TY - JOUR
T1 - Individual Perceptions of Self-Actualization
T2 - What Functional Motives Are Linked to Fulfilling One’s Full Potential?
AU - Krems, Jaimie Arona
AU - Kenrick, Douglas
AU - Neel, Rebecca
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, © 2017 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.
PY - 2017/9/1
Y1 - 2017/9/1
N2 - Maslow’s self-actualization remains a popular notion in academic research as well as popular culture. The notion that life’s highest calling is fulfilling one’s own unique potential has been widely appealing. But what do people believe they are doing when they pursue the realization of their full, unique potentials? Here, we examine lay perceptions of self-actualization. Self-actualizing, like any drive, is unlikely to operate without regard to biological and social costs and benefits. We examine which functional outcomes (e.g., gaining status, making friends, finding mates, caring for kin) people perceive as central to their individual self-actualizing. Three studies suggest that people most frequently link self-actualization to seeking status, and, concordant with life history theory, what people regard as self-actualizing varies in predictable ways across the life span and across individuals. Contrasting with self-actualization, people do not view other types of well-being—eudaimonic, hedonic, subjective—as furthering status-linked functional outcomes.
AB - Maslow’s self-actualization remains a popular notion in academic research as well as popular culture. The notion that life’s highest calling is fulfilling one’s own unique potential has been widely appealing. But what do people believe they are doing when they pursue the realization of their full, unique potentials? Here, we examine lay perceptions of self-actualization. Self-actualizing, like any drive, is unlikely to operate without regard to biological and social costs and benefits. We examine which functional outcomes (e.g., gaining status, making friends, finding mates, caring for kin) people perceive as central to their individual self-actualizing. Three studies suggest that people most frequently link self-actualization to seeking status, and, concordant with life history theory, what people regard as self-actualizing varies in predictable ways across the life span and across individuals. Contrasting with self-actualization, people do not view other types of well-being—eudaimonic, hedonic, subjective—as furthering status-linked functional outcomes.
KW - evolution
KW - fundamental motives
KW - motivation/goals
KW - self-actualization
KW - social cognition
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85026660023&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1177/0146167217713191
DO - 10.1177/0146167217713191
M3 - Article
C2 - 28903683
AN - SCOPUS:85026660023
SN - 0146-1672
VL - 43
SP - 1337
EP - 1352
JO - Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
JF - Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
IS - 9
ER -