Critique of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Theory
Abraham Maslow was a foremost American psychologist of the twentieth century. He
specialized in the learning of human personality and growth. One of his major
assistance was the expansion of a theoretical chain of command of needs as a
model for understanding the progress of an individual’s personality. In 1954,
Maslow published “inspiration and Personality,” which commenced his theory about
how people please a variety of personal needs in the circumstance of their work.
He assumed; based on his comments as a humanistic psychologist, that there is an
all-purpose pattern of needs acknowledgment and satisfaction that people follow
in normally the same sequence (F. K. Bellott, & F. D. Tutor, 1990). He also
hypothesized that a person could not recognize or follow the next higher need in
the chain of command until her or his currently recognized need was considerably
or totally satisfied, an idea called prepotency.
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He believed that people are not just controlled by mechanical forces or
insensible instinctual impulses of psychoanalysis, but must be understood in
terms of human potential. He supposed that humans struggle to reach the highest
levels of their abilities (F. Herzberg, B. Mann, & B. B. Snyderman, 1989)...
People seek the frontiers of originality, and struggle to reach the highest
levels of awareness and wisdom. People at this level and under were labeled by
other psychologists as completely functioning or possessing a well personality.
Maslow called the people who were at the peak “self-actualizing” persons (F. K.
Bellott, & F. D. Tutor, 1990).
Maslow established a hierarchical theory of needs. The animal or corporal needs
were placed at the bottom, and the human wants at the top. This hierarchic
theory can be seen as a pyramid, with the base taken by people who are not
paying attention on values, but just staying alive. A person, who dreams about
food, thinks about food and not anything else. Each level of the pyramid is
somewhat reliant on the prior level for most people. Maslow thought that
psychologists should in its place study the playfulness, affection, etc., of
animals. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs was an option to the depressing determinism
of Freud and Skinner. He felt that people are on the whole trustworthy,
self-protecting, and independent. Humans have a propensity toward growth and
love. Although there is an incessant cycle of human wars, murder, dishonesty,
etc., he believed that brutality is not what human nature is meant to be like.
Aggression and other evils occur when human needs are dissatisfied (E. Deci, &
R. Ryan, 1991). In other words, people who are dispossessed of lower needs such
as protection may protect themselves by violent means. He did not believe that
humans are aggressive for the reason that they enjoy violence. Or that they lie,
deceive and steal as they enjoy doing it. According to Maslow, there are general
types of wants that must be pleased before a person can act selflessly. He
called these needs shortage needs. As long as we are provoked to please these
cravings, we are moving towards growth, toward self-actualization. Satisfying
wants is healthy; locking indulgence makes us sick or evil. In other words, we
are all needs junkies with longings that must be pleased and should be pleased.
Else, we happen to get sick. Needs are advocate. A proponent need is one that
has the greatest pressure over our actions. Everyone has an advocate need, but
that need will fluctuate among individuals. A teenager may have a want to feel
that a group accepts him. A heroin addict will want to please his/her cravings
for heroin to function usually in society, and will not be anxious about
acceptance by other people. According to Maslow, when the shortage needs are
met: At once other needs appear, and these, rather than physiological hungers
control the organism. And when these within turn are satisfied, yet again new
needs appear, and so on. As one wish is satisfied, another pops up to take its
position. Physiological needs are the very essential needs such as air, water,
food, sleep, sex, etc. When these are not satisfied we may feel sickness,
annoyance, pain, uneasiness, etc. These feelings stimulate us to ease them as
soon as possible to set up homeostasis. Once they are lessening, we may think
about other things. Safety needs have to do with establishing constancy and
consistency in a disordered world. These needs are typically psychological in
nature. We need the security of a home and family. On the other hand, if a
family is dysfunction, i.e., an offensive husband, the wife cannot move to the
next level because she is continually concerned for her security. Love and
belongingness have to pass the time until she is no longer cringing in fear.
Many in our culture cry out for law and order for the reason that they do not
feel secure enough to go for a walk in their area. Many people, mainly those in
the inner cities, unluckily, are stuck at this level (F. Herzberg, B. Mann, & B.
B. Snyderman, 1959). In addition, safety needs every now and then motivate
people to be holy. Religions console us with the guarantee of a safe secure
place after we die and leave the lack of confidence of this world. Love and
belongingness are next on the steps. Humans have a wish to belong to groups:
clubs, work groups, religious groups, family, gangs, and so on. We need to feel
appreciated by others, to be accepted by others. Performers appreciate approval.
We need to be needed.
There are two types of esteem needs. First is self-worth, which results from
capability or mastery of a task. Second, there’s the concentration and gratitude
that comes from others. This is comparable to the belongingness level; yet,
wanting respect has to do with the need for power. People, who have all of their
lower needs fulfilled, often drive very luxurious cars because doing so raises
their level of respect. Maslow also explains self-actualization as a person’s
requiring being and doing that which the person was born to do. It is his
calling (E. Deci, & R. Ryan, 1991). A musician has to make music, an artist must
paint, and a poet must write. If these requirements are not met, the person
feels agitation, on edge, tense, and missing something. Lower needs may also
produce a fidgety feeling, but here is it much easier to find the reason. If a
person is hungry, insecure, not loved or accepted, or lacking self-worth the
cause is obvious. It is not at all times clear what a person wants when there is
a want for self-actualization.
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Maslow also believed that people were time and again motivated by more than one
set of needs at a time and that they place changeable importance on different
needs. This means that someone could be provoked by their essential need for
food, shelter and console but may supersede these needs by refusing to do a job
which disagrees with their personal values. Their sense of worth was the leading
one. As our state of affairs change the needs that we believe to be the most
significant to us can change too. If the physiological needs are abandoned for
too long we may go hungry or become ill (F. D. Tutor, 1986). These needs may
then become the main ones and the job taken even though it quarrels with a
person’s values.
While Maslow’s hierarchy makes wisdom from an instinctive point of view, there
is little proof to bear its hierarchical aspect. In fact, there is proof that
disagrees with the order of needs particular by the model. For instance, some
cultures come into view to place communal needs before any others. Maslow’s
hierarchy also has complexity explaining cases such as the “famished artist” in
which a person abandons lower needs in chase of higher ones. Finally, there is
little proof to propose that people are motivated to gratify only one need level
at a time, except for in situations where there is a disagreement between needs.
Even though Maslow’s hierarchy did not have scientific support, it is quite
renowned and is the first theory of incentive to which many people they are
exposed. To address some of the matters of Maslow’s theory, Clayton Alderfer
developed the ERG theory, a needs-based model that is steadier with experiential
findings.
References
Bellott, F. K., & Tutor, F. D., (1990), "A Challenge to the Conventional Wisdom
of Herzberg and Maslow Theories." Paper presented at the Nineteenth Annual
Meeting of the Mid-South Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA.
Herzberg, F., Mannr, B., & Snyderman, B. B., (1989), The Motivation to Work (2nd
ed.), New York: John Wiley & Sons
Deci, E., & Ryan, R., (1991), A motivational approach to self: Integration in
personality. In R. Dienstbier (Ed.), Perspectives on motivation. Nebraska
Symposium on Motivation, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Tutor, F. D., (1986), The Relationship between Perceived Need Deficiencies and
Factors Influencing Teacher Participation in the Tennessee Career Ladder.
Doctoral dissertation, Memphis State University, Memphis, TN
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