ABSTRACT
As a reaction against a mechanistic, dehumanizing view of the person, and in an attempt to reconcile Eastern and Western perspectives, Abraham Maslow in particular, along with other Humanistic Psychologists emphasized the 'human' characteristics of human beings. In other words, Humanistic Psychology is 'real psychology, proper psychology, the type of psychology that is genuinely applicable to human beings'. Maslow even talked specifically about a positive psychology, that is, a more exclusive focus on people at the extreme positive ends of the distribution, rather than what's understood today by Positive Psychology (PP). According to the mortality salience hypothesis, if cultural worldviews and self-esteem provide beliefs about the nature of reality that function to reduce anxiety associated with death awareness, then asking people to think about their own mortality, the mortality salience paradigm (MS paradigm) should increase the need for the protection provided by such beliefs.
