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Part III    Humanistic/Existential Theories296
become lesspredictable. Theproper response tomystery, Maslow said,isnotanaly -
sisbutawe.
Maslow insisted thatpsychologists must themselves behealthy people, able
totolerate ambiguity anduncertainty. They must beintuitive, nonrational, insight -
ful,andcourageous enough toasktherightquestions. They must alsobewilling 
toflounder, tobeimprecise, toquestion theirownprocedures, andtotakeonthe
important problems ofpsychology. Maslow (1966) contended thatthere isnoneed 
todowellthatwhich isnotworth doing. Rather, itisbetter todopoorly thatwhich 
isimportant.
Inhisstudy ofself-actualizing people andpeakexperiences, Maslow employed 
research methods consistent withhisphilosophy ofscience. Hebegan intuitively, 
often “skating onthinice,”thenattempted toverify hishunches using idiographic 
andsubjective methods. Heoften lefttoothers thetechnical work ofgathering evi-
dence. Hispersonal preference wasto“scout outahead,” leaving oneareawhen he
grew tiredofitandgoing ontoexplore newones(M.H.Hall, 1968).
Measuring Self-Actualization
Since the1970s ,there havebeen afewattempts tomeasure Maslow’s concept of
self-actualization (D’Souza, Adams, &Fuss, 2015; Jones &Crandall, 1986; Kaufman, 
2018; LeFrancios, Leclerc, Dube, Herbert, &Gaulin, 1997; Shostrom, 1974; Sumerlin 
&Bundrick, 1996). Shostrom (1974), forinstance, wasthefirstwhen hedeveloped 
thePersonal Orientation Inventory  (POI). ThePOImeasures values andbehaviors of
self-actualizing people, suchastimecompetence (how present-oriented isaperson) 
andsupport (how self-versus other-oriented isaperson). Thiswastheonlyinventory 
developed before Maslow’s death in1970 andinterestingly hecompleted theinven -
toryandscored onlyinthedirection ofself-actualizing andnotself-actualizing. 
Inthe1980s, Jones andCrandall (1986) developed thesecond measure of
self-actualization, which borrowed 15items from thePOI.Thisinventory was
dubbed theShort Index of Self-Actualization  (SISA) andwaseasier toadminister 
thanthePOI.Inthe1990s, twoadditional measures ofself-actualization werepub-
lished: theBrief Index of Self-Actualization  (BISA) (Sumerlin &Bundrick, 1996, 
1998) andtheMeasure of Actualization Potential  (MAP) (LeFrancios etal.,1997). 
Forinstance, theMAP wasdeveloped firstbyhaving ateam ofeight researchers in
self-actualization suggest questions thattapped theconcept ofself-actualization. A
totalof124statements werecreated inthefirstround. Second, these questions were
thenrated byateam ofexperts onhowwelltheydescribed theself-actualization 
tendency ofpeople. Eighty-one ofthe124statements survived thesecond round. 
Finally, those 81statements wereclarified andrevised andthree more wereadded 
during asecond round ofratings bythese experts. Intheend,84items werecreated. 
Thefinal84questions werethenadministered toanadult sample of414participants 
aged17–93 whoanswered the84questions using a5-point Likert rating scale. Only 
themost reliable andvalid items wereretained, which ledto57items being removed 
and27being retained inthefinalMAP inventory. These 27questions could bestatis -
tically grouped infivesubdimensions: adaptation, autonomy, openness tolife,open -
nesstoself,andopenness toothers. Final PDF to printer