Self-Actualization In Today's Society

Self-actualization is much more easily attained today than it was in the past. Humanistic Psychology is defined as the psychological model that emphasizes an individual’s phenomenal world and inherent capacity for making rational choices and developing to maximum potential. Humanistic Psychology holds it to be true that people are innately good, capable of making their own rational choices, and are equipped to reach psychological growth. It places a strong emphasis on freedom of choice, development, and growth. The ultimate goal of it is to reach self-actualization. Self-actualization is the state at which the individual has essentially reached their full potential. In the world as we know it today, society is better equipping people to reach their own individual self-actualization.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which is pictured above, functions as a means to represent how people can achieve self-actualization. This hierarchy has five different levels which include physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and finally self-actualization itself. In order to reach self-actualization, the individual must fulfill each level of the hierarchy. Reaching self-actualization requires effectively fulfilling all of an individual’s wants and desires to the extent at which they are satisfied with their life enough to reach self-actualization. This is much more easily fulfilled today than it has been in the past.

In today’s society, compared to society in the past, a vast number of different types of lifestyles and beliefs have become socially acceptable. American society no longer exhibits the racism that once defined it in the last several hundred years. For African Americans and other races that were once the victims of such racism, self-actualization is now a possibility for them. Reaching self-actualization prior to the civil rights movement for African Americans was starkly difficult. Prior to the Civil War, slavery made it nearly impossible, and following it, the different laws and racism in society still made it a difficulty. For some it most likely wasn't impossible, but today it is definitely much easier.

Society’s acceptance of homosexuality is another example of self-actualization becoming more reachable in today’s society. Homosexuality has become widely accepted in society, at least more so than it once was, and homosexual marriage is starting to become legalized in many places. Because of this, self-actualization is much more easily attainable for homosexuals now that they can live without facing discrimination, and not being held back in society because of how they want to live, and how they want to go about seeking their own self-actualization. This goes back to humanistic psychology. Humanistic psychology has a firm basis in achieving self-actualization, and its emphasis on free will. It integrates knowledge of the mind, body, and behavior with an awareness of social and cultural forces in its practice and application. All of these factors combine to make self-actualization attainable for homosexuals.

In general, as the times change, and different religious, sexual, and racial beliefs become more socially acceptable, people are more likely to gravitate towards achieving the long sought after state of self-actualization. Achieving self-actualization requires a tremendous amount of time, effort, and focus on what the individual wants to achieve in life, but as today’s culture progresses towards one based on acceptance, individuals will definitely find it easier to get there. 

Motivation and Eating in America

In today’s American society, food and eating is a very important and very large part of American culture. Food is everywhere, and it’s arguable that in American society, the desire to eat has transcended extrinsic values into intrinsic ones. Billboards, commercials, newspapers, websites, and more all advertise restaurants or food brands. With so many influences being shoved down the average American’s throat, it’s not hard to see why American culture is so largely based around eating more.

American society was not always like this. As our country has grown and shaped itself into what it is today, food shifted away from being not just an object of necessity, but more so an object of desire. The rise of consumerism and national advertising has put a spotlight on food, and all of the business that produce them. Food corporations heavily promote their product, and that has clearly made a strong impact on how much food Americans consume, and also the types of unhealthy, but “desirable” foods Americans consume. The following graph displays the drastic increase in sugar consumption over the past 200 years.  

These businesses promote their products as something a happy and healthy individual eats. Unhealthy food and excess food are both displayed as objects of desire even though these foods may not be desirable at all. These influences affect Americans’ motivations towards how and what they consume. Although people don’t biologically need excess or unhealthy food, the external incentives that corporations throw at people change their motivations. The need of having to eat food to live combines with the many different types of incentives that come with eating food. These incentives can be anything, and corporations do not hesitate to showcase these incentives at all. Sometimes, corporations will even be willing to advertise their product through sex appeal, as showcased in the following advertisement.

American culture revolves around an idea that “less is more.” What this means for the average American is that effectively, less money for more food is an attractive prospect. When someone goes to the supermarket and looks at, for example, two different bags of potato chips. One bag is much larger than the other bag, but yet it does not cost that much more than the first bag. The consumer is inclined to buy the larger bag, because they are therefore getting more potato chips for their hard earned money. This phenomenon works in conjunction with something called the unit bias. The unit bias is the idea that a person is going to finish eating their sandwich, their bag of potato chips, or their milkshake just because they are one singular unit. So, when a person buys a larger bag of potato chips, not only will they be motivated to eat the whole thing because it is an entire unit, but other external factors may be motivating them to finish it as well, depending on the advertisements they have been exposed to.

In America, eating is strongly intertwined with motivation. Americans eat more and unhealthier based on the external factors they are faced with in today’s society through things like advertising and even the idea promoted in pop culture that eating is a good way to cope with emotion. If people work towards educating Americans of the link between motivations and eating, America may be able to fix the problems it has with people eating more and unhealthier.  

Short-Term Memory Limitations & Technology Design

What we know about short term memory is closely imbued with the development of all technology that we know and use every day. Short term memory affects how different aspects of technology are developed. Designers of new technology always are always forced to keep in mind the working memory of the individual will eventually be tested and used against the final product. Producers are forced to keep this in mind because of the tendency of the individual to lean towards simplistic designs and simplistic interfaces. For your average user of technology: less is often more. Users seek out products that have the greatest ease of use, and not necessarily the most complex, and most effective product.

The reason people are attracted to simplistic designs and interfaces is because short term memory limitations can make or break whether or not a consumer is going to want to use a product. Too much information in a website design may prove to send a consumer to a more simple alternative, especially when a consumer may be using the website often. A prime example of this would be the Google webpage. The homepage of the popular search engine features a very prominent search bar in the center of the screen. The Google search bar requires no difficulty to find, and is readily accessible. Alternative services that Google offers such as Images, Places, and News are on a conveniently located bar at the top of the screen. This design is not only minimalistic but very easy to use, and in result, very popular.

Other examples of this design philosophy are everywhere. One of the best examples of this design philosophy lies in the differences between Android phones and iPhones along with their varying levels of popularity. Apple’s original iPhone launched in 2007 and pioneered a new type of smartphone that was vastly different than what had been seen before. It introduced a design with a single 3.5 inch touchscreen that was used as the primary input for the device. The simple interface included several rows of easy to access, easy to use applications. Apple’s iOS was a success as it streamlined so many common cell phone functions, and opened the door for so many innovative ways to use a phone. The iPhone simultaneously functioned as an iPod as well, allowing consumers to use their iPhones just as they would have used their iPods.

In 2008, Google introduced the Android operating system to the market. Different cell phone manufacturers began using Android in efforts to compete with the market the iPhone created. While Android phones have managed to take up a significant market share, no individual Android phone has managed to usurp the iPhone in terms of popularity. This can be attributed to a number of reasons, but one of these reasons may have to do with the Android operating system being less user friendly than the ultra-simplistic iPhone interface. 

Ease of use is directly correlated to how short term memory limitation affects us as humans. Thus, because short term memory limitation affects how we as humans use products and interfaces, technology designers must always be aware of our tendencies to forget things in the short term.