Maslow's triangle and Rokeach values

According to Abraham Maslow, 1948, we all progress from physiological needs to security, love and belonging, esteem and finally self actualization. We find these steps as major Rokeach values, however, the top value self actualization is only checked as very important by 30% of individuals versus for example 75% for love. and 90% for health. Wisdom is checked by 35% of individuals.

Self actualization is a state with independence, a tendency to form few but deep friendships, a philosophical sense of humor, a tendency to resist outside pressures, a general transcendence of the environment rather than merely coping with it.

Self actualization and wisdom are stable values. They do not change with time in the SOM study for Sweden. This is a little depressing because it means that we are not improving the population, i.e., producing more self actualized persons that value wisdom. However, 30-35% is a rather high percentage and this is positive since it means that there are many such individuals in our society. There must be plenty of representatives from the so called "Verklighetens Folk" group, or Real People, that has recently been described. My humble question would however be how "real" people are if they don't value wisdom very high?

When I wrote that I regard people in science as a priesthood that work in search of God, i.e., Einstein's God, I did not realize that so many regarded wisdom so highly. However, it is noted that science is just part of all wisdom on Earth. It would be interesting to know how many scientists would share my idea. According to Richard Dawkins most scientists are atheists. Human behavior is also part of Nature and people in the Arts would also be searching for the Nature God. So again, it is a Liberal Arts Education that counts.

1776 the founding Fathers of the US claimed the Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness was of paramount importance. Well, health, freedom are top Rokeach values. At least in Sweden there seems to be more problems with the pursuit. Only 65-70% of people check happiness as very important and as I already said only 30% search for happiness as self actualized.