Maslow was a humanist
who believed that man can
work out a better
world for mankind as well as for
himself. His approach
to understand human personality
is different from
behaviourism as given by B.F. Skinner
(discussed later) and
psychoanalysis. He depicted
human being as a
“wanting animal” who rarely reaches
a state of complete
satisfaction. It is characteristic of
human life that people
almost always desire something.
If one desire is
satisfied, another surfaces and so on.
Maslow consistently
argued that lower order needs
must at least be
satisfied before an individual can
become aware of the
higher order needs. He proposed
that in general, human
desires/needs are innate and
they are arranged in a
hierarchy. He developed his
own system of needs
and categorized them into two
categories.
a) Deficit Needs and
b) Growth Needs
The deficit needs
include sex, sleep, protection from
extreme temperature
and sensory stimulation. These
needs are most basic,
powerful and obvious of all
human beings for their
physical survival. In the second
category come the
needs for safety, needs of
belongingness and
love, the esteem needs and the
need for
self-actualization.
Now let’s examine each
of Maslow’s need categories
in a little detail, in
accordance of their order i.e. from
lower to higher.
1) Physiological Needs: As pointed out earlier these
are directly concerned
with the biological
maintenance of the
organism and must be gratified
at some minimal level.
An individual who fails to
satisfy this set of
basic needs won’t be able to
move upwards to
satisfy the higher level needs.
For instance, a
chronically hungry person will
never strive to
compose music or join politics or
construct theories to
build a new world order.
Without a doubt, the
physiological needs are
crucial to the
understanding of human behaviour.
Many autobiographies
and experiments chronicled
in the history show
the devastating effects on
behaviour produced by
lack of food or water. For
example, in the Nazi
concentration camps of World
War II, it was common
for prisoners subjected to
prolonged deprivation
and torture, to relinquish
their moral standards
and steal food from each
other.
2) Safety Needs: When the physiological needs are
successfully fulfilled
then safety needs become
the dominant force in
the personality of the
individual. Safety
needs are many and are mainly
concerned with
maintaining order and security.
The primary motivating
force here is to ensure a
reasonable degree of
certainty, order, structure
and predictability in
one’s environment. Maslow
suggested that these
needs are most readily
observed in infants
and young children because of
their relative
helplessness and dependence on
adults. For example,
children, respond fearfully if
they are suddenly dropped
or startled by loud
noise or flashing
lights. Eventually education and
experience neutrialize
such dangers.
Nonetheless, the
safety needs also exert active
influence beyond the
stage of childhood. The
preference for a job
with security and financial
protection, having a
bank account, purchasing a
building/house and
investment in insurance or
medical facilities or
unemployment or old age
may be regarded as
motivated by making the
future safe.
3) Belongingness and Love Needs: These needs
institute the third
ladder in the Maslow’s scheme
of human needs and
emerge only when the first
ladder and second
ladder needs are satisfied.
These needs emphasize
the basic psychological
nature of human beings
to identify with group
life. These are the
needs of making intimate
relationships with
other members of society, being
an accepted member of
an organization and to
have a family. In the
absence of group membership,
a person will have a
feeling of loneliness, social
ostracism,
friendlessness and rejection. Maslow
rejected the Freudian
notion that love and
affection are derived
from sexual instincts. He
was of the view that
love is not synonymous to
sex but a mature love
involves healthy loving
relationship between
two persons. Being loved
and accepted is
instrumental to healthy feelings
of worth. Not being
loved generates futility,
emptiness and
hostility.
4) Self-Esteem Needs: When one’s needs for being
loved and loving
others have been reasonably
satisfied, the need
for self-esteem emerges. These
needs are divided into
two groups : (a) Self-respect,
self-regard and
self-evaluation
(b) Esteem and respect from others. The first
group includes such
things as desire for
competence,
confidence, personal strength,
adequacy, achievement,
independence and
freedom. An individual
needs to know that he or
she is worth while –
capable of mastering tasks
and challenges in
life. The second group includes
prestige, recognition,
acceptance, attention, status,
fame, reputation and
appreciation. In this case,
people need to be
appreciated for what they can
do, i.e. they must
experience feelings of worth
because their
competence is recognized and valued
by significant others.
5) Self-Actualization Needs: Finally, if all the
foregoing needs are
sufficiently satisfied, the need
for self-actualization
comes to the fore. Maslow
characterized
self-actualization as the desire to
become everything that
one is capable of becoming.
One wants to attain
perfection. It is to reach the
peak of one’s
potential. Self actualization is only
possible if the basic
needs at lower levels are met
to the degree that
they neither distract nor
consume all the
available energy. The person
should not be worried
about his or her survival
needs. He or she
should feel satisfied with his/
her social relations
in family, society and job.
Thus we need to keep
in mind that Maslow’s needs
occur in an order. One
seeks self-esteem only after
one’s love and
belongingness needs are satisfied. And
one seeks love only
when he or she feels secure and
safe. On the opposite
side of it, one quickly goes back
to a lower level from
the upper level, if the needs of
lower level are
suddenly jeopardized. For example, let
us consider a lady
who, thinking her love needs are
in good order, busies
herself with becoming a business
tycoon. Suddenly and
unexpectedly, her husband leaves
her. In such a
situation, what she does is that she
casts aside all
aspects of self-esteem (in this case
business) and becomes
consumed in an effort to regain
her husband i.e. to
satisfy her love needs. Once this
relationship is
restored or a suitable alternative
developed, she is free
to concern herself with the
business world.
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