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Abraham Maslow

Adapted from A Science Odyssey: People and Discoveries – PBS.org

U.S. Psychologist Abraham Maslow was a practitioner of humanistic psychology. He is known for his theory of “self-actualization.”

“I was awfully curious to find out why I didn’t go insane,” remarked Abraham Maslow, one of the founders of humanistic psychology.

He was born and raised in Brooklyn, the eldest of seven children. He was smart but shy, and remembered his childhood as lonely and rather unhappy. Maslow attended City College in New York. His father hoped he would pursue law, but he went to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin to study psychology. While there, he married his cousin Bertha, and found as his chief mentor Professor Harry Harlow. At Wisconsin he pursued an original line of research, investigating primate dominance behavior and sexuality. He went on to further research at Columbia University, continuing similar studies. He found another mentor in Alfred Adler, one of Freud’s early followers.

From 1937 to 1951, Maslow was on the faculty of Brooklyn College. In New York he found two more mentors, anthropologist Ruth Benedict and Gestalt psychologist Max Wertheimer, whom he admired both professionally and personally. These two were so accomplished in both realms, and such “wonderful human beings” as well, that Maslow began taking notes about them and their behavior. This would be the basis of his lifelong research and thinking about mental health and human potential. He wrote extensively on the subject, borrowing ideas from other psychologists but adding significantly to them, especially the concepts of a heirarchy of needs, metaneeds, self-actualizing persons, and peak experiences. Maslow became the leader of the humanistic school of psychology that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s, which he referred to as the “third force” — beyond Freudian theory and behaviorism.

Maslow saw human beings’ needs arranged like a ladder. The most basic needs, at the bottom, were physical — air, water, food, sex. Then came safety needs — security, stability — followed by psychological, or social needs — for belonging, love, acceptance. At the top of it all were the self-actualizing needs — the need to fulfill oneself, to become all that one is capable of becoming. Maslow felt that unfulfilled needs lower on the ladder would inhibit the person from climbing to the next step. Someone dying of thirst quickly forgets their thirst when they have no oxygen, as he pointed out. People who dealt in managing the higher needs were what he called self-actualizing people. Benedict and Wertheimer were Maslow’s models of self-actualization, from which he generalized that, among other characteristics, self-actualizing people tend to focus on problems outside of themselves, have a clear sense of what is true and what is phony, are spontaneous and creative, and are not bound too strictly by social conventions.

Peak experiences are profound moments of love, understanding, happiness, or rapture, when a person feels more whole, alive, self-sufficient and yet a part of the world, more aware of truth, justice, harmony, goodness, and so on. Self-actualizing people have many such peak experiences.

Maslow’s thinking was surprisingly original — most psychology before him had been concerned with the abnormal and the ill. He wanted to know what constituted positive mental health. Humanistic psychology gave rise to several different therapies, all guided by the idea that people possess the inner resources for growth and healing and that the point of therapy is to help remove obstacles to individuals’ achieving this. The most famous of these was client-centered therapy developed by Carl Rogers.

Maslow was a professor at Brandeis University from 1951 to 1969, and then became a resident fellow of the Laughlin Institute in California. He died of a heart attack in 1970.

“Human nature is not nearly as bad as it has been thought to be.”

A Science Odyssey: People and Discoveries – http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/bhmasl.html

18 Comments

hfisk801 says:

October 23, 2019 at 5:29 pm

Maslow’s heirarchy seems to make sense, I’ve seen the pyramid before but didn’t know the creator!

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terrence germain says:

October 23, 2019 at 5:27 pm

Maslow explaning his theory as a ladder definitely helped to better understand it.

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lillyanamayo says:

October 23, 2019 at 5:26 pm

I find Maslow’s human beings needs are arranged like a ladder. I have never thought of human needs being arranged this way, but I believe Maslow is right with the order he arranged the needs and the type of diagram he uses to represent his concept.

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Lydia Li says:

October 23, 2019 at 5:05 pm

Abraham Maslow elaborated on the existing topic of mental health and human potential. He also introduced a ladder of human needs with the base of the ladder being physical necessities like air and water and above that being security and on top of that being love/self fulfillment (you can’t have what’s at the top of the ladder without acquiring what’s beneath first).

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Debbie Ross says:

October 23, 2019 at 4:28 pm

Maslow’s hierarchy theory is made of five tiers of human needs. It is basically made of qualities that we all desire, want and need in our lives

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Harman P Singh says:

October 23, 2019 at 4:23 pm

i find his diagram very interesting and agree with where a lot of the items are however i feel as though some such as safety should be moved

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- Veronica Emilia Nuzzolo, Ph.D., CADC says:
  
  October 23, 2019 at 4:24 pm
  
  Really why is that,, you cannot move forward in life if you are not safe,, think of Gran Torino and Tao
  
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andreachavezlopez says:

October 23, 2019 at 3:59 pm

The way Maslow used the ladder makes me understand everything more.

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cindyv85 says:

October 23, 2019 at 3:33 pm

The Maslow’ hierarchy of needs is the perfect example of the circle of life. They are the steps one’s go through to be successful in life

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eguerrieo says:

October 23, 2019 at 2:50 pm

I find his Ladder of Needs theory interesting.

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JingRen says:

October 22, 2019 at 10:52 pm

I love Maslow’s idea of how human beings’ needs are arranged like a ladder. Without fulfilling the basic needs, a human is unlikely to be successful.

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Clarisse Noubissi Tchemwe says:

October 22, 2019 at 1:20 pm

The theory of Maslow is interesting because he thought human being have a needs and that is important for life.

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Fernando L Sousa says:

October 22, 2019 at 7:08 am

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a motivational theory in psychology comprising a five-tier model of human needs, often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid. When our certain needs are met they lead to happiness according to Maslow

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sheyla4801 says:

October 21, 2019 at 12:37 pm

I like how Maslow arranged things like a ladder. it was very interesting to read.

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JESSICA BRUNS says:

October 21, 2019 at 12:55 am

I’ve heard about Maslow, and I love his Theory. If understand, can be very useful. We can also apply his pyramid Theory on studies of Marketing, Business and many other studies to understand people choices.

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ezitterk says:

October 19, 2019 at 10:24 pm

It is all in our brain, and all as equal can achieve our objectives. you have to want it.

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Kiana Jeanniton says:

October 17, 2019 at 3:49 pm

I have heard of his theory before I think it is very informative, the reality that there are some many different types of necessity and it’s hard to get to the next level when one falls out of place

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anthonymansi001 says:

October 16, 2019 at 10:57 pm

This was very interesting never seen or even heard of this, focusing on the healthy mental aspects of humans.

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