The Abraham Maslow Hierarchy of Needs

The Abraham Maslow hierarchy of needs is a theory developed by American psychologist Abraham H. Maslow in his 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation”. In this theory, humans have five different levels or sets of needs. These are the physical, social, intellectual, aesthetic, and self-actualization needs. The hierarchy describes the order in which people tend to prioritize their needs as they pursue them in life.

The three most basic needs are physiological, safety, and security. These are called the physiological, safety and security needs.

Physiological Needs

The first hierarchy level is the need for physiological needs or food and shelter which is the first of the basic human needs in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Physiological need is based on particular biological functions such as eating, drinking and breathing.

Safety Needs

The second hierarchy level is the needs for security, which includes protection from physical and emotional harm. Security is gained by avoiding situations that might be dangerous or unpredictable, i.e., the need to feel safe.

Social Needs

The third hierarchy level (after physiological and safety) is the need for close relationships with others and social acceptance or belongingness. Social needs are the desires to be in relationships and to interact. This includes the need for love and affection, friendships, sharing, intimacy, sexual intercourse, and the need to belong in a group or community. Social needs are based on the desire for harmonious and satisfying interpersonal relationships.

Esteem Needs

The fourth hierarchy level (after physiological, safety and social) is the need for self-esteem, i.e., recognition of one’s own worth as a person. This usually comes from the need to feel respected, accomplished, and a member of society. The esteem needs are based on the desire to feel valuable, respected, and liked.

Self-Actualization Needs

The fifth hierarchy level (after physiological, safety, social and esteem) is the need for self-fulfillment or the desire to be all that one is capable of becoming. Maslow believed people come to this level only after they have met their lower level needs. Self-fulfillment is the desire to fulfill one’s potential in life.

Knowledge Needs

The sixth hierarchy level (after physiological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualization needs) is the need for knowledge or intellectual growth and development. This level is accessed via professional education or by learning and doing things for which one has a talent or interest.

In Maslow’s hierarchy, needs are arranged into a group of five needs that form a pyramid with the more basic needs at the bottom. This is in contrast to the idea that there is only one need (or only two opposing needs), as proposed by other behavioural scientists such as Adler and Freud. Maslow’s hierarchy has been challenged by modern experiments and research findings.

Educational applications

Educational applications of the theory include the use of Maslow’s needs for individual differences (the theory can be used to understand an individual’s psychological needs and how self-esteem is affected by different factors). Maslow’s hierarchy can help teachers and educators to identify ways to meet a student’s needs. Students can be asked questions that will help determine what they value based on their activity choices. Educators may then seek ways to help students gain in these areas. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is also used in career counseling. Educational application of the theory can be found in various texts, for example: “Designing Effective Schools: A Human Relations Perspective” and “Creating a Classroom Culture that Supports Healthy Learning”, as well as in various journals, for example: “Journal of School Health”.

Humanistic psychology applications and research

Scholars from the humanistic perspective commonly use Maslow’s work to understand personality factors affecting self-esteem. This perspective is commonly used to assess, understand and develop people’s abilities, talents and creative thinking. The humanistic perspective helps explain what motivates people and how they learn. The humanistic perspective helps explain how growth-oriented motivation can lead to positive attitudes and excellent performance.

Critical evaluations

Defects and limitations of the model

Maslow’s theory has been criticised for a number of reasons:
• a. Towards the beginning of the hierarchy, Maslow places himself as the final need in the theory. This is an issue because it means that human needs are provided by other people, for example Maslow’s wife, mother or friends. This means that every person does not have access to what they want and instead will remain unbearably unhappy if their needs are not met.
• b. Maslow’s model does not provide a solid reason why people choose to choose different values or abilities.
• c. Since Maslow makes all needs “higher” than the next, eventually you would come to a point in your life where there is nothing left to achieve. By this point in life, you may have achieved all of the things that Maslow states are important but then again there are still many other potential needs that are yet unfulfilled.
• d. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs suggests that self-actualisation is the most important desire towards the end of one’s life. However, many people who have reached this state then decide that it is not for them and ultimately decide to abandon this theory.
• e. Despite its popularity and influence, Maslow’s hierarchy does not have a solid foundation in research.

Relevance to education

The application of Maslow’s theory to education is a controversial issue. In general, people have differing opinions about the theories:

• a. Some find this theory to be extremely misleading and inaccurate because it suggests that some people have the same needs and therefore everyone has the same requirements for life. Despite this, there are individuals for which the hierarchy does not apply and therefore the most applied theory may not be applicable to them.
• b. Others have found Maslow’s hierarchy to be relevant to education and have begun to use it as a model in the classroom.
• c. Finally, some educators feel that this theory cannot be used in education because it focuses on the physical needs rather than mental and emotional needs.

Some of Maslow’s work emphasizes that people are capable of becoming self-actualized, but other aspects of his theory emphasize the dichotomy between the ‘bad’ lower nature and the ‘good’ higher nature.

E. Roger Hall’s criticisms

Hall argues that Maslow’s theory has limited application and is not ultimately explanatory, since it is clear that some people are able to transcend their early environment in terms of their values and needs. In his book “A Psychology for the Third Millennium”, Hall writes: “Maslow’s theory is a fantastic oversimplification of human psychology. It is not even wrong… [but] it is too simplistic to have any explanatory value.”

Other criticisms

Some critics have brought forth the issues that Maslow erred in his application of self-actualization; he has not properly explained how one can be encouraged to transcend their early environment, and outline what would happen if everyone had all their needs met.
There is also the issue of what Maslow meant by ‘higher nature’, it is important to understand that he used the term in a very generic sense, so we are not sure how much emphasis he believes should be placed on unfulfilled needs. This is another issue that so many people find dissatisfying with his theory.

Variations of the concept

Maslow’s hierarchy has been adapted and applied by other psychologists for different purposes. One of these is for the assessment of individual development using ‘peak experiences’ as a measure. The concept of peak experience is used as a way to integrate a sense of spirituality and self-actualization into Maslow’s theory.

Another variation is Maslow’s question about what needs are being met in people when they get on an airplane or climb Mount Everest. In other words, do need-gratification, self-actualization and peak experiences operate at the same level in Maslow’s theory?

A third area where the ideas have been updated is to consider the possibility that some needs may not be permanent, because they can be satisfied. Thus, the hierarchy can be seen as a sequence of increasingly complex needs that are satisfied in an orderly fashion. The need for security, for example, can be satisfied by obtaining wealth or job satisfaction. It is important to note that some people become disinterested in their needs when they are satisfied.

Although Maslow does not explicate his theory on physical need satisfaction very much, it has been applied in this form in economic studies of nations.

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Abraham Maslow (1908–1970) was an American psychologist, best known for his hierarchy of needs theory, which was inspired in part by Kurt Goldstein’s work on the concept of motivation. Maslow’s research in psychology during the 1950s and 1960s established him as one of the leading theorists of human motivation. He is widely considered to be one of the founding fathers of humanistic psychology and also one of the pioneers of third-force psychology.