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+---
+title: Humanistic Psychology
+published: 2024-11-28
+description: |
+  Humanistic psychology is a psychological perspective that arose in the mid-20th century in answer to two theories:
+  Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory and B. F. Skinner's behaviorism. Abraham Maslow, in this context, established
+  the need for a "third force" in psychology.
+image: cover.png
+tags: [Psychology]
+category: English
+draft: false 
+---
+
+<iframe width="100%" height="468" src="https://youtu.be/mUELAiHbCxc?t=573" title="Humanistic Psychology" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
+
+Hierarchy of Needs
+------------------
+
+Maslow described human needs as ordered in a prepotent hierarchy - a pressing need would need to be mostly satisfied
+before someone would give their attention to the next highest need. None of his published works included a visual
+representation of the hierarchy.
+
+![An interpretation of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, represented as a pyramid, with the more basic needs at the bottom](./Maslow-Hierarchy-of-Needs.svg "Error loading Maslow-Hierarchy-of-Needs.svg")
+
+The pyramidal diagram illustrating the Maslow needs hierarchy may have been created by a psychology textbook publisher
+as an illustrative device. This now iconic pyramid frequently depicts the spectrum of human needs, both physical and
+psychological, as accompaniment to articles describing Maslow's needs theory and may give the impression that the
+hierarchy of needs is a fixed and rigid sequence of progression. Yet, starting with the first publication of his theory
+in 1943, Maslow described human needs as being relatively fluid—with many needs being present in a person simultaneously
+
+According to Maslow's theory, when a human being ascends the levels of the hierarchy having fulfilled the needs in the
+hierarchy, one may eventually achieve self-actualization. Late in life, Maslow came to conclude that self-actualization
+was not an automatic outcome of satisfying the other human needs.
+
+Human needs as identified by Maslow:
+
+- At the bottom of the hierarchy are the "basic needs or physiological needs" of a human being: food, water, sleep, sex,
+  homeostasis, and excretion.
+- The next level is "safety needs: security, order, and stability". These two steps are important to the physical
+  survival of the person. Once individuals have basic nutrition, shelter and safety, they attempt to accomplish more.
+- The third level of need is "love and belonging", which are psychological needs; when individuals have taken care of
+  themselves physically, they are ready to share themselves with others, such as with family and friends.
+- The fourth level is achieved when individuals feel comfortable with what they have accomplished. This is the "esteem"
+  level, the need to be competent and recognized, such as through status and level of success.
+- Then there is the "cognitive" level, where individuals intellectually stimulate themselves and explore.
+- After that is the "aesthetic" level, which is the need for harmony, order and beauty.
+- At the top of the pyramid, "need for self-actualization" occurs when individuals reach a state of harmony and
+  understanding because they are engaged in achieving their full potential. Once a person has reached the
+  self-actualization state they focus on themselves and try to build their own image. They may look at this in terms of
+  feelings such as self-confidence or by accomplishing a set goal.
+
+The first four levels are known as deficit needs or D-needs. This means that if there are not enough of one of those
+four needs, there will be a need to get it. Getting them brings a feeling of contentment. These needs alone are not
+motivating.
+
+Maslow wrote that there are certain conditions that must be fulfilled in order for the basic needs to be satisfied. For
+example, freedom of speech, freedom to express oneself, and freedom to seek new information
+(_A Theory of Human Motivation_) are a few of the prerequisites. Any blockages of these freedoms could prevent the
+satisfaction of the basic needs.
+
+Self-actualization
+------------------
+
+Maslow defined self-actualization as achieving the fullest use of one's talents and interests—the need "to become
+everything that one is capable of becoming". As implied by its name, self-actualization is highly individualistic and
+reflects Maslow's premise that the self is "sovereign and inviolable" and entitled to "his or her own tastes, opinions,
+values, etc." Indeed, some have characterized self-actualization as "healthy narcissism"
+
+### Qualities of Self-actualizing People
+
+Maslow realized that the self-actualizing individuals he studied had similar personality traits. All were "reality
+centered", able to differentiate what was fraudulent from what was genuine. They were also "problem centered", meaning
+that they treated life's difficulties as problems that demanded solutions. These individuals also were comfortable being
+alone and had healthy personal relationships. They had only a few close friends and family rather than a large number of
+shallow relationships.
+
+Self-actualizing people tend to focus on problems outside themselves; have a clear sense of what is true and what is
+false; are spontaneous and creative; and are not bound too strictly by social conventions.
+
+Maslow noticed that self-actualized individuals had a better insight of reality, deeply accepted themselves, others and
+the world, and also had faced many problems and were known to be impulsive people. These self-actualized individuals
+were very independent and private when it came to their environment and culture, especially their very own individual
+development on "potentialities and inner resources".
+
+According to Maslow, self-actualizing people share the following qualities:
+
+- Truth: honest, reality, beauty, pure, clean and unadulterated completeness
+- Goodness: rightness, desirability, uprightness, benevolence, honesty
+- Beauty: rightness, form, aliveness, simplicity, richness, wholeness, perfection, completion,
+- Wholeness: unity, integration, tendency to oneness, interconnectedness, simplicity, organization, structure, order,
+  not dissociated, synergy
+- Dichotomy-transcendence: acceptance, resolution, integration, polarities, opposites, contradictions
+- Aliveness: process, not-deadness, spontaneity, self-regulation, full-functioning
+- Uniqueness: idiosyncrasy, individuality, non comparability, novelty
+- Perfection: nothing superfluous, nothing lacking, everything in its right place, just-rightness, suitability, justice
+- Necessity: inevitability: it must be just that way, not changed in any slightest way
+- Completion: ending, justice, fulfillment
+- Justice: fairness, suitability, disinterestedness, non partiality,
+- Order: lawfulness, rightness, perfectly arranged
+- Simplicity: abstract, essential skeletal, bluntness
+- Richness: differentiation, complexity, intricacy, totality
+- Effortlessness: ease; lack of strain, striving, or difficulty
+- Playfulness: fun, joy, amusement
+- Self-sufficiency: autonomy, independence, self-determining.
+
+__Maslow based his theory partially on his own assumptions about human potential and partially on his case studies of
+historical figures whom he believed to be self-actualized, including Albert Einstein and Abraham Lincoln. Consequently,
+Maslow argued, the way in which essential needs are fulfilled is just as important as the needs themselves. Together,
+these define the human experience. To the extent a person finds cooperative social fulfillment, he establishes
+meaningful relationships with other people and the larger world. In other words, he establishes meaningful connections
+to an external reality - an essential component of self-actualization. In contrast, to the extent that vital needs find
+selfish and competitive fulfillment, a person acquires hostile emotions and limited external relationships - his
+awareness remains internal and limited.