Maslow's hierarchy of needs

What is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?

·Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a motivational theory in psychology comprising a five-tier model of human needs, often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid.

needs are grouped into levels within a hierarchy

moving up the hierarchy, the needs change from basic physiological needs to those that are psychological and shape personality. to reach full potential

·Lower-level basic needs like food, water, and safety must be met first before higher needs can be fulfilled.

·Few people are believed to reach the level of self-actualization, but we can all have moments of peak experiences.

How can order of needs vary?

Can vary among individuals

People can be motivated by more than one need simultaneously

Why is there continual movement up and down the hierarchy?

As partially or fully satisfied needs might be threatened and require attention

For example, political unrest in a country can threaten safety or physiological needs

What is the theory called?

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1954, 1970)

What is a sub theory of maslow?

Deficiency and Growth needs (1954)

What are two main types of motivations experienced by humans?

Deficiency needs

Growth needs

What are deficiency needs?

basic needs people are motivated to fulfill due to their abscence

important for survival and stop acting as motivator once met

Motivation decreases as each deficiency need is met

What are examples of deficiency needs?

Insufficient food + hungry → food is psychological need we are motivated to obtain → once eaten, no longer hungry → food ceases to be a motivator.

What are growth needs?

Needs that, once met, act as motivators for people to keep fulfilling them

Develop the personality of the individual and are unique to each person

satisfcation → happiness + fulfillment → acts as the motivation to continue achieving them

What are the original levels in the 1954 hierarchy?

1) physiological needs

2) safety needs

3) love and belongingness needs

4) esteem needs

5) self-actualisation

What was the other sub-theory in maslow’s hierarchy of needs?

Expanded hierarchy of needs (1970)

• added three additional growth needs: cognitive, aesthetic and transcendence needs

What is the order of both the growth + deficiency needs (1954) AND the expanded hierarchy of needs (1970)

DEFICIENCY NEEDS

1) Physiological needs

2) Safety needs

3) Love and Belongingness needs

4) Esteem needs

GROWTH NEEDS

5) Cognitive needs

6) Aesthetic needs

7) Self actualisation

8) Transcendence needs

What are physiological needs?

Basic biological requirements that provide individuals wirth energy, physical contentment and health

e.g. sleep, sex, food, shelter,

most physiological needs such as good, water and shleter are deficiency needs because once they are satisfied, there is no longer a desire to continue seeking them

e.g, once you have eaten, you are no longer hungry, so you are not motivated to eat anymore

What are safety needs?

Involves both physical and emotional safety

• physical safety: stability, predictability, routine, order, limits

• emotional safety: feeling free from chaos, anxiety and fear → provides security by allowing people to express authentic selves wwith others

when not met → experience anxiety, lack of confidence in environment

What are love and belongingness needs?

Needs that incorporate both giving and recieving love.

• Recieving love includes feeling worthy of love, being accepted by others, intimacy and having a place within a family or a group

• Giving love refers to expressing affection and care toward others.

Lack of connection → feelings of isolation and loneliness

What are esteem needs?

Divided into two categories

• Need for people to view themselves as capable and achieving

• Need that comes from the judgement of others

Self esteem → desire for achievement, confidence when facing challenges,, sense of freedom or independence

respect from others includes seeking recognition, attention and appreciation from others

meet need: feel they have a purpose in the world and may feel strong and self confident

don’t meet need: weak, helpless, inferior

What are cognitive needs?

• what is cognition?

Cognition: Mental process of gaining knowledge and understanding through the senses, personal experiences and thinking

Cognitive needs involve a desire to gain knowledge through curiosity, and a goal to understand

understanding refers to the need for the theological, philosphical or personal beliedfs that guide decision making

What are aesthetic needs?

The appreciation of beauty and anything considered beautiful

Meeting needs contributes to wellbeing and a sense of fulfillment, including experiences of symmetry, order, rightness, delight and perfection

some individuals experience discomfort when exposed to ugliness and actively yearn for beauty, finding solace in aesthetically pleasing environments

What is self-actualisation?

•Self-actualisation is the complete realisation of one’s potential and the full development of one’s abilities and appreciation for life.

•It is the process of becoming the most that one can be, encompassing the pursuit of personal growth, peak experiences, and the fulfillment of one's true capabilities.

each person has own unique way of experiencing it

does not occur in young people, throughout life individuals may move in and out of level during peak transcendence expriecnes, scuh as birth of child for woman who believes her ultimate pupose in life is to become a mother

satisfaction → positive wellbeing, sense of maturation, growth, becoming increasingly autonomous

restlessness and discontentmnet can arise in individuals who fail to act in ways that align with their true nature and potential

What are characteristics of self actualised peopel?

• spontaneity

• problem centred rather self centred

• having need for privacy and solitude, and being autonomous or independent

• freshly appreciative of repeated experiences

• undergo peak experience

• show interest in helping humantiy

• profound interpersonal relations

• democratic

• strong morals

• philosophical sense of humour that is neither clownlike nor directed at others inferiority

• creative

• detached from cultural pressures

• accepting of their own imperfections + society + environment

What are transcendence needs?

Defined as the experience of going beyond the limitations of physical human experience

transcendent experiences → peak experiences are used to describe religious, supernatural, mystical encounters

peakers → people who have peak experiences and recognised these encounters

non-peakers →people have not described having peak experiences

How can transcendence needs be met?

By using peak experiences for personal growth and fulfiolment.

Those that strive to feel peak experiences feel that their livess have deeper meaning becuase they are seeking to encounter something they do not have.

What are Characteristics of peakers?

Accepting

Loving

Honest

Dedicated

Experience emotions of wonder, awe, bliss and humility

Contribute to humantiy rather than focusing on themselves.

What are characteristics of non-peakers?

Unable to make use of peak experiences for personal advancement and feel that life is meaningless because they have nothing to strive for?

What are strengths of the theory?

Focused on healthy human psychological development which was uncommon

humanistic concept that individuals have the capacity to undergo personal growth is supported by meta-analysis conducted by Charles Alexander and colleagues in 1991. Results from 42 studies showed that transcendental meditation, a mantra based meditation technique was associated with significant progress towards self-actualisation in participants

Limitations of theory

Sample maslow interviewed was small and purposefully selected to be made up of those he believed to have self-actualised.

No objective measure were used to gather this information, onlysubjective

hierarchial categorisation of needs oversimplifies complex huamn behaviour and may not be most suitable structure for describing Maslow’s theory

While Maslow never described a pyramid shape for his hierarchy, this assuption has been made by many and fuels the idea of neatly compartmentalised needs that are idependent from each other

idea of strict step by step progression in hierarchy has been critcised, for example, an athlete may continue training despite not having secrure housing, suggesting that higher level needs cans okmetimes be prioritised over lower level

Application of theory

forms the bedrock of educational programs across the world

provides environment wtihin which students can learn requires a whol school approach starting from bottom of hierar hy and wokring thie way up to level 4, esteem needs

studenst who are hugnry, thirsty or tiredd are unlikelty ro be in the rifht mindset to develop positive relationshops with peers educators let alone successfully access taight content

school admin can help educaiton and accomplishment become the prpiority bu doign what they can to help them reach physiological, sagety and love and belongingness needs