Abraham Maslow developed the Hierarchy of Needs model in 1940-50s
USA, and the Hierarchy of Needs theory remains valid today for understanding
human motivation, management training, and personal development. Indeed,
Maslow's ideas surrounding the Hierarchy of Needs concerning the responsibility
of employers to provide a workplace environment that encourages and enables
employees to fulfil their own unique potential (self-actualization) are today
more relevant than ever. Abraham Maslow's book Motivation and Personality,
published in 1954 (second edition 1970) introduced the Hierarchy of Needs, and
Maslow extended his ideas in other work, notably his later book Toward A
Psychology Of Being, a significant and relevant commentary, which has been
revised in recent times by Richard Lowry, who is in his own right a leading
academic in the field of motivational psychology.
Abraham Maslow was born in New York in 1908 and died in 1970,
although various publications appear in Maslow's name in later years. Maslow's
PhD in psychology in 1934 at the University of Wisconsin formed the basis of
his motivational research, initially studying rhesus monkeys. Maslow later
moved to New York's Brooklyn College.
The Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs five-stage model below (structure
and terminology - not the precise pyramid diagram itself) is clearly and
directly attributable to Maslow; later versions of the theory with added
motivational stages are not so clearly attributable to Maslow. These extended
models have instead been inferred by others from Maslow's work. Specifically
Maslow refers to the needs Cognitive, Aesthetic and Transcendence (subsequently
shown as distinct needs levels in some interpretations of his theory) as
additional aspects of motivation, but not as distinct levels in the Hierarchy
of Needs.
Where Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is shown with more than five
levels these models have been extended through interpretation of Maslow's work
by other people. These augmented models and diagrams are shown as the adapted
seven and eight-stage Hierarchy of Needs pyramid diagrams and models below.
There have been very many interpretations of Maslow's Hierarchy of
Needs in the form of pyramid diagrams. The diagrams on this page are my own
interpretations and are not offered as Maslow's original work. Interestingly in
Maslow's book Motivation and Personality, which first introduced the Hierarchy
of Needs, there is not a pyramid to be seen.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs
Each of us is motivated by needs. Our most basic needs are inborn,
having evolved over tens of thousands of years. Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of
Needs helps to explain how these needs motivate us all.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs states that we must satisfy each need
in turn, starting with the first, which deals with the most obvious needs for
survival itself.
Only when the lower order needs of physical and emotional
well-being are satisfied are we concerned with the higher order needs of
influence and personal development.
Conversely, if the things that satisfy our lower order needs are
swept away, we are no longer concerned about the maintenance of our higher
order needs.
Maslow's original Hierarchy of Needs model was developed between
1943-1954, and first widely published in Motivation and Personality in 1954. At
this time the Hierarchy of Needs model comprised five needs. This original
version remains for most people the definitive Hierarchy of Needs.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs
1. Biological and
Physiological needs - air,
food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep, etc.
2. Safety needs - protection from elements, security,
order, law, limits, stability, etc.
3. Belongingness
and Love needs - work group,
family, affection, relationships, etc.
4. Esteem needs - self-esteem, achievement, mastery,
independence, status, dominance, prestige, managerial responsibility, etc.
5. Self-Actualization needs - realising personal potential,
self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences
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