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posted by Fnord666 on Friday July 14 2017, @05:03PM   Printer-friendly
from the I-see dept.

As human beings, what drives us to higher levels of existence? Once we have satisfied the basics - food, shelter, a mate, children - then what? For many it's the idea of self-actualization, or realizing our full potential. But what does self-actualization look like? How do we know when we are doing it? Researchers recently published a new series of studies on what people think it means to be self-actualized.

But what does self-actualization look like? How do we know when we are doing it? When are we trying to realize our highest potential? Self-actualization is a popular idea -- in psychology, business, education and the multi-million dollar self-help industry. Everyone, it seems, wants to realize his or her full potential.

[...] By finding mates, keeping mates and caring for children, people might feel self-actualized, and they might also be furthering exactly those biologically relevant outcomes that lead to getting their genes into next generations.

[...] Or as Krems explained: "For real people, pursuing self-actualization might further biologically relevant goals."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170712145639.htm

[Also Covered By]: Individual perceptions of self-actualization: What motivates fulfilling one's full potential?

[Abstract]: Individual Perceptions of Self-Actualization: What Functional Motives Are Linked to Fulfilling One's Full Potential?

How would you go about achieving self-actualization ? Is self-actualization a relevant goal in this day and age ?


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 14 2017, @05:32PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 14 2017, @05:32PM (#539217)

    To hell with trying to have kids; he wouldn't even try to have meaningless sex to fill void, and we all know what can come of meaningless sex: Something as meaningful as another human being.

    So, yes, you've got it right, but it's enough just consider base sensory motivations rather than something as high-level as "having children".

  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 14 2017, @05:50PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 14 2017, @05:50PM (#539235)

    Long ago, desire for sex was equivalent to desire for kids. Even longer ago, before we understood the association between the two, it was only the desire for sex that mattered.

    Well now we have birth control. People who lack a desire for kids are now being very strongly selected against. They are unfit for the new environment. Their DNA, with any affects it may have on behavior, will not be passed on to the next generation.

    We're on our way to a world in which people desire making babies just as much as people of previous generations desired sex. We might even slightly lose the desire for actual sex, as long as that doesn't lead to fewer children. ("Alright, let's get it over with, I'm dying to have a baby.")

    Note that in the long term, the demographic transition (advanced societies having fewer kids) is doomed. Evolution will blow that away.

    Evolution is often thought to be slow, but it really isn't. Sharks and alligators haven't changed form much in many millions of years because they are still pretty optimal for the environment. Change the environment though, and things can change fast. From an evolutionary perspective, birth control is pretty damn deadly.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 14 2017, @06:32PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 14 2017, @06:32PM (#539259)

      It's also possible that the third-world religious nutcases will blow advanced society away.

      • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday July 14 2017, @11:58PM

        by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Friday July 14 2017, @11:58PM (#539408) Homepage

        Religion itself fills a need - the need for parental nurture, approval, and often discipline. Perhaps that is why Islam is so violent, because the discipline aspect (which they call "submission") takes precedence over the nurturing aspect of Christianity (although certain sects of Christianity emphasize discipline more than others).

        They call God a father, and are not entirely incorrect about that. I'm more about the Gaia mother thing, getting my nourishment from the Earth as if I were sucking milk from titties.

        Anyway, those needs are what some refer to as "spirituality." It could also explain why millennial punks tend towards atheism -- their hovering helicopter parents were so obnoxiously overbearing that it knocked any vestigial instinctual need out of them.