Self-Actualisation

Maslow (1970) suggests that all individuals have an in-built need for personal development which occurs through a process called self-actualisation.

The extent to which people are able to develop depends on certain needs being met and these needs form a hierarchy. Only when one level of need is satisfied can a higher one be developed. As change occurs throughout life, however, the level of need motivating someone's behaviour at any one time will also change.

• At the bottom of the hierarchy are the basic physiological needs for food, drink, sex and sleep, i.e., the basics for survival.
• Second are the needs for safety and security in both the physical and economic sense.
• Thirdly, progression can be made to satisfying the need for love and belonging.
• The fourth level refers to meeting the need for self-esteem and self-worth. This is the level most closely related to 'self-empowerment'.
• The fifth level relates to the need to understand. This level includes more abstract ideas such as curiosity and the search for meaning or purpose and a deeper understanding.
• The sixth relates to aesthetic needs of beauty, symmetry and order.
• Finally, at the top of Maslow's hierarchy is the need for self-actualisation.

Maslow (1970, p.383) says that all individuals have the need to see themselves as competent and autonomous, also that every person has limitless room for growth. Self-actualisation refers to the desire that everybody has 'to become everything that they are capable of becoming'. In other words, it refers to self-fulfilment and the need to reach full potential as a unique human being. For Maslow, the path to self-actualisation involves being in touch with your feelings, experiencing life fully and with total concentration. Maslow, A. H. (1970), Motivation and Personality, (2nd Edition), Harper & Row, New York. For more on motivation, see our pages: Self-Motivation, Motivating Others and try the How Self-Motivated are You? Quiz.