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The SAGE Encyclopedia of Lifespan
Human Development
Self-Actualization
Contributors: Jeevan F. D’Souza
Edited by: Marc H. Bornstein
Book Title: The SAGE Encyclopedia of Lifespan Human Development
Chapter Title: "Self-Actualization"
Pub. Date: 2018
Access Date: March 30, 2018
Publishing Company: SAGE Publications, Inc.
City: Thousand Oaks,
Print ISBN: 9781506307657
Online ISBN: 9781506307633
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781506307633.n714
Print pages: 1921-1922
©2018 SAGE Publications, Inc.. All Rights Reserved.
This PDF has been generated from SAGE Knowledge. Please note that the pagination of
the online version will vary from the pagination of the print book.
The term self-actualization has various definitions depending on the context of usage, but in
generic terms, it simply means the realization of one’s full potential. Self-actualization is
synonymous with the terms self-realization, self-reflection, or self-exploration. The term self-
actualization was originally coined by the neurologist Kurt Goldstein. He claimed that every
organism had a master motive or a unique innate drive, and the realization of this inner drive
is what he termed self-actualization. The concept of self-actualization was further explored
and brought into prominence within the domain of psychology by Abraham Maslow. Today,
most of the literature on the topic of self-actualization follows Maslow’s concept and vision of
the term. Maslow’s concept of self-actualization gave rise to the fields of humanistic
psychology and positive psychology, which are used extensively in counseling, education,
organizational creativity, and facilitating social and political change. This entry describes the
concept of self-actualization, how one measures it, how self-actualization develops across the
life span, and how the concept of self-actualization has shaped the fields of humanistic and
positive psychology.
Maslow’s Concept of Self-Actualization
Maslow conceived his theory on the hierarchy of human needs in his landmark 1943 article
titled “A Theory of Human Motivation.” He enlisted a set of human needs and argued that
humans more or less satisfied their needs by following a path or hierarchy. The five needs he
originally enlisted were physiological needs, safety needs, love/belonging needs, esteem
needs, and self-actualization needs. In his later writings, he replaced self-actualization needs
with cognitive needs, aesthetic needs, self-actualization needs, and self-transcendent needs.
He classified the first four needs as deficiency or lower needs and the latter four as being or
higher needs.
Physiological needs include needs for basic survival like food, water, shelter, and clothing.
Safety needs include needs for personal safety, financial security, health and well-being, and
so on. Love/belonging needs include social needs like friendship, family, romantic partner,
intimacy, and affiliation with a club or organization. Esteem needs include needs for
recognition, attention, fame, competence, mastery, and self-confidence. Cognitive needs
include the need to pursue knowledge, meaning, morality, truth, and in general to understand
the universe through reason, thought, and learning. Aesthetic needs include the need for
beauty, art, order, and symmetry. Maslow argued that once individuals satisfied the
aforementioned six needs they were primed to truly realize their full potential through
introspection, contemplation, and self-discovery. He called this need the self-actualization
need. Maslow went on to claim that the final need is the self-transcendence need, which is
the need to go beyond one’s self. This need could manifest itself through spirituality, deep
meditation, peak experiences, flow, social activism, or using one’s fully realized potential to
make the world a better place.
Maslow claimed that humans are typically motivated to satisfy their lower deficiency needs
before embarking on their higher growth needs, though he admitted that there were
exceptions. He suggested that one must satisfy one’s deficiency needs before truly realizing
one’s full potential and self-actualizing. He termed this kind of deficiency-free motivation as
meta-motivation. Self-actualized individuals do not ignore their deficiency needs but rather
spend much less time and effort pursuing them because they are mostly satisfied. Ignoring
deficiency needs in pursuit of higher needs is not advisable because it could lead to
frustration and/or depression.
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Self-actualizing people who are meta-motivated exhibit characteristics like liveliness,
spontaneity, autonomy, independent thinking, self-exploration, compassion, tolerance, and
altruism. They tend to pursue knowledge, meaningfulness, justice, truth, science, beauty,
goodness, and wholeness. They are not slaves to their biological needs and their ego and are
free to explore themselves and the universe with clarity and without any subjective bias.
Maslow believed that self-actualizing people spent significant amounts of time in
understanding themselves and figuring out their true innate potential. Once they figured this
drive, they typically concentrated on using their potential on tasks outside of themselves thus
rendering the world a better place. He believed that the self-actualization of an individual is a
very positive outcome for society but was disappointed by the fact that very few individuals are
truly self-actualized.
Measuring Self-Actualization
Maslow estimated that approximately 1% of people truly self-actualize in their lifetime. He
never conducted in-depth evaluations of self-actualization. Instead, he based his conclusions
on case studies and personal convictions. He studied exceptional people like Albert Einstein,
Frederick Douglass, and Eleanor Roosevelt and deemed them self-actualized based on their
convictions, actions, views, and beliefs. Through his case studies and interviews, he also
noted that there were many people who had their deficiency needs satisfied but failed to truly
self-actualize and grow. He never fully understood the reason for this and left these findings
to social scientists as indicators to conduct future research.
Because self-actualization is a subjective concept, measuring it has posed hurdles for many
psychologists and social scientists. The two most popular instruments used for measuring
self-actualization are the Personal Orientation Inventory and the Short Index of Self-
Actualization. Both these inventories try to estimate one’s level of self-actualization by
questioning the subject’s views, beliefs, and values. Lately, there have been attempts to
measure self-actualization based on one’s actions rather than beliefs. These methods try to
eliminate social desirability bias and increase the reliability of self-actualization measurement.
Self-Actualization and the Life Span
Maslow’s concept of self-actualization differs from Goldstein’s view. Goldstein believed that
every organism has an innate driving force that is active throughout its life span, propelling it
toward self-realization and discovering its potential. Maslow, however, believed that one could
self-actualize only after its deficiency needs were met or satisfied. Based on Maslow’s
concept, true self-actualization manifests itself in middle or late adulthood. It is rare for
children or young adults to self-actualize because during these stages in their life span, they
are generally more focused on their deficiency needs.
As humans self-actualize and self-transcend, they tend to concentrate less on themselves
and more on tasks outside of themselves. As they grow in age and wisdom, they tend to move
from selfishness to selflessness. The concept of self-actualization can be correlated with other
psychological theories that involve the human life span, namely, Erik H. Erikson’s stages of
psychosocial development, Lawrence Kohlberg’s stages of moral development, and Sigmund
Freud’s concept of the id, ego, and superego. All these theories suggest that as mentally
healthy individuals pass through different stages of life they tend to follow a path of growth
that makes them less selfish and more selfless. Maslow coined a term, meta-pathology, for
individuals that failed to reach self-actualization during late adulthood. Some possible reasons
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for meta-pathology are genetics, poor attachment styles, low socioeconomic status, anxieties
and fears, social marginalization, and poor education.
The Importance of Self-Actualization
Although the traditional definition of self-actualization is synonymous with self-realization,
most self-actualized people tend to become selfless or self-transcendent and concentrate on
altruistic tasks beyond themselves because their basic needs are met. Maslow argued that
self-actualization brings more peace, compassion, harmony, care, political activism, and
scientific advancement to the world. Given the reasons that lead to meta-pathology, or thwart
self-actualization, many social scientists advocate public policies that alleviate poverty,
improve education, enforce positive ontogenesis, and increase social acceptance.
Although psychology historically concentrated on pathologies, deficiencies, and mental
illness, Maslow’s concept of self-actualization gave rise to the field of humanistic psychology
in the 1960s, which shifted the focus from human pathologies to positive human attributes.
Humanistic psychology focuses on existentialism, phenomenology, happiness, mindfulness,
and flourishing. Eventually, humanistic psychology gave rise to the field of positive
psychology, which has expanded tremendously since its inception in the late 1990s. Today
positive psychologists conduct research on happiness and subjective well-being, and the
research findings are used extensively in education, youth development, clinical psychology,
the workplace, coaching, and rehabilitation.
See alsoFlow
self-actualization
the self
self-concept
positive psychology
self-realization
pathology
need for belonging
Jeevan F. D’Souza
http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781506307633.n714
10.4135/9781506307633.n714
Further Readings
D’Souza, J., Adams, K., & Fuss, B. (2015). A Pilot study of self-actualization activity
measurement. Journal of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology, 41(3), 28–33.
D’Souza, J., & Gurin, M. (in press). The universal significance of Maslow’s concept of self-
actualization. The Humanistic Psychologist. Retrieved from
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/hum0000027
Goldstein, K. (1939). The organism: A holistic approach to biology derived from pathological
data in man. Salt Lake City, UT: American Book.
Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370.
Maslow, A. H. (1964). Religions, values, and peak-experiences Vol. 35. Columbus: Ohio State
University Press.
Maslow, A. H. (1972). The farther reaches of human nature. Chapel Hill, NC: Maurice Bassett.
Maslow, A. H. (1998). Toward a psychology of being (
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The SAGE Encyclopedia of Lifespan Human Development
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3rd ed.
). New York, NY: Wiley.
Maslow, A. H., Frager, R., & Cox, R. (1970). Motivation and personality: Vol. 2. In J. Fadiman
& C. McReynolds (Eds.), Motivation and personality. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
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