Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs Theory

Introduction Maslow’s Theory, better referred to as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, is composed of various stages as well as the ideal final stage of two foundational ideas titled self- actualization and self-transcendence. Maslow (1943), was an American psychologist who, in my opinion, looked at the realm of phycology and human understanding in a fairly optimistic light compared to other psychologist of his time (Robbins, 2012, p. 380) . His main objective was to understand what motivates people aside from unconscious desires and rewards, which we have learned in class, are major motivators in our decision-making processes. He began to recognize that humans were programmed a certain way to have the desire within themselves to achieve certain …show more content…
Following these needs the next tier is called safety needs and gives examples such as security, freedom from fear, and strength of a protector, which all make the ability to live securely more possible. Next, Maslow added the tier of belongingness and love needs to the chart. This specific tier has components that vary from giving and receiving affection, to having roots, which are both important in proper development and understanding of how we interact and operate as human beings in relation to our feelings and emotions. Up next, is the tier of esteem needs, and this tier includes things like self-respect and respect from others. Aspects such as these can be vital in our development into who we strive to become and what others perceive us to be as well. While reviewing this theme, I thought that it was extremely interesting that Maslow developed this idea even further, which lead him to splitting esteem into two different categories. According to Maslow, the achievement of esteem can look two very different ways. One direction of esteem looks like the desire for strength, achievement, and adequacy, and the other is after reputation and prestige, which rests solely on what other people view you as. In my own opinion, I believe the second to be set up for failure because any time we give others the chance to …show more content…
Having a table as a visual aide, as well as the easy to use format, I consider the theory generally easy to understand for anyone even without the psychologist title. I fully accept and appreciate his ability to remain positive with this theory due the negativity that can come from many other theories and understanding of human development. Breaking down each tier into physical entities makes the application of this theory tremendously easy for anyone to use, but also leads people into deeper understanding of what each tier means and the significance that an unobtainable level in certain cases can have on someone’s development and