Maslow, Abraham

Abraham Maslow's influence on the field of education involved a movement away from the scientific emphasis and method and toward a person-oriented approach to leadership and instruction. Maslow's focus on the needs common to all persons and each individual's struggle to fulfill specific needs changed both thought and practice in administration and instruction.

Maslow (1908–1970) was born in Brooklyn, New York, on April 1, 1908. He received his BA in 1930, MA in 1931, and PhD in 1934 from the University of Wisconsin. He became a Fellow at Columbia University from 1935 to 1937. He was on the Brooklyn College faculty from 1937 to 1951, and was professor and chair of the department of psychology at Brandeis University from 1951 to 1961.

Maslow's theory concerns itself primarily with growth motivation that can lead to self-actualization. Human beings, according to Maslow, are essentially and innately good. The evil in human behavior is due to environmental factors rather than an inherent evil nature.

Maslow emphasized growth motivation rather than deficiency motivation. He stated that happier people are oriented to growth motivation (higher-degree needs), while more neurotic people are oriented toward deficiency motivation (lower-degree needs).

Maslow's theory is a unified organismic theory. His theory attempts to synthesize the three approaches to human personality: holistic, dynamic (or motivational), and cultural. In every personality there is a hierarchy of needs. These are degrees of psychological health in which one must successfully meet the needs at one degree in order to go on to the next degree. This hierarchy ranges from the instinctual level to the need for aesthetic reality.

Maslow proposed five degrees of need priority that lead to psychological health: (1) physiological needs, (2) safety needs, (3) love and belongingness needs, (4) self-esteem needs, and (5) self-actualization needs. The first and second are of the lower order. If they are not met, the following three cannot be met. Thus, love and belongingness, self-esteem, and self-actualization are considered to be needs of a higher nature. He proposed that self-actualization needs are different from the others. They involve the needs for cognition and for aesthetic reality. Humans have a strong desire and need to know and understand not only themselves but the world around them.

Maslow described the characteristics of psychologically healthy, self-actualized people. Among these are (1) being realistically oriented, (2) accepting self, others, and situations “as they are,” (3) having a high degree of spontaneity and unaffected behavior, (4) being problem-centered rather than self-centered, (5) having a need for occasional privacy, (6) being autonomous and self-dependent, (7) having a unique view of people and the world, (8) being somewhat mystical with profound inner experiences, (9) having a strong identity with all of humanity, (10) having close, deep, and intimate relationships with a select few, (11) having strong democratically oriented values, (12) being highly ethical and moral, (13) being philosophical with a whimsical, inner-motivated sense of humor, (14) having a tremendous capacity for [Page 645]creativity and novel approaches to operating, and (15) being resistant to conformity and open to new experiences.

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