Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs Theory

Abraham Maslow is known for Maslow 's Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow (1943) insisted that people are motivated to achieve certain needs. He thought people’s needs are consisted like a pyramid. When one need is satisfied, people want to fulfill the next one. He insisted there are five stages of people’s demands. The basic one is physiological, and the next one is safety, belonging, esteem and the highest level is self-actualization. Physiological need is to instinctive desires, such as eating, drinking, sleeping and sex. Safety level need is for security. When people fulfill physiological needs, they want to keep them stable. Therefore, people want to maintain their health and get a job with a good salary to own their house or to live happily. The

Accordingly, the name of the belonging needs stage was changed into social needs and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is consisted of biological and physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, cognitive needs, aesthetic needs, self-actualization needs and transcendence needs. Maslow added two stages of needs before self-actualization. The first one is cognitive needs which include knowledge and meaning. The next stage is aesthetic needs. At this stage, people search for beauty. After people satisfying self-actualization needs, Maslow thought they would want to help other people to achieve

He estimated only two percent of people achieve self-actualization. He identified some characters of the person who reaches self-actualization goal by studying eighteen people, including Abraham Lincoln and Albert Einstein. According to Maslow (1970), there are fifteen distinctive characteristics of the person who achieves self actualization. They perceive reality efficiently and can tolerate uncertainty; accept themselves and others for what they are; spontaneous in thought and action; are problem-centered, which means not self-centered; have unusual sense of humor; are able to look at life objectively; are highly creative; resistant to enculturation, but not purposely unconventional; concerned for the welfare of humanity; capable of deep appreciation of basic life-experience; establish deep satisfying interpersonal relationships with a few people; peak experiences; need for privacy; have democratic attitudes; have strong moral or ethical standards. Also, Maslow (1970) estimated behavior leading to self actualization, such as experiencing life like a child, with full absorption and concentration; trying new things instead of sticking to safe paths; listening to your own feelings in evaluating experiences instead of the voice of tradition, authority or the majority; avoiding pretense and being honest; being prepared to be unpopular if your views do not coincide