Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Maslow’s self-actualization remains a popular notion in academic research as well as popular culture. The notion that life’s highest calling is fulfilling one’s own unique potential has been widely appealing. But what do people believe they are doing when they pursue the realization of their full, unique potentials? Here, we examine lay perceptions of self-actualization. Self-actualizing, like any drive, is unlikely to operate without regard to biological and social costs and benefits. We examine which functional outcomes (e.g., gaining status, making friends, finding mates, caring for kin) people perceive as central to their individual self-actualizing. Three studies suggest that people most frequently link self-actualization to seeking status, and, concordant with life history theory, what people regard as self-actualizing varies in predictable ways across the life span and across individuals. Contrasting with self-actualization, people do not view other types of well-being—eudaimonic, hedonic, subjective—as furthering status-linked functional outcomes.

Keywords

motivation/goals social cognition self-actualization fundamental motives evolution

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ackerman

J. M.

Bargh

J. A.

(2010). The purpose-driven life. Commentary on Kenrick et al. (2010). Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5, 323-326.

Amabile

T. M.

(1983). The social psychology of creativity: A componential conceptualization. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 357-376.

Baumeister

R. F.

Vohs

K. D.

Aaker

J. L.

Garbinsky

E. N.

(2013). Some key differences between a happy life and a meaningful life. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 8, 505-516.

Buss

D. M.

Larsen

R. J.

Westen

Semmelroth

(1992). Sex differences in jealousy: Evolution, physiology, and psychology. Psychological Science, 3, 251-255.

Diener

Lucas

R. E.

(2000). Explaining differences in societal levels of happiness: Relative standards, need fulfillment, culture, and evaluation theory. Journal of Happiness Studies, 1, 41-78.

Diener

Sapyta

J. J.

Suh

(1998). Subjective well-being is essential to well-being. Psychological Inquiry, 9, 33-37.

Fitts

W. H.

(1971). The self-concept and self-actualization (Monograph No. 3). Nashville, TN: Nashville Mental Health Center.

Goldstein

(1939). The organism. New York, NY: American Books.

Gowan

J. C.

(1972). Development of the creative individual. San Diego, CA: Robert R. Knapp.

10.

Griskevicius

Cialdini

R. B.

Kenrick

D. T.

(2006). Peacocks, Picasso, and parental investment: The effects of romantic motives on creativity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 63-76.

11.

Harlow

H. F.

(1953). Mice, monkeys, men, and motives. Psychological Review, 60, 23-32.

12.

Jones

Crandall

(1986). Validation of a short index of self-actualization. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 12, 63-73.

13.

Kahneman

Krueger

A. B.

Schkade

D. A.

Schwarz

Stone

A. A.

(2004). A survey method for characterizing daily life experience: The day reconstruction method. Science, 306, 1776-1780. doi:10.1126/science.1103572

14.

Kaplan

H. S.

Gangestad

S. W.

(2005). Life history theory and evolutionary psychology. In Buss

D. M.

(Ed.), The handbook of evolutionary psychology (pp. 68-95). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley.

15.

Kasser

Ryan

R. M.

(1993). A dark side of the American dream: Correlates of financial success as a central life aspiration. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 410-422.

16.

Kenrick

D. T.

Neuberg

S. L.

Griskevicius

Becker

D. V.

Schaller

(2010). Goal-driven cognition and functional behavior: The fundamental-motives framework. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 19, 63-67.

17.

Kenrick

D. T.

Sadalla

E. K.

Groth

Trost

M. R.

(1990). Evolution, traits, and the stages of human courtship: Qualifying the parental investment model. Journal of Personality, 58, 97-116.

18.

Kerr

B. A.

(1985). Smart girls, gifted women. Dayton: Ohio Psychology Press.

19.

Maslow

A. H.

(1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50, 370-396.

20.

Maslow

A. H.

(1954). The instinctoid nature of basic needs. Journal of Personality, 22(3), 326-347.

21.

Maslow

A. H.

(1970). Motivation and personality. New York, NY: Harper & Row.

22.

Miller

G. F.

(2000). The mating mind: How sexual choice shaped the evolution of human nature. New York, NY: Doubleday.

23.

Myers

D. G.

(2009). Psychology in everyday life. New York, NY: Macmillan.

24.

Nelson

S. K.

Kushlev

English

Dunn

E. W.

Lyubomirsky

(2013). In defense of parenthood: Children are associated with more joy than misery. Psychological Science, 24(1), 3-10.

25.

Neuberg

S. L.

Kenrick

D. T.

Schaller

(2010). Evolutionary social psychology. In Fiske

S. T.

Gilbert

D. T.

Lindzey

(Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (5th ed., Vol. 2, pp. 761-796). New York, NY: Wiley.

26.

Neel

Kenrick

D. T.

White

A. E.

Neuberg

S. L.

(2016). Individual differences in fundamental social motives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 110, 887-907. doi:10.1037/pspp0000068

27.

Peterson

Park

(2010). What happened to self-actualization? Commentary on Kenrick et al. (2010). Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5, 320-322.

28.

Peterson

Park

Seligman

M. E.

(2005). Orientations to happiness and life satisfaction: The full life versus the empty life. Journal of Happiness Studies, 6, 25-41.

29.

Reis

S. M.

Callahan

(1989). Gifted females: They’ve come a long way—Or have they? Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 12, 99-117.

30.

Ryan

R. M.

Deci

E. L.

(2001). On happiness and human potentials: A review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Annual Review of Psychology, 52(1), 141-166.

31.

Ryff

C. D.

Singer

(1998). The role of purpose in life and personal growth in positive human health. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

32.

Sherry

D. F.

Schacter

D. L.

(1987). The evolution of multiple memory systems. Psychological Review, 94, 439-454.

33.

Stearns

S. C.

(1992). The evolution of life histories. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

34.

Sumerlin

J. R.

Norman

R. L.

(1992). Self-actualization and homeless men: A known-groups examination of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 77, 295-314.

35.

Tooby

Cosmides

(1992). The psychological foundations of culture. In Barkow

J. H.

Cosmides

Tooby

(Eds.), The adapted mind: Evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture (pp. 19-136). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

36.

Walker

B. A.

Reis

S. M.

Leonard

J. S.

(1992). A developmental investigation of the lives of women. Gifted Child Quarterly, 36, 201-206.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.07 MB

0.17 MB

Individual Perceptions of Self-Actualization: What Functional Motives Are Linked to Fulfilling One’s Full Potential?

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References

Supplementary Material