Brief History Lesson on the Closest Idea Out There To The Actual Truth

This is an excerpt from Educational Psychology Interactive by Huitt, W. (2007)


Abraham Maslow (1954)  attempted to synthesize a large body of research related to human motivation. Prior to Maslow, researchers generally focused separately on such factors as biology, achievement, or power to explain what energizes, directs, and sustains human behavior. Maslow posited a hierarchy of human needs based on two groupings: deficiency needs and growth needs. Within the deficiency needs, each lower need must be met before moving to the next higher level. Once each of these needs has been satisfied, if at some future time a deficiency is detected, the individual will act to remove the deficiency.

The first four levels are:
1) Physiological: hunger, thirst, bodily comforts
2) Safety/security: out of danger
3) Belonginess and Love: affiliate with others, be accepted
4) Esteem: to achieve, be competent, gain approval and recognition

According to Maslow, an individual is ready to act upon the growth needs if and only if the deficiency needs are met. Maslow's initial conceptualization included only one growth need, self-actualization.

Self-actualized people are characterized by:
1) being problem-focused
2) incorporating an ongoing freshness of appreciation of life
3) a concern about personal growth
4) the ability to have peak experiences

Maslow later differentiated the growth need of self-actualization, specifically naming two lower-level growth needs prior to general level of self-actualization(Maslow & Lowery, 1998) and one beyond that level (Maslow, 1971).

They are:
5) Cognitive: to know, to understand, and explore
6) Aesthetic: symmetry, order, and beauty
7) Self-actualization: to find self-fulfillment and realize one's potential
8) Self-transcendence: to connect to something beyond the ego or to help others find self-fulfillment and realize their potential

Maslow's basic position is that as one becomes more self-actualized and self-transcendent, one becomes more wise (develops wisdom) and automatically knows what to do in a wide variety of situations. Maslow recognized that not all personalities followed his proposed hierarchy. While a variety of personality dimensions might be considered as related to motivational needs, one of the most often cited is that of introversion and extroversion.

Reorganizing Maslow's hierarchy based on the work of Alderfer and considering the introversion/extraversion dimension of personality results in three levels, each with an introverted and extroverted component. This organization suggests there may be two aspects of each level that differentiate how people relate to each set of needs. Different personalities might relate more to one dimension than the other. For example, an introvert at the level of  Other/Relatedness might be more concerned with his or her own perceptions of being included in a group, whereas an extrovert at that same level would pay more attention to how others value that membership.

There is much work still to be done in this area before we can rely on a theory to be more informative than simply collecting and analyzing data. However, this body of research can be very important to parents, educators, administrators and others concerned with developing and using human potential. It provides an outline of some important issues that must be addressed if human beings are to achieve the levels of character and competencies necessary to be successful in the information age.