Unit 18 maslow's hierarchy of needs.

The active vocabulary of the Unit

belongingness	to refer to	to shrink (shrunk-shrunk)
self-actualization	to perceive	profit margins
self-transcendence	to be valid	mutually beneficial
acceptance	to be attuned to	interact
self-esteem	to ascertain	to customize = to tailor
inferiority complex	viability	front office system
to take precedence	to be a going concern	back office system
regardless	rationale for	database = data warehouse
yield	one-to-one marketing	privacy
to meet requirements ultimately	customer relationship management	consumer protection groups = watchdogs
to accomplish	to attest to	to encrypt
hinder sbd. from		disclosure

Pre-reading task:

• What essential people’s needs can you name? Which of them have to be satisfied first?

• Would it be correct to say that only having satisfied basic needs (food, shelter, love from other people, etc) will the person seek further personal development?

Read the text and compare your ideas with the ones from the text.

Text a Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper ’A Theory of Human Motivation.’ His theories parallel many other theories of human developmental psychology, some of which focus on describing the stages of growth in humans. Maslow used the terms Physiological, Safety, Belongingness and Love, Esteem, Self-Actualization and Self-Transcendence needs to describe the pattern that human motivations generally move through.

Maslow studied what he called exemplary people such as Albert Einstein, Jane Addams, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Frederick Douglass rather than mentally ill or neurotic people. Thus he studied the healthiest 1% of the college student population.

Abraham Maslow

Maslow's theory was fully expressed in his 1954 book Motivation and Personality

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is often portrayed in the shape of a pyramid with the largest, most fundamental levels of needs at the bottom and the need for self-actualization at the top. While the pyramid has become the de facto way to represent the hierarchy, Maslow himself never used a pyramid to describe these levels in any of his writings on the subject.

Physiological needs

Physiological needs are the physical requirements for human survival. If these requirements are not met, the human body cannot function properly, and will ultimately fail. Physiological needs are thought to be the most important; they should be met first.

Air, water, and food are metabolic requirements for survival in all animals, including humans. Clothing and shelter provide necessary protection from the elements. While maintaining an adequate birth rate shapes the intensity of the human sexual instinct, sexual competition may also shape the above mentioned instinct.

Safety needs

With their physical needs relatively satisfied, the individual's safety needs take precedence and dominate behavior.

Safety and Security needs include:

• Personal security

• Financial security

• Health and well-being

• Safety net against accidents/illness and their adverse impacts

Love and belonging

After physiological and safety needs are fulfilled, the third level of human needs is interpersonal and involves feelings of belongingness.

• Friendship

• Intimacy

• Family

According to Maslow, humans need to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance among their social groups, regardless if these groups are large or small. For example, some large social groups may include clubs, co-workers, religious groups, professional organizations, sports teams, and gangs. Some examples of small social connections include family members, intimate partners, mentors, colleagues, and confidants. Humans need to love and be loved – both sexually and non-sexually – by others.

Esteem

All humans have a need to feel respected; this includes the need to have self-esteem and self-respect. Esteem presents the typical human desire to be accepted and valued by others. People often engage in a profession or hobby to gain recognition. These activities give the person a sense of contribution or value. Low self-esteem or an inferiority complex may result from imbalances during this level in the hierarchy. People with low self-esteem often need respect from others; they may feel the need to seek fame or glory. However, fame or glory will not help the person to build their self-esteem until they accept who they are internally. Psychological imbalances such as depression can hinder the person from obtaining a higher level of self-esteem or self-respect.

Self-actualization

"What a man can be, he must be." This quotation forms the basis of the perceived need for self-actualization. This level of need refers to what a person's full potential is and the realization of that potential. Maslow describes this level as the desire to accomplish everything that one can, to become the most that one can be.

Individuals may perceive or focus on this need very specifically. For example, one individual may have the strong desire to become an ideal parent. In another, the desire may be expressed athletically. For others, it may be expressed in paintings, pictures, or inventions. As previously mentioned, Maslow believed that to understand this level of need, the person must not only achieve the previous needs, but master them.

Self-transcendence

Self-transcendence refers to when a person seeks to further the boundaries of their ideal self, to experience an intimacy beyond one's self.

Abraham Maslow developed the Hierarchy of Needs model in 1940-50s USA, and the Hierarchy of Needs theory remains valid today for understanding human motivation, management training, and personal development. Indeed, Maslow's ideas surrounding the Hierarchy of Needs concerning the responsibility of employers to provide a workplace environment that encourages and enables employees to fulfil their own unique potential (self-actualization) are today more relevant than ever.