A Theory Of Human Motivation By Abraham Maslow

Humanistic conceptions of personality focus on our own natural progression towards achieving one’s full potential, having a holistic approach. Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) believes that growth and behaviour is motivated by a number of needs ranging from basic to psychological needs. He uses a hierarchy, commonly depicted as a five-tier pyramid in which the bottom 4 levels represent our deficit needs, shown in figure 1 below. Once the individual’s physiological needs are met, they may move to the next and so on. After all deficit needs have been met, an individual is capable of achieving self-actualisation. According to Maslow, fulfilling this need means reaching one’s highest potential and truly understanding one’s self.

Abraham Maslow is considered to be the father of Humanistic Psychology. Though growing up in a cruel household, he accomplished much in his lifetime. An avid advocate of “Human Motivation”, Maslow developed many theories corresponding to the subject. This article goes into detail on his theory of Hierarchy of Needs and Self-Actualization. Maslow put forth the notion of a 5-level pyramid of needs. Psychological, Safety and Security, Love and Belonging, and Esteem were considered essential “basic” needs. These must be fulfilled before a person can reach the highest level of Self-Actualization. Maslow studied a range of historical and public figures to come to a

Imagine a girl with a heart of compassion but a past filled with adversity. Imagine living in a childhood filled with sexual abuse and neglect; a home so broken there wasn’t enough tape and glue out there to put it back together. Picture laying in bed at night as a little girl shivering with fear and wondering if the struggle would ever end. Now picture her as an adult driving to a local mental health clinic on any given weekday. She gracefully walks into the building and saunters down the hall to a quaint little office in the corner of the building. She enters a room with walls that have heard experiences and stories of hundreds of others. These walls have seen enough tears to fill up an ocean with waves of anxiety and depression that can take you under in a single swoop. She proceeds to sit down in her office chair and gathers her schedule of clients she has to see for the day. She isn’t the client like you most likely expected. She is the clinician; a wounded healer. A past of adversity does not have to equate to perpetual anguish. I believe that life is about turning trials into triumph.

Maslow dealt with the psychological growth process, considered man as a biological organism, and began his study with the theory of motivation based on a holistic approach. The holistic approach paints a multidimensional whole picture of a person integrating the physical, mental, and spiritual through a growth perspective. According to Sengupta (2011), “Maslow defines growth as the continuous development of talents, capacities, creativity, wisdom and character, the various processes, which bring the person toward ultimate self-actualization” (p. 102). Maslow did not ignore the spiritual dimension, but mainly focused on the biological nature of man. He believed the entire person, not just part of him is motivated. “Maslow’s motivational theory is based on the idea that human behavior is controlled through a number of developing fundamental needs that operates in a fixed sequence and needs are defined as a condition of deficit” (Sengupta, 2011, p. 102). Needs are not always caused by shortfalls, however, they may be founded on an individual’s understanding of inner strength and high ethical standards in order to understand their maximum potential.

Abraham Harold Maslow was an American psychologist who is best known for creating Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and discovering self-actualization. Maslow was a psychology professor at Alliant International University, Brandeis University, Brooklyn College, New School for Social Research, and Columbia University. He focused on the importance of focusing on the positive qualities in people, as opposed to treating them

Since the beginning of psychology in the year 1879, researchers have approached the field and have studied the human mind in a numerous amount of ways. One psychologist in particular that is said to have enhanced the quality of psychological research is Abraham Maslow. Abraham Maslow is best known for his work in creating the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Humanistic Psychology. There are many things that came out of Maslow’s findings, how he contributed to psychology, how he influenced the field of psychology, and how his findings are still used in today’s society.

Abraham Maslow brought a bright outlook to the world of psychology with his idea of "hierarchy of human needs.” His idea of an "authentic self” that core part of an individual who strives towards growth, is then measured one of the foundation stones of the Humanistic

Abraham H. Maslow, is one of the founders of humanistic movement in psychology in late 1950 's. Maslow held a great deal of importance for personal freedom and individuality which would help define psychological health. Maslow felt that psychology before his time was primarily focused on people’s ailments and faults in their personalities. In an interview, Being Abraham Maslow with Warren Bennis, he stated that their was a “huge, big gaping hole in psychology.” When researching psychology was looking for important and precious things like, “Goodness, Nobility, Reason, Science, Loyalty, & Courage.”

Abraham Maslow attempts to understand the role of motivation within an individual. He strives to understand the source of motivation for each person. According to Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Theory, the source of motivation is “both a theory of human motives by classifying basic human needs in a hierarchy, and a theory of human motivation that relates these needs to general behavior” (Wahba, 1976, p. 213). In other words, Maslow’s theory organizes individual needs from basic to complex. In addition, motivation is determined based upon whether those needs are met. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs consists of “the physiological needs, the safety needs, the belongingness or love needs, the esteem needs, and the need for self-actualization” (Maslow, 1970, p. 54). Consequently, as each need is met, an individual, then moves up to the next level of needs. For example, an individual is primarily motivated for survival. Until a person has enough food

Abraham Maslow developed a holistic theory. He believed that people have a set of basic needs that are prearranged in a hierarchical order. These needs will begging with biological need and would evolved to needs of safety, love, belonging, and self-esteem. These needs exert a strong influence on people’s behavior and personality. Maslow also exposed the concept of self-actualization (need to develop one’s complete potential). He believed that the need of self-actualization exist in every person, (Davis & Palladino, 2004).

Motivation is the capability to change behavior. Motivation is a drive that holds one to act because human behavior is directed toward some goal. Motivation is a personal act. It is therefore about people's expectations and their needs, goals, behaviors, giving information about their performances. Therefore, in order to fully comprehend the motivation process, it is necessary to examine such factors as the reasons for compelling people to behave in a certain way, the personal goals and the possibilities of maintaining their behavior. (The content theories deal with “what” motivates people, whereas the process theories deal with, “How” motivation occurs. )

Abraham Maslow’s theory about motivation suggested that motivation is about to meet human needs. (Pichère P, et al., 2015) In today’s society, motivation is usually defined as the desire of achieving a goal, leading to goal-directed behavior. So why is motivation so important at work? This is because actual productivity of an organization is thought to be dependent on the level of motivation of employees. In another word, people who are motivated will try harder to accomplish the given task, which will increase the productivity and make it more efficient to achieve the organizational goals.

Maslow has contributed to the area of humanistic psychology through his research in primate dominance behavior and human potential. While his theories revolved around other psychologists’ concepts of motivation and self-actualization, Maslow used them as the structural framework he would immensely add to with his own research, to bring to light his own perspective on the ideas.

In our everyday lives, we go through certain needs and behaviors. Abraham Maslow’s article of Theory of Human Motivation begins with the explanation of the Basic Needs of behavior. He goes over how our basic needs are safety, love, self-esteem, and self-actualization. (Physiological needs tend to go along with the other four needs.) When it comes to craving violence, four of the above needs apply to the given behavior.

Maslow’s Humanistic Approach theory was based solely on what motivates people to reach our highest potential. He believed that individuals have set motivation systems and individuals achieve a set of needs by passing these motivation systems. Maslow believed these stages were set in a hierarchal order and that the lowest system must be accomplished before moving up. He believed there to be eight stages in his hierarchy. He believed that every person is capable to move up the hierarchy as long as there basic needs are encountered and they have the desire to reach the highest potential. According to Maslow, only a small percentage of the population reaches the level of self-actualisation (NetMBA, 2002). The first stage of Maslow’s hierarchy