Ford, G. & Procidano, M.

¶ … Ford, G. & Procidano, M. (1990). The relationship of self-Actualization to social support, life stress, and adjustment. Social Behavior and Personality 18(1): 41-51. This research article provides the details of a study that examined how self-actualization was related to issues of depression, familial and social support, life stressors and stress levels, and overall adjustment to changes in life. Undergraduate students with a range in age from eighteen to eighty-one years were used in the study, and the various identified variables were measured using a variety of instruments.

The results of each subject on each of the measurement instruments were correlated in order to determine what impact various perceptions, life events, and other factors had an impact on self-actualization, and the degree as well as the direction of such impacts. The study came to a variety of conclusions regarding self-actualization that support preconceived notions, but that had yet to be researched and validated in an empirical way despite decades of study in the area.

The study's authors begin by detailing much of the research that has been accomplished in regards to self-actualization, beginning with the very earliest writers on the subject. Noting that self-actualization is conceptualized as an ongoing process throughout one's life, as individuals strive to achieve their full potential in a variety of areas, the authors then move on to certain empirical findings regarding this process.

Specifically, social support is noted as having been linked to easier adjustments to life changes, while stress has been seen as a natural result of life changes. No evidence has yet suggested that self-actualization is linked to easier life changes or less life stress from these changes, however. This is the relationship that the researchers set out to examine in this study -- how self-actualization was impacted by social support, or rather by perceived social support, and by levels of life stress.

More accurately, the researchers wanted to examine the back-and-forth that exists between these various elements, to determine if self-actualization had an impact to responses to life stress, as well. In order to accomplish this, the researchers took as diverse a sample as was possible in the population of the university at which the research was conducted, consisting of a total of fifty-two men (mean age 33.2) and fifty-four females (mean age 40.2).

The difference in age means between gender groups was noted as significant due to the nature of what was being studied and the effects that age has on life changes, the potential for stressors, and the progress individuals have made in terms of self-actualization.

Six different well-vetted and established measures were used to determine each subjects' personal standing in terms of their level of self-actualization or progress towards self-actualization, their perceived level of social support, their placement on a depression index, an assessment of their life experiences, and finally a test designed to measure how likely an individual is to try to present themselves positively on self-reporting measures such as those use din the study. This last test's results were used to control for self-reporting biases in the other instruments.

The subjects were given instructions in person and then asked to complete all six instruments in their own homes, with recommendations that the instruments be completed in a single block of time, and respondents then mailed the completed instruments to the researchers. The research did not yield any results that were contrary to long-held and specifically stated hypotheses, and in large part simply confirmed what seemed to be common sense, yet did so with empirical evidence for the first time.

Briefly put, the results of the subjects' responses on the various instruments and the correlation analysis performed showed that depression showed a direct negative relationship with self-actualization -- higher ratings on the depression index were correlated with lower scores/less progress in.