PREFACE TO THE THIRD
EDITION
Motivation and Personality is an original record of the work in
progress of one of the most creative psychologists of this century. It
has become a primary reference for anyone interested in Abraham H.
Maslow¡¯s theories, as clearly evidenced by growing attention from
authors in many major professional journals in psychology, education,
business, and social studies, among other fields. Although the first
edition of this book was published in 1954 and the second in 1970, its
influence has continued to grow over the years. From 1971 to 1976,
Motivation and Personality was cited as a reference 489 times, an
average of over 97 references a year. From 1976 t0 1980, more than
20 years after publication of the first edition, citations rose to 791, an
average of over 198 citations a year.
This third edition of Motivation and Personality has been revised
to highlight Maslow¡¯s creative thinking and emphasize his far-reaching
concepts. Within the text itself, we have reordered the chapters,
added new headings and subheadings in one chapter, and deleted a
few sections of dated material. Chapter 13 is a new addition to this
book. It is the text of a lecture Maslow gave in 1958 at Michigan State
University. In the hope of enhancing the reader¡¯s sense of the historical
18
Motivation and Personality
THIRD EDITION
and intellectual context of the book, several other features have been
added to this edition: a brief biography of Maslow, an afterword on
the extensive effect of Maslow¡¯s vision in contemporary lives, chapter
introductions, a citation study, and a complete bibliography of his
work.
This edition has four major sections: l. Motivation Theory,
2. Psychopathology and Normality, 3. Self-Actualization, and
4. Methodologies for a Human Science.
Chapter l, ¡°Preface to Motivation Theory,¡± provides a humanistic
critique of traditional behaviorist theories of motivation. Maslow
systematically lists the limitations of traditional motivation theory.
He emphasizes the need to consider the whole person, the effects of
culture, environment, multiple motivation, nonmotivated behavior,
healthy motivation. In short, Maslow lays out the major foundations
for a truly human theory of motivation.
Chapter 2, ¡°A Theory of Human Motivation,¡± is a classic
presentation of Maslow¡¯s hierarchy of needs. Maslow provides
a brilliant and elegant integration of behaviorist, Freudian, and
humanistic psychology. The need hierarchy has become a widely
used paradigm in business, advertising, and other applications of
psychology.
Maslow argues that all human needs can be arrranged in a
hierarchy, beginning with physical needs¡ªfor air, food, and water.
Next come four levels of psychological needs¡ªfor safety, love,
esteem, and self-actualization. Maslow argues that our higher needs
are as real and as integral a part of human nature as our need for food.
He avoids the oversimplifications of both behaviorist and Freudian
positions.
In Chapter 3, ¡°Gratification of Basic Needs,¡± Maslow explores
some of the implications of his need hierarchy. He discusses need
19
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION
gratification, its consequences, and its relation to leaning, character
formation, psychological health, pathology, and a variety of other
phenomena.
Maslow reexamines the classic psychological theory of instinct
in Chapter 4, ¡°Instinct Theory Reexamined.¡± This theory applies the
biological concept of instinct to human behavior. Instinctivists look
for the roots of all behavior in inherited instincts, as opposed to the
behaviorists who have tended to explain all behavior in terms of
leaning.
In this chapter, Maslow summarizes the major problems
of the instinctivist approach. He argues that any careful look at
human behavior will show a mixture of the effects of heredity and
environment. Maslow writes that human needs do have an instinctive
component, but generally one that is weak. Normal, healthy human
beings are not dominated by their instinctive needs, nor are they deeply
frustrated if some of their instinctive needs are unfulfilled.
Freud held that the demands of our egos and our culture are
inevitably at odds with our deepest, essentially selfish instincts.
Maslow disagrees. He argues that we are essentially good and
cooperative, that we can be fulfilled by our culture rather than
frustrated by it.
In Chapter 5, ¡°The Hierarchy of Needs,¡± Maslow discusses
the differences between needs that are higher and those that are
lower in the need hierarchy. He argues that higher needs are later
evolutionary developments and also that they develop later in each
individual. Higher needs are less demanding and can be postponed
longer. Satisfaction of higher needs produces more happiness and
leads to greater individual growth. It also requires a better external
environment.
Next, Maslow explores some of the implications of his hierarchy.
Maslow¡¯s need hierarchy is one way of doing justice to the richness
and complexity of higher human functioning and at the same time
placing human behavior on a single continuum with the motivation
and behavior of all organisms. Maslow also outlines the model¡¯s
implications for philosophy, values, psychotherapy, culture, and
theology.
In Chapter 6, ¡°Unmotivated Behavior,¡± Maslow expands
traditional psychological concerns to include expressive and artistic
behavior. Behavioral psychologists of his day tended to ignore
everything but learned, motivated behavior. Maslow points out that not
all behavior is motivated or purposive. Expressive behaviors, including
singing, dancing, and play, are relatively spontaneous, unpurposeful,
and enjoyable in their own right. They are also worthy of the attention
of psychology.
Maslow discusses two kinds of need frustration in Chapter 7,
¡°Origins of Pathology.¡± Threatening frustration produces pathology.
Nonthreatening frustration does not. Maslow argues that not all
frustration is threatening, and, in fact, deprivation may have positive
as well as negative effects. Maslow also discusses threatening and
nonthreatening conflict, arguing here too that some kinds of conflict
can have positive consequences.
In Chapter 8, ¡°Is Destructiveness Instinctive?,¡± Maslow argues
that destructiveness is not innate. He reviews evidence from studies
of animals, children, and cross-cultural behavior indicating that in
a healthy, supportive environment there is virtually no destructive
behavior. He argues that for destructiveness, as for any behavior,
we must consider three factors: the individual¡¯s character structure,
cultural pressures, and the immediate situation.
Maslow begins Chapter 9, ¡°Psychotherapy as Good Human
Relationships,¡± by relating psychotherapy to traditional concepts of
experimental psychology, such as threat, act completion, and need-
gratification.
By acknowledging the central theoretical role of need-gratification,
Maslow argues that we can understand how different therapeutic
systems are all effective and how relatively untrained psychotherapists
can also be effective. He points out that our basic needs can be
satisfied only interpersonally. These include satisfaction of the needs
in Maslow¡¯s need hierarchy¡ªneeds for safety, belongingness, love,
and self-esteem.
Maslow argues that good human relations are essentially
therapeutic and, conversely, that good therapy is built on a good
human relationship between therapist and patient. For Maslow, a
good society is one in which good human relations are fostered and
encouraged. A good society is also a psychologically healthy society.
Maslow stresses that there will always be a role for professional
psychotherapists, especially for those people who no longer even
seek basic need gratification and could not accept such gratification if
offered. For such individuals, professional therapy is needed to make
consciously available their unconscious thoughts, desires, frustrations,
and inhibitions.
In Chapter 10, ¡°Approaches to Normality and Health,¡± Maslow
discusses the major definitions of psychological normality¡ªin
statistical, conventional, and cultural terms and in terms of being
well-adjusted and without dysfunction. He suggests a more positive
definition in terms of positive psychological health. Maslow relates
psychological health to the process of self-actualization and to the
gratification of the other inherent needs of his need hierarchy. He
also discusses how psychological health is best supported by an
environment that freely allows each individual a wide range of choices.
In Chapter 11, ¡°Self-actualizing People: A Study of Psychological
Health,¡± Maslow describes his ground-breaking investigation of self-
actualization. He outlines the methods he used in selecting and testing
his subjects. Most of the chapter is devoted to detailed descriptions of
the qualities and attributes common among Maslow¡¯s self-actualizing
subjects. These include: accurate perception, spontaneity, detachment,
independence, peak experience, sense of humor, and creativeness.
Maslow also indicates that his subjects were far from perfect
human beings and discusses their failings. In addition he discusses
the role of values in self-actualization and the resolving of conflicting
dichotomies among self-actualizing people, dichotomies such as heart
versus head, selfishness versus unselfishness, duty versus pleasure.
The importance of studying love, especially love in healthy people,
is emphasized in Chapter 12, ¡°Love in Self-actualizing People.¡± He
discusses the interrelationship of sex and love. He also discusses how
love can lead us to transcend our egos and to affirm the independence
and dignity of our beloved. Maslow also discusses the intrinsically
rewarding and altruistic nature of love.
In Chapter 13, ¡°Creativity in Self-actualizing People,¡± Maslow
compares the creativity of artists, poets, and others in ¡°creative
professions¡± with self-actualizing creativeness, which springs more
directly from the personality. This second kind of creativity manifests
as a tendency to do anything originally and creatively, whether
teaching, cooking, sports, or the like.
Creative self-actualizing people tend to see the world with clear,
fresh eyes and to be more spontaneous and expressive than most.
Because they accept themselves, more of themselves is available for
creative purposes. Maslow also calls this ¡°primary creativity,¡± the
original insight and inspiration that form the basis of great art, music,
and so forth. Maslow points out that while only a few of the gifted and
well trained can achieve artistically creative success, primary self-ac-
tualizing creativeness is a fundamental aspect of our basic humanness.
In Chapter 14, ¡°Questions for a New Psychology,¡± Maslow
outlines a series of questions that emerge from his new approach
to psychology. These include new approaches to the traditional
psychological topics of learning, perception, emotions, motivation,
intelligence, cognition, clinical psychology, animal psychology, social
psychology, and personality theory.
Maslow gives us a psychological interpretation of science in
Chapter 15, ¡°A Psychological Approach to Science¡±: Scientists are
people. Their behavior as scientists follows psychological principles.
This includes the role in science of values and of human fears, hopes,
and dreams. Maslow also emphasizes that science is not the only way
to discover truth. He recommends that, to the traditional scientific
outlook, we add the approaches of the poets, philosophers, dreamers,
and others. The healthy, happy, well-rounded person is likely to be a
better, more creative scientist.
In Chapter 16, ¡°Means Centering Versus Problem Centering,¡±
Maslow argues that many of the problems of science, especially of
psychology, are due to excessive means centering. Means centering
refers to a focus on the instruments, apparatus, and techniques of
scientific research. This often leads to methodologically sound research
that is trivial. Means centering tends to create scientific orthodoxies, to
stifle originality, and to limit the questions that science can study.
In Chapter 17, ¡°Stereotyping Versus True Cognition,¡± Maslow
differentiates two types of thinking and argues that much of what
passes for thinking is secondrate categorizing. He emphasizes the
importance of first attending to a new experience, seeing it clearly
and in detail, rather than immediately categorizing new experiences.
For Maslow, stereotyping is one example of blind categorizing; habits
are another example. While some stability is useful and necessary,
too much categorizing leads to rigidity and lack of awareness of the
present. It also leads to ineffective problem sloving. New problems
either unrecognized or handled with inappropriate techniques, old
solutions that do not fit.
In Chapter 18, ¡°A Holistic Approach to Psychology,¡± Maslow
argues that complex human behavior is not reducible to simpler parts.
Even in studying specific personality aspects, Maslow insists we
remember that we are studying a part of a whole rather than a discrete
entity. Maslow introduces the concept of ¡°personality syndrome,¡± a
structured, organized complex of apparently diverse parts, and discusses
in detail various implications of this approach.
We sincerely hope you will enjoy this book as much as we have
enjoyed editing it. Abraham Maslow has inspired us as a man and as a
thinker. If his vision of psychology and human potential touches you
and leads you to contemplate the issues he raises, this book has been a
success.
Robert Frager
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The editors wish to thank Bertha Maslow for her support and
George Middendorf whose initial vision and encouragement led to this
edition.
Ruth Cox wishes to thank Cynthia McReynolds, Jim Fadiman,
Bob Frager, and the 1984 class of graduate students of the California
Institute of Transpersonal Psychology for their comments on earlier
drafts. Thanks are also due to Miles Vich for his perspective and to
Milton Chen and Paul Cox for their editorial advice.
