Introduction
A distinct form of creativity called “creativeness” is one of the important traits that personality psychologist Abraham Maslow identified. He considered “creativeness” to be a core feature of self-actualizing people—those who had, according to Maslow's theory, satisfied the more basic foundations of his “hierarchy of needs” and so were able to spontaneously express a peak form of human flourishing.
Key Information
Maslow distinguished the “creativeness” he observed in self-actualizing people from the creativity for which productive and culturally influential artists of various kinds are known. Maslow considered artistic creativity to be potentially uncorrelated with psychological health, given the reputation of many famous artists for intense psychological distress and disruption (Toward a Psychology of Being, p. 127). He wrote that self-actualizing creativeness:
sprang much more directly from the personality, and… showed itself widely in the ordinary affairs of life, for...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
References
Jost, J. T., Glaser, J., Kruglanski, A. W., & Sulloway, F. J. (2003). Political conservatism as motivated social cognition. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 339–375.
Maslow, A. H. (1954/1970). Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper & Row.
Maslow, A. H. (1962). Toward a psychology of being. Princeton: Van Norstrand.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Hansen, I.G. (2017). Self-Actualizing Creativity. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1501-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1501-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences