Humanistic and Existential Personality Theories Worksheet

Abraham Maslow proposed the _humanistic__ theory of personality.

According to Maslow, self-fulfillment and realization of one's full potential are examples of _self-actualization____ needs.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs proposes that _lower____ needs must be satisfied before ____higher____ needs will become motivators for behavior.

The belief that matter evolves from simpler to more complex forms is formative tendency.

The _actualizing tendency, according to Rogers, is one's view of self as one wishes to be.

Carl Rogers believed that conditions of worth, incongruence, defensiveness, and disorganization are all considered _shattered self-concept__.

7. Rogers believed that ____empathy____, ____unconditional positive regard____, and ____congruence____ are necessary elements of psychotherapy.

8. ____Intentionality____ is the structure that gives meaning to experience and allows people to make decisions about the future.

9. May proposed that __self-awareness____ is the freedom of action, whereas _essential freedom____ is the freedom of being.

10. The basic concepts of existential theory are ____freedom____ and ____responsibility

Theoretical component Theorist

1. A Unconditional positive regard A. Abraham Maslow

2. A Eros B. Carl Rogers

3. A Love and belongingness needs C. Rollo May

4. A & b The self-concept

5. b Guilt

6. c Levels of awareness

7. A Self-actualization

8. c Neurotic anxiety

1. According to Maslow, what are the characteristics of self-actualizing people? Why are these characteristics important?

Maslow defines self-actualization to be "the desire for self-fulfillment, namely the tendency for him [the individual] to become actualized in what he is potentially. This tendency might be phrased as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming."

To reach this position you have to be able to efficient interpret reality and have to accept nature, yourself, and others. You have to be reliant on your own experience, judgment and rationality and not those of others. These characteristics are important because it is difficult to achieve self-actualization and it is estimated that less than one percent of people achieve this.