Hall of Fame
Maslow (1908-1970)
Abraham Maslow, the American psychologist, claimed that organisms
prioritise needs. He stripped learning and training back to basic
human needs and desires in an attempt to understand what motivates
people to learn.
His hierarchy is often hauled into training programmes without
any real understanding of why and whether the theory is indeed correct
beyond some simple truisms.
Hierarchy of needs
He then created a hierarchy of needs, with five layers:
| Needs |
Description |
| Physiological needs |
Thirst, food, sleep, warmth, activity, avoiding pain, and
sex |
| Safety and security needs |
Shelter, stability, protection, salary, pension. |
| Love and belonging needs |
Friends, partner, children, relationships and community |
| Esteem needs |
Respect, status, reputation, dignity. Self-respect, confidence
and achievement. |
| Self-actualization |
Aspirational need, the desire to fulfil your potential. |
The first four are all ‘deficit’ or ‘D-needs’.
If they are not present, you’ll feel their absence and yearn
for them. When each is satisfied you reach a state of homeostasis
where the yearning stops. All of these are survival needs and mostly
genetic.
The last, self-actualisation, does not involve homeostasis, but
once felt is always there. Maslow saw this as applying to a tiny
number of people, whose basic four levels are satisfied leaving
them free to look beyond their deficit needs. He used a qualitative
technique called ‘biographical analysis’. He looked
at high achievers and found that they enjoyed solitude, close relationships
with a few rather than many, autonomy and resisted social norms.
Spontaneity, simplicity and respect for others were other characteristics.
Conclusion
Maslow has been very influential in training. Part of his appeal
is his basic, human approach to motivation through needs. In practice,
his work was never really tested experimentally. The self-actualisation
theory is perhaps a step too far and now regarded as of little real
relevance. A more worrying aspect of the theory is its prioritisation.
It is not at all clear that the higher needs cannot be fulfilled
until the lower needs are satisfied. There are many counter-examples
where people fulfil higher creative needs while living in the most
extreme conditions and circumstances. Indeed, creativity can atrophy
and die on the back of success. In the end a sort of periodic table
for human qualities proved difficult and over-simplistic.
Bibliography
Maslow, A. (1954). Motivation and personality. New York: Harper.
Maslow, A. (1971). The farther reaches of human nature. New York:
The Viking Press.
Maslow, A., & Lowery, R. (Ed.). (1998). Toward a psychology
of being (3rd ed.). New York: Wiley & Sons.
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