Maslow's hierarchy of needs

An interpretation of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, represented as a pyramid with the more basic needs at the bottom.[1]

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology, proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation.[2] Maslow subsequently extended the idea to include his observations of humans' innate curiosity. His theories parallel many other theories of human developmental psychology, all of which focus on describing the stages of growth in humans.

Maslow studied what he called exemplary people such as Albert Einstein, Jane Addams, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Frederick Douglass rather than mentally ill or neurotic people, writing that "the study of crippled, stunted, immature, and unhealthy specimens can yield only a cripple psychology and a cripple philosophy."[3] Maslow also studied the healthiest 1% of the college student population.[4]

Maslow's theory was fully expressed in his 1954 book Motivation and Personality.[5]

Contents

Representations

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is often portrayed in the shape of a pyramid, with the largest and lowest levels of needs at the bottom, and the need for self-actualization at the top, also the needs for people.[1][6]

Deficiency needs

The lower four layers of the pyramid contain what Maslow called "deficiency needs" or "d-needs": esteem , friendship and love, security, and physical needs. With the exception of the lowest (physiological) needs, if these "deficiency needs" are not met, the body gives no physical indication but the individual feels anxious and tense.In other words, the hierarchy level of need moves upward as soon as the previous level of need is satisfied.

1. Self-actualization

“What a man can be, he must be.”[7] This forms the basis of the perceived need for self-actualization. This level of need pertains to what a person's full potential is and realizing that potential. Maslow describes this desire as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming.[8] This is a broad definition of the need for self-actualization, but when applied to individuals the need is specific. For example one individual may have the strong desire to become an ideal parent, in another it may be expressed athletically, and in another it may be expressed in painting, pictures, or inventions.[9] As mentioned before, in order to reach a clear understanding of this level of need one must first not only achieve the previous needs, physiological, safety, love, and esteem, but master these needs. Below are Maslow’s descriptions of a self-actualized person’s different needs and personality traits.

Maslow also states that even though these are examples of how the quest for knowledge is separate from basic needs he warns that these “two hierarchies are interrelated rather than sharply separated” (Maslow 97). This means that this level of need, as well as the next and highest level, are not strict, separate levels but closely related to others, and this is possibly the reason that these two levels of need are left out of most textbooks.

2. Esteem

All humans have a need to be respected and to have self-esteem and self-respect. Also known as the belonging need, esteem presents the normal human desire to be accepted and valued by others. People need to engage themselves to gain recognition and have an activity or activities that give the person a sense of contribution, to feel accepted and self-valued, be it in a profession or hobby. Imbalances at this level can result in low self-esteem or an inferiority complex. People with low self-esteem need respect from others. They may seek fame or glory, which again depends on others. Note, however, that many people with low self-esteem will not be able to improve their view of themselves simply by receiving fame, respect, and glory externally, but must first accept themselves internally. Psychological imbalances such as depression can also prevent one from obtaining self-esteem on both levels.

Most people have a need for a stable self-respect and self-esteem. Maslow noted two versions of esteem needs, a lower one and a higher one. The lower one is the need for the respect of others, the need for status, recognition, fame, prestige, and attention. The higher one is the need for self-respect, the need for strength, competence, mastery, self-confidence, independence and freedom. The latter one ranks higher because it rests more on inner competence won through experience. Deprivation of these needs can lead to an inferiority complex, weakness and helplessness.

3. Love and belonging

After physiological and safety needs are fulfilled, the third layer of human needs are social and involve feelings of belongingness. This aspect of Maslow's hierarchy involves emotionally based relationships in general, such as:

Humans need to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance, whether it comes from a large social group, such as clubs, office culture, religious groups, professional organizations, sports teams, gangs, or small social connections (family members, intimate partners, mentors, close colleagues, confidants). They need to love and be loved (sexually and non-sexually) by others. In the absence of these elements, many people become susceptible to loneliness, social anxiety, and clinical depression. This need for belonging can often overcome the physiological and security needs, depending on the strength of the peer pressure; an anorexic, for example, may ignore the need to eat and the security of health for a feeling of control and belonging.

4. Safety needs

With their physical needs relatively satisfied, the individual's safety needs take precedence and dominate behavior. These needs have to do with people's yearning for a predictable orderly world in which perceived unfairness and inconsistency are under control, the familiar frequent and the unfamiliar rare. In the world of work, these safety needs manifest themselves in such things as a preference for job security, grievance procedures for protecting the individual from unilateral authority, savings accounts, insurance policies, reasonable disability accommodations, and the like.

Safety and Security needs include:

5. Physiological needs

For the most part, physiological needs are obvious—they are the literal requirements for human survival. If these requirements are not met (with the exception of clothing, shelter, and sexual activity), the human body simply cannot continue to function.

Physiological needs include:

Air, water, and food are metabolic requirements for survival in all animals, including humans. Clothing and shelter provide necessary protection from the elements. The intensity of the human sexual instinct is shaped more by sexual competition than maintaining a birth rate adequate to survival of the species.

Criticisms

In their extensive review of research based on Maslow's theory, Wahba and Bridgewell found little evidence for the ranking of needs Maslow described, or even for the existence of a definite hierarchy at all.[10] Chilean economist and philosopher Manfred Max-Neef has also argued fundamental human needs are non-hierarchical, and are ontologically universal and invariant in nature—part of the condition of being human; poverty, he argues, may result from any one of these needs being frustrated, denied or unfulfilled.

The order in which the hierarchy is arranged (with self-actualization as the highest order need) has been criticised as being ethnocentric by Geert Hofstede.[11] Hofstede's criticism of Maslow's pyramid as ethnocentric may stem from the fact that Maslow’s hierarchy of needs neglects to illustrate and expand upon the difference between the social and intellectual needs of those raised in individualistic societies and those raised in collectivist societies. Maslow created his hierarchy of needs from an individualistic perspective, being that he was from the United States, a highly individualistic nation. The needs and drives of those in individualistic societies tend to be more self centered than those in collectivist societies, focusing on improvement of the self, with self actualization being the apex of self improvement. Since the hierarchy was written from the perspective of an individualist, the order of needs in the hierarchy with self actualization at the top is not representative of the needs of those in collectivist cultures. In collectivist societies, the needs of acceptance and community will outweigh the needs for freedom and individuality. [12]

Maslow’s hierarchy has also been criticized as being individualistic because of the position and value of sex on the pyramid. Maslow’s pyramid puts sex on the bottom rung of physiological needs, along with breathing and food. It views sex from an individualistic and not collectivist perspective: i.e., as an individualistic physiological need that must be satisfied before one moves on to higher pursuits. This view of sex neglects the emotional, familial and evolutionary implications of sex within the community.[13][14]

Psychologist Douglas Kenrick of Arizona State University has several problems with Maslow's pyramid. One of them is that needs, once they are met, do not simply disappear. Rather, certain environmental cues can make them come back. Thus, Kenrick et al. created a new pyramid in which the needs overlap one another and coexist, instead of completely replacing each other. The bottom four levels of this pyramid are highly compatible with Maslow’s, but their top three are mate acquisition, mate retention and parenting. Made in this way, human needs are considered from the perspective of evolutionary psychology.[15]

Business

Marketing

Courses in marketing teach Maslow's hierarchy as one of the first theories as a basis for understanding consumers' motives for action. Marketers have historically looked towards consumers' needs to define their actions in the market. If producers design products meeting consumer needs, consumers will more often choose those products over those of competitors. Whichever product better fills the void created by the need will be chosen more frequently, thus increasing sales. This makes the model relevant to transpersonal business studies.

International Business

Understanding the strengths and weakness of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is important in the field of international business. Evaluating the different needs, values, drives and priorities of people from different countries - individualistic or collectivist - is incredibly valuable in cross-cultural communications, and especially within the workplace. It also illustrates how differences in values can greatly affect work atmosphere and work ethic between cultures: “ For example, societal cultures in many individualistic countries, such as the United States, may lead to an advantage in technological research and development. Many collectivistic societal cultures, such as that in Japan, may result in an advantage in workforce organization, quality control of products and service, and establishment of good relationships among contractees, suppliers and customers”. [16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
  2. ↑ A.H. Maslow, A Theory of Human Motivation, Psychological Review 50(4) (1943):370-96.
  3. ↑ Maslow, Abraham (1954). Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper. pp. 236. 
  4. ↑ http://jhp.sagepub.com/content/31/1/114.abstract
  5. ↑ Motivation and Personality, Third Edition, Harper and Row Publishers
  6. ↑ Bob F. Steere (1988). Becoming an effective classroom manager: a resource for teachers. SUNY Press. ISBN 0887066208, 9780887066207. http://books.google.com/?id=S2cwd56VvOMC&pg=PA21&dq=Maslow's+hierarchy+of+needs&cd=3#v=onepage&q=Maslow's%20hierarchy%20of%20needs. 
  7. ↑ Maslow, Abraham. Motivation and personality. Harper and Row New York, New York 1954 pg 91
  8. ↑ Maslow, Abraham. Motivation and personality. Harper and Row New York, New York 1954 pg 92
  9. ↑ Maslow, Abraham. Motivation and personality. Harper and Row New York, New York 1954 pg 93
  10. ↑ Wahba, A; Bridgewell, L (1976). "Maslow reconsidered: A review of research on the need hierarchy theory". Organizational Behavior and Human Performance (15): 212–240. 
  11. ↑ Hofstede, G (1984). "The cultural relativity of the quality of life concept". Academy of Management Review 9 (3): 389–398. doi:10.2307/258280. http://www.nyegaards.com/yansafiles/Geert%20Hofstede%20cultural%20attitudes.pdf. 
  12. ↑ Cianci, R., Gambrel, P.A. (2003). Maslow's hierarchy of needs: Does it apply in a collectivist culture. Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship, 8(2), 143-161.
  13. ↑ Kenrick, D. (2010, May 19). Rebuilding Maslow’s pyramid on an evolutionary foundation. Psychology Today: Health, Help, Happiness + Find a Therapist. Retrieved July 16, 2010, from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sex-murder-and-the-meaning-life/201005/rebuilding-maslow-s-pyramid-evolutionary-foundation
  14. ↑ Kenrick, D.T., Griskevicius, V., Neuberg, S.L., & Schaller, M. (2010). Renovating the pyramid of needs: Contemporary extensions built upon ancient foundations. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5. Retrieved July 16, 2010, from http://www.csom.umn.edu/assets/144040.pdf
  15. ↑ http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture/maslows-pyramid-gets-a-makeover-17782
  16. ↑ Li, J., Lam, K., Fu, P. (2000). Family-oriented collectivism and its effect on firm performance: A comparison between overseas Chinese and foreign firms in China. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 8(4), 364-379.

Montana, Patrick, and Bruce Charnov. Management. 4th. Barron, 2008. 238. Print.

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