Psy 250 - Personality Theory: Abraham Maslow

psy 250

Personality Theory: Abraham Maslow

In the discussion of the theory of personality, it would be ideal to have a brief introduction on what theory is all about. Initially, a theory is a reality model which helps to explain, predict, control and understand reality. In personality study, theories or models are commonly verbal. Ever since, anyone comes up with a graphic model along with symbolic illustrations, or a computer or mathematical model, but simply words can be the simplest forms of theories.

Generally, on the context of the personality of an individual, what is talked about is what makes a specific person different compared with other people, that person can be distinct or unique. Such personality aspect is referred to as individual differences. Stated in some theories, personality is considered as a central issue. All these theories are considerably given attention towards things such as traits, “tests and types which can then be classified or put into comparison with other people” (Engler, 1985). Some may be neurotic while others may not, some are extroverted while others can be introverted and the differences go on.

One of the founding fathers of humanistic psychology is Abraham Maslow on which he formulated an approach to behavioral behavior which had developed during the twentieth century in it’s in the middle part. This humanistic approach is often termed in psychology as the "third force," for the reason that it developed following the establishment of the behaviorist and psychoanalytic and approaches.

Abraham Maslow was an academic who dedicated most of his entire professional teaching career, in his theories of behavior development and in conducting research. Even though he has written a significant piece on abnormal psychology and he rendered counseling in an “informal setup to a number of his students, he never had the thought of himself being a psychotherapist, contrasting various field of personality” (Engler, 1985). Abraham Maslow is more concentrated on healthy behavior and its holistic understanding rather than mental disorders treatment.

The theory of Abraham Maslow focuses on motivation and its role in personality. He was keenly engrossed in the explanation as to why people do the things which they do and what are the causes of their behavior. With the methods of theory and research from psychology, experimental, psychoanalysis, anthropology and other fields, His theory has integrated several of ideas into an all-inclusive rationalization of the forces which have people motivated. Even though he utilized the behavior of the animal in order to understand the basic forces of motivation, Abraham Maslow was principally involved in human behavior, and predominantly in the high-functioning and healthy people on their behavior.

The hierarchy of needs is one of the key elements of the theory of Abraham Maslow. He acknowledged that there were a variety of diverse forces of motivation or the needs being pertained to, which influence the behavior of humans, and he also fashioned the hierarchy of needs in order to grasp the understanding of how diverse forces of motivation function in association with another (Krapp, 2005). For example, if in a certain point a person were influenced by a need for security and safety and need for food, which among these two groups of needs will have the most influence on the behavior of the person? Abraham Maslow sought to explicate on how a person will act in response in such given situation, and as well as to be aware of how people came to be subjective by further complexity of higher needs.

A further element of significance on the theory of Maslow is the self-actualization concept. This term, is borrowed from Kurt Goldstein, a neuropsychologist, is a term which describes the humans tendency to accomplish their potentials, to be what they can be. Maslow had felt that the self-actualization need will surface after the other needs were satisfied reasonably, and he was chiefly involved in people who were responding to such need. He had felt that it was imperative to be aware and value motivation, for the reason that he saw it as a solution to achieving an ideal society.

During his later years, Abraham Maslow dedicated the majority of his energy to discovering the ways wherein which the principles of human potential in a diversity of fields can be put into application. The theory of Maslow is not a wide-ranging theory of personality; it only states a little regarding the development process or on the mental disorders origins. Regardless of these restrictions, the theory of Maslow, together with its prominence on hale and hearty functioning, was able to achieve a central influence on psychoanalysis and other professions both on business arena and education. (Krapp, 2005)

In