Personality psychology chapter11 self actualization and self determination

• Carl Rogers • Actualization—tendency to develop capabilities in ways that maintain or enhance the organism present in all living creatures • Self-Actualization—promotes maintenance or

Chapter Eleven

Self-Actualization and Self-Determination

Self-Actualization and Self-Determination

• Carl Rogers

• Actualization—tendency to develop capabilities

in ways that maintain or enhance the organism (present in all living creatures)

• Self-Actualization—promotes maintenance or enhancement of the self

– Moves person toward greater autonomy and

self-sufficiency

– Promotes congruence, organization, wholeness, and integration in the person

Need for Positive Regard

• Strong motive for love, friendship, and

affection from important others

– Unconditional Positive Regard—given without any conditions or contingencies

– Conditional Positive Regard—given only in

situations that meet particular conditions

• Conditions of Worth—conditions under which a person is considered worthy of regard

• Conditional Self-Regard—application of conditions

of worth to self

Implications of Conditions of Worth

• Conflicts between self-actualization and fulfilling conditions of worth

– Example: Desire to be a musician in conflict with recognition of parents’ aspirations for their child to be a doctor

• Sometimes hard to tell true desire from conditions of worth

– Condition of worth is a precondition for

acceptance and is always coercive

• Self-Determined Actions—done because of intrinsic value to self

– Longer interest is maintained

• Controlled Actions—done to gain payment

or satisfy external pressure

– Rewards can undermine intrinsic value of some activities and turn them into controlled actions

• Activities are resistant to this effect if the reward informs you about your competency

Introjection and Identification

• Introjected Regulation:

– Applies standards of “should” and “ought” to behavior – Behavior done to avoid guilt or to get self-approval – Control exerted from external sources

• Identified Regulation:

– Process whereby behavior comes to hold personal meaning and value (often for growth) over time

– Not as self-determined as intrinsically motivated

behavior, but it’s close

Need for Relatedness

• Represents an intrinsic need

• Characterized by genuine connectedness with others and unconditional acceptance

• Not a need based on pressure or demand

• Not in conflict with autonomy

• Pursuit of goals that are consistent with core values

• These bring more contribution to a sense of being

well-• Creates a positive spiral of benefit

Pursuit of

core goals

Greater effort

Higher success

More satisfaction Higher

well-being

The Self

• Development of the self represents

gradual differentiation during infancy

• Self-Concept—set of qualities a person sees as being a part of herself

– Actual—perception of the way you really are– Ideal—what you really want to be

• Self-actualization creates a closer fit

between the actual and ideal selves

– Can cause low self-esteem

• Ways to defend against anxiety of incongruence

– Distortions of the experience

• Rationalization

– Prevent from reaching awareness

• Denial

Self-Esteem Maintenance

and Enhancement

• Defenses protect and maintain self-esteem

• Conditions necessary for an event to have an effect on self-esteem

– Event attributable to you

– Event must be interpreted as good or bad

• Defense against failures

– Minimize negativity of event (wasn’t so bad)

– Resist attributions to stable qualities of self

• Blame others, lack of effort, excuses

• Enhancement through success

– Attribute to stable characteristics of self

– Claim control of those characteristics

• Create an external situation on which

potential failure can be attributed and esteem can be maintained

self-• No threat to stable qualities of the self

Self-Esteem needs

Love and belonging needs

Safety and physical security needs Physiological needs

Implication of Hierarchy

• Low-level needs are more primitive and

demanding than higher-level needs

• Power of motive forces decrease as you go up the pyramid

• Higher-level motives represent more distinctly human characteristics

• Needs at lower level must be met before

attending to higher-level needs

• Low-level needs are deficit motivated and level needs are growth motivated

• Efficient and accurate in perceiving reality

• Accepting of themselves, others, and of nature

• Spontaneous in thought and emotion, natural rather than artificial

• Problem-centered, concerned with eternal philosophical questions

• Independent and autonomous when it comes to

satisfactions

• Freshness of appreciation of ordinary events

• Deep ties, but only with a few persons

• Appreciate, for its own sake the process of doing things

• Philosophical, thoughtful, nonhostile sense of humor

• Maintain inner detachment from culture in which they live

• Appear temperamental and even ruthless

Peak Experiences

• Times when actualization is clearly

occurring

• Heightened sense of connection to

elements in surrounding environment

– How to respond to this realization

Nothingness Authentic Being

Terror Management

• Attempt to construct lives imbued with meaning and value as a response to the potential terror of mortality

• Often define meaning by social and

cultural processes

– Group identity is important

– Rejection of indications of animal nature

• Many assessment techniques

– Interview—content analysis organizes

responses into meaningful groups

– Q-Sort—Sort items into piles that correspond

to particular criteria (e.g., most like you to

least like you)

– Inventories for self-actualization, autonomy, and control

Problems in Behavior

• Problems arise from:

– Incongruity and the negative affect that results– Living in order to meet conditions of worth

– Not living in ways that promote

self-acutalization

• Client-Centered Therapy:

– Responsibility for improvement lies with client

– Removes distractions, so self-actualization processes can move client toward greater integration

– Therapist demonstrates unconditional positive regard and empathy

– Nonevaluative, rather therapist reflects with

• Clarification of feelings

• Restatement of content