Talk:Abraham Maslow

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[edit] Cornell

Bit of confusion about his connection to Cornell. It is listed among his affiliated institutions and he is marked as an alumni via a hyperlink at the bottom of the page, but there is no mention of Cornell University in the body of the article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 132.236.97.31 (talk) 23:55, 10 June 2008 (UTC)


[edit] Questions

In trying to track down the hammer-nail quote by Abraham Maslow. My lengthy searches revealed several versions (see below). I am keen to have the quote in its original form and the source in which it appeared. "If the only tool you have is a hammer, you treat everything like a nail." "To the man who only has a hammer in the toolkit, every problem looks like a nail." "If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail." ?When the only tool you have is a hammer, all problems begin to resemble nails.? at http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/S613630/ i asked in a forum for help, but the original question is old, so noone might come around. i would be happy if anyone might post a comment with the pagenumber there. thx, tomk

Hammer-nail quote is given as: "I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail." and sourced at: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abraham_Maslow —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.197.39.239 (talk) 00:46, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Known for his "theory of poo," eh? Apparently sixth-grade vandals have been through. DELETED!--12.47.123.121 20:22, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

What, if anything did he do for the space shuttle? Or am I missing something from an inside joke perhaps?


what was Abraham Maslow occupation? Psychologist. (Humanistic)

Did Maslow view himself as a self-actualized individual?

Not as far as I know. The list in my psychology textbook of people he considered self-actualized is Freud, Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Thomas Jefferson, and that's it. -Nietzscheanlie 12:04, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

Why is "sex" at the base of the pyramid? It is a well-documented fact that animals in zoos will only mate if their basic needs are fulfilled, and most will mate only if all the layers of the pyramids are fulfilled. Should'nt "sex" figure higher on the pyramid? --Ireon 22:32, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

Maslow put it there? Also, I think the basic needs (food, water, excretion, sleep, etc.) are on the same level as sex, so it would make sense that there might be an order of priority within the step on the pyramid. The step groups sex with the other ones because it is a biologically driven desire, harkening back to its heyday as Freud's go-to motivation for basically everything and its mom. -Nietzscheanlie 12:04, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Critiques?

How do other Psychologists view of his works? Critiques?

Here is a schwedish critical opinion: http://www.physto.se/~vetfolk/Folkvett/19992maslow.html

I can't offer any direct sources, but I am well aware that in describing self-actualized individuals Maslow used largely circular reasoning. To pinpoint individuals that had obtained this state he used an assessment to determine people's emotional well-being and took those from around the top 2 percentile. He used these people to deduce his traits for these people (kinship with the world, mystical peak experiences, problem-oriented). Of course, in assessing the level of self-actualization in individuals, he used his own subjective idea of emotional well-being and, for the most part, honed in on the traits that he later used in his conclusions. To put the idea simply, people behave a certain way if they are self-actualized. People are self-actualized because they behave a certain. The whole model is circular reasoning and loaded with flaws such as the one pointed out by the poster below.

Something else:

Can You give an answer to the following cases, that doesn't fit in the Maslow's hierachy:

-- For example artists, novelists can be starving and they can isolate themselves from social life to do their work?

-- Suicidal behavior

With king regars Hanna

I don't see how they "don't fit". I wouldn't have put it that way. Artists don't starve to the point that they can't move, and even when they and religious people fast, they do it on a temporary basis. Suicide has a myriad of psychological things associated with it. How are you relating it? It doesn't conflict with the ideas of Maslow concerned here. --DanielCD 16:40, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Maslow's theory didn't really incorporate much psychopathology. As a humanistic psychologist he would have followed Carl Rogers' theory concerning discrepancies between actual and ideal self leading to psychopathology. Perhaps, when I'm less busy, I'll add stuff to this article that it sorely needs including refinements to the hierarchy including deficiency motivations, his work with monkeys, and gender biases unless somebody beats me to it. A lot of the psy articles in Wikipedia need work and I'll probably put some work in over the summer.Blue Leopard 10:04, 22 March 2006 (UTC)


hi, i have a made more space-saving (and imho more beautiful) graphic of the pyramid. http://me.phillipoertel.com/files/pyramid_of_website_needs.png feel free to use it if you like.

[edit] Connections to Evolutionary Biology

It gets really interesting looking at Maslow with an evolutionary biologist's toolbox. Up to the level of self-actualization everything makes a lot of sense, but from that point onward completely different dynamics ensue. Biologically, if an entity has reached the top of its abilities and has verified that this is indeed true and not wishful thinking (a translation for the very vague term of "self-actualization"), it necessarily will switch from entity-egoistic programs to genetical-code supporting programs.

In plain English: There need to be higher levels in the pyramid, constituting needs that would appear "altruistic" to psychologists. Since this is a self-emergent system under evolutionary selection, thinking in terms of "self-interest" of a single unit leads you completely astray.Hirsch.im.wald 11:02, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Note the "2011" date in his education; is that a typo or vandalism?

[edit] three new stages of Maslow's Model

there is also three new stages that have come about over time the first two were in the 1970s thers stages are: Congitive needs: the need for koowledge and meaning. and Aesthetic needs: the appreciation and search for beauty, balance, form. These two new stages fit between stages four and five. The third new stage was that of "Transcendence needs": or the helping others to achieve self actualization. this is now the eighth and final stage of Maslows model.

for mor infomation see http://www.businessballs.com/maslow.htm

[edit] Image

I've created a cleaner version of the hierarchy pyramid but I'm not very familiar with the procedure to follow when replacing images. This is the image:

Please consider replacing the current image with this version. Mrestko 09:35, 5 July 2006 (UTC)


[edit] External links

I have added one external link for Chimaera Consulting. I have used this site before for referencing purposes.--Pandaplodder 21:07, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Fucking bush —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.174.135.206 (talk) 20:01, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Is there a "correct" pronunciation of his name?

I've heard Maslow pronounced "mah-zlow" and "maw-zlow", with the first syllable being similar to either "matrimony" or "mock". Is there a "right" way to say it? How did he say it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Karuna8 (talk • contribs) 20:13, 3 March 2008 (UTC)


Hmmmm...since he was of Jewish descent the first pronunciation would seem closer to Ashkenazic or even Hebrew dialect. However, such a leap in logic would also place the accent on the second syllable. CWatchman (talk) 01:56, 4 March 2008 (UTC)