LECTURE ON MASLOW

1. What is a need?

   1. must have to live

   2. can’t live without

   3. important, critical

   4. quality

3. Background on Maslow

   1. Neglectful parents

   2. Raised socially isolated (jewish child in a non-jewish child in a non-jewish community

   3. Poor

   4. Basic points-

      1. Focus on what motivates people (something so deep that it must be required)

      2. These motivations don’t deal with rewards or desires

      3. Humanist

         1. Both nature and nurture

            1. “All people are born innately good” so we can always go back

            2. “All people have inherited the drive to achieve our full potential”

               1. Full potential is exactly what you want it to be, according to him

4. Theory-Hierarchy of needs

All four together are called deficiency needs

The bottom ones/first ones are the most important and override all other needs

The first two are basic needs, always present and we are born with them

According to Maslow, all mental illness is a result from a need deficiency

There is one action that will satisfy all four needs at once… it’s breastfeeding (being breastfed)

1. Physiological

   1. Appear at birth

   2. Everyone’s got it

      1. Eating

      2. Sleeping

      3. Breathing

      4. excretion

2. Safety, Health

   1. Also appear at birth

   2. About security of the body

   3. Then security of family

      1. Can get jacked up through divorce, separation, illness, death, ?abuse??

   4. Unemployment

   5. Routine & structure for children

      1. Make children feel safe

After these two we can start thinking of higher-level needs

3. Love and Belonging (but maybe Maslow got something messed up here, because you can be loved but be insecure in terms of the previous stage, and also Erikson said that the most important stage is Intimacy vs. Isolation)

   1. Friendship

   2. Parents

   3. Intimacy

4. Esteem (cognitive/psychological) needs

   1. Self-esteem

   2. Confidence → project to others that you are good

   3. Respected by others

      1. Must be earned

      2. Respect that is given but not earned is not real

   4. Esteem + love/belonging = psychological needs

5. Self-Actualization

   1. The final step, you must have all four before you get there

   2. Less than 2% of the population stay at this stage for a majority of their life

   3. Lack of prejudice

   4. Acceptance of the present (even if you don’t like it)

   5. You want for nothing

   6. It’s Buddhism

5. Characteristics of Self-Actualization and Behavior Leading to it

   1. Characteristics

      1. Ability to tolerate uncertainty (must be perfectly fine with not knowing what’s gonna happen next, all the time)

      2. Deep appreciation of basic life experiences

   2. Behavior

      1. Experience life like a child with complete absorption

         1. Like when i play the harp and don’t notice anything else

      2. Prepared to be unpopular

         1. Actions are not based on being popular and unpopular, they are just what you are doing

         2. You’re not doing it for the reaction, you’re just doing it cause it’s something you want to do

6. Key Facts (there are five)

   1. When a need is satisfied, it goes away

   2. If a need comes back, you go back down the pyramid (again, you’re constantly moving up and down the pyramid)

   3. Your need to fulfill the needs becomes stronger the longer time you can’t satisfy it

   4. All needs above where you are on the pyramid are felt but your lowest unsatisfied need is the strongest

   5. All the needs on the pyramid are innate

      1. We are born with them

      2. How we satisfy those needs is nurture

7. Updated Maslow’s Pyramid

   1. After 20 years, he said “WOAH I MISSED SOME STUFF” and added three levels

   2. He added the Cognitive needs

      1. Gotta learn, it’s a bad day if we don’t learn anything

   3. Also aesthetic needs

      1. Some people have it with colors, or drawing, or anything, it’s just that something doesn’t work

      2. About balance and form

   4. Maslow realized that if you are self-actualized, you might wanna do something about it, and that’s Transcendence

      1. Helping others to self-actualize

      2. It’s at the top, after Self-Actualization

8. Criticisms

   1. Data is elitist (he only looked at white dudes)

   2. Extremely subjective (he made all of it up)

   3. So that means it’s also difficult to test

   4. Assumption that lower needs have to be satisfied before you can achieve a higher level

9. 2 Questions

   1. Nature and Nurture

   2. Continuous and Discontinuous