Read the text and do the tasks
Self-Actualization Needs
1. According to Maslow, the most abstract human need is self-actualization. Maslow defined self-actualization as fully developing and using our unique «talents, capacities, potentialities». To achieve this, we need to refine talents that we have already developed to some degree, while we also cultivate new potentials in ourselves. As humans, we seek more than survival, safety, belonging, and esteem. We also thrive on growth. Each of us wants to cultivate new dimensions of mind, heart, and spirit. We seek to enlarge our perspectives, engage in challenging and different experiences, learn new skills, and test ourselves in unfamiliar territories. To become our fullest selves – to self-actualize – we must embrace the idea that personal growth is an ongoing process – we are always evolving, growing, changing.
2. Communication fosters our personal growth. Therapists can be powerful resources in helping us identify our potentials. Often, therapy assists us in our quest to know, understand, and improve ourselves (Maslow, 1959/1970). In addition, friends, family, co-workers, and teachers can help us recognize promise in ourselves that we otherwise might not see. For me, one such person was my father, who encouraged me to write. He taught me to edit and revise so that I developed skill as a writer. Had he not nurtured this dimension in me, I doubt that writing would be a major part of my life today.
3. Another way in which we seek personal growth is by experimenting with new versions of ourselves. For this, too, we rely on communication. Sometimes we talk with others about ways we want to grow. At other times, we try out new styles of identity without telling anyone what we’re doing. Some people experiment with their identities in online chat rooms, where visual cues won’t expose their real race, sex, age, or other characteristics (Baym, 2002). Lashelle’s commentary stresses the importance of feedback from others in actualizing our potential.
4. Others also help us self-actualize through inspiration and teaching. Mother Teresa was well known for inspiring others to be generous, compassionate, and giving. She had the ability to see the best in others and to help them see it in themselves. Mohandas Gandhi embodied the principle of nonviolent resistance so gracefully and effectively that he inspired thousands of Indians to define themselves as nonviolent resisters. Years later, in the United States, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. followed Gandhi’s example with his nonviolent resistance of racism. Spiritual leaders such as Buddha, Confucius, Jesus, Moses, and Muhammad also inspire people to grow personally. As we interact with teachers and leaders who inspire us, we may come to understand their visions of the world and of themselves, and we may weave them into our own self-concepts.
(Julia T. Wood : Interpersonal Communication: Everyday Encounters / Julia T. Wood. – The USA : Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2010. – P.14).
Determine the main idea of the text.
This text is about the process of self-actualization representing a continuous process basing on our potentialities.
The text describes the process of self-actualization as a many-sided process involving a lot of people.
On the whole it can be said that people need to self-actualize in order to communicate in the community more successful.
The main idea of the text is to disclose the essence of the process of self-actualization and the ways of its attainment.