Who is self actualized

The model describes a series of successive, basic needs that must be satisfied before a human being can concern themselves with the next level. One needs to eat before one can worry about safety, one needs to feel safe before seeking out belonging, one needs to feel love and belonging before one can establish self-esteem, and one needs to have self-esteem before they can reach the pinnacle of the hierarchy, self-actualization. Such people seem to be fulfilling themselves and to be doing the best that they are capable of doing.

To develop this definition, Maslow studied friends, colleagues, college students, as well as 9 historical figures that he believed had become self-actualized. The qualities of these figures, he argued, could shed light on the qualities of self-actualized individuals in general. Though they all share characteristics of self-actualized people to one degree or another, some stand out more than others.

Abraham Lincoln could be said to represent many of the qualities of self-actualized people, but Maslow called him out for one in particular: a philosophical, unhostile sense of humor. They often seemed to be education in a more palatable form, akin to parables or fables.

Having argued that all men are created equal, his position as a slave-owner seems contradictory. It is, however, more difficult to square with his ambivalent position on slavery.

Throughout his life, Jefferson expressed his dislike of slavery and introduced anti-slavery legislation , yet he owned over slaves and freed only 7. He also believed blacks to be inferior — in this regard, Maslow may have picked a poor candidate. Psychology 6th Ed. New York: Norton. Maslow, A. A theory of human motivation.

Psychological Review, 50 4 , Toward a psychology of being. Princeton: D. Van Nostrand Company. Martela, F. Significant work is about self-realization and broader purpose: defining the key dimensions of meaningful work. Frontiers in psychology , 9, Rogers, C.

In: Jones, M. On becoming a person: a therapist's view of psychotherapy. London: Constable. Houghton Mifflin. Thorne, B. Key figures in counselling and psychotherapy. Carl Rogers. Sage Publications, Inc.

Talevich, J. Toward a comprehensive taxonomy of human motives. PloS one, 12 2 , e Venter, Henry. While they also love the company of others, taking time to themselves is essential for their personal discovery and cultivating their individual potential. Self-actualized individuals generally have a thoughtful sense of humor. They're able to enjoy the humor in situations and laugh at themselves, but they don't ridicule or joke at the expense of another person's feelings. Another characteristic of self-actualized people is a tendency to be open, unconventional, and spontaneous.

While self-actualized people have concrete goals, they don't see things as simply a means to an end.

The journey toward achieving a goal is just as important and enjoyable as actually accomplishing the goal. Click below to listen now. Ever wonder what your personality type means? Sign up to find out more in our Healthy Mind newsletter. Carrano MA. Toward a comprehensive taxonomy of human motives.

PLoS One. Published Feb The meaning of actualization of self-care resources among a group of older home-dwelling people--a hermeneutic study. Published Apr Martela F, Pessi AB.

Front Psychol. Published Mar Learning autonomy in two or three steps: linking open-ended development, authority, and agency to motivation. Self-actualization scores conformed to a normal distribution, much like IQ or height.

What's more, self-actualization was not correlated with age, education, race, ethnicity, college GPA, or childhood income, and there were no gender differences found in self-actualization. While there are certainly environmental barriers to self-actualization, and some environments can help bring out the best or the worst in us, I found no evidence that the characteristics of self-actualization are limited to a particular swath of humanity.

The views expressed are those of the author s and are not necessarily those of Scientific American. Scott Barry Kaufman, Ph. He has taught courses on intelligence, creativity, and well-being at Columbia University, NYU, the University of Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. In , he was named one of "50 Groundbreaking Scientists who are changing the way we see the world" by Business Insider.

He wrote the extremely popular Beautiful Minds blog for Scientific American for close to a decade. Already a subscriber? Sign in. Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. See Subscription Options. Go Paperless with Digital. The New Characteristics of Self-Actualization Scale After combing through Maslow's writings, I created an initial scale with 92 items, spanning 17 characteristics of self-actualizing people. As he wrote in his paper " Peak-Experiences as Acute Identity Experiences ": "The goal of identity self-actualization.

This is like saying its function is to erase itself.