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Application of Maslow's Theory of Needs to Mobilize a Community

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INTRODUCTION
Community development involves assisting communities and empowering them to attain well-being. This is done through advocacy, organizing communities and mobilizing resources. Other than theories of economics, development and politics, community development is also influenced by contributions from the field of psychology. Different branches of psychology help us to understand community needs, their cultural dispositions, and how communities form social cohesion and participate in community initiatives. The concept of psychological sense of community was initially propagated by the psychologist Seymour Sarason (1974). The Sense of Community describes the sentiment of belonging, trust and cooperation that people of a community …show more content…

Human needs theorists further understand that although needs cannot be compromised, they can be addressed in a generally win-win or positive-sum way.
People are motivated to work towards achieving a need that they feel they have. The more acutely they feel the need the more willing they are to work towards meeting that need. It is for this reason that communities should be exposed to experiences that could in a reasonable time earn the community a higher value than it currently has. A project manager’s ability to effectively appeal to one of these motivational drivers is a key determinant to the potential success of a project.
A project manager should also beware that communities are at different levels of development. Different communities (or even members of the same community) will be at different levels of development and awareness at any one time and a community’s behavior is heavily influenced by its history and various forces around it.
In such circumstances, we expect that a community will most likely behave differently not only from other communities, but, also within the same community. It is for such reasons then that it would be unreasonable to expect a community that is struggling with its basic survival to be enthusiastic about unselfish pursuits. Some services, BepaPay, for example, may be marketed successfully to those in the third or fourth level of Maslow

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