PSYCH 2B03 Lecture 5: Abraham Maslow
15 Jan 2019
School
Department
Course
Professor
Abraham Maslow
Humanist theories
• Focus on meaning of life for individual
o Holistic, interested in the whole person
• Desire to help person achieve understanding, wholeness, meaning
o To become all that they can be, realize their full potential
• Focus on individual's unique perception of the world
o Individual differences rather than commonalities (although still look at this) but more how
we are unique
• Avoid reductionism
o Reductionism - View we can understand the whole person by breaking them into elements,
by understanding elements we can understand how the whole organism functions
o The whole is greater than the sum of its parts
• More idiographic than other approaches
Humanistic principles
1. The primary study of psychology should be the experiencing person
a. Elements…
i. Leaving out animals, psychology should focus on people
2. Choice, creativity, and self-realization… are the concerns of the humanistic psychologist
a. Helping people become better at living, aware of the opportunity to make own choices
b. Making every human the most they can be
3. Only personally and socially significant problems should be studied
4. The major concern of psychology is the dignity and enhancement of people
"instinctoid" Motivation
• Motivation is built in and part of human nature
• Motives are not instincts they were instinctoids meaning like or similar to, because they can be
modified
• Not dominating, uncontrollable
o Unlike animal instincts
• Can be controlled, repressed
• Overlain by learning, cultural expectations, etc.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs
• Self actualization
o Very rare to achieve
• Esteem needs
• Love and belongingness needs
• Safety needs
• Physiological needs
3 ways that it represents a hierarchy
1. Biological (bottom) --> psychological (top)
a. About keeping physical body going
b. You don’t need these things to live, but you need esteem for psychological health
2. Old --> recent
a. As you move up a smaller proportion of living things share subsequent motives
3. Early --> late
a. Time in an individual human beings life, and when these needs emerge
b. Child comes out of whom with psychological needs
c. Self-actualization happens towards end of life
The development of needs
• Overlapping emergence
• Once you get partial satisfaction of a lower level need it will begin the emergence of the upper
level need
Maslow's Hierarchy of needs
• Satisfy needs simultaneously (we are over determined)
1. Physiological needs
2. Safety needs
a. Safety from things around you
b. Control, predictability, having some control over the way things unfold
c. Structure, order, predictability, security
3. Love and belongingness needs
a. Belongingness
i. Human beings want to be with others, we want to be accepted, feel apart of a group
b. Love
i. Love of us by others, we need to be loved by others
ii. Giving and receiving love is equally important
4. Esteem needs
a. 2 kinds
i. From others
ii. From self - ability to give ourselves credit for what we have accomplished
5. Self-actualization
a. The highest need
b. Not driven by needs
c. Will appear only if all lower needs are satisfied
d. Becoming ones fullest
• 2 needs not on hierarchy but are here
o Cognitive needs: curiosity; the needs to know and understand. Argues that these needs are
seen more strongly in children than adults
o Aesthetic needs: needs for order, symmetry, structure, completion
• In later writings, notes expectations to the rule that. The needs occur in a rigid, fixed hierarchy
o Sometimes the importance of needs is changed
o Most common. - esteem comes before love an belongingness
Exceptions to hierarchy
• Esteem comes before love and belongingness
• Long satisfied need may be undervalued
o Natural disaster comes along, so all that matters is the lower things for the time being,
upper needs disappear until the lower needs are met
o For some that may not happen, when ind always has had their lower needs met, it can be
the case that when the bottom needs are not met they can still be motivated by upper level
needs, it wont collapse
• Why don’t they disappear? when you have always known these lower needs there
disappearance wont be noticed, BUT if they are gone for a long time then they will
• Creativity may overwhelm all other drives
o Creativity is such a strong driver
o When it exists we notice, huger strikers dying
• Ex. Painters will choose to buy paint over food
• Also for religion
Document Summary
Focus on meaning of life for individual: holistic, interested in the whole person, desire to help person achieve understanding, wholeness, meaning, to become all that they can be, realize their full potential. Focus on individual"s unique perception of the world. Humanistic principles: the primary study of psychology should be the experiencing person, elements . Self actualization: very rare to achieve, esteem needs, physiological needs. The development of needs: overlapping emergence, once you get partial satisfaction of a lower level need it will begin the emergence of the upper level need. Satisfy needs simultaneously (we are over determined: physiological needs, safety needs, safety from things around you, control, predictability, having some control over the way things unfold, structure, order, predictability, security, love and belongingness needs, belongingness. Human beings want to be with others, we want to be accepted, feel apart of a group: love. Love of us by others, we need to be loved by others.
