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Concept of Self-actualization
and Its Extension
Xu Jinsheng
(Beijing Academy of social sciences )
Why did I bring forward this tentative point
of view?
In late 1980's, when Maslow's theory was introduced to China(I
was one of the translators of his works). There were criticisms
such as follows:
"Generally speaking, the attitude of Chinese people,
especially the youth towards the the theory of self-actualization
is very complicated. On one hand, they are eager to embrace
the self- actualization concept; on the other hand, they
feel that the self-actualization and peak experience of
Maslow's type are beyond their reach and quite a luxury
for them while existing under hard and harsh conditions.
What's more , Chinese people had suffered a lot from the
so called "noble ideology". So they unconciously
rejected the words like 'noble' and 'full-health'.On the
contrary, they found 'sickness' and 'abnormal' more natural
to them" (Wei Lei ,1988).
This is a typical critisicm of Maslow's theory which reflects
the psychological paradox of Maslow's readers. It also has
deep cultural implications. Their needs of Maslow's psychology
is due to Maslow's emphasis on individuality, on fullfillment
of one's potentialities and his insights. on human nature
which are absent in our culture.Their feeling of frustration
and puzzlement originates from the restriction of their
self state: their basic need are not yet satisfied, and
their repulse to "left" deviation distord their
understanding of Maslow.
But Maslow's research and elaboration methodology should
also be responsible for this misunderstanding. He investigated
3000 university students and found only one self-actulizer.
So he is very easy to be critised as over idealism.
Maslow had realized the problems of his concept of Self-Actualization.
For example:
"This makes self-actualization a matter of degree and
&frequency rather than an all -or- none affair ,and
thereby makes it more amenable to available research procedure."
(A. Maslow ,p.97,TOWARD A PSYCHOLOGY OF BEING)
"One major difficulty with this conception as so far
presented is its somewhat static character. Self-Actualization,
since I have studied mostly in old people,: tends to be
seen as fin ultimate or final state of affairs, a far goal,
rather than a dynamic process ,active throughout life, Being
,rather than Becoming." (A. Masiow, p. 26, TOWARD A
PSYCHOLOGY OF BEING)
As matter of fact, people have already used Self-actualization
at level of need satisfaction. If Maslow had lived years
more, he might have further distinguished the self. actualization
concept. In 1960's, he had already had the sprout of this
thought.
It is necessary for us to further divide self-actualization
into different levels. Self- actualization at least consists
of two basic levels, one is "self-actualization at
Self-actualization personality level", and the other
is "self-actualization at self-actualization need's
satisfaction level"
1) Self-actualization at Self-actualization personality
level
People at this level means precisely "self-actualized
people" by Maslow,
2)Self-actualization at Self-actualization need satisfaction
level
This type of self satisfaction refers to those unself-actualised
people satisfied their self satisfaction needs temporarily.
For these people, they may belong to different levels in
the Hierarchy of needs, and of course they belong to different
age groups and have different personality. If they adapt
themselves well to environment and give full play to their
potentials, they may "forgot themselves" and even
got the peak experiences, we can say they experienced "self-actualization".
Self-actualized people can always exist in an unself-actualizing
state, unseif-actualized people can also have self-actualizing
moments. The former refers to self-actualized people's lower
needs became dominant at least temporarily; the latter refers
to those unself-actualized people's needs reached the self-actualization
level temporally. Hence, not only adult can reach the self-
actualization level, adolescent and children can become
self-actualized too. For example, when children play games,
students take examinations, they can all experience self-actualizing
moments. But this type of self-actualization is different
from self-actualization at personality level, which is only
attainable for mature adults described by Maslow in his
MOTIVATION AND PERSONALITY.
These two type of self-actualization are related each other,
they are at different levels of one continuum. There is
no absolute distinction between them.
Self-actualization at need satisfaction level is the basis
of that at the personality level. The first level will transform
into the second with the intensification of self-actualization,
that is to say,
self-actualization will shift from pure need satisfaction
to stable personality.
The meaning of the concept's extension
l)The self-actualization of everyman
In our daily lives, self-actualizers only occupy very small
amount of us. If you are not a self-actualizer, how can
you benifit from self-actualization theory? If we accept
the two different levels of self-actualization, then we
are all closely linked with self-actualization. If we restrict
self-actualization within personality level, we will ignore
many potential fullfillment possibilities of everyman, especially
the youth.
2)The self-actualization of the geniuses and great men
Are the geniues and great men mentioned by Maalow such as
Van Gogh, Wagner, Byron self-actualizers? According to Maslow's
description of self-actualization, many of them can't reach
the standard, that means they are not self-actualizers.
Maslow's tactic of solving this problem is to separate geniuses
from psychological health and self-actualization. But Maslow
theory will face great challenges by excluding geniuses
.It is hard for us to accept the idea that Geniues are not
self-actualizers or they did not fulfill their potential.
We can interpret their behavior and personality more satisfactorily
when we distinguished the two types of personality. We can
say even though they do not possess self-actualization moments,
but they do have self-actualization moments.
After distinguishing the two different levels of self-actualization,
the concept of self- actualization has a much broader meaning.
It is no longer a paradise beyond reach nor privileges by
geniuses, but a ideal state can be experienced by every
one. In our lives, we can all strive forward self-actualization
step by step.
The two types of self-actualization is a extension of Maslow's
self-actualization theory, Maslow did not pointed out "Self-actualization
at need satisfaction level "explicitly, If we restrict
tile concept of self-actualization within "self-actualization
at personality level" , then it will beyond the reach
of the ordinary people and be neglected.
Xu Jinsheng, Prof , Working in Beijing Academy
of Social Sciences
lifelove@ht.rol.cn.net
xujinsheng2003@yahoo.com.cn
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