Peak Experiences. Self-actualisers are the most likely people to have a peak experience, which Maslow saw as an experience that takes a person out of themselves and makes them feel eternal and in touch with God. They feel part of the infinite. Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences is a 1964 book about psychology by Abraham Maslow. Maslow addressed the motivational significance of peak experiences in a. Create a book Download as PDF Printable version.
Abraham Maslow was always looking at the 'big picture.' Whereas most social scientists of his day seemed to wear blinders that riveted their to narrow concerns, Maslow's own vision was far-reaching. His lifetime of discoveries in and transcended academic psychology, and extended into the major business fields of.
Maslow also loved to explore nascent, barely perceptible social trends and to speculate boldly about their consequences. As the originator of such important ideas as the hierarchy of human needs, self-actualization, higher motivation, team, and business synergy, Maslow was well-respected at the time of his sudden death in 1970. Back then, he was already acclaimed as a founder of the approach known as enlightened management.
Yet, in the intervening decades, Maslow's reputation and relevance have increased, rather than diminished. His concepts not only continue to shape the United States, but exert increasing international impact as well. As simply one academic indicator, Maslow's volume of posthumously published essays, FUTURE VISIONS, which I edited, has been translated into Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish. Why do normally staid business writers venerate Maslow and refer to him as a 'legendary' psychologist? In an era of organizational and social fads, what gives his wide-ranging work such impressive staying power? And, why is his star still rising, when so many others' have fallen to obscurity? I can offer three separate but interrelated answers that seem sensible to me.
First, Maslow's approach to the 'human side of business' is grounded solidly in research. Even when he was most speculative concerning psychologically healthy, high-achieving men and women, Maslow kept close to available data. He rarely ventured opinions, especially in public, when lacking scientific corroboration, however sketchy or tentative. Despite his pleasure in making intuitive leaps, he read voluminously across many scientific fields: from anthropology and sociology to biology and endocrinology.
Thus, while certainly a visionary in the true sense of the term, Maslow always took pride in presenting his ideas soberly and responsibly. Second, if it's a truism to say that every management approach is based implicitly on psychology-that is, on a particular view of human nature-then it's no accident that Maslow's perspective remains so potent. Integrating all competing motivational theories into a single metasystem, he successfully unified what had previously been a huge but fragmented, and seemingly self-contradictory body of findings. Later motivational work, such as advanced by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan concerning self-determination theory, is highly consistent with Maslow's viewpoint on intrinsic motivation. This past year, international research I published on peak-experiences and motivation with the of Michiko Nishimura likewise supported Maslow's basic formulations, but with a cross-cultural update. Finally, the ever-growing applicability of Maslow's legacy to the workplace is understandable for historical reasons.
As Maslow back in 1965 presciently predicted in his key business text, EUPSYCHIAN MANAGEMENT, the principles of what he called enlightened management-involving team decision-making, personal fulfillment, and organizational -would gain mounting importance as workers became more autonomous, self-respecting, and highly educated. Maslow saw this promising trend already underway in the USA, and expected it to spread eventually throughout the entire world.
In a period rife with East-West military tensions, some dismissed him as a wild optimist. But Maslow firmly believed that not only in North America and Western Europe, but wherever people worked, authoritarianism would give way to humanistic insights. Copyright by Edward Hoffman, Ph.D. I'm delighted to see these articles about Maslow. I was first introduced to his work on a management training programme in the early 70's and it was a real eye-opener that changed my whole outlook on life.
Even though he was very precise in what he said, and by implication what he didn't say, it seems to me that over the years his ideas have been distorted by, at best, over simplification. Also, he has not been properly credited for providing the foundations upon which others have built and exploited. Perhaps, Edward, you have been able to set the record straight. I think you may be underestimating the influence of simplicity in explaining why Maslow is so successful.
In a world where academics love to show off their intellect by making things as complex as possible, Maslow's Need Hierarchy pyramid is a model of simplicity and accessibility that reduced the complexity of human motivation to a model so simple, anyone could understand- and remember- it. What is the most famous equation in the world? Because it is so simple. It is one of the most important equations there is, explaining the atom bomb, electricity, energy, combustion, thermodynamics, etc.
It could have ben so complex, but Einstein distilled it down to something so simple anyone could understand and remember it. There are those that have criticised Maslow's Hierarchy as being too simplictic. These are usually people who have contributed nothing lasting to the field. Of course it is simplictis- if he tried to capture all the complex nuances of human motivation, it wouldn't be so easy to grasp, remember or apply.
It works as a good-enough way to understand why people act the way they do. I just finished watching a film done in 1968 (actually, of course, a video taken from a film made while Maslow was still alive), and much of it has to do with the description of characteristics of self-actualized individuals, as he describes in his book, Motivation and Personality. He mentions Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Adlai Stevenson, and it got me to thinking about the people we are currently seeing on the political scene. One who seems to stand out in this regard is Senator Sanders. Other individuals demonstrate negative personality disorders of one sort or another, but Sanders does not seem to. He's human and fallible, of course, but, for better or for worse, he seems incapable of a lot of the attributes that seem so necessary for success in the political world.
Any thoughts on this? And I do not necessarily mean this as any sort of endorsement. It would be a bit late, of course, even if I did.
Have you ever had a peak experience? It was a moment when it all came together for you, where you didn’t think about you were doing, and everything flowed in perfect harmony. Or, have you ever found yourself in a place where you felt one with nature and everything you were experiencing at the moment? These experiences are possible for each of us. One of my doctoral students did her research for her dissertation teaching teachers how to create peak teaching experiences; she was successful in doing so. In this short YouTube video fame psychologist, Abraham Maslow discusses peak experiences.
Author: Ray Calabrese I am an optimistic, can do, and never quit guy. The spirit of hope indelibly marks my DNA. My research at The Ohio State University helped people discover the best in themselves and change their personal lives, public organizations, and whole communities. I bring the same spirit and enthusiasm to my blog to help those who grieve who find themselves suddenly alone, navigate their grieving. Join my more than 24,300Twitter (@alwaysgoodstuff). I promise my tweets are always good stuff. Please feel free to email me at [email protected].
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