Psychology & Personal Growth

Most people strive to grow as a person in some way and view their decision-making process that way. We try to learn from our experiences and improve ourselves. From a psychological point of view, personal growth is related to other aspects of the consciousness, including personality, situational factors, emotional factors and, ultimately, self-acceptance and a healthy view of other people.

Definition

• Personal growth is a person's quest to understand themselves better, accept themselves and maximize their potential to improve as a person. Personal growth primarily takes place on a personal or psychological level, but affects other areas of a person's life. A person who is lazy, for instance, might be lazy for any number of reasons. Growing as a person would mean accepting the negative trait and understanding the reason(s) for it, which leads to developing a more positive attitude toward working.

Interpersonal Growth and Morality

• Growing as a person also means growing interpersonally, since the way we see our world and ourselves affects the way we treat and interact with other people. A lazy person, for instance, might be lazy because he wants to avoid being responsible for things, refusing to use her talents and abilities negatively affects other people. According to the discipline of psychology, people can grow or develop their moral reasoning skills over time.

Personal Growth and Happiness

• The branch of psychology known as humanistic psychology focuses on the positive aspects of people and how they change in pursuit of their true selves. Humanistic psychologists believe that people can grow personally and interpersonally, learn new life skills and, according to the Association for Humanistic Psychology, "improve their quality of life."

Moral Development

• One of psychology's early theorists, Jean Piaget, proposed that children develop morality by interacting with other people. As they play with other children, their moral sense develops and as they age, matures. Lawrence Kohlberg elaborated on Piaget's research by illustrating the projection of moral development over the lifetime. Kohlberg proposed that there are actually stages of moral development.

  The first is understanding of doing the right thing as avoiding consequences. In stage five, people develop a moral construct that is based on their society's laws and norms, but may still break laws. They understand the "principle" of the law, according to ULC, but "reject a uniform application." Finally, in stage six, people understand themselves in broad relation to other human beings across cultures.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

• According to Abraham Maslow, another early psychologist, though, people may not be able to reach their full potential until they have the necessary prerequisites. Maslow held that people could not reach their personal potential until they have basic necessities, like food, water and shelter. This is the base of the hierarchy of needs. Next, people need to feel safe and secure in their environment. People also need to be shown love. And finally, people need to feel respected by others and have self-respect or self-esteem. Only after these aspects are present, according Maslow, can people reach their full potential.