Life of Maslow
- Unaffectionate & rejecting mother, favoured siblings
- Hostile towards father
- Difficult childhood
Hierarchy of Needs
Arranged from strongest to weakest, activates & directs behaviour
Lower needs must be partially satisfied before high needs become influential
Instinctiod
Needs in hierarchy are innate (hereditary)
- Can be affected or overridden by learning, social expectations and fear or disproval
- Equipped at birth
Characteristics
Higher needs appear later in life
Physiological & safety - infancy
Belongingness and esteem: adolescences
Self actualization: midlife
Deficit needs
Lower needs
Failure to satisfy produces deficit in individual
Growth (being) needs
Higher needs
Less necessary for survival but lead to health
Psychological benefits
Physiological Needs
- Food, water, sex
- Survival needs
Belongingness and Love Needs
- Need to give and receive love
- Expressed through relationships or social experiences
- Failure to meet need is fundamental cause of emotional maladjustment
Esteem Needs
Self-worth: esteem from ourselves
Status and recognition:
- Esteem from others
- Confident of strength, worth, etc will help become more competent
- failure to satisfy leads to inferiority and helplessness
Self Actualization Need
- Fullest development of self
- Max realization and fulfillment
- If not self-actualized, restless, frustrated, discontent
- Must be free from constraints (social or self), not distracted by lower needs, secure in self and relationships, realistic knowledge of self
Cognitive Needs
- Second set of innate needs
- Need to know (stronger) and understand
- Not in hierarchy
- Appears in late infancy to early childhood
-Failure to satisfy = harmful to development and personality
Metamotivation (B-Motivation or Being)
Motivation of self-actualizers
Motivated from within
No a deficiency motivation: striving to make up for lack of something
Metaneeds
Sates of being towards which self-actualizers evolve
Not specific goals
Metapathology
Failure to satifsy metaneeds
Prevents self actualizers from expressing/using full potential
Questions about Human Nature
Optimistic: confidence in ability to shape life, human nature is good, evil results from inappropriate environment
Uniqueness: motivation and needs are universal, how they are satisfied is unique
Assessment
Work on self-actualization did not begin as formal program
Interviews and biographies
Criticisms
Lack of experimental data
Small Sample Size
Inconsistent and vague method
Self actualizers lack specificity
