The specific form that these needs will take will of course vary greatly from person to person. In one individual it may take the form of the desire to be an ideal mother, in another it may be expressed athletically, and in still another it may be expressed in painting pictures or in inventions' Maslow, , p. Although we are all, theoretically, capable of self-actualizing, most of us will not do so, or only to a limited degree.
Maslow estimated that only two percent of people would reach the state of self-actualization. He was especially interested in the characteristics of people whom he considered to have achieved their potential as individuals. By studying 18 people he considered to be self-actualized including Abraham Lincoln and Albert Einstein Maslow identified 15 characteristics of a self-actualized person. The characteristics of self-actualizers and the behaviors leading to self-actualization are shown in the list above.
Although people achieve self-actualization in their own unique way, they tend to share certain characteristics. However, self-actualization is a matter of degree, 'There are no perfect human beings' Maslow, a, p. It is not necessary to display all 15 characteristics to become self-actualized, and not only self-actualized people will display them.
Maslow did not equate self-actualization with perfection. Self-actualization merely involves achieving one's potential. Thus, someone can be silly, wasteful, vain and impolite, and still self-actualize. Less than two percent of the population achieve self-actualization. Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory has made a major contribution to teaching and classroom management in schools.
Rather than reducing behavior to a response in the environment , Maslow a adopts a holistic approach to education and learning. Maslow looks at the complete physical, emotional, social, and intellectual qualities of an individual and how they impact on learning. Applications of Maslow's hierarchy theory to the work of the classroom teacher are obvious.
Before a student's cognitive needs can be met, they must first fulfill their basic physiological needs. For example, a tired and hungry student will find it difficult to focus on learning. Students need to feel emotionally and physically safe and accepted within the classroom to progress and reach their full potential. Maslow suggests students must be shown that they are valued and respected in the classroom, and the teacher should create a supportive environment.
Students with a low self-esteem will not progress academically at an optimum rate until their self-esteem is strengthened. Maslow , p. The most significant limitation of Maslow's theory concerns his methodology. Maslow formulated the characteristics of self-actualized individuals from undertaking a qualitative method called biographical analysis. He looked at the biographies and writings of 18 people he identified as being self-actualized.
From these sources, he developed a list of qualities that seemed characteristic of this specific group of people, as opposed to humanity in general. From a scientific perspective , there are numerous problems with this particular approach.
First, it could be argued that biographical analysis as a method is extremely subjective as it is based entirely on the opinion of the researcher. Personal opinion is always prone to bias, which reduces the validity of any data obtained. Therefore Maslow's operational definition of self-actualization must not be blindly accepted as scientific fact.
Furthermore, Maslow's biographical analysis focused on a biased sample of self-actualized individuals, prominently limited to highly educated white males such as Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, William James , Aldous Huxley, Beethoven. Although Maslow did study self-actualized females, such as Eleanor Roosevelt and Mother Teresa, they comprised a small proportion of his sample. This makes it difficult to generalize his theory to females and individuals from lower social classes or different ethnicity.
Thus questioning the population validity of Maslow's findings. Furthermore, it is extremely difficult to empirically test Maslow's concept of self-actualization in a way that causal relationships can be established.
Another criticism concerns Maslow's assumption that the lower needs must be satisfied before a person can achieve their potential and self-actualize. This is not always the case, and therefore Maslow's hierarchy of needs in some aspects has been falsified. Through examining cultures in which large numbers of people live in poverty such as India , it is clear that people are still capable of higher order needs such as love and belongingness. However, this should not occur, as according to Maslow, people who have difficulty achieving very basic physiological needs such as food, shelter, etc.
Also, many creative people, such as authors and artists e. The survey was conducted from to Respondents answered questions about six needs that closely resemble those in Maslow's model: basic needs food, shelter ; safety; social needs love, support ; respect; mastery; and autonomy. They also rated their well-being across three discrete measures: life evaluation a person's view of his or her life as a whole , positive feelings day-to-day instances of joy or pleasure , and negative feelings everyday experiences of sorrow, anger, or stress.
The results of the study support the view that universal human needs appear to exist regardless of cultural differences. However, the ordering of the needs within the hierarchy was not correct. Your browser does not support the audio element. McLeod, S. Maslow's hierarchy of needs. They gave him the recognition he felt he deserved. Furthermore, through speaking engagements and consulting, he could generate additional income.
Some people have argued that Maslow based his pyramid on the tipi of First Nations people the Blackfoot, following a summer he spent with the tribe in What do you think of this theory? The claim that Maslow stole the idea for his pyramid from the Blackfoot has gained attention on social media, but if Maslow did not create the pyramid, he could not have taken it from the Blackfoot. He discussed his observations with the Blackfoot briefly in his book.
While Maslow learned much about these proud people, there is nothing in these writings to suggest he borrowed or stole ideas for his hierarchy of needs.
Where do we go next? Are you calling for the pyramid to be dropped in new editions of management textbooks? The pyramid is shown with horizontal lines demarcating the different levels. This makes it difficult to imagine a person simultaneously being affected by different needs.
When one is on a ladder, multiple rungs are occupied by the feet and hands. Other rungs may be leaned on as well. That description eventually dropped out, but we believe removing the pyramid from management textbooks and replacing it with a ladder would be a step forward. Dan Wren has been in touch with us since the paper was published and agrees. Following the publication of Motivation and Personality in , Maslow emerged as one of the few established psychologists to challenge the prevailing conformism of the s.
He spoke out on how large organizations and social conformity stifled individual self-expression. At times he was frustrated that the business community treated his theory of human nature as a means to a financial end--short-term profits--rather than the end which he saw, a more enlightened citizenry and society. It would be great if students were encouraged to read what Maslow in the original. Students would better understand that motivating employees to be more productive at work was not the end that Maslow desired for the hierarchy of needs.
Maslow never offered an elitist conceptualization of self-actualization, right? My reading is that he argued that everyone is capable of self-actualizing, but are blocked by deficiencies in our most basic needs. Well that depends. Most of his life and in his writings Maslow was very clear that every newborn had the potential to eventually be self-actualized, given the right environment.
But he felt very few people truly reached their potential, a belief that grew stronger over the years. In his final years he wondered if there might be a genetic component that favors self-actualization in some more than others. To our knowledge he never developed this idea. This was probably a reaction to meeting too few people whom he would consider self-actualized.
Maslow had preconditions for his need hierarchy to work. This is frequently overlooked. Censorship, dishonesty, inability to pursue truth and wisdom work against us. Even still, he acknowledged there are exceptions where people rise above their circumstances. You argue that management textbooks could do a better job of representing the past, more generally.
What are some other big textbook misrepresentations as you see it? But the problem goes beyond the misrepresentation of ideas. We are also interested in examining people and ideas usually excluded from management textbooks.
We need to more closely examine the contributions of women, contributions from non-Western cultures, contributions from people of different ethnicities. We hope our research generates debate about what has come to be regarded as the foundations of management studies and how those foundations are taught to students.
Or the mountaineer who disregards safety in his determination to reach the summit? Muddying things slightly, Maslow said that for some people, needs may appear in a different order or be absent altogether. Moreover, people felt a mix of needs from different levels at any one time, but they varied in degree. There is a further problem with Maslow's work.
Margie Lachman, a psychologist who works in the same office as Maslow at his old university, Brandeis in Massachusetts, admits that her predecessor offered no empirical evidence for his theory. However, after Maslow's death in , researchers did undertake a more detailed investigation, with attitude-based surveys and field studies testing out the Hierarchy of Needs.
And that led to a lot of discussion and debate, and new theories evolved as a consequence. In , Clayton Alderfer whittled Maslow's five groups of needs down to three, labelled Existence, Relatedness and Growth. Although elements of a hierarchy remain, "ERG theory" held that human beings need to be satisfied in all three areas - if that's not possible then their energies are redoubled in a lower category. So for example, if it is impossible to get a promotion, an employee might talk more to colleagues and get more out of the social side of work.
More sophisticated theories followed. Maslow's triangle was chopped up, flipped on its head and pulled apart into flow diagrams. Hodgkinson says that one business textbook has just been published which doesn't mention Maslow, and there is a campaign afoot to have him removed from the next editions of others.
The absence of solid evidence has tarnished Maslow's status within psychology too. But as a result, Lachman says, people miss seeing that he was responsible for a major shift of focus within the discipline. Your behaviour was not just influenced by external rewards and reinforcement, but there were these internal needs and motivations. Unlike the psychoanalysts and behaviourists who preceded him, Maslow was not that interested in mental illness - instead of finding out what went wrong with people, he wanted to find out what could go right with them.
This opened the door for later movements such as humanistic psychology and positive psychology, and the "happiness agenda" that preoccupies the current UK government. Maslow's friend, management guru Warren Bennis, believes the quality underlying all Maslow's thinking was his striking optimism about human nature and society.
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