Personal Narrative
Your NAme Here
PSY 230
August 26, 2010
Axia College of the University of Phoenix

The past five years of my life is easiest explained by the humanistic theory of psychology, in particular that of Abraham Maslow’s “psychology of being” (McAdams, 2006, pp. 268, ¶ 3). Prior to five years ago I was striving towards self actualization, having all my basic requirements of physiological, safety, belongingness, and love needs as described in Maslow’s needs hierarchy in place, my self-esteem was high. I have proven myself as successful in achieving my goals and was regularly rewarded with recognition that afforded me with a certain prestige and status at work as well as among my social group. The reason I have chosen Maslow’s needs hierarchy to describe the past five years of my life is simply because I believe his explanation is fluid, mimicking life’s ups, and downs.
I systematically lost many of my esteem needs through divorce (belongingness and love needs), illness, injury (safety needs) and the loss of my job (achievement) as described in Maslow’s need hierarchy (McAdams, 2006). The last five years have been used to regain what I lost, and I now have a new direction to pursue. I have returned to school to receive the education I need to achieve my goals in my redirected meaning of my purpose and meaning in life, which are to again achieve the confidence, status, prestige, and self-esteem I had lost. Peak experiences of my past such as marrying, taking care of my now deceased father, advancements at work, and other moments of happiness, helps me remember how I achieved what I had, and will help me regain it all again. To do this, I moved from Northern Illinois to Southern Illinois to be closer to my family a couple of years ago, which offered a place to start over. I now have regained a feeling of belongingness, and love through the