Abraham Maslow He was and remains one of the most important psychologists, both in and outside the United States. His name still resonates in high school and college classrooms around the world. And although more than half a century has passed since he theorized about the hierarchy of needs, Maslow's pyramid remains relevant.
Why is Abraham Maslow important today?
The great importance that Abraham Maslow continues to have in the modern era is due to the relevance of his contributions. He was the Father of Humanistic Psychologya psychological movement that was born in the mid-20th century and completely changed our way of seeing the world.
This school of thought emerged as a reaction to psychoanalysis and behaviorism, as Maslow believed that their postulates oversimplified human nature. Humanistic psychology considers that human beings are unique and good by nature.
He also asserts that man as a whole is more than the sum of his parts and that, therefore, the study of those parts alone is of no use. And, contrary to the postulates of psychoanalysis, which understood that man was prey to his instincts, Maslow claimed that we have the ability to make our own decisions based on our goals.because we tend to seek growth and self-realization.
His life before the great theories
Abraham Maslow Born in New Yorkhalf a century before his theories on human beings revolutionized the world of psychology and shook the foundations of society at the time.
The man he would become was the product of a solitary childhood, marked by the lack of resources of an immigrant family and by the loneliness he had to face as the son of Jews.
After his childhood, dedicated to studies and reading, He enrolled in Law at New York University to please his family. However, Maslow would soon discover that he had made a bad decision and would transfer to Cornell University, where he would pursue a introductory course in psychology.
However, his first contact with psychology was frustrated when he returned to his family. The complex relationship with his parents led him to give law studies another chance, which he never completed. After getting married and moving away from home, Abraham Maslow was finally able to study psychology.
Four years after getting married published his first article in the Journal of Comparative Psychology and two years later, in 1934, he received his doctorate in psychology.
After earning his doctorate, he was a resident at Columbia University for several years, a period that ended in 1937, when he began teaching at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.
He was still working there when he published the work that made Maslow's pyramid known: Motivation and Personality.
What is Maslow's pyramid?
Maslow's pyramid is a visual resource with which the American psychologist tried to complement his self-actualization theory.
Maslow took a firm stand against psychological theories that hold that human beings merely react to what happens around them.
In the theory of self-actualization, he argues that man acts with the desire to self-actualize: that is, to reach his full potential, to surpass himself and to live significant moments or «peak experiences.»
This desire for self-actualization varies depending on the needs. According to Abraham Maslow, there were five levels of needs that determined our motivation. His theory argued that when the most basic levels were met, human beings pursued increasingly higher goals.
The five steps of Maslow's pyramid are, from most basic to least basic:
- Physiological needs: They group together everything we need to survive. This includes the need to breathe and sleep, food, water, the absence of pain, sexual needs and not being cold.
- Safety and security needs: We only pay attention to them if their physiological needs are met. These include good health and feeling physically safe, but also economic security and having a home.
- Social needs: When we have covered the first two levels of needs, we then seek to be socially accepted and establish relationships, whether family, friendship or romantic.
- Esteem needs: appear when the needs of the previous levels are satisfied. Abraham Maslow distinguished between:
- Low esteem needs: need for attention, affection, desire to achieve a certain status…
- High esteem needs: realization of one's own achievements, self-confidence, freedom…
- Self-realization: the last level of the pyramid, which can only be reached if all other concerns are covered. For Maslow it was the greatest example of a person's elevation, since he believed that only by living intense experiences and working to be better could we reach a feeling of fulfillment.
Abraham Maslow's books
- Motivation and Personality: With this book, published in 1954, Maslow delved deeper into personality and theorized about the «higher nature of human beings» to create a new image of people. He also argued that human beings have the right to have their basic needs met, because only in this way can we become complete and fulfilled people.
- The Self-Actualized Man: Towards a Psychology of Being: Originally published in 1962, this work once again delves into the theory that “human beings begin to move toward self-actualization as soon as their basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter are met.” For Maslow, it is human nature to create, not destroy. That is the basis of self-actualization: creation.
- Management according to Maslow: A humanistic vision for today's company: In this book, Maslow analyzed the challenges facing the business world in the 1960s. Although self-actualization features heavily in this work, Maslow also delved into the collective identity of human beings. He argued that the world of work should be governed by synergies (joint actions that benefit all individuals) and by enlightened management (that is, the concept that all members of a team have success as their goal.
- The creative personality: This work was published in 1971, one year after Maslow died of a heart attack. It is a compilation of the theories and themes that marked his career as a psychologist and as an author. An incredibly complete work that synthesizes his key ideas on self-realization, «peak experiences,» the possibilities of the human being, synergies…
Although these were not Maslow's only works, they are a good start for those who wish to better understand the world from the perspective of one of the most relevant psychologists of recent times.