Reading Blog due 12/6 @ midnight

Chapter 15 is about growth motivation and positive psychology. This chapter Human motives can be understood from many perspectives such as holism and positive psychology. Holism refers to studying the self as a whole as opposed to broken up into parts and studied separately as in the psychoanalytic theory. Positive psychology is the focus of the majority of the chapter. Positive psychology is the study of positive subjective experiences such as well-being, satisfaction, creativity, and love. It shows that goals lead to well being and growth. Positive psychology answers the question of "What could be?". Maslow's hierarchy attempts to explain the sequence of our needs and how they change as we age. At the bottom of the pyramid is physiological needs and at the top of the pyramid is self-actualization needs. Self-actualization is the realization of one's talents, capacities and potentials that emphasizes autonomy and openness to experience. This is one of the most advance needs that only a small percentage of the population ever reaches. Carl Rogers argues that humans have one need called the actualizing tendency which signifies optimal personal growth. Congruence is the extent to which an individual accepts the full range of their personal characteristics, abilities, desires and beliefs. People can vary in their understandings of the forces that cause their behavior. This is called causality orientation. A difference can also be seen in individuals who are growth-seeking versus validation-seeking. Growth-seeking individuals focus on personal striving and learning while validation-seeking individuals focus on social interactions which can affect their personal worth and likability. Validation-seeking individuals are more likely to experience anxiety and depression. This relates to self-defined and socially defined individuals. Socially defined individuals rely ion external definitions of the self and self-defined individuals rely on internal definitions of the self.

I decided to do some more research on self-actualization which is the ultimate goal according to Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Since self-actualization is rarely met, I wanted to see how you know that you finally fulfilled this need. I found one website that describes characteristics of self-actualized people. The characteristics included acceptance, spontaneity, autonomy, continued appreciation and peak experiences. Another website that I found listed similar characteristics such as spontaneity and peak experiences but also mentioned needing privacy and solitude more than others as well as forming relationships with fewer people. I found this qualities strange and thought they they would be more negative than positive but perhaps self-actualized people are more introverted because they think deeply and more intensely than other individuals.

http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/hierarchyneeds_2.htm
http://www.amid.com/werd/15-traits-of-the-self-actualized-person/

Holism, positive psychology, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, self-actualization, actualizing tendency, congruence, causality orientation, growth-seeking, validation-seeking, self-defined and socially defined individuals

Chapter 15 is about growth and motivation and positive psychology. This chapter starts out talking about how each individual is born with a dispositional temperament. We as humans biologically inherit temperament based on being introverted or extroverted. As we are biologically linked with either of these we can choose to act a different way based on our environments.

Holism and Positive psychology are two areas that this chapter discusses a lot about. Holism derives from the name whole. This means that something is healthy or unbroken. People are found to be pieces of many different things put together. This could be looked at in the sense of the id, ego, and superego. Which are the psycho dynamics. Humanism identifies strongly with the holistic perspective as it stresses top-down master motives. We strive as people toward fulfillment and this is what this is stating. Positive psychology seeks to articulate the vision of the good life. It uses the empirical methods of psych to understand what makes life worth living. I found this positive psychology very interesting. The overall goal for this area is to lead people’s experiences of their well-being to the development of positive individuals who are optimistic and resilient in their communities. Positive psychology and humanistic psychology over lap each other. They have many similarities.

Self actualization is an inherent developmental striving. Self actualization is a process of leaving behind timidity, defensive appraisals, and a dependence on others that is paired with the parallel process of moving toward courage to create and make realistic appraisals and achieve autonomous self regulation. There are two fundamental directions that characterize self actualization which involves openness and autonomy; which we have learned about in the previous chapters.

The hierarchy of human needs is something I have never heard about until reading this. It is the cornerstone of Maslow’s understating of motivation. The needs arrange themselves in the hierarchy according to potency or strength. It starts off at the bottom with survival needs which are the physiological needs all the way up to the growth needs. The second part of the hierarchy includes safety and security needs. The third block is love and belonging needs, followed by esteem needs. The very top of the pyramid is self-actualization needs which were talked about earlier as well. Staying at the top is not common you normally go back and forth.

Another topic in this chapter is causality orientations. People vary in their understandings of the forces that cause their behaviors. The autonomy orientation involves a high degree of experienced choice with respect to the initiation and regulation of behavior. The control orientation involves a relative insensitivity to inner guides and control-oriented individuals prefer to pay closer attention to behavioral incentives and social expectations. This concept starts with emergence which is the onset of innate desire, impulse, or motivation which leads to acceptance where the desire is accepted as is into consciousness and finally followed by expression which is the unedited communication of desire.
I found two other websites that talked more in depth about this concept. The first one states that people are centrally concerned with motivation. People are concerned with how to move themselves or others to act. Any type of person struggles with how to motivate those that they mentor. They also struggle to find energy to mobilize effort and persist at the tasks of life and work. People are often moved by external factors such as reward systems, grades, evaluations, or the opinions they fear others might have of them. This is another area we have learned about! Yet just as frequently, people are motivated from within, by interests, curiosity, care or abiding values. Therefore external and internal factors can influence how we act, in the past learning that the internal motivators are more beneficial. Both extrinsic forces acting on persons and intrinsic motives and needs inherent in human nature is the territory of Self-Determination Theory.

http://www.selfdeterminationtheory.org/theory
http://psikoloji.fisek.com.tr/maslow/self.htm

Terms: Causality Orientations, Emergence, Acceptance, Expression, physiological needs, survival needs, growth needs, Maslow’s Need Hierarchy, positive psychology, and holism

This chapter is discussing positive psychology and growth motivation. The author started discussion with understanding human motives from different perspectives such as objectivism, behaviorism, logical positivism, gestalt psychology, and holism. pOsitive psychology is a new field in psychology and in general deals with positive thinking, vision of good life, and what makes life worth living. Positive psychology includes aspects such as self-actualization(provide energy and direction to become what someone is capable of becoming), human needs, growth needs( fulfill personal potential), and deficiency needs(self esteem, safety, belongingness). Maslow in his Needs of hierarchy estimated that less than one percent of people ever reached self actualization. There are six behaviors that encourage self actualization, according to Maslow: make growth choices, be honest, let the self emerge, be open to experience, give up defensiveness, situationally position yourself for peak experiences.
Causality orientation talks about external and internal guides. When people seek to change their behavior, they usually rely on internal or external guides; personal growth or social pressure. During social interaction people who seek external validation use social situation for interpretation or measurement of their personal worth, competence or likeability. In turn, validation seeking people center their personal striving around learning, improving, reaching personal potential.
Going back to positive psychology, the author attached a table with personal strength investigated as the subject matter of positive psychology such as: happiness, enjoyment, hope, meaning, goal setting, humor, empathy, altruism, optimism, wisdom, resilience, personal control, the passion to know, toughness, self determination. Forgiveness, compassion, empathy, spirituality.
Otpimism gives people hope and motivation that their future can be indeed improved; optimism can be taught and learned. One of the therapy og cognitive behavioral approach is the “happiness exercise” when first you write to someone letter that was really nice to you and you want to thank him/her, then you write down three good things in life every day that happened to you, then, when you were at your best, and finally identify personal signature strengths.
I choose to search more about optimism and self actualization.
The first website is discussing weather we need both realism and optimism. In my opinion, it is important to keep the positive attitude and be an optimistic but only if it is realistic because lot of people who are very optimistic they are also very naïve and dreamers. I like the fact that the author of this article focuses also on cultural factors and that depending on the country people are more or less optmistics, for instance in China seems like people are m ore realistic than Americans. Studies suggest they are much less likely than Americans to falsely boost their self-esteem. From my point of view and my experience living in Europe and now in U.S. I can say that we are very pessimistic people comparing to American but at the same time we are fairly realistic as well. People here seem to be very happy but they often cover up and do not show their problems outside because of the cultural influences. To summarize the article, I vagree with the author that the best to describe realistic optimism is the quite: “Hope for the best, prepare for the worst” It is actually one of my favorite quote that appears on my wall in my room.
The other source is the video with Eldon Taylor, author of the New York Times Best Seller, choices and illusions who is speaking on the idea of self-actualization and the meaning of life. He explains what is is, and what my life mean, what am I taking responsibility for, and what is my life about. He is convinced that if our life will be based on helping other people then we will find ourselves in the fulfilling our life, our sense of life that what is self actualization. He called it warm fuzzy feeling, when you feel good about yourself that you help someone, that YOU MAKE A DIFFERRENCE.

http://psychcentral.com/lib/2007/realism-and-optimism-do-you-need-both/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W-w6m6t6Uk

Chapter 15 dealt with the growth and motivation of Positive Psychology. Positive Psychology asks the question “what could be?” addresses people’s strengths and competencies, and focuses on overall well-being. Humanistic Psychology is about identifying and developing personal fulfillment or potential. The difference between positive psychology and humanistic psychology is that positive psychology involves more science, hypothesis-testing, and is data-based empirical research. Humanistic thinkers also struggle with evil and good in that are humans inherently evil in nature or inherently good in nature.

Self-actualization is at the very top of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and is about using ones talents, capacities, and potential. At the very base of the pyramid are physiological needs, such as food, water, shelter, the basic human needs to sustain life. Although Maslow’s Hierarchy is used in many different capacities there is little empirical evidence to support the need hierarchy. Maslow referred to safety, belongingness, and esteem as deficiency needs. He compared them to vitamins, stating that people need them because if you didn’t have them it would inhibit growth and development. Growth needs are what provide energy and direction and help one attain their full capabilities.

Rogers discussed congruence and incongruence. Congruence is accepting all of one’s personal characteristics and Incongruence is rejecting those things. If someone is congruent they are said to be fully functioning and experience a sense of autonomy, openness to experience, and personal growth. If someone is incongruent they are more likely to experience such things as maladjustment, anxiety, depression, and self-doubt. An introvert may be seen as having incongruence and an extrovert may be views as being congruent.

Causality orientations reflect self-determination in personality and differences in how people understand the cause and regulation of behavior. Autonomy-causality orientation behavior is in response to personal choice, personal interests, and own needs. Individuals who experience autonomy orientation tend to have more positive functioning. Control-causality orientation behavior is in response to controls and external expectations. Those who seek out validation feel like they have to prove their self-worth, competence, and likeability. Those who are growth seeking focus on learning, improving, and striving for personal potential.

I wanted to learn more about how humanistic thinkers struggle with the idea that people are born inherently good or inherently evil. Some believe different things. The first article I found is about a study done by a Psychologist at Yale University with babies and puppets. The babies ranged from 6 months to 21 months. The puppets would act out something and the babies seemed to prefer the puppet that showed the moral behavior, not the one who showed the bad behavior. Showing that we are wired for “good” and not just a blank slate influenced by society. The end of the article offered a criticism by another psychologist from another university and stating that “everything hinges on who decides what is normal” and that maybe the babies choose that puppet simply because of the direction it was going. I thought this was interesting, as I was reading it the study seemed to prove that we are wired for good, but the criticism at the end made me think differently. I can see why this topic is an area of struggle.

http://societyforhumanisticpsychology.blogspot.com/2010/05/babies-know-difference-between-good-and.html

The second article discussed sin nature from a biblical standpoint. It started off by examining John Wayne Gacey who killed 33 men and 29 boys from the years of 1972-1978. He had been interviewed by Dr. Morrison who had also interviewed many other serial killers and performed an autopsy on Gacey’s brain when he died. What she found was that serial killers were genetically disposed to be killers even as early as conception and implantation. The article went on to discuss Maslow’s and Rogers views and offered many scriptures from the bible about sin nature how it can be overcome through God. Very interesting twist on inherently good or inherently evil.

http://www.gotquestions.org/sin-nature.html

Chapter 15 discusses many topics related to positivity and growing motivation. People are born with certain temperament – introverted or extroverted. Both of these temperaments are encouraged in the world, depending on what age you are, where you’re from and what you’re doing. For example, in college, you’re encouraged to be outgoing and impulsive – to meet new people and experience new things. In other stages of live, this could be seen as something completely offbeat. Depending on what is encouraged or discouraged, sickness or health results can be seen in individuals.

Holism and positive psychology were two main topics focused on in this chapter. Holism is the feeling of being healthy and whole. When people take interest in their passions and those passions are encouraged, people tend to be happier and more able to find self-actualization. Positive psychology is the focus on things that inspire or what leads to positive experiences. It finds out the things that can happen, especially when we fall short of our desired goals. It works on building strength, preventing sickness and constructing better selves. The main goal is to find the potential in an individual and make them stronger and more productive. Self-actualization is the process of letting all inhibitions go and finding the courage to achieve. Autonomy and openness to experience are the two components of self-actualization.

The human needs are broken down into five categories: self-actualization needs, esteem needs, love and belongingness needs, safety and security needs and physiological needs. These five categories can be split into growth needs and deficiency needs. Being deprived of our deficiency needs can inhibit growth and development. When deficiency needs are satisfied, there then comes growth needs. This person feels as though they need nothing but to fulfill their potential, and these needs are what motivate us into the right direction. When all of our needs are satisfied and our goals are fulfilled, it only encourages us to grow further and to find more to do. A healthy self-concept is also a benefit for growth. People are complex beings and when we have a positive feeling of self-worth, our functioning is better in all forms.

Something in the book that interested me was the positive psychology therapy. The “happiness exercises” are what caught my eye. The exercises were: 1) Gratitude visit 2) Three good things in life 3) You at your best and 4) Identify signature strengths. I have always heard that if you do reflections over the day it helps you feel better, but I’m curious if this is truly practiced in therapy and its results if so. This is what I found: The results on whether positive psychology therapy truly works are mixed. Some say it works, some say it works for a limited time, some say it works with the integration of other forms of therapy. No matter the outcome, it is declared that nothing negative usually comes from trying happiness exercises; the risks of discovering one’s strength and focusing on positivity is never going to give ill side effects. Other forms of integration include: reversing the focus from negative to positive, developing a language of strength, balancing the positive and the negative and building strategies that foster hope. All of this is generally good for well-being and used in a lot of therapy today. My aunt is a therapist and tends to use these techniques to calm a person’s mood and uplift their spirit. In another study I found three other principles that are generally needed for a positive outcome. The principle of hope: getting rid of disruption and finding a new perspective. The principle of balance: developing coping strategies for daily life. Lastly the principle of consultation: being able to talk about something that’s going on in a healthy, constructive manner. Once these principles are achieved, a positive outcome will be obtained.

http://www.goodtherapy.org/Positive_Psychotherapy.html
http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/positive-psychology-in-practice.htm

Terms: Positivity, growth motivation, temperament, introvert, extrovert, holism, positive psychology, self-actualization, goals, autonomy, openness to experience, needs, growth needs, deficiency needs

This chapter focuses on the psychology of happiness and personal growth. It deals with several theories, and self-actualization methods and necessities.

It is interesting to note that students who are identified as gifted are generally more in tune with self-actualization. The only real question remaining is whether the gifted came before or after the self-actualization. It could very well be that gifted students become gifted students by self-actualizing earlier than peers, resulting in individuals who pay attention to their learning and their weaknesses early on. If only there was access to longitudinal data on the same gifted students cited in my first study to see if there was any changes during the earlier academic years that initiated a resultant change.

Another important part of the study, one that really leaps out is the fact that gifted students tend to have better relationships with their parents. That could be chalked up to a heightened level of maturity, but it could also be because of the environment that resulted in the early actualization. Perhaps there is some intrinsic part of it which causes this. If one had to hazard a guess, it would be an environment that rewards success, and discourages but does not punish failure. This type of environment would also lead to positive relationships with parents over long term.

Once the gifted ball gets rolling, it becomes self perpetuating. Since the concept of giftedness is based on excelling academically and designed to promote that kind of behavior, they begin to soar ahead of their peers furthering their own gifted status. This is heightened by their more holistic approach to learning via their broadened tastes in academia. In order to progressively seek greater challenges, they expand into unfamiliar fields but fields that are related to their comfort areas.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02783199909553997

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1071581905000467

I found chapter 15 to be very interesting. Most times when reading in textbooks I am overwhelmed with all of the things that are wrong with people. However, this chapter looks at growth motivation and positive psychology. This chapter starts off by explaining that positive psychology is a newer sub discipline in psychology. It is important to mention that it is not a sub field of humanistic psychology though. The whole basis behind positive psychology is to learn how to understand what makes like important and meaningful. When talking about positive psychology, self-actualization can’t be left out. This is defined as an inherent striving for development. During this process, people let go of their defenses and dependence on others and then fulfill abilities. As with most psychology books, Maslows Need Hierarchy is explained. In short, people will sacrifice needs such as esteem and relationships in order to meet physiological needs. Once the main needs such as physiological and safety, they will work toward the needs higher on in the hierarchy. That chapter also talks about growth-seeking versus validation seeking. Growth-seeking tend to seek validation by using interpersonal situations. On the contrary, Validation seeking individuals use what their peers think of them. The idea of evil is also discussed in this chapter. This section discusses if evil is inborn or learned. Humanistic view does not believe people are born with the desire to cause harm on other people. Finally, positive psychology is talked about again. The chapter summarizes by saying that positive psychology is used to build on peoples strengths and competencies.

One topic from the book that I wanted to look at further is the idea of Holism. I found an article on the simplypsychology.org website. This article is about the debate between holists and reductionists. Reductionists believe that in order to understand human behavior better, we need to reduce it to a few elements. On the other hand, Holists look at this as a sum of all parts. This article goes into detail about how the two views influence the biological, behaviorist, cognitive and psychodynamic approaches in psychology.

http://www.simplypsychology.org/reductionism-holism.html

While looking for information on Holism, I was shocked at all of the stuff I found about holistic medicine. There were several different schools that people can go to and become a holistic practitioner. To keep things simple I selected one website. The website is called “Alternative for Healing”. On this website there are several different techniques people can go to school for and learn how to practice. A few of the interesting ones on the list include: Water Therapy, Herboloy and Healing Touch.

http://www.alternativesforhealing.com/schools_home.htm

In Chapter 15 the main focus of the topic discussed is Growth Motivation and Positive Psychology. In regards to positive psychology Holism is also associated with this branch of psychology. Holism is a focus of the human being is best understood as an integrated, organized whole rather than as a series of different parts of the whole. It stresses the “top-down” point of view and focuses on discovering human potential and encouraging its development. Positive Psychology in return devotes attention to the practice building personal strengths and competencies; seeking to make people stronger and more proactive to actualize their individual human potential. Examining and questioning “What could be?” in regards to an individual’s person’s potential

Self actualization also relates to human potential. Self-actualization is an ever-fuller realization of one’s talents, capactualize and potentialities. Hierarchy of Human Needs is a theory that Maslow developed at the top of the pyramid is self-actualization. All the needs that are lower on the pyramid are the most urgent ones and ones that have to be fulfilled in order to get to the point of self-actualizing. Through the process of reaching or striving for self-actualization takes a lot of growth and determination to reach that full potential. However, not everyone pursues these growths. Growth seeking versus Validation seeking is a contrast in how a person achieves a person’s full potential. Growing seeking are strivings fr learning, improving, and reach personal potential. Validation seeking is strivings to prove self-worth, competence, and likability. Validation individual focus more on the social aspects that they surround themselves with; making sure that the people they surround themselves with confirm the same belief that, that person holds for themselves. Growth seekers care less about how people see them socially, rather more focused on being themselves and focusing on the goal of their potential.

The topic of interest I found was the topic of evil, the “problem of evil” that Humanists hold. Humanists psychologists and like thinkers see it as that evil is not inherent in human nature. Rather evil itself arises only when experiences of injury and damages occur with an individual that causes the suffering. They believe benevolence and malevolence are inherent in human nature just not necessarily evil. Looking at the origins of evil even outside a religiously view it is a rather philosophical topic, and the views differ greatly depending on who one is talking to about it. But most importantly about the Humanistic view of the problem of evil is that it looks more in the why some people may do the things that they do. Rather than just slapping the words “evil” on a person, they explore the whys and the reason behind it. In contrast the humanistic views, the views of a more religious aspect are interesting as well. Showing the differences in the context of ‘evil’ depending on the religion and even the branch of said religion. Bringing to mind that there may be more personal perspective in the concept of evil, rather than a concrete way of interpreting it. There in lays interesting concepts of where does psychology and science end and where does the philosophical factor begin?
http://www.humanismforschools.org.uk/pdfs/evil%20and%20suffering.pdf
http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/dvera/Muse/XianSatanEvil.html

Chapter 15 talks about growth motivation and positive psychology. Humanistic psychology is about looking at discovering human potential and encouraging its development. To be able to discover the human potential and encourage its growth the humanistic perspective concerns strivings toward growth and self-realization and away from façade, self-concealment, and the pleasing and fulfilling of the expectations of others. The next field that is talked about is new to psychology, it is positive psychology. “It seeks to articulate the vision of the good life, and it uses the empirical methods of psychology to understand what makes life worth living.” Positive psychology tries to show people what actions lead to experiences of well-being, to the development of positive individuals who are optimistic and resilient, and to the creation of nurturing and thriving institutions and communities. Self-actualization is when the person leaves behind timidity, defensive appraisals, and a dependence on others that is paired with the parallel process of moving toward courage to create, make realistic appraisals, and achieve autonomous self-regulation. Six behaviors that encourage self-actualization are 1. Make growth choices 2. Be honest 3. Situationally position yourself for peak experiences 4. Give up defensiveness 5. Let the self emerge and 6. Be open to experience. Deficiency needs are needs that keep getting stronger and stronger until they are fulfilled. Some of these needs would involve food, job security, group membership, or social status. Growth needs provide energy and direction to become what one is capable of becoming. Congruence explains the extent to which the individual accepts the full range of his or her personal characteristics, abilities, desires, and beliefs. On the other hand incongruence is when they deny or reject it. When a person relies on internal guides they have an autonomy causality orientation. When a person relies on external guides they have a control causality orientation. Growth-seeking people do not worry about what other people think of them. They focus on learning, improving, and reaching personal potential. To feel good about themselves validation-seeking people need the approval of other people.
I decided to look more up about self-actualization. The first website I found was http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/hierarchyneeds_2.htm . in this article they defined self-actualization as well as giving examples of characteristics of people that are self-actualized. Some examples would be acceptance and realism, problem-centering, spontaneity, autonomy and solitude, and continued freshness of appreciation. It also talks about different criticism of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
The second website I found was http://www.self-actualizing.org/. it was really interesting, because it talked about “new developments of the idea and process of self-actualization”.

Chapter 15 is titled, “Growth Motivation and Positive Psychology” and starts out discussing holism. Holism comes from the word “whole” and is used to refer to how parts of the human body are interconnected as a whole, therefore if one area is damaged, the whole area is damaged. The chapter then moves onto positive psychology, which is a scientifically rigorous field of psychology that attempts to build off of individual’s strengths and interests in order to promote individual well-being.

From here the chapter moves on to self-actualization, the realization of one’s talents, capacities, and potentialities. Self-actualization is also the final step reached in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need’s, where Maslow argued very few people actually reach (less than 1% of the population). Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need’s model is shaped as a pyramid and moves from basic survival needs (starting at physiological needs to safety and security needs) to growth needs (love and belongingness, esteem needs, and finally self-actualization needs). As popular as Maslow’s hierarchy is, there is actually very little empirical research supporting his need hierarchy, instead, it is Maslow’s viewpoints on why people fail to reach self-actualization that are important.

From here the chapter moves on to discussing Carl Rogers and his views on actualizing and enhancing one’s self. This is the part of the chapter that I found most interesting, because I believed it correlated very well with the introduction of the chapter dealing with the example presenting introverts and extraverts. Carl Rogers held the idea that once children become socialized we begin to live in two worlds, the inner world of actualizing tendencies and personal organismic worth and the external world of social priorities and conditions of worth. This presents conflict when people begin to move away from their inner world and towards the external world, where they are forced to reject or deny their own beliefs. This produces incongruence, where people deny their own personal qualities, contrasting to congruence, where people accept their own personal characteristics and desires. A congruent individual, usually experiences an increase in autonomy, openness to experience, and their own personal growth.

Chapter 15 then moves on to discuss causality orientations, of which, there are two types. Autonomy causality orientation assumes that their own internal guides, such as their needs, interests, and beliefs, guide people’s behavior. Control causality orientation deals with an individual relying on social expectations for how an individual should act. Individuals whom are autonomy-oriented tend to experience greater positive functioning than individuals whom are control-oriented. From here the chapter moves on to discussing interpersonal relationships and how they support the actualizing tendency. It is believed that interpersonal relationships support the actualizing tendency by helping others, relating to others, promoting the desire to learn, and also in helping to define the self. It shouldn’t come as any surprise then that warm and genuine interpersonal relationships help to fully support self-actualization.

An area that humanistic psychology struggles with is the area of evil in human nature. I found this area of the chapter very interesting as it tends to hold the belief that human nature is inherently good and that evil is the deliberate and voluntary infliction of pain and suffering upon another individual without respect of that individual’s humanity. Rogers held the idea that people whom are evil have been damaged by their caretakers, as caretakers whom are genuine and warm will raise individual’s whom choose good over evil. However, other humanist’s hold the idea that human nature does contain benevolence and malevolence, where, in the absence of a benevolent value system, individual’s can grab onto and adapt a malevolent value system.

For my out of class research, I decided to look into the topic of human nature as being either innately good or innately evil. This is a topic that has been rattling the brains of philosophers for years. The first web resource I found discussed the Chinese philosophers of Mencius and Xun-Zi. Mencius, believed that people were inherently good, while Xun-Zi held the idea that people were inherently evil and were in need of a sovereign power to control them into civilized beings so they were not wild. This is much the same idea held by Thomas Hobbes, whom I have learned about quit a bit in my philosophy class this semester. Hobbes held the idea that people were motivated entirely by self-interest (psychological egoism) and because of this, without a sovereign power, were kept in a, “state of nature”, where they were left to live in fear of one another in order to survive. After searching around the web for a second article, I found many articles that held the idea that people are inherently selfish with the potential to be evil. These articles stated that selfish people are more likely to survive and pass on their genes than are altruistic individuals. However, I ran across an article that was in favor of the exact opposite. The article stated that humans whom are inherently good and show altruistic acts are more likely to have their genes passed on to the next generation, and that this most likely happened hundreds of years ago. The article states that, since human beings are linguistic and cultural beings, we tend to form social groups with one another. Due to this, we may have put ourselves in danger hundreds of years ago while hunting large and dangerous game or even when in war with other tribes. This type of behavior would not put the individual at an advantage over those within his own in-group and tribe with whom he shared the spoils of victory with. However, it would have put his own in-group in a much more favorable position than the out-group of other tribes, thus allowing the tribe with altruistic behavior to pass on their genes more successfully.

http://www.anthropoetics.ucla.edu/ap0801/xunzi.htm

http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/902.aspx

Chapter 15 focuses on positive psychology in relation to motivation. Positive psychology wants to focus on positive life experiences and how they affect an individual's well-being. For instance, it focuses on satisfaction, enjoyment, flow, optimism, meaning in life, creativity. It discusses a term known as holism, which says human beings are best understood as a whole rather than a series of parts. It searches to discover what is whole, healthy and unbroken.

Another term in this chapter discussed is self-actualization. This is a time when an individual reaches their full potential by autonomy and openness. Autonomy means depending on one's self and regulating one's own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. In addition, openness mean receiving information that is neither repressed, ignored by past experiences.

This chapter discussed Maslow's hierarchy of needs which ranged from physiological needs at the bottom, psychological needs, and self actualization at the top. Phyisological needs such as thirst, hunger and sex are at the bottom because we need these to survive day to day life. The psychological needs range from safety, security, love, and belongingness, and esteem. Therefore, the needs are in hierarchy according to strength. The lower they are the more urgently these needs are felt. In addition, the lower the need, the sooner it appears in development of an individual. Thus, an individual does not reach a stage of self-actualization until later in their lives. Physiological needs are also defined as deficiency needs, because their absence inhibits growth and development. Also, there are growth needs that make the person feel restless and uncomfortable without. Growth needs are associated with self actualization because it means growing as an individual, and living up to one's capabilities.

This chapter also discussed congruence and incongruence. Congruence is when an individual accepts the full range of his or her own personal characteristics, abilities, desires and beliefs. However, incongruence is when an individual rejects their abilities and beliefs.

In addition, it discussed how helping others, relatedness to others, and freedom to learn are all factors that help come to terms with the actualizing tendency.

Optimism is defined as the positive attitude or good mood that one expects to unfold in the immediate or long term future. Also, this chapter focuses on meaning, and how it is the need of discovery and accomplishment that each individual strives for in life. Positive psychology discusses a term known as eudaimonic well-being which is the experience of seeking challenges, being engaged in flow, showing effort, being fully committed and alive to new experiences.

I was interested in Maslow's hierarchy of needs, so I decided to do some research on this area.

http://www.abraham-maslow.com/m_motivation/Hierarchy_of_Needs.asp

This article focuses on how Maslow's hierarchy of needs is implemented in different areas of everyday life. It focused on how this hierarchy can be used for employee motivation. Therefore, how this hierarchy impacts their profession when it comes to improving and forming a more strategic workforce. It wants to boost productivity in employees, along with increasing each individual's level of motivation.

http://www.businessballs.com/maslow.htm

This article explained in detail what terms were/ can be defined under each level of needs. Physiological needs were defined as air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex and sleep. Safety needs consist of protection from elements, security, order, law, limits, and stability. The next level of belongingness and love needs deals with work, family, group, and relationships. In addition, the esteem needs are comprised of self-esteem, achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, and managerial responsibility. Lastly, there is the top of the hierarchy, also known as self-actualization which is defined as realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.

Terms used: Maslow's hierarchy of needs, optimism, meaning, eudaimonic well-being, holism, positive psychology, growth needs, deficiency needs, congruence, incongruence, self-actualization, safety needs, belonging and love needs, physiological needs, self esteem needs, helping others, relatedness to others, freedom to learn, actualizing tendency

Chapter 15 growth motivation and positive psychology. This chapter talksa bout holism which is the study of human motives as a whole instead of being broken up into parts and studied separately. Positive psychology is the main focus of the chapter. Positive psychology is the study of positive subjective experiences such as well-being, satisfaction and creativity. It focuses on goals that help humans reach their full potential and addresses the question of what could a person be if they developed to their full potential?
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs helped Maslow understand motivation. Maslow organized the hierarchy in three ways. The first explains the strength of the need, with the strongest needs on the bottom. Also, the lower needs appear in the earlier stages of development, so younger individuals will only experience the lower needs. Thirdly, the needs are fulfilled in order from the bottom of the hierarchy to the top. The motivation for the pyramid’s first four levels is some kind of deficiency. Such as a deficiency in safety, belongingness or esteem or self-actualization. Self actualization needs occur in order for growth to occur in an individual. This is when an individual is motivated to reach their full potential. When someone address the need for self actualization, they admit their weaknesses and move towards growth. Openness and autonomy give direction to self actualization.
The topic that I decided to learn more about is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. I have heard of it a couple of times, prior to reading about it in Chapter 15 but would like to know more information. The two sources I found pretty much told me the same things that Chapter 15 explained but it was nice getting the information reinforced. I really enjoyed reading the information about self-actualization. It is such an interesting topic to me. Before I started taking psychology courses, I would have never thought about self-actualization being a need and it is so interesting to me to think that it is the highest need on Maslow’s hierarchy. I thought that my second source explained very well what Maslow is thinking when it comes to his hierarchy. That is that the lower level needs have to be satisfied before the higher level needs can be addressed.
http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/hierarchyneeds.htm
http://www.abraham-maslow.com/m_motivation/Hierarchy_of_Needs.asp
growth motivation, positive psychology, holism, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, deficiency, self-actualization, growth, openness, autonomy

This chapter discusses the topics of growth motivation and positive psychology. Positive Psychology asks the question “What could be?” regarding a person’s mental health and how they live their life, and seeks to build people’s strengths and competencies, and making them a stronger, more productive person. It’s goal is to actualize the human potential in all of us. Positive psychology looks at the self through rose-colored lenses. Positive psychology really interests me and I think if I were to go further in my psychology studies after my bachelor’s degree, I would do so in the area of positive psychology.

The chapter discusses holism, the view that a human being is best understood as a whole rather than as a series of different parts. A holistic perspective focuses on discovering human potential and encouraging its development.
In order to develop as a person, there are a certain number of needs that need to be satisfied. Maslow described them through his hierarchy of human needs pyramid. The bottom most levels go from survival needs and change to growth needs as you go up the levels of the pyramid. The bottom four levels are deficiency motivation needs. The lower the need, sooner it appears in development and the stronger and more urgently it is felt. The top-most level of the pyramid is “self-actualization needs”. This is the only need categorized as a growth motivation need.

In order to achieve that top level, self-actualization, one needs two fundamental directors: autonomy and openness. There are also six behaviors that encourage growth and self-actualization: make growth choices, be honest, situationally position yourself for peak experiences, give up defensiveness, let the self emerge, and be open to experience. Having quality interpersonal relationships that support both fundamental directors (autonomy and openness) is very important to growth. Quality relationships are characterized by warmth, genuineness, empathy, interpersonal acceptance, and confirmation of the other person’s capacity for self-determination.

When people strive for proving their self worth, competence, and likeability, they can be described as validation-seeking. They have a strong commitment to societal conditions of worth. When people strive for learning, improving, and reaching personal potential, they can be described as growth-seeking. The difference between the two is the high (validation-seeking) versus low (growth-seeking) vulnerability to mental health difficulties.

Lastly, the chapter discussed the “problem of evil” which refers to the questions: “How much of human nature is inherently evil?” and “Why do some people enjoy inflicting suffering on others?” The humanistic theorists’ view is that evil is not inherent in human nature (we are not born with it), but that evil arises only when experience injures and damages the person.

I found the topic of validation-seeking very interesting. I found this site by an author and blogger. In this post she discusses some of the most common themes in the discussions/posts from others, one of them being validation—specifically, feeling validated by the other party after the relationship has ended. When reading the chapter I didn’t think I was very validation-seeking, but this list pertained many forms of validation that I have definitely wanted, including the other party realizing they were an ass and that they lost an amazing woman. There were many others on this list I could relate to as well. http://www.baggagereclaim.co.uk/seeking-validation-understanding-in-your-poor-relationships-part-one/

This link is to an article that talked about the sexual seduction of children in cyberspace and how there are patterns of the offender in how the offender grooms the victim, including seeking and giving validation. Though this article sounds disturbing, I found the topic still interesting. Hopefully the information can be used to catch offenders and prevent this from happening. http://gradworks.umi.com/34/23/3423853.html

Chapter 15 was about growth motivation and positive psychology, with different ways of how people can do self-improvement and is a different take on psychology. This shows us about how peer and over own view on ourselves can help us improve.

In life we are constantly changing for the fact that we usually want to improve ourselves to make life better for ourselves and our family. Holism derives its name from “whole” or “wholeness” and therefore concerns itself with the study of what is healthy, or unbroken. It is feeling that we are content and fulfilling that we are whole with ourselves and don’t feel like we need to fill in a part in our life. Positive psychology is a newly emerging field in psychology. It seeks to articulate the vision of the good life, and it uses the empirical methods of psychology to understand what makes life worth living. Self-actualization is an inherent developmental striving. It is process of leaving behind timidity, defensive appraisals, and a dependence on others that is paired with the parallel process of moving toward courage to create, make realistic appraisals, and achieve autonomous self-regulation.

Our needs play in affect about how we grow in a positive ways. In the hierarchy of human needs arrange themselves in the hierarchy according to potency or strength. The lower the need is in the hierarchy, the stronger and more urgently it is felt. The lower the need is in the hierarchy, the sooner it appears in development. Needs in the hierarchy are fulfilled sequentially, from lower to highest, from the base of the pyramid to apex. On the bottom to the top it goes as follows physiological needs, safety and security needs, love and belongingness needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization. Deficiency needs are physiological disturbances and needs for safety, belongingness, and esteem. Growth needs is the feeling of no longer hungry, insecure, isolated, or inferior, but he instead feels a need to fulfill personal potential.
T
he first article was about positive psychology and parenting. In the field of positive psychology, the special skills and abilities that people have that make them unique are called their signature strengths. Focusing on the development of these signature strengths in your children can help them feel more confident and have better self-esteem. From a very early age, you can teach your children the value of philanthropy. From encouraging them to donate their old toys to people in need to making it a part of your routine to donate time to worthy causes, you can teach your children to value philanthropy. Even families with limited resources can share a skill or donate spare change to a worthy organization. The benefits to children raised in households who value philanthropy are enormous, improving self-esteem, confidence, and tolerance.

The second article was about the power of positive thinking. For instance they begin to talk about how to flourish at work. A professor at Germany’s University of Giessen findings suggest that people who engage in a high degree of active behavior at work are more successful on the job—they gain more empowerment, meaning they have greater control over their work and their work is more complex; they gain even more personal initiative; and they find new jobs more easily if they become unemployed. Those findings hold true across many different workplaces and countries, he says. And active behavior not only pays off for the individual, he's found, but can change the workplace environment for the better, even boosting a firm's income.

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/brain-and-behavior/articles/2009/06/24/positive-psychology-power-of-positive-thinking-is-psychologys-latest-focus

http://mentalhealthnews.org/

Chapter 15 discusses growth motivation and positive psychology. One concept in growth motivation and positive psychology is holism. Holism is the idea that a human being is best understood as an organized whole, rather than just a bunch of differentiated parts. It is the whole person that is motivated, not the individual parts. Anything that effects one part affects the whole person. Holism does not take the bottom-up approach, but rather the top-down approach. In contrast to this is the broken view of personality, which emphasizes humans as fragmented sets of forces that oppose one another. Humanistic psychology involves discovering one’s potential and encouraging the development of this potential.
Another field of psychology is positive psychology. Positive psychology involves envisioning one’s “good life”, or what they believe would make their life very positive. The field seeks to understand what makes life worth living, to show what actions lead to the experiences of well-being, to the development of people who are positive and resilient, and to create communities that promote positivity and resilience. Positive psychology and humanistic psychology are not the same fields, but their ideas do overlap.
An important concept is that of self-actualization. Self-actualization is an inherent developmental striving. It is the process of leaving behind timidity, defensive appraisals, and a dependence on others; as well as moving forward with the courage to create and make realistic appraisals, and achieve autonomy and self-regulation. The two fundamental components of self-actualization are autonomy and openness to new experiences.
One very important idea is Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs. These needs are arranged according to several themes. The first is that needs arrange themselves according to how powerful the need is. The further down the need is on the hierarchy, the more powerful or stronger the need is. Also, the further down the need is, the earlier it is present in development. Plus the needs are fulfilled sequentially from lowest to highest. The needs are (from lowest to highest): Physiological needs; safety and security needs; love and belongingness needs; esteem needs; and self-actualization needs.
I decided to look up more information on positive psychology, for I think this field sounds very interesting. The first website is one called Authentic Happiness. It is by the director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania. The Center is looking into questions and ideas such as: does positive health extend one’s lifespan; does positive health lower morbidity; and do people in positive health have a better outcome when illness does strike. It tells about positive education, which focuses on how positive health can be taught in schools. And it provides a number of questionnaires one can take. The second website I visited discusses positive psychology and parenting. This website discusses how positive psychology can be used by parents to raise their children with a more positive outlook on life. It details how it is important to instill in children control over their environment; a sense of philanthropy; and physical activity. It is also important to promote optimism, and talk to the child at the end of the day about how each day was a good day.
http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx
http://mentalhealthnews.org/positive-psychology-and-parenting/841967/#more-1967

This chapter explores the topics of growth motivation and positive psychology. It explores these concepts by a top-down approach and begins by touching upon holism and positive psychology. Holism states that we as human beings are best understood by viewing them as complete individuals instead of breaking ourselves down into conflicting personality structures. Positive psychology, on the other hand, seeks to explore ways in which human potential can be achieved through subjectively positive experiences. It seeks to make people stronger and more productive through the proactive building of personal strengths and competencies.
The discussion then shifts to an exploration of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Maslow conceptualized human needs in the form of a pyramid, with the larger base composed of deficiency needs and the structure gradually growing narrower as it moves upward through human growth needs. Deficiency needs, or those most necessary for survival, include physiological needs, those of safety and security, love and belongingness, and the need for esteem. The existence of any such needs in a person constitute a state of deprivation and a failure to grow toward self-actualization. Self-actualization is movement toward constructive fulfillment of a person’s capacities by way of increasing autonomy and openness. The chapter then concludes by providing information on causality orientations and the actualizing tendency. These orientations reflect self-determination in the personality; that is, the degree to which individuals typically rely on external guides such as social cues through a control causality orientation, or on internal guides like needs and interests, employing an autonomy causality orientation. The actualizing tendency is supported by interpersonal relationships in at least four different ways: helping others, relating to others authentically, promoting the freedom to learn, and defining the self. In these ways, others can help us develop toward better health and psychological congruence.

For my extra research, I explored the topic of perfectionism on a deeper level. The first article I read makes a distinction between neurotic perfectionism and that that is found within narcissistic individuals. The author notes that this difference is really quite subtle – among narcissists, the central focus is upon avoiding shame, whilst neurotic individuals attempt to steer clear of potential feelings of guilt. The crux of this discussion is the minute difference between shame and guilt – shame is bad feelings about what you are, guilt is bad feelings about your actions. Narcissists feel shame when they are not able to live up to their bloated self-images, and neurotics feel guilt for potential punishment involving action that may be taken upon forbidden personal wishes.

www.sakkyndig.com/psykologi/artvit/sorotzkin1985.pdf

The second article I found seeks to correct traditional views about perfectionism. The traditional belief is that perfectionists are not able to experience pride and are therefore more susceptible to feelings of shame and guilt. Their findings indicate that though it is true that all perfectionisms tend to have these negative feelings following a failure, they also experience pride following successes. However, these positive feelings are reduced in individuals who exhibit high levels of conditional acceptance, the feeling that they will gain others’ approval through being perfect. Among perfectionists, these individuals alone are unable to experience pride following their successes.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=MiamiImageURL&_cid=271782&_user=724663&_pii=S0191886908000081&_check=y&_origin=search&_coverDate=31-May-2008&view=c&wchp=dGLzVlk-zSkWb&md5=ae7dcbce85afe38bbb2b81fa345746c5/1-s2.0-S0191886908000081-main.pdf

Terms: holism, positive psychology, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, deficiency needs, growth needs, self-actualization, autonomy causality orientation, control causality orientation, perfectionism, narcissism, neuroticism

Chapter 15 is about growth motivation and positive psychology. The chapter begins by explaining holism and positive psychology. Holism is the view that the whole human is greater than its parts and in terms of motivation; it is the person as a whole that is motivated rather than a particular part of the person. Positive psychology is a new field of psychology which uses empirical methods to study that which makes life worth living. The chapter also discusses the concept of self actualization which is the full realization of one’s abilities. The actualizing tendency proposed by Rogers leads us toward more personal growth, autonomy, and openness to experience. It is discussed later in the chapter that our relationships can support the actualization tendency in many ways.

The chapter also discusses causality orientations, primarily focusing on autonomy causality orientation. People with autonomy causality orientations needs come out of intrinsic motivation and personal interest. Next validation-seeking and growth seeking individuals are compared. Validation-seeking individuals are constantly seeking social support and approval whereas growth-seeking individuals are more focused on improving themselves. The problem of evil is also discussed in this chapter from the view of humanistic psychology. The humanistic perspective see’s evil as not inherent in humans, rather evil may appear in someone who has experience that damages them. The chapter closes with a more in depth discussion of positive psychology and the strengths that it investigates.

I wanted to look further into one of these personal strengths that is investigated by personal psychology: Optimism. I tend to be an very optimistic person, perhaps even when I shouldn’t be so I was very interested to read about all the benefits of optimism and wanted to look further into the subject. One article I found from Newsweek was quite fascinating. It discussed further the relationship mentioned in our book about the connection between better physical health and optimistic people. The article discussed a study that was done recently looking at people’s brain functioning while thinking about the future, and they found that optimistic people actually showed different brain functioning that pessimistic people did. They also discussed that the area of the brain associated with depression showed a greater difference in those with optimistic as compared to pessimistic thinking. It’s fascinating to me that this study basically shows that optimistic thinking is actually different brain functioning than pessimistic thinking is. I also found an article from Time that discusses the fact that humans in general are optimistic. It discussed the fact that we as humans general expect things to work out ok, or expect things to turn out better for us than it does for most people. This was interesting to me and reminded me of our discussion of personality characteristics and happiness. Back in chapter 13 it is stated that most people are happy, no matter what the life circumstance. Now reading that people are generally optimistic and expect good things it seems to support the idea that people even in bad circumstances in life would be generally happy. I know optimism has always helped me to be a happier person!

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2007/10/23/this-is-your-brain-on-optimism.html
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2074067,00.html

Terms- Holism, Positive psychology, self-actualization, actualization tendency, causality orientations, autonomy, openness, growth seeking, validation seeking

Chapter 15 focuses on the concepts of growth motivation and positive psychology, more specifically the idea of self-actualization. Positive psychology answers the questions “what could be?” and answer that question to make people stronger and more productive to eventually become self-actualized. Growth motivation is the process of working towards self-actualization. In Maslow’s Hierarchy, when one has achieved the deficiency needs, including physiological, safety and security, love and belongingness, and esteem, he or she then has the potential to move from deficiency motivation to growth motivation and possibly attain self-actualization. The hierarchical structure emphasizes that it is not until we meet our basic needs that our growth needs can be obtained. Rogers has a different model for attaining self-actualizing, as he believes that all humans have one motive, which is the actualizing tendency. This actualizing tendency discusses that needs are not dependent on each other, that the organism has one basic need, which is to actualize, maintain, and enhancing the self. This means that both physiological and growth needs are just as important. When one pursues their actualizing tendency, they are acting in a congruent manner, but when they reject the actualizing tendency, they are acting in an incongruent manner. Acting in a congruent manner means that the individual is experiencing autonomy, openness to experience, and growth. These people would also be classified as growth-seeking individuals, who focus on reaching their personal potential through learning and improving. This is the opposite of those who are validation-seeking people, who focus on how social interactions and how others think of them.

I found the idea of attaining self-actualization interesting, but also thought of some of the “outrageous” things that some people on the internet and pop culture would say. One website (http://virgil.azwestern.edu/~dag/lol/ActualizerBecome.html), used the basics of the six behaviors that Maslow said would encourage self-actualization, but tried to expand upon this list. Certain suggestions like starting a journal or getting involved may better fit into the subcategories that Maslow suggested or aren’t even suggestions that are going to absolutely help in the “path” to self-actualization. Another article (http://regainingfreedom.com/self-actualization/achieving-self-actualization/) at least points out that there isn’t a “7 step guide” for getting to self-actualization, but then goes to report different strategies that don’t seem to have educational or academic support to them. These kind of articles can be frustrating because they will mention the idea or person, like Maslow’s Hierarchy, but not support those ideas with further information from the correct source.

Terms: growth motivation, positive psychology, self-actualization, deficiency motivation, actualizing tendency, growth-seeking, validation-seeking

Chapter fifteen introduces and describes different aspects of growth motivation and positive psychology. The chapter begins by discussing personal temperaments and how they affect one’s behavior and feelings towards behaviors that are glamorized in certain cultures. The chapter also begins questioning the root of happiness and whether it stems from valuing and developing personal strengths rather than valuing and attempting to achieve cultural priorities. Holism is introduced as an approach of humanistic psychology concerning itself with the human as a whole rather than viewing the human in fragmented pieces each in different, vulnerable states. Humanistic psychology is all about discovering potential and encouraging development and self-realization rather than fulfilling the expectations of others or cultural norms.

Similar to humanistic psychology, but with a stronger reliance on hypothesis-testing and data-based empirical research positive psychology focuses on human potential and reasons why some achieve certain aspects of well-being and what they are doing that is contributing to those factors.

Maslow's hierarchy attempts to explain our needs, how they change with aging, and most importantly how some needs must precede others. The bottom of the pyramid includes physiological needs and the top of the pyramid is self-actualization needs, while deciphering between deficiency needs and growth needs. Even though little research supports Maslow’s hierarchy, he did raise important questions pertaining to attainment of personal growth and self-actualization. Self actualization basically is the realization of one’s potential and capacity usually attained after one gains autonomy and openness.

The chapter also discusses how causality orientations display differences in how individuals understand what that causes and regulate there behavior. Interpersonal relationships and their influences were also touched upon, especially how they have the ability to support actualizing tendency by helping others, relating to others in authentic ways, promoting the freedom to learn, and defining the self.

The problem of evil is a topic that has been long debated, and the question regarding whether or not some or all humans are born with some inborn evil characteristics or mostly inborn evil characteristics is still questioned.

Positive psychology therapy, although a very new field, focuses on continuous personal growth, learning and well-being, and four basic happiness exercises are displayed which include “gratitude visit”, “three good things in life”, “you at your best”, and “identify signature strengths”. They are all techniques used to support happiness and growth. I thought these were very interesting and wondered what other techniques or ideas about happiness techniques were out there.

The first site I found discusses the foundation of happiness exercises and their ability to interact in ways conducive to reliving a positive experience, and how when doing so we use rather multiple sensory modalities and not just imagery or words. If we want to find a clear means for improving ourselves, finding well-being, and developing a solid self-concept, we need to use multiple perspectives to construct experiences, and the second site discusses roots of happiness and the idea that the ability to achieve happiness is not purely biological or purely psychological, although there are several exercises that when made habitual have been shown to increase the happiness of those practicing them. A few vague examples were showing gratitude and finding things to be grateful for, displaying random acts of kindness, consciously smiling each day, and thinking positively.

1) http://positivepsychologynews.com/news/orin-davis/2011111419854
2) http://www.talesofkindness.com/short-stories/the-power-of-kindness/top-5-happiness-exercises/

Chapter 15 discussed Growth Motivation and positive Psychology. Human motives can be understood from many different perspectives, ranging from the most objective view points of objectivism, behaviorism, and logical positivism to the most subjective viewpoints of existentialism, gestalt psychology and holism.

Holism derives from the word whole and concerns itself with the study of what is healthy, or unbroken. a broken view of personality emphasizes human beings as fragmented sets of structures or forces that oppose one another. humanistic psychology is about discovering human potential and encouraging its development. the Humanistic perspective concerns strivings 1) toward growth and self realization and 2) away from facade, self concealment and the pleasing and fulfilling of the expectations of others

Positive Psychology is a newly emerging field, it seeks to articulate the vision of the good life, and it uses the empirical method of psychology to understand what makes life worth living. The goal is to show what actions lead to experiences of well being, to the development of positive individuals who are optimistic and resilient, and to the creation of nurturing and thriving institutions and communities.

Self-actualization is one of the concepts seen in this chapter. self actualization is an inherent developmental striving. it is the process of leaving behind timidity, defensive appraisals and a dependence on others that is paved with the parallel process of moving toward courage to create realistic appraisals and achieve autonomous regulations.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Human need. Needs arrange themselves in the hierarchy according to potency or strength. the lower the need is in the hierarchy, the stronger and more urgently is felt. the lower the need is in the hierarchy, the sooner it appears in development. Young people are more likely to experience the full range of the hierarchy. Needs in the hierarchy are fulfilled sequentially, from lowest to highest, from the base of the pyramid to the apex. theme one proposes that the survival bases needs dominate as the strongest motives, whereas the self actualization needs are the weakest. needs are; deficiency and growth. the six behaviors that encourage self actualization are to make growth choices, to be honest, to situationally position yourself for peak experience, to give up defensiveness, to let the self emerge, and to be open to experience.

the topic i research further on was on positive psychology and the article i read was called the science of happiness. it was about just that: the science of happiness. The reason is that humans hold fast to a number of wrong ideas about what will make them happy. Ironically, these misconceptions may be evolutionary necessities. When we try to project ourselves into the future, we make a systematic series of errors, and much of Stumbling on Happiness analyzes them. One common miscalculation is “presentism,” the belief that we will feel in the future the way we feel today. Secondly, humans are marvelous rationalizers.The human mind is constituted to make the best of the situations in which it finds itself. But people don’t know they have this ability, and that’s the thing that bedevils their predictions about the future.”

http://harvardmagazine.com/2007/01/the-science-of-happiness.html

Terms: self actualization, positive psychology, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, holism, behaviorism,

Chapter 15 starts off by talking holism and how the human as a whole organism is motivated, not just parts of it. An example of be when I eat go to eat something I am motivated to eat something as a whole, it’s not just my stomach that is motivated to eat. Holism is also described as a study of what is healthy or unbroken. Humanism strongly identifies with the holistic perspective, it is about discovering human potential and encouraging human development. Personal growth is the ultimate motivational force. This chapter also describes and newly emerged field in psychology; positive psychology. Positive psychology is a scientific and is the study of trying to understand what makes life worth living for. People who study positive psychology often ask the question “What could be?” When people fall short of the “What could be?” it often leads them to depression, substance abuse, violence, etc. But when people achieve the “What could be?” they are more likely to be happy, optimistic, intrinsically motivated, successful. One of the main purposes of studying positive psychology is to seek human potential for everyone. Self-actualization is a developmental process people go through to become motivated. Self-actualization is described as a process of leaving behind timidity, defensive appraisals, and a dependence on others that is paired with the parallel process of moving toward courage to create, make realistic appraisals, and achieve autonomous self-regulation. When a person achieves self-regulation they fulfill their need for autonomy and are open to new experiences. Self-actualization is also an innate process. There are six behaviors that are described to encourage a person to self-actualize. The six behaviors are making growth choices, honestly, situationally position yourself for peak experiences, give up defensiveness, let the self -emerge, and be open to experiences.
This chapter also goes into depth about Maslow’s understanding of what motivates humans to achieve their needs. He described the order that people are motivated to achieve their needs through a hierarchy. First people are motivated by their physiological needs, then safety and security needs, followed by love and belongingness needs, then esteem needs, then finally self-actualization needs. When a person’s physiological needs are satisfied they move onto safety and security, etc. The higher you get on the hierarchy the more you are satisfying your needs for growth and the lower levels of the hierarchy are satisfying needs for survival.
Carl Rogers also had believed that self-actualizing comes from within. He talked about how a person’s innate development can be described through the struggles and pain. To develop and grow, a person has to continually keep pushing forward. He also believed that the actualizing tendency is the source of energy that motivates people to develop. When a child first learns how to walk, they often fall down and begin to feel frustrated, but yet in the end they are able to walk. It is the persistence and the forward moving that kept the child motivated to walk on their two feet.
A person’s orientation is also a force behind motivation for their behavior. A person can be either have autonomy causality orientation where they are satisfying their needs, interests and internal guides or they have control causality orientation where they focus on their external guides such as social cues and expectations. People who listen to their internal guides to motivate their behavior are typically a lot happier and more successful because intrinsic motivation is a lot easier and more enjoyable to persist.
Growth-seeking versus validation-seeking was also a topic that was talked about in chapter 15. Growth-seeking individuals behavior is motivated by learning, improving, and reaching personal potential. People who seek growth are better able to adapt to different environments, are more creative, and have positive outcomes in interpersonal interaction. Validation-seeking people are just the opposite. They use external events to measure their personal worth, competence, or likeability. They are not as likely to be able to adjust to different situations and often times develop anxiety, fears, and have low self-esteems.
Optimism was also a topic that was discussed in this chapter. People who are optimistic can find something positive in every situation. Some people believe that being optimistic can lead to more harm than good, but it has been proved that they actually live more worthwhile lives and have better psychological and physical health. Optimism gives people hope and motivation to improve their future.

I thought that the most interesting part about this chapter was learning about positive psychology, so I decided to look more up on the therapy and how it came about. I found out that positive psychology started to become popular after WW2. Because veterans coming home had seen so much, it was hard for them to view life in a positive way, so therapist went about trying to rebuild their lives so they could see that life is worth living for. http://www.ppc.sas.upenn.edu/ppsnyderchapter.htm. I also found that positive psychotherapy is often used for depressed individuals. The therapist’s goal is increase a person’s positive emotion, engagement, and life meaning rather then directly targeting their depressive symptoms. This style of therapy has been reported to be “life-changing” and dramatically reduce a person’s depressive symptoms after 6 months. http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=2006-21079-029

Chapter 15 was about a different view of psychology; growth motivation and positive psychology. Instead of focusing on what is wrong with people or how to fix problems, holism and positive psychology focus on discovering human potential and encouraging its development. Holism means thinking of humans as wholes. This way of study does not view us as broken, fragments, but uses a “top-down” view, concerning itself with what is healthy and unbroken. Positive psychology is a new field that strives to understand what makes life worth living. Like I mentioned, instead of looking at the bad, this view looks at the good in life. This field is highly based on hypothesis testing. It looks at someone and asks, “What could be?” It works to build people up by devoting attention to building personal strengths and competencies. It is not trying to figure out how we can fix people’s problems and weaknesses, but how we can amplify their strengths. It is interested in our potential and how we can actualize that.

The chapter begins by discussing self-actualization. The book describes this as an “inherent developmental striving.” In order to achieve self-actualization, we must realize our talents, capacities, and potentials. It includes dropping timidity, defensiveness, and dependence on others. One main goal of this is autonomy. An important part discussed in the book is that of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. This is a pyramid of needs, where the bottom is comprised of physiological needs. It builds up with safety and security needs, love and belongingness needs, esteem needs, and ends with self-actualization needs. The entire pyramid, excluding self-actualization needs, make up our deficiency motivation. Those are the ones that Maslow says demand our consciousness because they are just that, based on deficiencies. If we are in a state of deprivation of those lower needs, we cannot move forward to the top of the pyramid which comprises our growth motivation. Once we satisfy our deficiency needs, our growth need surfaces. Usually it is a quiet need that does not appear because our lives are full of the lower needs. Self-actualization is actually a master need. There are 17 smaller needs that comprise it. In order to discover what it is, you must be aware of what needs you have and the pathological state you are in when they are deprived. The book states that even though Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is insanely popular, studies actually do not support his hypotheses about the order the needs to go in and that the lower must be filled first. He also said that the older you are, the more you are focusing on growth needs not deficiency needs. This has been shown to be unsupported as well; however, his hierarchy is still very popular.

The book then discusses our actualizing tendency. Rogers states that we have a tendency to achieve actualization. Even things like curiosity enhance and actualize the person. Despite troubles we may have, like pain, we still persist because of this tendency. The book gives an example of a child learning to walk. It may be difficult and painful at times, yet the child still persists to eventually learn to walk. We all have an organismic valuation process, which is an internal process that lets us know if situations are growth promoting or growth reversing. Situations that we judge as promoting will signal us to do it, while those that are judged reversing will signal us to resist. We go through what is called the emergence of the self where we grow in complexity. Because of this, we value what others think of us. We start to internalize their opinions and views of us. This is called our condition of worth. This starts very young as we begin to be affected by others condition of worth for us. This and our internal judging system can be at odds. When this occurs, maladjustment may occur as well. When our self-actualization process is directed by our condition of worth, it may actually result in these problems we seem to see quite frequently.

The book also touches on congruence. When we are congruent, that means that our perceived self and our actual self match. When we are incongruent, they do not match. Often times those who are introverts may produce a façade of a person that they are supposed to be. If this is different than who they are, it causes many problems. We also have different causality orientations. Those that rely on their inner guides and self-determined forces for motivation are deemed autonomy causality oriented. Those that rely on external guides and social cues are deemed control causality oriented. This is pretty self-explanatory. Those with the autonomy causality orientation rely on themselves. They are likely to persist in the face of difficulties and they also do not rely on things like money in order to make decisions such as school choices or career options. Those with control causality orientation rely heavily on society and what they should do. They would chose a career based on salary, not as much on what they like. These people are more likely to gain weight back after quitting programs like Weight Watchers. Those with the autonomy orientation will likely persist and maintain the weight loss after the program is finished. A lot of it is based on where their motivation comes from. The first is from themselves, they are not doing it for any other reason except that they want to for them. The latter does it for external reasons; maybe their loved one wants them to lose weight.

Next the chapter talks about the difference between validation-seeking versus growth-seeking. Those who are validation-seeking tend to rely heavily on what others think of them. They are always trying to please others and depend on their approval to feel good about themselves. If they don’t live up to others expectations or fail for their approval, they feel they have no personal worth, competence, and likeability. The other end is growth-seeking. Those who are growth-seeking often do things for themselves. They do things to further their learning, improving, and reaching personal potentials. Unlike validation-seekers, in the face of failure, growth-seekers tend to see it as a signal of something they can improve on. The difference is important because validation-seeking can lead to mental health issues. They often are more anxious in social situations. They may have low self-esteem, depression, fear of failure, and poor task performance. The latter does not seem to suffer this as much. It is also important how your relationships support your actualizing tendency. In order to support it, people must help you discover and be yourself. They must also provide you with unconditional positive regard. This means they must provide unconditional acceptance of who you are and what you do. Doing this will foster self-actualization. You also must be provided with the freedom to learn. The book discusses how teaching can be harmful because the students have a rigid schedule of things to learn. When students are given the freedom and autonomy to learn what interests them, they are more likely to reach these higher needs of self-actualization. Lastly, it is important to realize if you are self-defined or socially-defined. Those who are self-defined don’t rely on what others think of them. They base their decisions on what they think, believe, and want. Those who are socially-defined depend on others and are willing to compromise on things they want.

The book touches on the problem of evil. It basically says that we are not inherently evil, but that it is something that is built into us when our concept of self is damaged, such as a child who is led to believe they are flawed. There are differing opinions and ideas as to whether it is inherent or not, such as serial killers who simply enjoy inflicting pain on others. It ends by discussing some happiness exercises that are used in positive psychological therapy to cultivate our strengths.

The thing that interested me the most was the discussion at the end about positive psychology therapy. I wondered how often it is used, what types of situations it is used in, and if it works. I found a couple good sites that list the types of strategies used and several studies that have been conducted to see how and if this actually works.

The first article gives some good summary points about positive psychology therapy. It says that it focuses on positive emotions and personal strengths, can complement but not replace traditional psychotherapy, and that studies have been small and short term. It is often called positive psychotherapy and is often used to treat depression. It uses a combination of 12 exercises that can be used for individuals or groups. Some of them are using your signature strengths – identify your top 5 strengths and use them in new daily ways, three good things – write three good things that happened that day and think why they happened, and gratitude visit – write a letter telling someone that you feel grateful and read it to them in person or on the phone. Obviously these are just a few of the strategies used. There are also ways to integrate the principles into use: reverse the focus from negative to positive – instead of writing what needs to be done, write what you did accomplish, develop a language of strength – try to focus on your strengths and use them each day, balance the positive and negative – try to mix praise in with criticism so it isn’t all negative, but is balanced, and build strategies that foster hope – try to find ways to foster hope so that it helps people overcome a challenge or deal with adversity; break problems down into smaller components instead of one big challenge.
This article also discusses if positive psychotherapy works. It talks about how optimistic or happy people are often healthier, more successful, and live longer. Participants with clinical depression were given 15 weeks to discuss topics such as how to increase satisfaction with health and improve self-esteem. These people were then reassessed. None of them met the criteria for clinical depression afterwards. Another study was conducted with 441 participants. They were assessed before the intervention, administered 5 different exercises over the internet that could be completed in one week, and then reassessed periodically for 6 months. They were then rated after 6 months. Those who did the “using your signature strengths” and “three good things” rated happier and less depressed than a control group. The “gratitude visit” exercise only produced positive changes for one month. The other two were shorter and less noticeable changes. There have not been too many studies on this, but the little that have been done show that it can have positive benefits for those with depression.

http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/positive-psychology-in-practice.htm

The second site lists similar things plus some interesting results. They also state that positive psychology interventions for depression resulted in increased happiness and decrease depressive symptoms. This lists the same study, however states that the “writing about early memories” exercise is the one that had positive but transient effects. They also cite a study that tested positive psychotherapy by helping depressed patients develop positive emotions, engagement, and meaning, which are some things the chapter discussed in the end. This article states a study that was conducted for group positive psychotherapy. It was delivered to 40 mildly to moderately depressed students. There were six weekly exercises: using your strengths, three good things/blessings, obituary/biography, gratitude visit, active/constructive responding, and savoring. They found that the clients experienced a reduction of .96 points per week on the Beck Depression Inventory. This was significantly greater than that of control clients. Symptom relief also lasted through a one-year follow-up with the clients remaining in the nondepressed range of the inventory, while controls stayed in the mild to moderate range. This is a promising result showing that positive psychotherapy does have merit and may significantly reduce depression. The last study was that of individual positive psychotherapy. These were also for depressed individuals. It was a 12 week course that included “psychoeducation, discussion, exercises and homework on themes such as positive resources, signature strengths, positive emotions, good vs. bad memories, forgiveness, gratitude, sacrificing instead of maximizing, optimism and hope, love and attachment, family tree of strengths, savoring, gift of time, and integration of all the concepts with a focus on the full life.” They found large effect sizes on four kinds of outcome measures.

http://positivepsychologynews.com/news/laura-lc-johnson/200903251724

Here is a good YouTube video (multiple parts) for practicing positive psychotherapy - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJwU2EbbJKs

A lot of people associate psychology with negative affiliations. They picture couches and “shrinks” and penis envy. But what about positive psychology? Chapter 15 focuses on Humanistic psychology, which stresses possibilities, holism, and strivings towards potential fulfillment. This is the psychology behind cultivating people’s potential and using it towards personal well-being.

“Self-Actualization refers to the full realization and use of one’s talents, capacities, and potentialities.” Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs separates needs into deficiency needs and growth needs, with self-actualization being the pinnacle of need-satisfaction.
Rogers explains how we live in an inner and outer world; the inner world is of organismic valuing, while the outer is of social priorities and conditions. A person is “incongruent” if they accept external conditions of worth, rather their internal characteristics, beliefs, etc. Essentially, the more “congruent” a person is, the more self-actualization tendencies they will exude.
There are two different types of “causality orientations” that determine and regulate behavior. “Autonomy-causality orientation” is a response to personal-choice needs. “Control-causality orientation” is a response to external expectations and controls.
Personalities are also different between “validation-seeking individuals” and “growth-seeking individuals.” Validation seekers strive to get acceptance and prove their self-worth, while growth seekers focus on improving their personal potential.
Interpersonal relationships cultivate and support self-actualization in four ways. Helping others allows people to be themselves. Relating well to others helps one willingly internalize external regulations. The freedom to learn helps people willingly grow in their education and invest in their interests. Self-definition helps individuals be defined by internal characteristics, rather than external labels.
Some humanists struggle with the concept of evil. On the one hand, people believe that everyone is naturally benevolent, and that “evil” is a result of past experiences and circumstances that have damaged a person and harmed their conscience. Others believe that we are all inherently both good and bad, and that we need to develop a value system to avoid evil.
Positive psychology as a whole is not just about preventing the bad in our lives, but rather promoting the good. It looks at the possibilities; “what could be.” Positive psychology therapy helps people develop high-quality relationships and lead a life of purpose, optimism, and growth.

It was hard to settle on just one thing to research about after this chapter. I am a big believer in humanistic and positive psychology. I aspire to potentially be a motivational speaker someday, so I love this type of stuff! I spent a few hours researching and skimming the web, reviewing articles. I am particularly interesting in self-actualzaiton. I will elaborate on two that I read.

One article is titled “Self-actualization Dethroned: Did We Murder Maslow’s Sacred Cow?” http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sex-murder-and-the-meaning-life/201007/self-actualization-dethroned-did-we-murder-maslow-s-sacr It is written by Douglas Kenrick, as his response to the New York Time’s reader’s responses to his original article. He is disappointed that so many people jumped to conclusions about his removal of self-actualization from the top of the hierarchy. He compares people’s strong reaction to that of telling children that Santa is not real.
Kenrick and his colleagues interpret human needs through a more evolutionary psychological approach. On their revised list of needs, parenting trumps self-actualization as the pinnacle of personal needs. He plays devil’s advocate to Maslow, saying that people striving towards perfection and mastery could potentially be nothing more than a subconscious effort to attract mates, etc. He is not trying to debunk the value of the experiences that make humanity and human life special and unique from other animals; but he is saying that “from an evolutionary perspective, reproductive goals are the ultimate driving force behind much that is positive in human nature.”

Another article I read was titled “A Biblical Perspective of The Self Actualization Philosophy.” http://www.bukisa.com/articles/322072_a-biblical-perspective-of-the-self-actualization-philosophy#ixzz1gI2Mrbah Being a semi-devout Christian and pursuer of religious understanding, I was curious to see what this article had to say.
I was surprised that the article accused Maslow’s views of being contradictory to scripture. To summarize, the bible says we are made in God’s image. To be self-actualized, then hypothetically means we have reached the same level as God, which is obviously impossible. The bible implies that we inherently strive for something beyond this world. According to the article, to self-actualize in a Christian way means to “take up your cross daily.” “To a Christian then perhaps manifesting the fruit of the Spirit would be the aspiration as opposed to self actualization.”
I personally find self-actualization to work very well within my Christian understanding. I believe that God gives everyone interests, talents, and opportunities for a reason. To not take full advantage of these blessings and gifts is a shame and would therefore not be glorifying to God. He creates us all for a purpose; and we must seek to fulfill that purpose (self-actualization).
What I found throughout reading articles on the internet about self-actualization, is that there is a lot of controversy and disagreement in regards to Maslow’s notion of self-actualization and needs.