A Theory of Personal Development

There are many ideas surrounding personal development, one of which is detailed below - Abraham Maslow's process of Self Actualisation.

Self Actualisation

Maslow (1970) suggests that all individuals have an in-built need for personal development which occurs through the process called self-actualisation.

The extent to which people are able to develop depends on certain needs being met and these needs form a hierarchy.  Only when one level of need is satisfied can a higher one be developed.  As change occurs throughout life, however, the level of need motivating someone’s behaviour at any one time will also change.

• At the bottom of the hierarchy are the basic physiological needs for food, drink, sex and sleep, i.e., the basics for survival. 
• Second are the needs for safety and security in both the physical and economic sense. 
• Thirdly, progression can be made to satisfying the need for love and belonging. 
• The fourth level refers to meeting the need for self-esteem and self-worth.  This is the level most closely related to ‘self-empowerment’. 
• The fifth level is the need to know and understand the environment, this level includes more abstract ideas such as curiosity and the search for meaning or purpose. 
• The sixth relates to aesthetic needs of beauty, symmetry and order.  At the top of Maslow’s hierarchy, is the need for self-actualisation. 

Maslow (1970, p.383) says that all individuals have the need to see themselves as competent and autonomous, also that every person has limitless room for growth. 

Self-actualisation refers to the desire that everybody has ‘to become everything that they are capable of becoming’.  In other words, it refers to self-fulfilment and the need to reach full potential as a unique human being.

For Maslow, the path to self-actualisation involves being in touch with your feelings, experiencing life fully and with total concentration.

Maslow, A. H. (1970), Motivation and Personality, (2nd Edition), Harper & Row, New York.

SOURCE: http://www.skillsyouneed.com/ps/personal-development.html