Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Psychology: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow's hierarchy of needs (1943) is a theory of motivation that assumes the need for fulfilment or self-actualisation determines human behaviour.

We achieve satisfaction by progressing through the five levels of a five-level pyramid, a sequential model of human needs.

Fig. 1. According to Maslow, four stages must be attained before reaching self-actualisation.

In the hierarchy of needs, basic needs should be met before moving upward to achieve higher psychological needs.

But why is reaching self-actualisation so important in psychology? According to humanistic psychologists, people who reach self-actualisation are considered the happiest and the least likely to develop illnesses.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory

We can divide the five-level sequential pyramid model into deficiency needs, consisting of the first four structural levels, also known as (D-needs), and growth needs or B-needs (at the top of the pyramid).

The deficiency needs aim to raise awareness concerning maintaining physical and psychological balance. The needs in question are:

• Physiological needs.
• Safety needs.
• Needs for belonging and love.
• Esteem needs.

Growth needs arise from the desire to grow as an individual. When earlier needs such as physiological, safety, love, and belonging are met, the individual may strive for higher needs such as self-actualisation.

Humanistic psychologists advocate personal and individual growth as fundamental to being human.

All people have an innate predisposition to reach their full potential and become the best version of themselves. Self-actualisation is the highest level of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

Maslow (1943) asserted that individuals should follow the hierarchy of needs in a linear progression, meaning they can only develop in the order presented in the pyramid.

Maslow (1986) also acknowledged that each person is different, and the model only works depending on each person's circumstances.

Maslow Hierarchy of Needs Definition

Here you find some central definitions of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

When the preceding deficiency needs are satisfied, the individual can proceed to the satisfaction of the self-actualisation needs, which is when the individual reaches their full potential.

Malow suggested that people must follow their inner intuition to reach their full potential as human beings. Examples of these needs are as follows:

According to Maslow's definition of self-actualisation:

Self-actualised people are self-aware and interested in personal growth, including developing their true potential. It gives them the strength to hold on to their truth, not worry about others' opinions of themselves, and follow their life, purpose, and mission.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Examples

Let's take a look at some of Maslow's hierarchy of needs examples for each stage.

The most basic survival needs are physiological and consist of biological needs, such as:

Maslow claimed that physiological needs are the most important because the human body cannot function without these basic needs. All other levels of the sequence become secondary until the essential needs for existence are met.

Once the physiological needs are met, the human is satisfied and ready to move on to the second level, safety needs, which include:

Material resources help us plan to achieve specific goals, such as travel or a healthy lifestyle. The security of being able to move freely is an example of the actions driven by the need for safety and security.

The third next level is love and belonging, socialisation. Social needs play an important role when avoiding loneliness, depression, and anxiety. It is vital to feeling loved and accepted by others. These also include:

The fourth level of Maslow's hierarchy of needs represents the need for appreciation and respect. The fourth level includes:

When the previous needs are met, esteem plays a more significant role in the person's behaviour. At this point, it is important others respect and appreciate us. We must achieve goals and have others recognise our efforts, including our worth or self-esteem.

We need to feel valued by ourselves and others. It gives us a sense of community and purpose when we know we contribute to a better world. When we lack self-esteem and respect from others, developing feelings of inferiority is one of the consequences.

Congruence and Incongruence in Self-Actualisation

Carl Rogers, another humanistic psychologist, believed that self-actualisation is possible only when it is congruent. A person's ideal self should be congruent (in harmony) with their behaviour and what they are (the real self).

For this congruence to be possible, a child must grow up with a sense of unconditional positive regard from their parents, i.e., their parents love and accept them, even when they make mistakes.

If children grow up with conditional positive regard (i.e., their parents show them love and acceptance only when they behave in a certain way), they will learn this behaviour. They will act only in such a way as to receive positive regard from their parents.

When a person's behaviour and life experiences (the real self) do not match their ideal self, it is called incongruence. When there is incongruence, self-actualisation cannot occur.

Criticism of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Time to examine some critical points of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.Among the weaknesses of Maslow's model are the following:

• Maslow's theory is difficult to test because self-actualisation is more of a feeling rather than something that can be directly observed, which makes it difficult to investigate empirically.
• To make inferences, he examined eighteen biographies and writings of self-actualised people, such as Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, William James, Aldous Huxley, Beethoven, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Mother Teresa. The sample size is relatively small, so should we generalise his findings?

From a scientific perspective, there are several issues with this approach:

• The first, which quickly becomes apparent, is that his research method is subjective and based entirely on his own opinion. Using a personal opinion for research is always prone to bias, which reduces the validity of the data collected.
• Therefore, Maslow's definition of self-actualisation should not be accepted as scientific fact. Maslow's analysis focused on a biased sample of self-actualised, highly educated white males, while the proportion of women in the research is rather small.
• Another problem is that Maslow assumes that lower needs should be met before self-actualisation, which is not always the case, so maybe the theory does not account for individual differences.

Strengths of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Despite the criticisms, the theory also presents some strengths.

A strength of Maslow's hierarchy of needs is that its principles have been applied to person-centred therapy, which is an intervention that applies humanistic principles to guide clients to reach their maximum potential and overcome obstacles.

Another strength of this model is its visual presentation. Presenting this theory as a pyramid is very accurate because it hints at what humans need more (lower levels of the pyramid) and what humans need less (top of the pyramid). When translating this into real-life examples, humans should prioritise basic needs, such as having a warm place to live and food to eat, over other activities, such as increasing one's self-esteem. This is useful when people are on a journey of self-improvement.