Abraham Maslow proposed a hierarchy of needs consisting of physiological needs, safety needs, love and belongingness needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs. He believed humans are motivated to fulfill deficit needs but also have a drive for personal growth. Maslow's hierarchy describes how lower level needs must be satisfied before higher level growth needs can be pursued. Self-actualization, achieving one's full potential, is difficult as safety needs can discourage risk-taking needed for growth. Maslow studied self-actualized individuals like Einstein to understand characteristics like peak experiences.

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Abraham
Maslow
Humanistic Approach

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Maslow
• Believed humans are interested in growing rather than simply
restoring balance or avoiding frustration.
• Described humans as ‘wanting animals’ who are almost
always wanting something.
• Key goal is to reach self-actualisation – to fulfill one’s potential
- moving forward towards growth, happiness and satisfaction.
• Distinguished between motivation and metamotivation.

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MOTIVATION
 Motivation: reducing tension by satisfying deficit states.
 Involves deficiency needs (D-needs) – physiological survival
and safety, and motivate the individual to reduce these
drives.
 Motivation and D-needs = powerful determinants of
behaviour

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METAMOTIVATION
 Metamotivation: growth tendencies.
 Involves being needs (B-needs) – drive to self-actualisation.
 Goal is to enhance life by enriching it.
 Rather than reduce tension, they frequently heighten it in
their quest for ever-increasing stimuli that will bring a life
lived to the fullest.

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MOTIVATION VS
METAMOTIVATION
 Motivationand D-needs take precedence
over metamotivation and B-needs because
they dominate the organism when both
needs are thwarted.
 E.g. when an individual is desperate for
food, they are unlikely to be concerned
with spiritual goals like truth or beauty.
 Within the D-needs, physiological needs
are stronger than safety needs.

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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
(1970)
B-Needs
D-Needs

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Maslow’s Stats
 According to Maslow, the average American meets 85%
physiological, 70% safety/security, 50% love and
belongingness, 40% self-esteem and 10% self-actualisation.
 The extent to which our lower needs remain unsatisfied
determines how strongly those needs will dominate our
behaviour.
 Maslow at one point claimed that only two percent of the
human population are truly, predominantly self-actualised.

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Knowledge and Understanding
 In addition, Maslow suggested the important needs to know
and understand – the need to know is more powerful than the
need to understand
Understanding
Knowledge

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Aesthetic Needs
 Clinical
studies also convinced Maslow that
in some individuals, aesthetic needs are
very important:
“they get sick [in special ways] from
ugliness, and are cured by beautiful
surroundings; they crave actively, and their
cravings can be satisfied only by beauty”
These needs overlap with the hierarchy
and are interrelated.

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Exceptions to hierarchy
 Maslow recognised that some creative
people have pursued the development and
expression of their special talents despite
serious hardships and social ridicule.
 Also, stronglyvalued and idealistic people
willing to die or go on hunger strike.
 Maslow speculated some might scramble
their hierarchies due to unusual factors in
their personal history.

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Criticism
 Cross cultural research suggests that the order of needs does
not always hold true for other cultures.
 E.g. in Greece and Japan, security needs are much stronger
than self-actualisation needs in determining motivation
(Hofstede, 1980; Hofstede et al. 2002)
 In these cultures, job security > job satisfaction.
 In Sweden and Norway, quality of life > what a person
produces – therefore, social needs > self-actualisation.

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Self-Actualisation
 “fulfilling themselves and doing the best that they are
capable of doing”

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Why it is rarely achieved
 Jonahcomplex – tendency to doubt and
even fear own abilities. Characterised by a
fear of success that prevents a person from
aspiring to greatness and self-fulfillment.
 Socialand cultural environments imposing
certain norms (e.g. what is masculine and
what is not).
 Strongnegative influence exerted by safety
needs. Growth needs courage – most
continue specific habits as > fear = >
regression towards safety and security

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Peak experiences
 According to Maslow, the self-actualised
person frequently experiences peak
experiences
 During a peak experience, the individual
experiences not only an expansion of self
but also a sense of unity and
meaningfulness in life. The world appears
to be complete and the person is at one
with it.

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Who is among the self-actualised?
 Maslow identified: Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin,
William James, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Eleanor
Roosevelt.
 Not everyone agrees; Roosevelt was born into a wealthy
family destroyed by alcoholism, Lincoln suffered from
depression.

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Maslow’s Methods
 Began by selecting people who appeared to be
psychologically healthy and completely satisfied their need
for self-actualisation.
 Rather than statistical or quantitative, Maslow used holistic
analyses – general impressions.