Lewis and Joan (1995)21 in his study, on “The study of self-actualization and self-concept in intellectually gifted students identifies the (boys and girls) of high schools and junior high schools (elementary). The study investigated the self-actualization and self-concept of 368 intellectually gifted students in grades 4 through 12. The study involved the Malawian Scale, and the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale. The researcher determined that the mean for high-school students was higher than for the elementary or junior-high students, and the mean for girls was higher than for boys. Lehmann and Janet (1993) examined principled moral reasoning, assertive behaviour, and self-actualization in registered nurses. Maslow (1971) identified …show more content…
The problem, however, was that the ideology of self-actualization was so powerful that people tend to view relational bonds of mutuality as restraints and ethical ideals as prejudices. The study demonstrated how a representative humanistic psychologist, Abraham Maslow, was convinced that an individual's highest need is that of self-actualization. It then explained how the theory of self-actualization caused an ethical error by denying the necessity of "external determination," which was necessary for the ethics of mutuality: humanistic psychology is of the view that the self-actualizer is motivated only by inner determinants. Further, it presented a Christian critique of self-actualization in humanistic psychology, because when mutuality was seen as a principle of obligation, the humanistic ethics of self-actualization were defective in solving the conflicts of interest in relation to others. Finally it presented the psychoanalytic ethicist, Erik Erikson's critique of self-actualization by explaining how his theory moved from one of sound mental health to one of ethics through deep religious metaphors, unlike humanistic