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Characteristics of Self-Actualization

by B. Clark
Source: Pearson Allyn Bacon Prentice Hall
Topics: Teen Years (13-19), Social Development, more...

Self-actualizing people show a high degree of

  • Awareness, perception, and realistic orientation.
  • Acceptance of self, others, and the natural world.
  • Spontaneity, naturalness, and authenticity.
  • Autonomy, self-directedness, and resistance to conformity and are largely free of the need to impress others or to be liked by everyone.
  • Intrinsic motivation, and especially meta-motivations (e.g., fulfillment of life's mission or purpose, self-knowledge, growth toward unity and synergy).
  • Desire for unity, oneness, integration, and increased identification with humanity.
  • Devotion to a cause, a task, or a calling and view work and play as one.
  • Identification with universal values (beauty, justice, truth) that are important to well-being.
  • Capability for rich emotional reaction and freshness of appreciation.
  • Frequency of peak experiences (moments of highest happiness or fulfillment) and mystic, natural, or cosmic experiences.
  • Capability for deep empathy and profound relationships with others, and a great ability to love and to enjoy sexuality.
  • Need for privacy on occasion for periods of intense concentration.
  • Creative, less constricted thought processes.
  • Humor that is not hostile.
  • Democratic character structure.
  • Wondering about life: treating each day as new.

Source: Adapted from The Farther Reacher of Human Nature, by A. Maslow, 1971, New York: Viking.

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