Maslow's Theory of Hierarchy of Needs - Term Paper Example

Abraham Maslow is an American born renowned psychologist who was born in 1908. He attended and performed well in school although it was under his parent's pressure to pursue academic success. Maslow first attended City College of New York to pursue law although he later developed an interest in psychology from where he transferred to the University of Wisconsin. Here, Maslow furthered his education to attain a Ph.D. in psychology in 1934 (Armstrong, 2007). Maslow’s theory of the hierarchy of needs Maslow spent most of the research time trying to understand how humans prioritize their needs.

Through this research, he came up with what is now famously known as the hierarchy of needs. He laid out five major classes of human needs; psychological needs, safety, and security needs, love and belonging (social) needs, esteem needs and finally self-actualization. Psychological needs primarily entail the basic human needs, for example, water, air, sleep, rest, sex, and food nutrients among other needs. Maslow described these as individual needs. Safety and security needs are those that drive humans to search for safe living circumstances, protection from harm and stability.

Love and belonging needs follow after the psychological and safety needs have been taken care of. These needs are characterized by a human feeling of the need for community and relationships with fellow humans. Esteem needs were categorized into two types by Maslow; low and high self-esteem. People with low self-esteem are characterized by the need for respect and recognition of others, fame, and attention.