Born April 1908, Abraham Maslow would spend the next thirty years and beyond, experiencing, and deciphering his motivations before considering his revolutionary career. Within it, surfaced an idea that human beings are what they achieve. That their attributes are not natural, nor are they given, but are earned after a succession of conditions that equate them into well-rounded and contented circumstances.
Maslow’s encounter with psychological theory was ignited after a long spell of dissuasion. The eldest of eight children to uneducated Jewish immigrants, Brooklyn-raised Abraham Maslow matured from anti-Semitism, schoolyard isolation, and books. As the eldest, he was dutiful to his parents. This caused him to trudge through law universities and ultimately provoked him to stay true to his academic interest—psychology. With it, in marrying a girl of his choice, and leaving school and home, Maslow sought his own satisfaction that lead the way for one of the founding theories we know.
It would be another decade, in a time when psychology was entranced with human intellect and learned behaviour that Maslow first published his ongoing “Self-Actualization Theory”, or the Hierarchy of Needs. The theory contained five levels. From a large base to a narrow peak, the theory is shaped in accord to the universal motion, and up to the individual psyche.
The Hierarchy of Needs’ base is divided into two stages. The first and primary stage is Psychological Needs. Here, are the necessities and inevitabilities of human function. It is the need to eat, to sleep, and breathe. It also includes the additional necessity of sex, and bodily wastes. The second level of the Hierarchy requires more thought because it involves finding a zone of comfort. This is called the Safety Needs. The response to obtaining maximum relief within the primary stage is to find a suitable environment, and secure it. Once obtaining shelter and building investments to keep that zone of comfort, the next stages of the Hierarchy are more mentally charged.
Before the final stage, the pair of needs to conquer is to do with intrinsic, intangible reinforcement. They are called Love, and Esteem. The Love Needs are to be found beyond the environment and amongst peers and intimates. A trusted public or society is what advances the human to the idea of Esteem. High or low, the esteem or potential of confidence would translate into a set of values. Whatever is merited is what drives, inspires, a person to be rebellious or respected, unheard-of or heroic. It is this section, if not Esteem alone, that Maslow believe garnered how an individual acts when receiving or lacking validation from others.
The last and peak of the Hierarchy of Needs is Self-Actualization. Within obtaining this stage, it all depends on the success of the preceding layers. If the individual is lacking sustenance or security, then actualization is not met. The failure is called a deficit; the unfulfilled requirements are considered a failure for flourishing behavior. It is because of the large quantities of instability and displeasure, that the small opportunity of Self-Actualization is met. Those who reached this aspect of themselves were dignified with solving troubles when they occurred and not surrendering to illegitimate conditions. This small population would be ethical, humble, whole.
The existence of the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs provided Psychology with another way of evaluating self-perception. It provided another outlook to how humans sought value in and of themselves. This needs-pattern is different from being coordinated by age, heritage, or demerits. It is delineated by a subconscious development we all share: wanting to nurture and be nurtured. Our desires, the successes and failures, and the power of motivation, evaluates who we are. The most important role of the Hierarchy is that is rejected the grand notion that human beings learned from psychical relations, like animals, instead of innate conditions.
Having experienced tribulation of belonging and approval, what Abraham Maslow gave to humanity is reassurance. His theory explains uncouth conditions as a means from discontent. That, in fact, satisfied people are examples of self-actualization. They don’t want because they have all they need. They don’t devastate because they help construct. Without Maslow’s sense of thinking, there would be a later extension of time for debating whether human beings thrived because it was natural or because there was a congregation of opportunities to make it happen.
Works Cited
“Abraham Maslow Biography”. Np. 2009. Web. June 13 2012. http://www.abraham-maslow.com/m_motivation/Biography.asp
“Personality Theories: Abraham Maslow”. Dr. C. George Boeree. 2006. Web. June 13 2012.
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/maslow.html
Comer, Ronald, and Elizabeth Gould. Psychology Around Us. Hoboken: Wiley, 2012. Print
