The Temperament/Actualization Concept: A Perspective on Constitutional Integrity and Psychological Health

The tide in humanistic psychology has been running against the psychobiological perspective. In this climate, the author and his students have gathered a body of data showing that the nonactualization of a temperament, a psychobiological trait of personality, is a significant predictor of maladjustment (e.g., other directedness and anxiety). The findings have led the author to propose the temperament/actualization concept, which is developed and discussed in the first part of the article. He then discusses the relevance of this concept to theory and issues in humanistic psychology, a model of somatic and symbolic self-processing, the real self, and a parenting model attuned to the child's constitutional makeup.