Abraham Maslow’s personality theory

How did he conceptualize human personality traits?

Throughout the history of psychology, many psychologists have formulated personality theories. One of the best known is Abraham Maslow, together with Carl Rogers, for being the leading exponents of what is known as the third force in psychology, humanism. This current emerged in opposition to Psychoanalysis and Behaviorism.

Unlike these schools, humanism views the person from a holistic and positive point of view, where the center of attention is the subjective experience of the subject. People are active beings who have the capacity to develop themselves, and their basic instinct and dignity lie in their self-confidence.

Who was Abraham Maslow

Abraham Maslow was an American psychologist who was born in Brooklyn, New York on April 1, 1908.. His parents were non-Orthodox Jews from Russia who came to the land of opportunity in the hope of achieving a better future for their children. Abraham Maslow was never a very sociable guy, and even as a child, he took refuge in books.

Before becoming interested in psychology, he first studied law at the City College of New York (CCNY). After marrying Berta Goodman, his older cousin, he moved to Wisconsin to attend college there. It was here that he began studying psychology. He worked with Harry Harlow, famous for his experiments with baby monkeys and attachment behavior. After graduating and receiving her doctorate in this discipline, she returned to New York to work with E.L. Thorndike at Columbia University, where she became interested in researching human sexuality. During this period of his life, he began teaching at Brooklyn College and came into contact with many European psychologists coming to the United States, for example, Adler or Fromm.

The humanistic theory of Carl Rogers

Humanistic psychology is undoubtedly one of the most important currents of thought in psychology. But to know what it is about, it is necessary to know the work of another great figure of this school. It is difficult to understand humanism without Rogers and Maslow. Therefore, before delving into Maslow's theoretical proposals, let us delve into the theory of Carl Rogers.

If Freudian psychoanalysis saw the person from his or her problematic behaviors and behaviorism visualized people as passive beings, that is, who did not have many options to influence the environment. The vision of Carl Rogers and humanism, on the other hand, was totally different, because the human being is seen as an active individual and master of his own realization. For Rogers, a person who pays attention to the process of organic valuation is a fully functional or self-actualized person.

Rogers emphasizes the freedom of individuals in taking the direction of their lives. According to him, people's personalities can be analyzed according to how close or far they are from what he considers a highly functional individual.

The person who is fully functional, i.e. healthier, when he possesses a number of characteristics. These are the following:

• Existential living.People with openness to experience are more likely to live in fullness.
• Organic confidenceThese people rely on their inner experience to guide their behavior.
• Experience of freedomThe person has the freedom to choose.
• CreativityThe person is creative and always finds new alternatives for living. They are mentally inflexible.

You can go deeper into Rogers' ideas in this article: "The Personality Theory proposed by Carl Rogers".

Maslow's Personality Theory

Maslow adds to Rogers' theory his concept of needs. This psychologist's theory revolves around two fundamental aspects: our needs and our experiences.. In other words, what motivates us and what we seek throughout our lives and what happens to us along the way, what we experience. This is where our personality is formed. In fact, Maslow is considered one of the great theorists of motivation.

Maslow's personality theory has two levels. One biological, the needs that we all have, and another more personal, which are those needs that are the result of our desires and the experiences that we live.

Undoubtedly, Maslow is associated with the concept of self-realizationMaslow is undoubtedly associated with the concept of self-fulfillment, because in his theory he speaks of the needs we have as people to develop ourselves, to seek our maximum potential. According to Maslow, people have an innate desire for self-fulfillment, to be what they want to be, and they have the capacity to pursue their goals autonomously and freely.

In a way, the way in which an individual approaches his or her self-actualization will correspond to the type of personality he or she manifests in his or her day-to-day life. This implies that for Maslow, personality is related to motivational aspects It is not something static that remains inside people's heads and manifests itself unidirectionally, from the inside out, as could be criticized in some reductionist and deterministic conceptions of this psychological phenomenon.

The implications of this are clear: to study personality, one must also know the context in which people live and the way in which this context responds to the motivational needs of individuals. Simply focusing on administering several tests to obtain a score does not give us an accurate view on this, since it starts from a bias to consider that personality is what can be captured by these data collection tests. This is a viewpoint similar to the one applied to the field of mental abilities by psychologists such as Howard Gardner and Robert J. Sternberg, critical of the psychometric conception of intelligence.

The self-actualized personality

Maslow thinks that achieving self-actualization needs is in everyone's hands, but few people succeed in doing so. People who succeed in satisfying their self-actualization needs are self-actualized persons.. However, Maslow states that less than 1% of the population belong to this class of individuals.

Self-actualized people are characterized by the following characteristics:

• They show a high level of self-acceptance.
• They perceive reality in a clearer and more objective way.
• They are more spontaneous
• They think that the causes of problems are external.
• They enjoy solitude
• Have a curious and creative mindset
• Enjoy peak experiences
• Generate genuine ideas
• Have a great sense of humor
• Possess a strong critical spirit and are guided by ethical values
• Are respectful and humble
• They are tolerant, do not have prejudices and enjoy the presence of others.

If you want to know more about this type of people, you can read our article:

• "13 characteristics of self-actualized people according to Abraham Maslow".

The theory of the human needs pyramid

Maslow is famous for his theory of the Pyramid of Needs because, according to him, needs follow a hierarchy, from the most basic to the most complex, and his pyramid is built by five levels.

At the base of this figure are the first and at the top are the second. From bottom to top, these are the different levels of needs:

• Physiological needsphysiological needs: eating, breathing, drinking...
• Security needsphysical security, employment, income...
• Affiliation needs: to marry, to be a member of a community...
• Recognition needs: respect from others, status, reputation...
• Self-realization needsThe needs must be met in order to be able to aspire to the higher level.

Needs must be met in order to be able to aspire to the higher level. For example, if our physiological needs are not met, we cannot aspire to the needs of affiliation. At the top level are the needs for self-fulfillment. It is this hierarchy that according to Maslow marked the way in which the personality adapts to the circumstances, depending on each situation experienced. It is, in short, a conception of personality that encompasses very broad psychological aspects and goes beyond the psychometric approach that dominated at the time.

• You can learn more about the theory of human needs in our post: "Maslow's pyramid: the hierarchy of human needs".

Bibliographical references:

• Maslow, Abraham. (1964). Ohio State University Press, ed. Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences.
• Städler, Thomas. (1998). Lexikon der Psychologie, Stuttgart: Kröner.