Counselling Theory 2: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

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Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) was an American psychologist who played a large part in the development and emergence of humanistic psychology. In one of his most famous books, he explores his ideas around why motivation - that is, why people are motivated to do some things and not others. Out of these ideas emerged his 'hierarchy of needs'.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs compliments the actualising tendency which Carl Rogers wrote about and which we explored in the previous video. Maslow's hierarchy of needs though is a concept which adds structure to the kinds of directions of growth that a person my move towards in any given circumstances.

He posited that as organisms, we always have certain needs that we need satisfying at any given time, and that some of these needs are more important for our immediate survival than others. He believes that the needs which are more directly linked with our immediate survival are likely to be the ones we focus on before any others. However, once those needs are satisfied, that doesn't mean we just stagnate - what happens is that our attention naturally moves satisfying other, more abstract needs - that is, needs that may be slightly less related to our immediate survival but which feel important all the same.

Maslow never presented his hierarchy as a pyramid, although it is often presented that way when people talk about him.

The idea here is that the needs at the bottom are the most directly related to our immediate survival, and so our attention is likely to be focused on getting these needs met before any of the others. When the needs in the bottom layer are generally met though, or when we feel reliably get them met whenever we want to, then our attention naturally drifts towards satisfying the needs further up.

I am not entirely satisfied with the hierarchy of needs being presented as a pyramid because I think in practice we have different needs at different levels at any given time. For me, the pyramid suggests that getting one layer satisfied 'unlocks' the layer above, but I don't think it is as simple as that. I think that the direction we are motivated towards moving is as a result of a micture of 'pulls' from different needs at any given time. What changes, at least how I see it, is the strength of the 'pulls' from different needs. I find this to be a better way of looking at it than the idea that we are focused on one thing at any time, but maybe that's just me!

I am also wary about he specific detail of the different needs as being somewhat prescriptive, and the idea has been criticised for being culturally biased I believe as a result of the choices he has made about what order different needs belong in. For example, in some cultures people might put their social standing ahead of their own needs.

In any case, the idea is that after basic biological needs are met such as being fed, hydrated, being warm enough and having had enough sleep, our attention then gets paid towards'security needs', after that come a concern about love and belongingness, esteem, and then finally self-actualisation, or transcendence. I have a video later on in this module that outlines what Maslow believed what kinds of characteristics he believed 'self-actualising' people were likely to have.

Maslow is writing quite a while ago now - he died over 50 years ago in 1970, and his book 'Motivation and Personality' was originally published in 1954! There have been attempts to update his ideas in light of new research and evidence though. One notable attempt at this was by Scott Barry Kaufman, in his book Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualisation. He conceptualises the hierarchy of needs as being more like a sailboat.To me, this feels broader (like the actualising tendency), slightly less prescriptive, and so sits more comfortably with me. Maslow did make a distinction in his writing between what he calls 'coping' behaviours, and 'expressive' behaviours, but Kaufman's update really puts that distiction at the centre of his way of looking at it.

The idea here is that our needs are split broadly speaking between 'security' needs and 'growth' needs. The metaphor that Kaufman uses to represent this meanwhile is a sailboat - with the security needs representing the hull, and the growth needs representing the sail.

If you are on a boat, assuming the hull is intact and water isn't leaking into your boat, you are probably going to be either thinking about which direction you want to go in, or actively going in that direction. If the there is a hole in the hull though and the boat is sinking, it's understandable if your full attention is on fixing that before you start making more long term plans!

References:

Kaufman, S.B. (2020). Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualisation. Tarcherperigee.

Maslow, A. (1970). Motivation and Personality. Harper & Row.