Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow seemed to sense, that aside from the people with emotional limitations and problems, there were times when man was at his best. Although Maslow avoided the word "spiritual", he did introduce psychology to truth, goodness, beauty, unity, transcendence, aliveness, uniqueness, perfection, justice, order and simplicity. These values he called "B-values".
Before Abraham Maslow, the psychological world was awash in behaviorism and psychoanalysis. Maslow changed this focus on broken brains, by popularizing psychological humanism. Famous people like Abraham Lincoln were subjects of study instead of people with broken brains. One of Maslow's most important contributions to psychology was his theory of human needs, developed in the late 1960's. This theory explained that human needs where hierarchical in nature.
Maslow, perhaps the greatest humanistic psychologist, past away due to a fatal heart attack on June 8, 1970. Many of his books and papers were written towards the end of his life.
He believed that people are not merely controlled by mechanical forces (the stimuli and reinforcement forces of behaviorism) or unconscious instinctual impulses of psychoanalysis, but should be understood in terms of human potential. He believed that humans strive to reach the highest levels of their capabilities. People seek the frontiers of creativity, and strive to reach the highest levels of consciousness and wisdom. People at this level and below were labeled by other psychologists as "fully functioning" or possessing a "healthy personality". Maslow called the people who were at the top "self-actualizing" persons.
Maslow set up a hierarchical theory of needs. The animal or physical needs were placed at the bottom, and the human needs at the top. This hierarchic theory can be seen as a pyramid, with the base occupied be people who are not focused on values, but just staying alive. A person who is starving dreams about food, thinks about food and nothing else. Each level of the pyramid is some what dependent on the previous level for most people. Maslow Hierarchy of Needs (rephrased) includes seven levels:
Physiological Needs. Biological needs such as oxygen, food, water, warmth/coolness, protection from storms and so forth. These needs are the strongest because if deprived, the person could or would die.
Safety Needs. Felt by adults during emergencies, periods of disorganization in the social structure (such as widespread rioting). Felt more frequently by children who often display signs of insecurity and their need to be safe.
Love, Affection and Belongingness Needs. The needs to escape loneliness and alienation and give (and receive) love, affection and the sense of belonging.
Esteem Needs. Need for a stable, firmly based, high level of self-respect, and respect from others in order to feel satisfied, self confident and valuable. If these needs are not met, the person feels inferior, weak, helpless and worthless.
Self-actualization Needs. Maslow describes self-actualization as an ongoing process. Self-actualizing people are... involved in a cause outside their own skin. The are devoted, work at something, something very precious to them--some calling or vocation, in the old sense, the priestly sense. When you select out of a careful study, very fine and healthy people, strong people, creative people, saintly people, sagacious people... you get a different view of mankind. You ask how tall can people grow, what can a human being become?
Maslow also describes self-actualization as a person's need to be and do that which the person was born to do. It is his "calling". "A musician must make music, an artist must paint, and a poet must write." If these needs are not met, the person feels restlessness, on edge, tense, and lacking something. Lower needs may also produce a restless feeling, but here is it much easier to find the cause. If a person is hungry, unsafe, not loved or accepted, or lacking self-esteem the cause is apparent. It is not always clear what a person wants when there is a need for self-actualization.
Maslow believes that the only reason that people would not move through the needs to self-actualization is because of the hindrances placed in their way by society. For example, education is often a hindrance with imposed ideas of the culture. On the other hand respectful teaching promotes personal growth. Maslow indicated that educational process could take some of the steps listed below to promote personal growth:
We should teach people to be authentic; to be aware of their inner selves and to hear their inner-feeling voices.
We should teach people to transcend their own cultural conditioning, and become world citizens.
We should help people discover their vocation in life, their calling, fate or destiny. This is especially focused upon finding the right career and the right mate.
We should teach people that life is precious, that there is joy to be experienced in life, and if people are open to seeing the good and joyous in all kinds of situations, it makes life worth living.
We must accept the person and help him or her learn their inner nature. From real knowledge of aptitudes and limitations we can know what to build upon, what potentials are really there.
We must see that the person's basic needs are satisfied. That includes safety, belongingness and esteem needs.
We should refreshen consciousness, teaching the person to appreciate beauty and the other good things in nature and in living.
We should teach people that controls are good, and complete abandon is bad. It takes control to improve the quality of life in all areas.
We should teach people to transcend the trifling problems and grapple with the serious problems in life. These include the problems of injustice, of pain, suffering and death.
We must teach people to be good choosers. They must be given practice in making choices, first between one goody and another.
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