Personality development is a topic in humanistic psychology and is linked to the self. In his hierarchy of needs, Abraham Maslow defines “self-actualization” as the striving for the development of one’s own personality. This means realizing one’s own goals, desires and wishes as far as possible with the overriding aim of “fully developing one’s own nature” (Oscar Wilde). Carl Rogers (1961) suggested that self-actualization is realized through the gradual construction of a coherent self-image. Rogers spoke about the “fully functioning personality”. This is a mature, responsible and decisive person who does not characterize other people in an all-or-nothing way, who admits her own mistakes without being paralyzed by them.

According to Kuhl et al. (2015), Roger’s description of the fully functioning personality is highly compatible with the characteristics of the integrated self. There are seven characteristics of the integrated self, including emotional involvement, feedback utilization and integration of negative experiences.

In this workshop I will present the seven characteristics of the integrated self and present relevant findings. In addition, I will present new methods for investigating the characteristics of the integrated self that are based not only on self-report but also on indirect or non-reactive methods of self-access. For example, the measurement of self-complexity and self-integration by Q-sorts of self-aspects (Showers & Kling), explicit vs. implicit motive congruence or incongruence (Baumann et al.) and “autonoetic approach”, which indicates an integrative rather than associative approach to the self (Kazén et al.).