Child Growth Notes #3.4 (Abraham Maslow)

Abraham Maslow

  • Neglectful parents

  • Raised socially isolated a Jewish child in a Non-Jewish community

  • Poor

Basic Points to his Psychological Theory

  • Focus on what motivates people

  • These motivations don’t deal with rewards or desires

  • Humanist

-Both nature and nurture

  • All people are born innately good

  • Have inherited a drive to achieve our full potential

Hierarchy of Needs

Physiological Needs

Appear at birth

  • Eating

  • Sleeping

  • Breathing

  • Excretion

Safety, Health

Appear at birth

  • Security

  • Secure in your own body

  • Not personally in danger

  • Secure with our family

Insecurity can appear in many ways

  • Divorce

  • Separation

  • Illness

  • Financial trouble

  • Employment

Insecurity for Children

  • Under 14

  • Needs structure and routine because that feels safe

Physiological + Safety = BASIC NEEDS

Love/Belonging

  • Friendship

  • Love

  • Intimacy

  • Community

  • I belong somewhere

Failure to satisfy this level is the cause of societal problems

Esteem

  • Self-Esteem

  • Confidence

  • Respect of Others

  • Respect of Others must be earned

Love/Belonging + Esteem = Psychological

First four levels = Deficiency Needs

  • All mental illness comes from a deficiency need

  • There is only one act that satisfies all four needs - breastfeeding

Self Actualization

Only about 2% of people get there

Characteristics of Self Actualization

  • Lack of prejudice

  • Acceptance of facts as they are

  • Want for nothing

  • Typically Buddhists

Characteristics of Self-Actualization

  • Tolerate Uncertainty

  • Deep appreciation of basic life experiences

Behaviors Leading to Self-Actualization

  • Experience life with a child-like absorption or concentration

  • Prepared to be unpopular

Key Facts About the Pyramid

  • When a need has been satisfied it will go away

  • If the need comes back, you go back down the pyramid

  • Need to fulfill needs become stronger the longer time you can’t satisfy it

  • All needs above where you are on the pyramid are felt but your lowest unsatisfied need is the stronger

  • All of these needs are innate-born with them

Added Steps

Cognitive Needs

  • You want to learn

  • Want to learn why stuff happens

  • Need for knowledge

Aesthetic Needs

  • Balance

  • Beauty

  • Form

Transcendence

  • Helping others to self-actualize

Criticisms of Maslow’s Theories

  • Data is elitist

  • Extremely subjective

  • Difficult to test

  • Assumption that lower needs have to be satisfied before can achieve higher level

Maslow

Continuous or Discontinuous?

  • Both

Nature or Nurture?

  • Both

  • We are born with certain needs

  • But how they are satisfied is nurture