Analysis of Case Study:
Analysis of Causes:
One of the biggest causes of Jessica’s difficulties is that at the moment she is faced with focusing on her most basic needs, and therefore she cannot give her attention and energy to her art. Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs places basic survival needs (food, shelter, etc.) at the very bottom, and needs such as esteem and relationships are placed higher up. According to Maslow, people cannot begin to achieve higher need levels until lower needs are met (Reeve, 412). At this point, Jessica is working simply to survive. For now, her restaurant job is her only source of money; without it, she will literally become homeless or starve. Because her attention is being taken up by her most basic needs (i.e. “I must go to work or I cannot buy food”), she cannot think about her higher needs. Not only are Jessica’s bottom-level needs unstable, her love and belongingness needs (middle-level) are completely unmet. Jessica’s parents, although open to her plans for the future, do not care to help her achieve them. They parent in a way that is permissive and uninvolved—not loving and concerned the way Jessica needs them to be. Lauren, Jessica’s only friend, treats her in a similar way: friendly but somewhat disinterested. Consequently Jessica’s love and belonging needs are not fully met. Since these lower-level needs are not met in her life, she cannot give her attention and energy to her higher needs of growth and self-actualization. If Jessica feels that she does not have inspiration for her art, the fact that she is preoccupied with more basic needs is probably the reason.
Problem:
The problem with Jessica is a lack of self-actualization and happiness. She has no room for achieving self-actualization, because she is stuck focusing on the basic survival needs. According to Ryff (1989), self-realization (the way to attain complete well-being) comes from six factors: self-acceptance, purpose in life, personal growth, positive relations with others, environmental mastery, and autonomy. These factors, individually, encourage happiness in some areas of life. Collectively, these components encourage both happiness and self-realization in life as a whole.
Jessica life is lacking these six components of happiness and self-realization. She is not completely self-accepting. She believes she is an artist, but makes no effort to set aside the persona of a restaurant server. She is dissatisfied with what her life has become, and she wishes her artistic career would be given the chance to flourish. Jessica lacks a purpose in life. She has no real sense of direction. Her art makes her happy, and without it she is lost and aimless. As far as personal growth is concerned, Jessica is pretty stagnant. She is not improving or expanding her life at all. She is simply going through the motions to maintain her serving job to satisfy her basic survival needs. Jessica has very few positive relations with others. She has her parents and her friend, Lauren. Her parents and Lauren are both supportive, but Jessica lacks a true, close relationship with them. Environmental mastery is probably one of the largest hindrances in Jessica’s life. She feels unable to change or improve the environment around her, and she feels a lack of control over the external world. This is why she is stagnant in her job. She does not feel she has the control to change her unhappy situation. Autonomy is also a component of happiness and self-realization that is lacking in Jessica’s life. She is concerned with the expectations of others, and conforms to the role of “struggling artist”, even though her art is the aspect of her life that is truly struggling.
A man named Murray Johannsen developed a list of twelve psychological barriers to self-actualization and personal success. Of the twelve, there are three major barriers that seem to be evident in Jessica’s life. Habituation or habit formation is the first. Jessica has fallen into the habit of setting aside her own happiness in order to fulfill her survival needs. She avoids finding a better job, or perhaps even pursuing a job in art, because the change would bring her out of her comfort zone. She has worked at the restaurant for three years, and she has planted her roots in that job. She continually cycles around fulfilling her basic needs instead of finding something that would truly make her happy.
The second barrier is homeostasis. It is extremely difficult to form new behaviors or mental statuses, especially when the need has been survival for quite some time. Although Jessica may have short bursts of motivation to create art, she is quickly brought back to her struggle to fulfill her survival needs. Thus, Jessica is unable to hold the motivation to pursue her own personal happiness.
The third barrier is cognitive dissonance. Jessica sees herself as a talented artist, but her actions paint a different picture. Jessica does not live the life of an artist; she lives the life of a server in a restaurant.
Solutions for Jessica:
Since it may take a while for Jessica to become self-actualized and behave in a way that will lead to self-actualization, there are a few more simple things that may encourage happiness for Jessica. One thing that Jessica desperately needs to do if she wants to be happy is to invest in intimate ties. Jessica does not have any close relationships, and if she wants to be happy, she needs to be open to having relationships with other people. She also needs to embrace society, be successful, have fun, live healthy, meet her obligations, and be educated. Jessica is currently not experiencing any of these things because she is so wrapped up with fulfilling her most basic needs. It will be extremely beneficial for Jessica to do some of these things, and if she does behave in these ways, she will eventually reach self-actualization.
Maslow defined self-actualization as “the full use and exploitation of talents, capacities, potentialities, etc.”. In order for Jessica to become fully happy and reach self-actualization, there are many guidelines and rules that she must abide by. Major characteristics of self-actualizing people include creativity, spontaneity, courage, and hard work. Jessica is does not currently have any of these characteristics, however, she does have the potential to reach self-actualization. There are many ways that people can behave which lead to self-actualization.
Also, Jessica should be honest. She should dare to be different and be honest rather than not. She needs to take responsibility for her choices and the consequences of these choices. Jessica should start taking responsibility for her choices instead of taking it out on others. She should also do things that strike her interest rather than what is the “popular” choice.
Additionally, Jessica needs to situationally position herself for peak experiences. Jessica is not currently enjoying any peak experiences; her life is pretty much the same thing every day. Jessica needs to use her intelligence, and find out what her potential is by learning what her potentials are not. If Jessica believes that she is talented at making art, then she should spend her time doing this rather than doing things that she has no greater potential in.
Jessica also needs to give up defensiveness. Jessica should identify her defenses and find the courage to give them up. Jessica needs to drop all her fantasies about who she is and develop the skills that she needs to actually become that sort of person.
Moreover, Jessica needs to let the self emerge. She should perceive within herself and see and hear the innate impulse voices. Jessica needs to not listen to what other think about who she needs to be, she needs to listen to her own personal interests and aspirations of who she wants to become.
Finally, Jessica needs to start to be open to experience. Jessica is never spontaneous, original, or open to experience. She needs to stop being self-conscious and live every day to the fullest.
If Jessica wants to become self-actualized, she needs to become more aware of what she wants in life, pursue it, and continue to develop her potentialities. Jessica will also need to surround herself with positive people and positive life events.