Abraham Maslow, a humanistic psychologist, suggests that many people are not able to fully use their talents because they must spend most of their time and energy meeting their lower needs. He says that all people have five basic needs. These are physical needs, safety needs, love needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs. To this list, I add self-fulfillment needs.
PHYSICAL NEEDS: Physical needs are simply those which your body must have in order to work properly. Your body needs food, water, sleep, exercise, and protection from illness. It needs to eliminate wastes and to be sheltered from the weather. If any of these needs are not met, nothing else seems important.
SAFETY NEEDS: People not only have the need to be free from harm but they also have a need to feel as though they will continue to be safe and secure. For example, you need to feel safe from crime, from violence, or from being punished or hurt because of something you did. When your safety needs are met, you feel protected and comfortable. When you do not feel safe, you are likely to worry about what you can do to make your life more secure.
LOVE NEEDS: Another need which all people have is the need for love, affection, and belonging. Although each of us may seek to satisfy these needs in various ways, we all have the need to belong to someone or some group.
ESTEEM NEEDS: The need for esteem (or to be valued for who or what you are) is the need to feel important and worthwhile. You need to feel respected and appreciated by both yourself and others; by receiving approval or esteem from others, you come to feel more self-respect and more self-esteem.
Thus, a person’s self-concept is directly related to the need for esteem. The more you feel important and worthwhile, the more positive is your self-concept. People who have their esteem needs met are more likely to accept themselves.
Even though most people try to be like the in-crowd, the good and bad experiences which each person has had result in a unique self. Whether a person truly develops his unique potential as an individual (which is the only way to achieve self-fulfillment) or strives to be “like everyone else,” or makes no sincere effort to improve is largely a matter of choice. However, one can sacrifice oneself in order to achieve “success,” but, no matter how much “success” one achieves in this way, such behavior does not actualize oneself and does not lead to self-fulfillment. Of course, some people try to turn themselves on and off as the games they play in their lives change. Such behavior may indeed fool others, but it also fools one’s own subconscious mind, and the side-effect of such self-deception is to sacrifice self-fulfillment. You can, of course, turn your conscious mind on and off, but your subconscious mind is always recording; and, to pretend to be someone that you are not confuses your subconscious mind and may cause your true self to cease to exist.
What you think about yourself is your self-concept. Your ideas about your worth as a person, your strengths and weaknesses, and your special abilities are all part of your self-concept. Some people have positive self-concepts while others have negative ones. Jim, for example, sees himself as a capable, competent person. Because he has shown himself to be a thoughtful and responsible person, everyone seems to respect him and compliments him highly. Rick, on the other hand, lacks self-confidence in his ability to handle his life. His irresponsibility has hurt not only himself but also significant others who have trusted him. As a result, he has a negative self-concept.
A person’s self-concept is formed by interactions within his or her environment with other people. Usually, the family has the most influence on the development of the self. The quality and type of experiences that a person has in the family determine self-concept to a relatively large extent; however, others in one’s culture and one’s physical environment can significantly affect his or her self-concept. For instance, racial prejudice and discrimination based upon race has collectively affected many Black Americans in a negative way. After having growing up under such circumstances, by the time a person gets old enough to think for oneself, he or she has probably developed a negative self-concept. What is makes matters worse is that a negative self-concept in-and-of itself may cause a person to behave in negative ways towards both self and others.
SELF-ACTUALIZATION NEED: Self-actualization is the need people have to become themselves in ways that maximizes their potential to be the best that they can be and to do the best that they can do to become their best true selves. Thus, to self-actualize is to self-improve by studying, learning, practicing, and rediscovering yourself in ways that increase your potential for self-fulfillment. This actually means persistently becoming the person that your true self calls you to be or to become. Usually, however, this includes making worthwhile contributions to humanity.
SELF-FULFILLMENT: Although everyone has a need for self-fulfillment, relatively few people seem to achieve it. The major reason why more people do not is because all of the other needs must be relatively satisfied before one can successfully achieve this need. In short, self-fulfillment comes to a person after he or she has relatively satisfied all of his or her lower basic needs and then feels as though his or her life has been worthwhile not only for self but also for others—that is, one must also feel as though one’s life has been beneficial to humanity.
