Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs

In his 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation”, Abraham Maslow wrote about his theory on human development. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is used to study how humans intrinsically partake in behavior.  This means that in order for motivation to occur at the next level, each level must be satisfied within the individual themselves. Each individual level contains a certain amount of internal sensation that must be met in order for an individual to complete their hierarchy.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs has been taught to teachers in order for them to understand how basic needs must be met so that children are able to learn. The bottom two tiers, Basic Needs, need to be met first. The middle tiers, Psychological Needs, then need to be met in order to get to the final tier. Self-actualization, which is the realization that one has reached the point of utilizing their talents, gifts, and skills to best serve here on earth, is the final goal. Today, this hierarchy of needs is taught in sociology courses. Levels are sometimes slightly different and adjusted for adults. Some believe that there is overlap in the tiers but the end goal is still self-actualization.

Maslow believed that if basic needs are not met such as food, water, warmth and rest then a student cannot learn. Many teachers believe that the basic needs are being met at home so they just begin teaching. With the increase of homelessness and mental illness in our nation, we need to ensure that the basic needs are met among the masses of students before we begin instruction. We hope that parents have this covered the basic needs in a home, but in truth, we know this is not true! This is why schools want to provide breakfast and lunch for students. This is why counselors and psychologist in the schools are so busy. The bigger problem is that there is a lack of good parenting due to many factors. Much like many of the other problems that are arising in our nation, we all need to be aware.

The next level of the hierarchy is security and safety. Students need to feel safe and secure in their home and school environment. This is also not the case in many households. The lack of security and safety leads to mental health issues being passed on from adult to child. We have also seen too many cases of children being taken advantage of by people they should be able to trust which also creates mental illness. Children need to know that they are safe under the supervision of the adults in their life. If children do not feel safe at home or school, learning does not occur.

So in order to move on through the Hierarchy of Needs, let’s say children have a wonderful home and school environment. Now they will then need to develop safe, loving relationships with friends and safe, intimate relationships with healthy family members in order to meet this set of psychological needs. How common is this in all the lives of students in schools?

Then we have the level of Self-Esteem. In the public school system, we tried to build self-esteem through programs several years back. I now see how this failed and continues to fail. The students felt like they deserved self-esteem without accomplishments. Students were getting too much praise. Getting trophies and ribbons for merely showing up. The good idea went wrong once again. Too much-unmerited self-esteem can lead to narcism, which is caring only about self. This has lead to unkindness, arrogance, and manipulation to get what one wants. Self-esteem needs to come from being confident about one’s own abilities, skills, and talents. It’s gaining self-respect for being a good, kind, human being.

Reaching Self-Actualization allows one to feel their own accomplishments from which the hard work of meeting all the needs while enveloped in loving relationships and serving others occurs.

There are many forms of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. I often refer back to this Hierarchy of Needs as I am trying to solve world issues.

This is a very simplified form of levels of human needs that create certain behaviors which may help in the understanding of other human beings.

“What a man can be, he must be. This need we may call self-actualization.” ~Abraham Maslow