Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (1954, 1970)

Explained how people strive to reach their full potential and continually seek personal growth, a state of being termed self-actualisation. This is the ultimate state of being that all individuals are striving to attain.

Hierarchy of Needs

Deficiency Needs - Basic needs people are motivated to fulfil due to their absence. They are important for survival and stop acting as a motivator once they have been met.

Includes physiological, safety, love and belongingness, and esteem needs.

Growth Needs - Needs that once met act as the motivation for people to continue fulfilling them. They develop the personality of an individual and are unique to each person. Satisfying these needs lead to happiness and fulfilment and in turn acts as the motivation to continue achieving them.

Includes cognitive, aesthetic, self-actualisation, and transcendence needs.

1. Physiological Needs

  • Biological requirements to provide energy, physical contentment and health.

  • Most are deficiency needs because once satisfied there is no longer a desire to continue seeking them.

  • Food, water, sleep, reproduction, shelter.

2. Safety Needs

  • Includes physical safety (stability, predictability, routine, order and limits), and emotional safety (feeling free from chaos, anxiety and fear). Emotional safety provides security allowing individuals to express their authentic selves with others.

  • If this need is not met, anxiety and lack of confidence may be experienced.

3. Love and Belongingness Needs

  • Needs incorporate both giving and receiving love. Receiving love includes feeling worthy of love, being accepted by others, intimacy, and having a place withing a family or group. Giving love involves expressing affection and care towards others.

  • A lack of connection with others can result in feelings of isolation and loneliness.

4. Esteem Needs

  • Includes self esteem and judgement/respect. Self esteem is the desire for achievement and confidence. Respect involves seeking recognition, attention and appreciation from others.

  • Individuals who meet their esteem needs feel a purpose in life, and feel strong and self-confident. Those who do not may feel weak, helpless and inferior.

5. Cognitive Needs (1970)

  • Involve a desire to gain knowledge through curiosity, and a goal to understand.

  • Understanding refers to the need for the theological, philosophical or personal beliefs that guide decision making.

6. Aesthetic Needs (1970)

  • Involve the appreciation of beauty and anything considered beautiful.

  • Meeting these needs contributes to wellbeing and a sense of fulfilment, including experiences of symmetry, order, rightness, delight and perfection.

  • Some individuals may experience discomfort when exposed to ugliness and actively yearn for beauty, finding solace in aesthetically pleasing environments.

7. Self-Actualisation

  • Reaching one’s full potential, and appreciation for life.

  • Each person has a unique way of experiencing self-actualisation.

  • Satisfying these needs leads to positive wellbeing and a sense of maturation, growth and becoming increasingly autonomous.

  • Restlessness and discontentment can arise in individuals who fulfil self-actualisation.

  • Throughout life, individuals can go back and forth between levels, and may move in and out of self-actualisation during peak or transcendence experiences.

According to Maslow, the characteristics of a self-actualised person include being spontaneous, problem-centred rather than self-centred, having a need for privacy and solitude, and being autonomous or independent. They are freshly appreciative of repeated experiences, undergo peak experiences, and show an interest in helping humanity. They tend to have profound interpersonal relations, are democratic, possess strong morals and have a philosophical sense of humour. They are creative and accepting of their own imperfections, as well as themselves, society and the environment.

8. Transcendence Needs (1970)

  • The experience of going beyond the limitations of physical human experience.

  • Transcendent/Peak experiences are religious, supernatural and mystical encounters. People who have these experiences are called peakers, while those who have not are called nonpeakers.

  • Can be met by using peak experiences for personal growth and fulfilment.

  • Those who strive to feel peak experiences feel that their lives have deeper meaning because they are seeking to encounter something they do not have, and this deeper meaning involves contributing to humanity rather than focusing on the self. They are more accepting, loving, honest, and dedicated, and experience emotions of wonder, awe, bliss and humility.

Method

Maslow analysed the personality structures of 60 historical figures and personal friends that he believed had attained self-actualisation.

He discovered 15 common personality characteristics among the sample (e.g. realistic perception, acceptance, spontaneousness, problem-centred, autonomy, democratic attitudes, creativity, ethical sensitivity). It was from these characteristics that Maslow proposed the hierarchy of needs and claimed they are required for self-growth to be achieved.

Strengths

  • Focused on healthy human psychological development, which was uncommon at the time.

  • Supported by future studies.

Limitations

  • Sample was small and purposefully selected to be made up of those he believed to have been self-actualised. No objective measures were used to gather this information, only subjective measures.

  • The hierarchal categorisation of needs oversimplifies complex human behaviour and may not be the most suitable structure to describe the theory. Maslow never described a pyramid shape for his hierarchy, this assumption has been made by many and fuels the idea of neatly compartmentalised needs that are independent from each other.

  • The idea of a strict step by step progression has been criticised, as some people may be motivated to complete higher levels before they have fulfilled lower level needs. E.g. an athlete may continue training despite not having secure housing, suggesting that higher level needs can sometimes be prioritised over lower level needs.

  • Does not properly consider cultural considerations such as poverty.

Applications

  • Basis of many educational programs across the world. School administration can help education and accomplishment become the priority of students by doing what they can to help them meet physiological, safety, and love and belongingness needs.