Maslows Hierarchy of Needs - Research Paper Example

 I. Introduction Over the decades, motivational theories have arisen and one of those include Maslow's hierarchy of needs. According to Abraham Maslow, human needs can be classified into five categories, and can be arranged into a hierarchy of five levels. The lowest-order needs include physiological and safety needs, then there are the belongingness and esteem needs, while the highest is self-actualization, or finding purpose of one's life by pursuing the thing one is most capable of doing, while she aims to fulfill the fullest of her potentials. This paper aims to explore this motivational theory of Maslow's, the hierarchy of needs. II. Body A. Abraham Maslow and the hierarchy of needs In the 1950s, when Abraham Harold Maslow was chair of the psychology department of Brandeis University, he developed a theory about human needs that explore motivation behind people who consider themselves 'whole (Workforce 2002).' According to him, man's major motivation for living is not entirely about having the basic necessities alone, such as food, shelter and clothing, but the achievement of the self's fullest potentials (Trigg 2004, 393). Thus, he constructed this theory about human needs in the form of hierarchy. According to Maslow, the five basic categories of needs that comprise the levels of the hierarchy include physiological needs (food, water, shelter, rest, clothing, etc.), safety and security needs (freedom from physical and psychological harm), social needs (status, prestige, the need for love, belonging and social acceptability), esteem needs (self-confidence, worth, usefulness); and self-actualization (achievement of one's potential to the greatest possible extent) (Oleson 2004, 84-85). According to Maslow, the five categories of needs are arranged in a hierarchy, because in order for the higher needs to be fulfilled, the lower needs should first be met (Trigg 2004, 396). Thus, only when one level of need is satisfied, can man move on to the next, or to a higher level. B. The lower-order needs At the bottom of the hierarchy, there is physiological needs; while on top of it is the safety and security needs. The physiological needs include food, water, shelter, clothing, rest and all the basic needs that 'sustain life' and nourish the body (Oleson 2004, 84). According to Maslow, while these are the lowest and the most basic of needs, this is the usual need that majority of the people strive to fulfill. The basic motivation for the majority of the people, as indicated by being the level with the widest area in the hierarchy, is the pursuit of physiological needs. When people have fulfilled their physiological needs, that is after making sure they have adequate food, shelter, clothing and rest to nourish the body, people move on to the next level, or safety and security needs. According to Maslow, safety and security needs include 'freedom from physical and psychological harm (Oleson 2004, 84).' This includes the need for self-preservation, for safety and stability. Choosing the familiar over the unfamiliar is one of the ways people meet this need, or by creating routines and structures in life in order to avoid the potential harm that uncertainty could bring to the individual. C. The social needs On the third and fourth level of Maslow's hierarchy, there are love and belonging needs, as well as the esteem needs—what he coins as, the social needs. According to Maslow, when the individual has achieved safety and security, she goes on to look for 'belonging, companionship and social acceptability (Oleson 2004, 85).' An individual looks for groups, such as friends and family where it can identify itself with as she wants to be accepted as a part of. Affection, and love is also part of this category of needs. Apart from acceptability and belongingness, an individual strives to be part of a group in order to gain status and prestige, or do something in a group that signifies achievement and recognition. According to Maslow, esteem needs include need for 'attention, importance, recognition, and appreciation (Oleson 2004, 85).' When an individual is part of a group and she is being recognized either for a certain trait that gives her prestige and status, or a sense of achievement that rewards her the recognition and appreciation of the group, all these lead to a feeling of usefulness and self-worth. When this type of need is fulfilled, it leads to a feeling of self-importance, usefulness, self-respect and sense of worth. D. Self-actualization: fulfilling one's potential After the social needs are met, according to Maslow, the ultimate motivation of man, the ultimate state that it aspires to achieve, is the highest of the needs, or coined as self-actualization. According to him, this is the need of an individual to utilize her potentials to the fullest (Trigg 2004, 396). According to him, an individual's highest need is to do what he is capable of, as he has coined it 'what a man can be, he must be (Maslow 382, as mentioned in Oleson 2004, 85).' Self-actualization is equivalent to one's looking for a purpose of her existence. Self-actualization requires that an individual, in line with who she is, pursues a thing that she is most capable of. Only by 'becoming the best that she can be' in that area that she chooses to do and to pursue, will the the highest of needs be met. And this highest of needs, according to Maslow can serve as the most potent primary motivator for an individual, only when the lower four levels of needs are met (Oleson 2004, 85). In the hierarchy, this one gets the smallest area on top of the pyramid, as according to Maslow, very few, or only minority of the population can get to this level and fulfill it. III. Conclusion Maslow's hierarchy of needs tell about major motivations of people as indicated by the categories of needs among the five levels. As the hierarchy goes up to another level, Maslow argues that only a portion of the population gets to the highest level and fulfill it. With his theory, this is because getting to the highest level, or self-actualization and realizing that need requires that the four other lower level needs are satisfied. Self-actualization, being the highest of needs can serve as a great motivator for an individual when the other four levels are fulfilled. When the individual strives to be her best in a thing she is most capable of doing, unless this need is met, a sense of purpose for her life seems to still be missing. In order for one to achieve her fullest potential, from the physiological and security needs to social needs, all these should be fulfilled first. Reference List Oleson, Mark (2004 January). “Exploring the relationship between money attitudes and Maslow's hierarchy of needs.” International Journal of Consumer Studies. Volume 28, Issue 1, pp. 89-92. Retrieved August 31, 2009, from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=4&hid=3&sid=75369e8d-d909-473a-8137-e7a1725dc34e%40sessionmgr10&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=buh&AN=11702197 Robbins, Stephen. (2005). Organizational Behavior. New York: McGraw-Hill Trigg, Andrews (2004 September). “Deriving the Engel Curve: Pierre Bourdieu and the Social Critique of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.” Review of Social Economy. Volume 62 Issue 3, pp. 393-406. Retrieved August 31, 2009, from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail? vid=4&hid=3&sid=75369e8d-d909-473a-8137-e7a1725dc34e %40sessionmgr10&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d %3d#db=buh&AN=11702197 Workforce (2002 January). “Abraham Maslow.” Workforce. Volume 81 Issue 1, pp. 49. 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