On this episode of The Psychology Podcast, physicist Sean Carroll chats with Scott Barry Kaufman, host of The Psychology Podcast, about his new book Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization, which is out today!
In this episode we discuss:
- Why studying humans is more complicated than studying the universe
- The importance of having humility as a psychologist
- How Scott’s new book Transcend builds on the work of Abraham Maslow
- How Maslow never actually drew a pyramid
- What Maslow actually meant by his “Hierarchy of Needs”
- The dialectical between security and growth
- Scott’s new metaphor for the hierarchy of needs
- How humans can be greater than the sum of their parts
- Scott’s revised integrated hierarchy of needs
- Why attachment styles are continuums, not types
- Why the need for belonging is not the same as the need for intimacy
- The effects of loneliness on our physical health
- The latest science of introversion
- Healthy self-esteem vs. narcissism
- The “growing tip”
- Psychological entropy
- The need for exploration and information seeking
- The more cosmic aspect of love, or “B-Love”
- The need for purpose
- Why self-actualization is not achievement
- The form of purpose that can lead to transcendence
- Why nothing is absolutely good or bad