Abraham Maslow's whole characteristics of self-actualising people

They have more efficient perceptions of reality and are more comfortable with it.

They accept themselves and their own natures almost without thinking about it.

Their behaviour is marked by simplicity and naturalness and by lack of artificiality or straining for effect.

They focus on problems outside themselves; they are concerned with basic issues and eternal questions.

They like privacy and tend to be detached.

They have relative independence of their physical and social environments; they rely on their own development and continued growth.

They do not take blessings for granted, but appreciate again and again the basic pleasures of life.

They experience limitless horizons and the intensification of any unless-conscious experience of a mystical type.

They have a deep feeling of kinship with others.

They develop deep ties with a few other self-actualising individuals.

They are democratic in a deep sense; although not indiscriminate, they are not really aware of differences.

They are strongly ethical with deep moral standards, though their attitudes are conventional; they relate to ends rather than means.

Their humour is real and related to philosophy, not hostility; they are spontaneous less often than others, and tend to be more serious and thoughtful.

They are original and inventive, less constricted and fresher than others.

While they tend towards the conventional and exist well within the culture, they live by the laws of their own characters rather than those of society.

They experience imperfections and have ordinary feelings, like others

condensed from 'Self-actualising people: a study of psychological health' in Motivation and Personality, 2nd ed by Abraham H Maslow © 1954, Harper & Row Publishers Inc. (quoted from McConnell & Philipchalk (1992))

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