of these are correct.
______5. Maslow's concept of a hierarchy of needs assumes that

a. higher needs have prepotency over lower needs.
b. lower needs have prepotency over higher needs.
c. love needs are more basic than physiological needs.
d. cognitive needs must be satisfied before aesthetic needs
become motivators.
e. aesthetic needs are prepotent over cognitive needs.

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______6. When safety needs are not satisfied, a person will be

motivated by these needs.
a. physiological
b. safety
c. love and belongingness
d. neurotic
e. cognitive
_____ 7. During his early professional career, Maslow was

influenced mostly by
a. Erik Erikson.
b. Harry Harlow.
c. Sigmund Freud.
d. Carl Jung.
e. Carl Rogers.
______8. Safety needs are usually strongest for

a. children.
b. men.
c. women.
d. hungry people.
e. mountain climbers.
______9. Maslow said that basic anxiety is experienced when

people
a. fail to satisfy physiological needs.
b. feel alienated from other people.

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c. fail to satisfy safety needs.

d. develops a fear of being and doing their best.
e. are motivated by metaneeds.
_____10. A person who has never received love is likely to

a. devalue it.
b. be strongly motivated to attain it.
c. experience basic anxiety.
d. be motivated by esteem needs.
_____11. Feelings of self-worth, confidence, and competence were

considered by Maslow to be
a. unnecessary for self-actualization.
b. esteem needs.
c. self-actualization needs.
d. love and belongingness needs.
_____12. According to Maslow, neurotic needs are activated

a. only when satisfied.
b. only when frustrated.
c. whether or not they are satisfied.
d. when love and belongingness needs are frustrated.
_____13. With regard to needs, which of these statements would

Maslow endorse?
a. Safety needs must be satisfied more fully than
physiological needs.

Guide-9 | 19
b. People are usually conscious of their underlying needs.

c. The order of needs may be reversed in certain cases.
d. One need must be completely satisfied before another can
become a motivator.
e. If people cannot satisfy their love needs, then they can
skip to the level of esteem needs.
_____14. According to Maslow,

a. some behavior is not motivated.
b. all behavior has a cause.
c. both of these.
d. neither of these.
_____15. Maslow believed that people who fail to satisfy self-

actualization needs
a. embrace the M-values.
b. suffer from metapathology.
c. become neurotic.
d. embrace the B-values.
_____16. It is NOT true that instinctoid needs

a. spring from a modern industrialized society.
b. result in pathology when frustrated.
c. are unique to humans.
d. can be modified by learning.
e. are persistent rather than temporary.

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_____17. According to Maslow, metamotivation

a. is characterized by coping rather than expressive behavior.
b. is the need for peak experiences.
c. represents the motives of self-actualizing people.
d. is associated with D-values.
e. represents the motives of neurotic people.
_____18. Which of the following was NOT listed by Maslow as a

characteristic of self-actualizing people?
a. social interest
b. autonomy
c. need for privacy
d. acceptance of self, others, and nature
e. people-centered
_____19. Maslow said that self-actualizing people

a. feel lonely when they are alone.
b. experience anxiety when faced with the unknown.
c. desire to inform, convert, and instruct others.
d. experience a more efficient perception of reality.
_____20. Maslow called B-love

a. brotherly love.
b. love for the essence of another person.
c. motivated by love and belongingness needs.
d. motivated by the peak experience.
e. burdensome love.

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_____21. The fear of being one's best is

a. the Jonah complex.
b. the fear of failure.
c. the Moses complex.
d. metapathology.
e. desacralization.
_____22. Maslow insisted that scientists should

a. be unbiased.
b. discover truth.
c. be willing to desacralize science.
d. be willing to resacralize science.
_____ 23. Bauer and McAdams found that older participants,

compared with college students, tended to report needs of
a. safety.
b. extrinsic goals.
c. love and belongingness.
d. intrinsic goals
Short Answer
1. List five assumptions Maslow made concerning motivation.

Guide-9 | 22
2. Name two characteristics that make physiological needs different

from other needs.
3. Explain the difference between reputation and self-esteem.

Guide-9 | 23
4. Explain the differences between expressive and coping behavior.
5. Explain the difference between instinctoid and noninstinctoid

needs.
6. List three criteria used to identify self-actualizing people.

Guide-9 | 24
7. According to Maslow, why might a person have a Jonah

complex?
Answers
Fill-in-the-Blanks True-False Multiple Choice
1. holistic-dynamic 1. F 1. b
2. hatred 2. F 2. e
3. physiological 3. F 3. a

Guide-9 | 25
4. self-actualization 4. F 4. d
5. complex 5. F 5. b
6. safety 6. F 6. b
7. Neurotic 7. F 7. b
8. reputation 8. F 8. a
9. B-values 9. F 9. c
10. expressive 10. T 10. a
11. metapathology 11. F 11. b
12. earlier 12. T 12. c
13. B-values 13. F 13. c
14. B-love 14. T 14. c
15. psychopathology 15. F 15. b
16. problem 16. F 16. e
17. philosophical 17. T 17. c
18. Orientation 18. F 18. e
19. Jonah 19. F 19. d
20. Taoistic 20. F 20. b
21. intrinsic 21. a
22. d
23. d

Guide-9 | 26

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Chapter 9 Maslow: Holistic-Dynamic Theory

After reading Chapter 9, you should be able to:

1. List and explain Maslow's five assumptions regarding

2. List and explain the five needs in Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

3. Distinguish between conative, aesthetic, cognitive, and neurotic

4. Define instinctoid needs.

5. Describe Maslow's criteria for identifying self-actualizers.

6. List and describe the characteristics of self-actualizing people.

7. Describe the Jonah complex.

8. Discuss Maslow's philosophy of science.

9. Discuss Maslow's concept of humanity.

Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e Student Study

10. Explain the implications of Maslow's theory for psychotherapy.

11. Summarize research on self-actualization.

I. Overview of Maslow's Holistic-Dynamic Theory

Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e Student Study

by one need or another; (4) people in different cultures are

Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e Student Study

Aesthetic needs include a desire for beauty and order, and

Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e Student Study

needs. Maslow also believed that some expressive behaviors

Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e Student Study

of each of the four lower level needs, (3) full realization of

Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e Student Study

(12) discrimination between means and ends, meaning that

Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e Student Study

classification of people even existed. He looked at healthy

Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e Student Study

that he job of a therapist is to help clients satisfy love and

Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e Student Study

C. Personality Development, Growth, and Goals

Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e Student Study

Maslow believed that people are structured in such a way that

1. Maslow's ______________________ theory assumes that

2. Maslow felt ________________ toward his mother during his

3. The most basic needs of any person are

4. The highest need on Maslow's hierarchy is

Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e Student Study

5. Maslow believed that motivation is usually

6. When ________________________ needs are not met, a person

7. _______________________ needs are nonproductive, and their

8. The two levels of esteem needs are

9. Self-actualizing people embrace the

10. Maslow distinguished between _________________________

11. People deprived of self-actualization suffer from

Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e Student Study

12. As people advanced through history, they become more

13. Truth, goodness, and beauty are 3 of 14

14. Love between two self-actualizing people is called

15. Although self-actualizers are free from

16. Self-actualizers are ______________________-centered rather

17. Maslow found that self-actualizers have a

18. Shostrom's Personal __________________ Inventory is an

19. The ___________________ complex is the fear of being or

Feist, Theories of Personality, 8e Student Study

20. Maslow advocated a ______________________ attitude for

21. Bauer and McAdams found that older people, in contrast to

_____ 2. As a child, Maslow was emotionally closer to his mother

______3. Maslow assumed that people in different cultures have