The goal toward which it strives is the actualization, maintenance, and enhancement of the organism so that all needs will be fulfilled in a balanced way. This goal directed behavior is the result of an actualizing tendency which is the inherent capacity of the organism to develop all its capacities in ways which serve to maintain or enhance the organism. These growth needs include the tendency toward expansion of effectiveness through the use of tools, expansion and enhancement through reproduction. Life processes do not merely tend to preserve life but also to transcend the momentary status quo of the organism, expanding itself continually and imposing its autonomous determination upon an ever increasing horizon. For both Rogers and Maslow, human nature is self-actualizing.
Human nature tends to activate and fulfill all human capacities in an harmonious way.
It is the tendency which is the primary motivation for creativity as the organism forms new relationships to the environment in its endeavour most fully to be itself. In order that human nature be able to actualize itself, there are required basic conditions in its natural and social environment. For example, the infant needs food to be able to live. Further, the infant needs basic social contacts. In his theory of human nature, Rogers has attempted to identify the basic conditions of social relationships which enable human nature to self-actualize.