Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs PDF

MASLOW'S HIERARCHY of NEEDS Introduction One of the most legendary ideas in the history of psy chology is located in an unassuming triangle divided into five sections referred to universally simply as ‘Maslow’s Py ramid of Needs’.This profoundly influential py ramid first saw the world in an academi...

MASLOW'S HIERARCHY of NEEDS Introduction One of the most legendary ideas in the history of psy chology is located in an unassuming triangle divided into five sections referred to universally simply as ‘Maslow’s Py ramid of Needs’.This profoundly influential py ramid first saw the world in an academic journal in the United States in 1943, where it was crudely drawn in black and white and surrounded by dense and jargon-rich text. It has since become a mainstay of psy chological analy ses, business presentations and TED Talks – and grown ever more colourful and emphatic in the process. Abraham Maslow The py ramid was the work of a thirty -five y ear old Jewish psy chologist of Russian origins called Abraham Maslow, who had been looking, since the start of his professional career, for nothing less than the meaning of life. No longer part of the close-knit orthodox family of his y outh, Maslow wanted to find out what could make life purposeful for people (himself included) in modern-day America, a country where the pursuit of money and fame seemed to have eclipsed any more interior or authentic aspirations. He saw psy chology as the discipline that would enable him to answer the y earnings and questions that people had once taken to religion. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs For Maslow, we all start with a set of utterly non-negotiable and basic phy siological needs, for food, water, warmth and rest. In addition, we have urgent safety needs for bodily security and protection from attack. But then we start to enter the spiritual domain. We need belongingness and love. We need friends and lovers, we need esteem and respect. And lastly, and most grandly, we are driven by what Maslow called – in a now legendary term – an urge for self-actualization: a vast, touchingly nebulous and y et hugely apt concept involving what Maslow described as ‘living according to one’s full potential’ and ‘becoming who we really are.’ Key Concepts K ey Con cept s • Maslow's pyramid emphasizes the importance of balancing both material and • • spiritual needs. We cannot live by our spiritual callings alone, but it cannot be right to remain focused only on the material either. We need both the material and the spiritual realms to be attended to for a welllived life. Importance of Maslow's Pyramid Part of the reason why the description of these needs, laid out in py ramid-form, has proved so persuasive is their capacity to capture, with elemental simplicity, a profound structural truth about human existence. Maslow was putting his finger, with unusual deftness and precision, on a set of answers to very large questions that tend to confuse and perplex us viciously, particularly when we are y oung, namely : What are we really after? What do we long for? And how do we arrange our priorities and give due regard for the different and competing claims we have on our attention? Examples Ex ample Ex ample A person who focuses solely on accumulating wealth and neglects their relationships and personal growth. A person who neglects their basic physiological needs in pursuit of spiritual enlightenment. Ex ample A person who has a balanced approach, prioritizing both material and spiritual needs.