Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Explained

Summary

In this lesson, we explore Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a motivational theory that outlines five levels of human needs: physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization. Initially presented as a strict hierarchy, Maslow later acknowledged that needs can overlap. The model categorizes needs into deficiency and growth, with the latter including cognitive, aesthetic, and transcendence needs. Despite its simplicity and holistic approach, the theory faces criticism for not accounting for cultural differences and the empirical challenge of measuring self-actualization.

Takeaways

• 📚 Abraham Maslow introduced the Hierarchy of Needs in his paper 'A Theory of Human Motivation', focusing on understanding what motivates human behavior.
• 🔑 The hierarchy is organized into five levels: physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs, each building upon the other.
• 🌱 The model suggests that individuals are motivated to fulfill their most basic needs first (physiological) before moving up to more complex needs like self-actualization.
• 🔄 Maslow's theory was later modified to allow for some overlap between the levels, acknowledging that not everyone prioritizes needs in the same strict order.
• 💧 Physiological needs, the most basic level, include essentials like food, water, air, shelter, warmth, and sleep, which are crucial for survival.
• 🛡️ Safety needs encompass the desire for security and stability, such as job security, a safe environment, and health insurance, once physiological needs are met.
• 🤝 Social needs involve the desire for love, belonging, and acceptance, which become important after safety needs are satisfied.
• 🏆 Esteem needs are about achieving recognition, respect, and status. They can be divided into lower esteem (external respect) and higher esteem (self-respect).
• 🌟 Self-actualization is the pinnacle of the hierarchy, representing the drive to reach one's full potential and is unique to each individual.
• 🔍 Maslow later expanded the model to include cognitive and aesthetic needs, and transcendence needs, which are growth needs that motivate individuals to learn, appreciate beauty, and connect with something beyond themselves.
• ⚖️ While the model is easy to understand and holistic, it has limitations, including the difficulty in empirically testing self-actualization and not accounting for cultural differences in the prioritization of needs.

Q & A

Who introduced the concept of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs?

Abraham Harold Maslow, an American psychologist, introduced the concept of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

In what paper did Maslow first introduce his theory of human motivation?

Maslow first introduced his theory of human motivation in a paper entitled 'A Theory of Human Motivation.'

What are the five levels of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs?

The five levels of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs are physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs.

What are deficiency needs in the context of Maslow's theory?

Deficiency needs, sometimes called D-needs, are needs that motivate people when they are unmet. They become stronger the longer they go unmet and are essential to avoid unpleasant feelings or even death.

How does the hierarchy of needs represent a person's motivation to meet their needs?

The hierarchy represents a person's motivation by suggesting that only when a lower level of needs has been fully met would an individual then be motivated by the opportunity to meet the next level of their needs.

What are the physiological needs according to Maslow's theory?

Physiological needs include basic physical requirements such as food, water, air, shelter, warmth, and sleep, which are vital to survival.

What are the safety needs that Maslow identified in his theory?

Safety needs include being free from war, natural disasters, and violence, as well as having job security, a safe working environment, access to grievance procedures, savings, and health insurance.

Why are social needs important in Maslow's hierarchy?

Social needs are important because they involve the desire to develop interpersonal relationships and feel a sense of belonging to a group, which helps avoid issues like loneliness, anxiety, and depression.

What are esteem needs and how do they differ from self-actualization needs in Maslow's theory?

Esteem needs are related to the desire for recognition, achieving high status, respect, and feeling important. They differ from self-actualization needs, which are the drive to become the best one can be and achieving one's full potential as a human being.

How did Maslow modify his original hierarchy of needs later in his career?

Maslow later modified his original hierarchy by including cognitive and aesthetic needs, and later transcendence needs, suggesting that the progression up the hierarchy doesn't have to be strict and that levels can overlap to some extent.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs?

Advantages include its ease of understanding and application, expressing the human desire for achievement, and providing a holistic approach to motivation. Disadvantages include the inability to empirically test self-actualization, lack of cultural differences consideration, and the fact that individuals value needs differently.

Outlines

00:00

🧠 Introduction to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

The script begins with an introduction to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, a theory proposed by American psychologist Abraham Harold Maslow. Initially presented in a paper titled 'A Theory of Human Motivation,' the theory suggests that human actions are driven by the desire to fulfill specific needs. Maslow's focus was on employee needs in the workplace, identifying five types of needs that must be met for individuals to reach their full potential. These needs are arranged in a hierarchy, with the satisfaction of one set of needs motivating the pursuit of the next. The hierarchy consists of physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs. The model implies that needs are dynamic and can change over time, affecting what motivates an individual. The script also explains the breakdown of the model into deficiency needs (physiological and safety needs) and growth needs (social, esteem, and self-actualization needs), with the latter further divided into basic, psychological, and self-fulfillment needs.

05:01

🤝 Social and Esteem Needs in Maslow's Hierarchy

Paragraph 2 delves into the third level of Maslow's hierarchy, social needs, which encompass the desire for interpersonal relationships, intimacy, friendship, and family. These needs are about belonging to a group and avoiding feelings of loneliness and anxiety. The fourth level, esteem needs, includes the desire for recognition, status, respect, and self-importance. Maslow differentiates between lower esteem needs, which are about respect from others, and higher esteem needs, which pertain to self-respect. The script also touches on the concept of imposter syndrome, which can occur if lower esteem needs are met but higher ones are not. The highest level, self-actualization, is described as the drive to become the best version of oneself, with each individual having unique goals for self-fulfillment. Maslow later expanded the model to include cognitive and aesthetic needs, and transcendence needs, reflecting a more nuanced understanding of human motivation beyond the initial five levels.

10:01

🌟 Advantages and Disadvantages of Maslow's Hierarchy

In the final paragraph, the script discusses the advantages and disadvantages of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. On the positive side, the model is easy to understand and provides a holistic approach to motivation, emphasizing the human desire to achieve and grow. However, it also has limitations, such as the inability to empirically test the concept of self-actualization and the lack of consideration for cultural differences in the prioritization of needs. The model assumes a rigid hierarchy, but Maslow later acknowledged that the levels can overlap, and individuals may value different needs in varying ways. The script concludes by summarizing that the hierarchy is a dynamic model that reflects the changing nature of what motivates individuals, with a person starting at the bottom and moving up only after needs at a given level are met. The model is divided into deficiency needs, which drive us when absent, and growth needs, which inspire us to grow and achieve our potential.

Keywords

💡Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is a motivational theory in psychology comprising a five-tier model of human needs, often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid. The model suggests that people are motivated to fulfill basic needs before moving on to higher-level needs. In the video, this concept is central as it discusses how individuals progress from meeting physiological needs to self-actualization.

💡Physiological Needs

Physiological needs are the most basic level of needs in Maslow's hierarchy, which include essentials for human survival such as food, water, air, and sleep. The video explains that these needs must be met before an individual can focus on higher-level needs, illustrating this with the example of prioritizing water over learning a new language when thirsty.

💡Safety Needs

Safety needs are the second level in Maslow's hierarchy, which encompass the desire for security and stability. These needs include being free from threats, having job security, and access to health insurance. The video emphasizes the importance of safety needs by stating that they are sought after physiological needs are satisfied.

💡Social Needs

Social needs, the third level of Maslow's hierarchy, involve the desire for love, belonging, and acceptance. The video describes how individuals seek to form interpersonal relationships and be part of a group to avoid feelings of loneliness and isolation, which are crucial for mental well-being.

💡Esteem Needs

Esteem needs, also known as self-esteem needs, are the fourth level of the hierarchy and include the desire for respect, recognition, and status. The video explains that these needs are about feeling valued and important, and they can be divided into lower esteem (respect from others) and higher esteem (self-respect), with the latter being more challenging to achieve.

💡Self-Actualization

Self-actualization is the pinnacle of Maslow's hierarchy, representing the drive to reach one's full potential and become the best version of oneself. The video suggests that this is a unique and individual pursuit, where a person might strive to excel in areas such as parenting, sports, or artistic creation.

💡Deficiency Needs

Deficiency needs, also referred to as D-needs, are those that arise when a person lacks something essential. The video explains that these needs become stronger the longer they remain unmet, and they must be satisfied to prevent negative consequences, such as the dire need for water when one is dehydrated.

💡Growth Needs

Growth needs, or B-needs, are those that motivate individuals to grow and develop beyond their current state. The video discusses how, once deficiency needs are met, individuals are driven by growth needs such as cognitive and aesthetic needs, which are essential for self-actualization.

💡Cognitive Needs

Cognitive needs are a type of growth need that reflects the desire to learn, understand, and explore the world. The video describes how these needs are about expanding one's knowledge and are crucial for self-actualization, as they involve being open to new ideas and evidence-based learning.

💡Aesthetic Needs

Aesthetic needs are another type of growth need that relate to the appreciation of beauty and balance in life. The video mentions that these needs can be met through activities like walking in nature or experiencing music, which can lead to a feeling of connection with the world's beauty.

💡Transcendence

Transcendence is the final level that Maslow added to his hierarchy, representing the peak of growth needs. It involves being motivated by values that go beyond the self and meeting spiritual needs. The video explains that this level is about having a broader perspective and being driven by higher values.

Highlights

Introduction to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs by Abraham Harold Maslow, an American psychologist.

Maslow's theory focuses on the needs of employees in the workplace to reach their full potential.

The hierarchy consists of five levels of needs: physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization.

A pyramid model represents the hierarchy, where fulfillment of lower-level needs precedes motivation for higher-level needs.

Needs are continually changing, with different motivations over time.

The model can be divided into deficiency needs (physiological and safety) and growth needs (social, esteem, and self-actualization).

Deficiency needs are crucial for survival and become more pressing the longer they remain unmet.

Growth needs are related to personal development and self-fulfillment.

Physiological needs include basic requirements like food, water, air, shelter, warmth, and sleep.

Safety needs encompass job security, a safe environment, savings, and health insurance.

Social needs involve forming interpersonal relationships and belonging to a group.

Esteem needs are about achieving recognition, status, respect, and self-respect.

Self-actualization is the drive to become the best version of oneself and achieving one's full potential.

Maslow later added cognitive and aesthetic needs to the model, focusing on knowledge expansion and appreciation of beauty.

Transcendence needs were introduced as the peak of the pyramid, involving spiritual fulfillment beyond self-interest.

The model is easy to understand and apply, expressing the human desire to achieve more over time.

Maslow's hierarchy is holistic, showing that employees won't be motivated by rewards if their basic needs are unmet.

The theory has disadvantages, including the inability to empirically test self-actualization and lack of cultural consideration.

Individuals value needs differently, and the theory's strict hierarchy progression is not always applicable.

In reality, people often seek to satisfy multiple needs simultaneously rather than focusing on one at a time.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs provides insight into what motivates humans and how motivations change.

Transcripts

hello and welcome to today's lesson

where we're looking at maslow's

hierarchy of needs

before we jump in and look at the theory

first a little background

abraham harold maslow was an american

psychologist

who first introduced his hierarchy of

needs in a paper entitled

a theory of human motivation now the

theory says that as humans

our actions are motivated by our desire

to meet

specific needs now maslow focused in

particular on the needs of employees

in the workplace and his theory

identified

five types of needs that need to be

fulfilled

in order for you to reach your full

potential

now the five needs come in a particular

order

only when one set of needs is satisfied

will you think about meeting the next

set of needs in the hierarchy let's jump

in

and take a look at the model from the

bottom to the top maslow's five levels

of needs are physiological needs

safety needs social needs self-esteem

needs

and self-actualization needs now the

pyramid represents a hierarchy

and what this means is that only when a

lower level of needs

has been fully met would you then be

motivated by the opportunity

to meet the next level of your needs now

the key to understanding maslow's

hierarchy of needs is to realize

that your needs are continually changing

so what motivated you five years ago

or even last month may not motivate you

today now there are a couple of ways the

model can be broken down at a high level

that you can see

on the right and left hand side of the

pyramid here

now the first is by breaking the model

down into deficiency needs and growth

needs

deficiency needs sometimes called d

needs

are needs that motivate people when they

are unmet

now the longer deficiency needs go unmet

the stronger the desire to fulfill that

need will become

therefore satisfying these needs is

vital to

avoid unpleasant feelings or even death

in the case of physiological needs so

for example

the longer you go without water the more

crucial

getting water will become to you in fact

if you're dying of

thirst you're not going to be interested

in for example

improving your french now

the top level of the hierarchy concerns

growth needs now confusingly these are

commonly known as

be needs which means being needs

you can also break the model down into

basic needs

psychological needs and self-fulfillment

needs according to the model you begin

by being

motivated to meet your lowest level of

needs and only once

you've done this do you move on to being

motivated by the next

level of needs and this process

continues

until you reach the very top level

self-actualization

now although the theory was originally

proposed as a very rigid hierarchy

maslow later modified it so that the

progression

up the hierarchy doesn't have to be

quite so strict

and that levels can overlap to some

extent

now that makes sense because for some

people achieving status

level 4 might be more important than for

example

attaining love which is level three so

let's examine each of the levels in a

little bit more detail

so first we have the bottom level which

is physiological needs

and these are basic physical needs

that you must meet for you to live they

are vital

to your survival these needs include

food to eat water to drink air to breed

shelter to protect you from the elements

warmth to avoid freezing and sleep to

refresh you

now note that maslow included sex within

this category as a basic physical need

because reproduction is vital to the

survival of the human

species the second level is safety needs

and once you've met your physiological

needs the next needs

that you'll look to satisfy are these

safety needs

we all want to feel safe and secure

so these needs include being free from

war

natural disasters and violence in the

workplace

these needs include things like job

security a safe working environment

having access to grieving grievance

procedures

saving some money each month and knowing

you have health insurance

should you become ill

now physiological needs and safety needs

combined

are often referred to as your basic

needs

the third level is social needs at this

level

you'll have a desire to develop your

interpersonal relationships

you want to feel as though you belong to

a group

now these needs include intimacy

friendship

and family and according to maslow at

this level

you'll feel this need to belong to one

or more group now

groups now that could be a family group

a workplace group or even a social group

and belonging to a group is commonly

called

affiliating and that simply means you

attach yourself

to the group or to a club

feeling that people love you that they

care about you

and that you belong to a group can help

you avoid issues such as loneliness

anxiety and depression

next we have esteem needs or self-esteem

needs

now these needs are your ego needs

and your status needs at this level you

will be motivated by getting recognition

from others

achieving a high status respect

and feeling important now in a nutshell

you want to feel like you're making a

contribution to the world

and that others recognize this

contribution

now according to maslow there are

actually two

sets of esteem needs lower esteem and

higher esteem

lower esteem is simply the need for

respect from others

whereas higher esteem is self-respect

now note that if you meet your lower

esteem needs

but your higher esteem needs are unmet

then it can be

common to suffer from a condition known

as imposter

syndrome

now the top level is your

self-actualization

needs or your fulfillment needs

and this is the drive to become the best

that you can be it's about achieving

your full potential as a human being

you can think of the first four levels

of the hierarchy

as being a set of levels you must master

in order to enable you to reach this top

level

now because we are each unique at this

final level

each of us will pick something

individual to us

at which we want to excel now it could

be the desire

to be the best parent it could be a

desire

to be the best athlete you can be it

could be

a desire to create the most beautiful

art but it is

unique to you and it's something that's

going to motivate

you and you alone

now there are a couple of variations to

maslow's hierarchy of needs that you

should be

aware of in 1970 maslow upgraded his

original

original five level model on two

occasions

now first to include cognitive and

aesthetic needs and later to include

transcendence needs

so the first update to the model you can

see in

this diagram and you can see that this

update includes more growth needs

while keeping the deficiency needs the

same

now let's talk about cognitive needs

so once you fulfilled your deficiency

needs

masno believed that you would then be

motivated by

expanding your knowledge cognitive needs

reflect our need to discover

to experiment and learn how the world

around us works

to expand our understanding this is a

crucial step towards self-actualization

as it involves opening your mind up and

exploring new ideas based

on evidence next we go up a level to

aesthetic needs

now this can mean appreciating beautiful

things

in your life but it can also mean

achieving balance

so for example walks in nature can lead

you to feeling refreshed likewise

experiencing

music can also leave us feeling

rejuvenated

when we meet our aesthetic needs we feel

intimately connected to the beauty of

the world

around us so the second

update maslow made again kept deficiency

needs the same

and added one final level to growth

needs

called transcendence now transcendence

is the very

peak of the pyramid and refers to having

our

spiritual needs met

we become motivated by values that

transcend

beyond our self

now there are several advantages and

disadvantages associated with maslow's

hierarchy of needs so first in terms of

advantages

then the model is easy to understand and

apply at a basic

level it expresses the human desire

to achieve and to have more and more

over time it's a holistic approach to

motivation

maslow's model helps us understand that

an employee or a person won't be

motivated to perform

even if promised a great reward when

they're tired cold and hungry

now in terms of disadvantages then

there's no

way to test maslow's concept of

self-actualization

empirically it doesn't take account of

cultural differences so for example

the need to feel part of a team is going

to be higher in certain countries such

as china than it is in other countries

such as the us

also each person will value

each need in different ways so esteem

needs can be essential

to you but your peer may play a higher

value

on safety needs so for example van gogh

self-actualized through art

but lived in poverty for his whole

lifetime this calls into question the

need to move up the hierarchy one step

at a time

now in reality we typically don't focus

on meeting

one need at a time instead we seek to

satisfy many needs

at the same time

so in summary maslow's hierarchy of

needs

shows what motivates us what motivates

us

is constantly changing this means that

what

motivated you last year will probably

not motivate you

this year or today now maslow's original

hierarchy was broken into five

levels a person starts at the bottom of

the hierarchy

and only once needs at that level are

met

will they be motivated by trying to meet

needs at the next level

now broadly speaking the model can be

broken down into two

categories of needs the first

deficiency needs are things which

motivate us

when they're not present and second

growth needs

which motivate you to grow and become

the best you can be

so that's it for this lesson really hope

you enjoyed it

and i look forward to speaking to you

again soon