Is cooking, she burns food “by accident.” She is an unenthusiastic sex partner.

According to Freud, forbidden sexual impulses and forbidden aggressive urges

play a significant role in self-defeating behaviors. Actions that seem paradoxical

and superficially unexplainable can be understood by examining the way in which

repressed motives express themselves in devious ways.

Self-Actualization: Becoming the Person You Were Meant to Be

Abraham Maslow, author of Toward a Psychology of Being and a principal advocate

of the humanistic viewpoint in psychology, presented a large-canvas description of

human motivation. This description is known as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

According to Maslow, human needs can be ranked in terms of “lower needs” and

“higher needs.”

Imagine a pyramid in six layers. The needs ascend from the lower needs at the

base of the pyramid to the higher needs at the apex. The first layer of the pyramid

represents physiological needs. These are the need for food, water, and so forth.

These are associated with the biological drives.

The second layer of the pyramid represents safety needs. These include the

need for shelter, protection from injury, and so forth. Safety needs are reflected in

such individual behaviors as wearing a seat belt and such social behaviors as organizing a police force.

The third layer of the pyramid represents love and belongingness needs.

These include the need for affection, the need to love, and the need to be loved.

Love and belongingness needs are reflected in such behaviors as joining a club,

forming friendships, getting married, and having children. The importance of

love and belongingness needs is evident in many popular songs. They frequently

focus on the elation one feels when a love relationship is going well or the despair

one feels when such a relationship is going badly.

The fourth layer of the pyramid represents esteem needs. These include

the need to be esteemed by others and self-esteem. The need to be esteemed by

others is reflected in behaviors such as seeking a higher rank within an organization

or working for a prestigious award or degree. Self-esteem is the sense of

value that one feels about oneself. It is a kind of inner psychological ranking.

Low self-esteem is associated with depression and a pessimistic outlook on life.

High self-esteem is associated with a positive mood and an optimistic outlook

on life.

The fifth layer of the pyramid represents cognitive needs. Cognitive needs

include the need for mental stimulation, the need to use one’s intelligence, and

the need to exercise creative abilities. Cognitive needs are reflected in such behaviors

as reading a book, writing a story, working a crossword puzzle, taking a class,

solving a problem, and so forth.

The sixth and top layer of the pyramid represents the need for selfactualization.

Of all the needs, this is the one that is primarily associated with

the thinking and research of Maslow. Maslow hypothesized that this need is

inborn. Also, it is emergent, meaning that it only becomes a pressing need when

the other lower needs are relatively satisfied. The need for self-actualization is the

need to maximize one’s talents and potentialities. It is sometimes informally

phrased as “the need to become the person you were meant to be.”

The need for self-actualization is reflected in such behaviors as working

toward success in a vocational field or seeking way of life that represents one’s own

idea of personal fulfillment. There is no field of work or style of life that can be

specified, because the individual’s choice and perception are of particular importance.

For one person, self-actualization might mean the pursuit of an acting

career. For another person, self-actualization might mean becoming a parent. The

important thing, according to Maslow, is that the individual discovers what is right

for himself or herself.

Maslow’s research suggested that many, perhaps most, people are not selfactualizing. The price paid for a failure to be self-actualizing is a sense of disappointment

in life and in oneself.

On the other hand, if one is in fact self-actualizing, there are important psychological rewards associated with the process. First, one will tend to experience

both a general sense of psychological health and a pleasant day-to-day emotional

tone. Second, the individual will from time to time have peak experiences.

These are moments or joy or ecstasy when a hurdle is overcome, a task is completed,

or a goal is reached.

Note that a person is not referred to as self-actualized, but as self-actualizing.

Maslow is talking about the process of becoming, not an end state. Self-actualization

as a process can be a rich source of psychological reward for most of one’s life.

Maslow makes a distinction between deficiency motivation and being motivation.

Deficiency motivation refers to those needs lowest on the hierarchy. We

need to overcome deficiency states such as hunger, thirst, and danger in order to

move upward toward the higher levels. Being motivation tends to be associated

with the higher levels, particularly with the need for self-actualization. The theme

of being motivation is growth.