Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Have you heard someone mention Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, maybe while in class, or even seen the term in a textbook? Maslow’s hierarchy is a very familiar concept for many psychology and education students, and has greatly impacted these fields. Let’s take a closer look!

Who Was Maslow?

Before we talk about the hierarchy itself, let’s look at the man behind the eponymous theory, Abraham Maslow. Born in 1908 in Brooklyn, New York, Maslow had an extremely difficult childhood. His early years were frequently spent in the library reading. He first went to a college in New York to study law, but didn’t enjoy the subject. He later transferred to the University of Wisconsin to begin studying psychology. He earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate there, and began teaching at Brooklyn College in 1937.

Psychology Experiments

During his time at the University of Wisconsin, Maslow worked with psychologist Harry Harlow, who you may have heard of before. Harlow’s work focused on attachment and social relationships, and consisted of a series of experiments conducted on infant rhesus monkeys.

The infant monkeys were separated from their mothers and kept in isolation under a variety of different conditions. The monkeys that were isolated from their peers displayed unusual and sometimes dangerous behaviors. Some monkeys were later returned to the main group, and the majority of them were unable to be reintegrated.

There is now much criticism about these experiments being unethical and cruel. Despite this, Harlow’s findings form much of what we now believe about human development and social attachments.

These experiments also taught Maslow that if basic needs are not met, then appropriate social development cannot occur. He observed that some needs took precedence over others, and when those needs were unmet, the behavior of the monkeys was affected. He suspected that the same was true of people, and began his research into what is now called “humanistic psychology.”

A Theory of Human Motivation

Maslow felt that much of psychology at the time focused far too much on pathological behaviors, or the “negative” aspects of human behavior. He believed that human beings were far more alike than they were different, and began to look at the basic needs of all people in order to prove this belief.

When WWII began in earnest, he felt that it was clear that US soldiers fundamentally did not understand German soldiers, and dove deeper into his research with a desire to help foster understanding and return the world to peace. He published a paper entitled “A Theory of Human Motivation” in 1943, and this paper is what we’re referring to when we talk about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Alright, now that we’ve talked a bit about how Maslow’s hierarchy came to be, let’s take a closer look at the hierarchy itself. The hierarchy is most often represented by a pyramid with what Maslow thought to be the most foundational needs at the base of the pyramid. As you get closer to the top the priority of each need decreases.

It looks something like this:

At the base of the pyramid you have physiological needs. These are needs that are literally required for human life. You can think of these as needs that are vital to survival like air, water, food, clothing, sleep, shelter, and reproduction. While reproduction might seem like it doesn’t belong here, Maslow included it since the survival of the species depends on it.

The next step up from physiological needs are security and safety needs. Maslow believed that if a person’s physiological needs are met for the most part, then one’s safety needs are what drive their behavior. Security and safety needs include things like employment, health, and personal security.

When safety needs are met, Maslow says that the next thing that a person aims to satisfy is their need for love and belonging through friendships, romance, family, or social groups.

Once a person’s need for love and belonging is met, they begin trying to fulfill esteem needs, which are divided into two categories: esteem for oneself and the desire for respect from others.

After the esteem needs are met, Maslow believed that a person would then have the ability to see their full potential. He called this step self-actualization and believed that “what a man can be, he must be.” He theorized that once a person reached this level, they would be able to see that they had the potential to be more than they currently were, and would also develop a personal drive to improve themselves.

This stage of the hierarchy was inspired by Maslow’s observations of psychologist Max Wertheimer and anthropologist Ruth Benedict. He believed that they were remarkable people, and began to take notes on their behaviors and beliefs, slowly forming his hypothesis that people could only end up like Wertheimer or Benedict if they had become self-actualized.

Now that we’ve talked about the entire pyramid, let’s discuss a few more important details.

Deficiency Needs vs. Growth Needs

The hierarchy can be separated into two types of needs: deficiency needs and growth needs. The deficiency needs are those in the bottom four sections because those needs arise when they are unmet. For example, you won’t feel the need to eat unless your physiological need for food is unmet. The growth needs are those at the top of the pyramid, because they come from a desire to grow rather than from an unmet need.

Critiques of Maslow’s Hierarchy

Over the years, there have been many critiques of Maslow’s hierarchy, some of which revolve around it being more observation-based than research-based. Another key criticism of the hierarchy is that it’s rooted in one culture and social structure that is not shared by all people. Maslow lived in a very individualist culture, and this affected his worldview significantly. Had he been born into a collectivist culture, the pyramid might look very different!

There have been a few attempts to update the pyramid, but so far, the original hierarchy published in 1943 is the most commonly referenced and taught, despite the fact that Maslow continued to research and refine the pyramid over several decades.

In 1969, Maslow revisited the hierarchy and added a motivational step beyond self-actualization, which he called self-transcendence. This change did not enter into popular recognition, so the hierarchy was not updated in most textbooks or teachings.

In 1987, the third edition of Motivation and Personality, which was originally published in 1954, was released. The contributors to the text remarked that the order first presented in 1943 was too rigid, and that the order of needs should be seen as more flexible based on individual differences. It was also mentioned that the need for belonging might supersede the need for physical safety for one person, whereas the need for self-esteem might be more important than the need for love for another.

This edition of the text also posited that almost all behavior is multi-motivated, and that most behaviors are determined by an attempt to meet several (or even all) of the basic needs simultaneously. This is a helpful clarification to consider when looking at the hierarchy to help determine your own motivations.

Overall, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs has significantly impacted what we believe about ourselves and others, and has given psychologists and educators alike a helpful framework to reference when trying to understand someone’s behaviors.

I hope this video was helpful. Thanks for watching, and happy studying!