Abraham Maslow
American psychologist of motivation and humanistic psychology
American psychologist who proposed a hierarchy of human needs in 1943 and helped establish humanistic psychology. His hierarchy remains widely taught and widely criticised.
Why this person matters
Maslow's 1943 paper arranged needs in hierarchies of prepotency, from physiological needs to self-actualisation. He emphasised human potential and positive mental health. The pyramid diagram students know did not appear in his published works.
Main contributions
Hierarchy of needs
In A Theory of Human Motivation (Psychological Review, 1943) he named physiological, safety, love, esteem and self-actualisation needs. A more prepotent need must be largely satisfied before the next emerges. The paper also posits cognitive desires to know and to understand.
Self-actualisation
Late in life he concluded that self-actualisation does not follow automatically from meeting the other needs.
Humanistic psychology
He broke from behaviourism, emphasised needs such as security, love, belonging and self-esteem, and helped found transpersonal psychology. Motivation and Personality (1954) set out his views.
Context and limits
A 1976 review by Wahba and Bridwell found little evidence for the ranking of needs or for a definite hierarchy. Sommers and Satel (2006) wrote that his ideas are no longer taken seriously in academic psychology. A 2011 study by Diener and Tay of 60,865 participants in 123 countries found universal needs broadly consistent with Maslow, though the order of fulfilment departed from his description.
In your introductory course
Motivation and emotion.His hierarchy appears in motivation chapters and in business and education courses, usually with caveats about its evidence.
Related course reading: Psychology 2e, section 1.2. This is course context rather than a biographical source.
Years of active work
- 1937
He joined the faculty of Brooklyn College, where he stayed to 1951.
- 1943
He published A Theory of Human Motivation.
- 1951
He joined Brandeis University, where he stayed to 1969.
- 1954
He published the first edition of Motivation and Personality.
Sources
- York University, Classics in the History of Psychology, A Theory of Human Motivation (1943)Original work. Text passages inspected.
- New World Encyclopedia, Abraham MaslowReference work. Reference article inspected.
- Wikipedia, Abraham MaslowReference work. Reference article inspected.