Life history case study

Developmental Psychology

Abraham Maslow

Maslow was a 20th century thinker based in New York. He developed his famous hierarchy of needs in order to try and encapsulate the underlying processes that drive human development.

It is appropriate to envision Maslow's hierarchy as a pyramid with several progressive levels of human desires, with the base level the most prevalent and superficially essential, and the tip of self-actualization hardest to balance.

Step one in the hierarchy is physiological needs. These are needs we share with animals and are biological imperatives, pursued without thought. Included on this level is the need for oxygen, water, and other vitamins and minerals. Further, there's the need to sleep, avoid pain, get rid of wastes, and have sex. It is only once these base physiological needs are secured that an individual can progress to deeper concerns. In this sense, Maslow's hierarchy is very intuitive; it is hard to imagine sitting down for a philosophical discussion or attempting to effect radical social change with a rumbling belly.

Next up in the pyramid are safety and security needs. Though unstructured, situation-based forays to fulfill physiological needs accomplish the ultimate task, humans crave stability. It is inevitable, once physiological needs are temporarily abated, that an individual will then turn his or her mind to considering the need to fulfill physiological needs in the future. Seeking to avoid last minute scrambling that might not necessarily result in success, an individual will try and find secure circumstances. This individual will seek the solace and protection of structure, order, and organization. A move from rural work with its unpredictable weather patterns to an urban lifestyle with a corner supermarket might be an example of such a step up in Maslow's hierarchy.

At this point, the individual has not only taken care of the needs of the moment, but is confident that future needs, as they arise, will be resolved satisfactorily. According to Maslow, the individual will now turn his or her attention to the need for love. The individual will seek to develop lasting and meaningful friendships and relationships, and seek to belong to a community. This first three steps of the pyramid might manifest in an individual seeking to have an established career and a sense that they can provide for themselves before looking to marry and expand their sphere of concern or responsibility.

Maslow believed that step four in an individual's progression was the quest for self-esteem. Self-esteem was believed to come in two versions: a desire for the respect of others and a need for fame or glory, and the development of self-respect, the burgeoning of confidence, independence, and freedom.

Following the fulfillment of deficit needs, Maslow believed an individual will climb to the top of the pyramid and reach for self-actualization. There is no end game in self-actualization. Self-actualized individuals continuously identify goals and objectives and reach to achieve them. The earlier steps in the hierarchy are either met or not met; at the topmost point in the hierarchy, however, you must have met and surpassed all the previous steps.

Maslow believed that only a small percentage of the world's population was self-actualized. Maslow attempted to identify the unique characteristics of people he considered self-actualized. Among the characteristics that Maslow identified were the need to differentiate truth from dishonesty, the desire to solve life's problems instead of surrendering to them, and an enthusiasm for the journey itself, regardless of the ultimate outcome. Moreover, Maslow believed self-actualized figures forged deeper personal relationships, enjoyed autonomy, and were nonconformists without being hostile. Lastly, Maslow characterized these people as having respect for others, compassion, strong ethics, and creative impulses.

Maslow did not believe that these self-actualized figures were perfect, though; he identified their imperfections as anxiety/guilt, absentmindedness, and potential ruthlessness. Ultimately, what Maslow most revered in these figures was their ability to transcend certain perceived dichotomies, such as the distinction between the physical and spiritual, and enjoy a greater number of "peak experiences" than the average person.

These peak experiences are characterized by a transcendence of self and feelings of ecstasy and awe. These profound moments of love and rapture indelibly mark those who have experienced them, making them feel more powerful than ever before and, at the same time, incredibly fragile.

Maslow believed that a person could temporarily regress while still continuing on an overall arc of successful self-actualization. He felt that the climb towards self-actualization needed to be augmented by refreshing moments of aesthetically pleasing imagery, such as the beauty of the nature. When mired in the depths of alienation or cynicism, a self-actualized person could refresh their perspective through one of these interludes.

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States. He was born in Kentucky in 1809, and grew up in Indiana. His biological mother died when he was nine.

This first key event in the development of this great historical figure can be analyzed through the lens of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. The first step is the conquering of physiological needs. When he was still too young to fend for himself, Lincoln lost his mother. Without progression into the second level of the pyramid, Lincoln might have been bereft of his base needs. Even in the 1800s, living to maturity was not a certainty, as evidenced by the fact that only one of Lincoln's siblings in fact did so. Clearly, a primitive level one approach to physiological needs was insufficient to secure the likelihood of survival.

Lincoln's father, however, had developed community ties in a forward-thinking effort to plan for future physiological needs. It is through this community that Lincoln's father met and re-married Lincoln's stepmother. Not only were Lincoln's parents able to attend to his physiological needs together, but Lincoln's stepmother was instrumental in fomenting Lincoln's love of reading and new knowledge. Maslow stated that self-actualized individuals must crave learning and acquiring new knowledge, and Lincoln's stepmother, a product of step two of the Maslowian pyramid, was crucial in inculcating Lincoln's desire in this regard.

Lincoln's stepmother is also evocative of step three of the pyramid. Lincoln was able to forge a tremendously deep personal relationship with his stepmother, rather than resenting her for replacing his biological mother. Lincoln's stepmother fulfilled Lincoln's step three need for love, in a way that his wife presumably did not, as her brothers fought for the South and she was mentally unbalanced.

When he was old enough, Lincoln enlisted in the military. He was successful at this venture, and was quickly elected to a captainship. Lincoln's stint in the military is evocative of steps two and three in Maslow's hierarchy. Step two is the preservation of community. Community is often strengthened and preserved through warfare. The unity that is forged when fending off another united people is crucial in ensuring the bonds of loyalty. Moreover, many of the resources needed for both step one and two of Maslow's hierarchy are often forcibly retrieved at another community's expense.

Lincoln's achievement of step four can be seen in his quick rise during his time in the military. He was elected to a post of honor almost immediately, an event that presumably flooded Lincoln for the first time with the pleasure of the lower form of esteem. By receiving the admiration and respect of his colleagues and achieving a post in recognition of that, Lincoln was well on his way to climbing to the very top of Maslow's hierarchy.

The military was not Lincoln's first foray into attempting to fulfill external esteem needs. Lincoln ran for state legislature and lost in 1832. He did, however, receive other honors: the title of Postmaster of New Salem in 1833, his election as a Whig to the Illinois Legislature in 1834, his admittance to the bar in 1836, his term as a United States Representative in 1847, and his appointment to the state legislature in 1854. While these relatively minor honors might have sufficed for another, Lincoln resigned from the state legislature in 1854 in order to run for the Senate. Lincoln's esteem needs matched his ambition.

Moreover, Maslow believed that people capable of self-actualization were immensely concerned with the troubles of others and yearned to solve them. This could be accomplished on an individual level or, as in Lincoln's case, on a grander scale, like effecting progressive reforms in the United States Senate.

It is important to note that Lincoln might not have had the confidence to perform public service if not for his achievement of self-esteem. It is easy to suspect that Lincoln might have lacked self-confidence if his mother had never been replaced by his stepmother. However, being close to his stepmother and her encouragement of his pursuits surely helped Lincoln develop a base level of belief in his own abilities. This was cemented and expanded when he received external accolades and popular admiration, such as following his famous "house divided" speech upon receiving the nomination to run for the Senate.

Lincoln lost his bid for the Senate, but it was during his debates with his opponent Stephen Douglas that Lincoln first widely expressed his opposition to slavery. Lincoln believed that African-Americans were vested with the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This position cost him the election.

It must be noted that Lincoln was undoubtedly not the only person at that time to be opposed to slavery. However, in political circles, the debate was often over property rights and popular sovereignty, rather than any discussion of morality. Recall Maslow's belief that self-actualized people have enormous compassion, a desire to solve the world's problems rather than succumb to them, and a rigid ethical code. All those came into play in Lincoln's bid to accord slaves a measure of equality, and his determination through all the turmoil that ensued.

In 1860, Lincoln was nominated for the Presidency as a Republican. Lincoln defeated his old nemesis, Stephen Douglas, along with John Breckinridge, who represented the Southern Democrats. Lincoln's passion for service could easily have been influenced by level four of the Maslowian pyramid. Though it is unflattering to say so, many people in the public eye are there because they enjoy being in the public eye. There is no reason to believe that Lincoln was immune to the ecstasy of fame and glory that humans crave.

Nevertheless, it could also easily be asserted that it was not simply esteem desires that drove Lincoln. His own party had doubts about renominating him in 1864 and the war, at that point, had raged for four years at a terrible cost before the tide began to turn in favor of the North. Maslow believed that self-actualized individuals are nonconformists gifted in isolating the truth. Lincoln's strong ethics led him to believe he was fighting the good fight, an approach that was generally nonconformist given the prevailing attitudes of the time and the friction Lincoln faced when he put forth his beliefs. These beliefs did not win him the Senate in his fight against Douglas the first time and almost cost him a chance at being re-elected. It can be said, therefore, that Lincoln set aside his quest for glory in favor of what he thought was right. This action would certainly be a trademark of a Maslowian self-actualized individual. It is, of course, also relevant that Lincoln paid the ultimate price for his convictions. In 1865, Lincoln was assassinated in Washington, D.C. By John Wilkes Booth.

Abraham Lincoln is considered by many scholars to have been the best President. He held the Union together through turmoil and secured a victory in the Civil War. He was both a strong and an upright leader, credited with setting in motion the emancipation of the slaves. But remember Maslow's concerns over the potential ruthlessness of self-actualized individuals. Lincoln believed in the war he was fighting and implemented controversial methods to achieve victory. His accomplishments are epic, but were achieved at a steep cost.

For example, the Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves in the Southern states. This can be considered a shrewd military and political move on Lincoln's part, rather than a moral one. More importantly, Lincoln only secured re-election when Sherman's march to the sea proved so successful. The raids were brutal and set back reconciliation efforts between the North and the South for many years, but Lincoln sanctioned it in an effort to achieve victory, both on the battlefield and at the polls. And lastly, Lincoln suspended many civil liberties during the Civil War, including the writ of habeas corpus.

Finally, it should be noted that Lincoln's love of nature was well documented. It is perhaps immersion in nature and an escape to it that allowed him to be refreshed with peak experiences and continue on his path to self-actualization and greatness. It must have been so, according to Maslow, or Lincoln would not have been able to avoid a slide into depression or cynicism whenever he was thwarted in his attempts to do good.

Lawrence Kohlberg

Lincoln's life and achievements can also be analyzed through Kohlberg's six-stage theory of development. According to Kohlberg, the first stage of development is obedience and punishment orientation. This means that the child unquestionably obeys authority, and has a black and white moral view of the world centered on the consequences for a bad act. Kohlberg called this stage one of development "preconventional" because children see morality as an external concept, applicable to them only in the form of parental directives and sanctions.

Stage two of Kohlberg's development is when a child begins to develop individual viewpoints. It is the start of the individualism and potential non-conformity prized so highly by Maslow and utilized so successfully by Lincoln.

But even the relativist approach of stage two Kohlberg is constrained by stage three, which is when children see the benefit in living up to community expectations by behaving well. Stage three is also characterized by interpersonal feelings such as love and concern for others. Stage four is when this concern for others expands to awareness of society as a whole.

Notwithstanding the vanity aspect of such a course, a concern for others may very well be what drove Lincoln into public service, first in the military and then in the political sphere. Stage four emphasizes one's duties to society, a duty Lincoln must have taken quite seriously indeed. It is at stage four that Lincoln became a full-fledged member of society, laying the groundwork for the crucial introspection and study that lay ahead in stage five.