What they discovered is that while the fulfillment of the needs was strongly correlated with happiness, people from cultures all over the world reported that self-actualization and social needs were important even when many of the most basic needs were unfulfilled. Such results suggest that while these needs can be powerful motivators of human behavior, they do not necessarily take the hierarchical form that Maslow described.

Ever wonder what your personality type means? Sign up to find out more in our Healthy Mind newsletter. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Psychological Health. J Gen Psychol.

Am J Psychol. Tay L, Diener E. J Pers Soc Psychol. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. DOI: Organizational Behavior and Human Performance. Your Privacy Rights. To change or withdraw your consent choices for VerywellMind.

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I Accept Show Purposes. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Maslow first introduced his concept of a hierarchy of needs in his paper "A Theory of Human Motivation" and his subsequent book Motivation and Personality. Overview of Needs. Physiological Needs The basic physiological needs are probably fairly apparent—these include the things that are vital to our survival. Some examples of physiological needs include: Food Water Breathing Homeostasis In addition to the basic requirements of nutrition, air and temperature regulation, the physiological needs also include such things as shelter and clothing.

Some of the basic security and safety needs include: Financial security Health and wellness Safety against accidents and injury Finding a job, obtaining health insurance and health care, contributing money to a savings account, and moving into a safer neighborhood are all examples of actions motivated by the security and safety needs. Some of the things that satisfy this need include: Friendships Romantic attachments Family Social groups Community groups Churches and religious organizations In order to avoid problems such as loneliness , depression, and anxiety, it is important for people to feel loved and accepted by other people.

Chief among these: Needs don't follow a hierarchy : While some research showed some support for Maslow's theories, most research has not been able to substantiate the idea of a needs hierarchy.

Wahba and Bridwell reported that there was little evidence for Maslow's ranking of these needs and even less evidence that these needs are in a hierarchical order. The theory is difficult to test : Other criticisms of Maslow's theory note that his definition of self-actualization is difficult to test scientifically.

His research on self-actualization was also based on a very limited sample of individuals, including people he knew as well as biographies of famous individuals that Maslow believed to be self-actualized.

Why Was Maslow's Hierarchy Influential? Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Sign Up. What are your concerns? Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. Maslow, AH. A Theory of Human Motivation. Start Publishing; He also had more pragmatic concerns, suffering periods of ill health and financial difficulties.

Key figures in the management community saw him as a guru and rolled out the red carpet. They gave him the recognition he felt he deserved. Furthermore, through speaking engagements and consulting, he could generate additional income. Some people have argued that Maslow based his pyramid on the tipi of First Nations people the Blackfoot, following a summer he spent with the tribe in What do you think of this theory?

The claim that Maslow stole the idea for his pyramid from the Blackfoot has gained attention on social media, but if Maslow did not create the pyramid, he could not have taken it from the Blackfoot. He discussed his observations with the Blackfoot briefly in his book.

While Maslow learned much about these proud people, there is nothing in these writings to suggest he borrowed or stole ideas for his hierarchy of needs. Where do we go next? Are you calling for the pyramid to be dropped in new editions of management textbooks? The pyramid is shown with horizontal lines demarcating the different levels. This makes it difficult to imagine a person simultaneously being affected by different needs. When one is on a ladder, multiple rungs are occupied by the feet and hands.

Other rungs may be leaned on as well. That description eventually dropped out, but we believe removing the pyramid from management textbooks and replacing it with a ladder would be a step forward. Dan Wren has been in touch with us since the paper was published and agrees. Following the publication of Motivation and Personality in , Maslow emerged as one of the few established psychologists to challenge the prevailing conformism of the s. He spoke out on how large organizations and social conformity stifled individual self-expression.

At times he was frustrated that the business community treated his theory of human nature as a means to a financial end--short-term profits--rather than the end which he saw, a more enlightened citizenry and society.

It would be great if students were encouraged to read what Maslow in the original. Students would better understand that motivating employees to be more productive at work was not the end that Maslow desired for the hierarchy of needs. Maslow never offered an elitist conceptualization of self-actualization, right? My reading is that he argued that everyone is capable of self-actualizing, but are blocked by deficiencies in our most basic needs. Well that depends. Most of his life and in his writings Maslow was very clear that every newborn had the potential to eventually be self-actualized, given the right environment.

But he felt very few people truly reached their potential, a belief that grew stronger over the years. In his final years he wondered if there might be a genetic component that favors self-actualization in some more than others. To our knowledge he never developed this idea. This was probably a reaction to meeting too few people whom he would consider self-actualized.

Maslow had preconditions for his need hierarchy to work. This is frequently overlooked. Censorship, dishonesty, inability to pursue truth and wisdom work against us. Even still, he acknowledged there are exceptions where people rise above their circumstances. You argue that management textbooks could do a better job of representing the past, more generally.

What are some other big textbook misrepresentations as you see it? But the problem goes beyond the misrepresentation of ideas. We are also interested in examining people and ideas usually excluded from management textbooks. On management training courses it's as inevitable as biscuits and role-playing. In , the US psychologist Abraham Maslow published a paper called A Theory of Human Motivation , in which he said that people had five sets of needs, which come in a particular order.

As each level of needs is satisfied, the desire to fulfil the next set kicks in. First, we have the basic needs for bodily functioning - fulfilled by eating, drinking and going to the toilet. Maslow also included sexual needs in this group. Then there is the desire to be safe, and secure in the knowledge that those basic needs will be fulfilled in the future too. After that comes our need for love, friendship and company. At this stage, Maslow writes, the individual "may even forget that once, when he was hungry, he sneered at love".

The next stage is all about social recognition, status and respect. And the final stage, represented in the graphic as the topmost tip of the triangle, Maslow labelled with the psychologists' term "self-actualisation". It's about fulfilment - doing the thing that you were put on the planet to do. While there were no pyramids or triangles in the original paper, Maslow's hierarchy of needs is now usually illustrated with the symbol.

And although the paper was written as pure psychology it has found its main application in management theory. Managers use Maslow's hierarchy to identify the needs of their staff and help them feel fulfilled, whether it's by giving them a pet project, a fancy job title or flexible working arrangements, so they can pursue their interests outside the workplace.

In the second half of the 20th Century, bosses began to realise that employees' hopes, feelings and needs had an impact on performance. In , Douglas McGregor published The Human Side of Enterprise, which contrasted traditional managerial styles with a people-centred approach inspired by Maslow. It became a best-seller. Some managers began to move away from a purely "transactional" contract with a company's staff, in which they received money in exchange for doing a job, to a complex "relational" one, where a company offered opportunities for an individual to feel fulfilled, but expected more in return.

According to Douglas Kenrick at Arizona State University, the appeal of Maslow's hierarchy can be explained by the fact that it reflects a pattern of growth we observe in children.