Maslow and Me!

I’m assuming you have all heard of Maslow and his Hierarchy of Needs. I’m making that assumption because he never fails to crop up in almost any course on any subject.

So, I was in no way surprised when Maslow’s unmistakable pyramid popped up on the screen during one of Geraldine Lavin’s lectures on Marketing. And then I saw it again in Naoimh’s digital marketing. You just can’t get away from it!

But poor Maslow, his Hierarchy of needs is so often plagiarized that if he were alive today he’d be the greatest advocate for that much loved ‘educational tool’ we know as Turnitin.

So, why the interest in Maslow? Well, I think his pyramid of needs is the simplest way of explaining human nature and our innate need to grow and develop as human beings.


It might just help you understand why you are here, doing this course!

Copyright Alan Chapman www.businessballs.com

If you take a look at the pyramid, the bottom three levels of needs we call the D Needs or deficiency needs; they are the basic needs of life, food, drink and shelter. The next stage is the need for safety, protection and stability. After that we have the need to belong, to be part of a family, a community.

We call them the deficiency needs because they are more often noticed when they are absent. In fact, an absence of any of these is a major problem. It can literally be a matter of life and death! For example if you don’t have enough to eat.

But then a funny thing happens. When we get enough of them, you stop feeling the need. We call them ‘the more the less’ needs because the more you get of them the less you want. In other words, once the need has been satisfied it is quickly taken for granted.

But what about the higher elements of the pyramid? Well, you can only move up the pyramid if the lower needs are being met. If your life is a struggle for survival then the lower needs will preoccupy your life.

However, once those needs are met, we humans quickly move on to the next levels; the need for self-esteem, the need to be successful, to achieve, to ‘be’ someone of significance. The top of the pyramid is the need to self actualize, in other words, the need to reach a high level of fulfillment and satisfaction with our lives

We call these ‘the more the more’ needs because in contrast to the lower levels, the more we achieve at these levels the more we want. For example, having an appreciation for beautiful music, the more you hear the more your want to hear more! You can never get enough of a good thing! And you never get tired of being happy and fulfilled.

Maslow himself said that very few people actually make it to the top of the pyramid.

Now a question for you. Where do you think you are on the pyramid?

For further reading on Maslow, have a look at

http://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/history-of-happiness/abraham-maslow/

http://www.neurosemantics.com/meta-states/unleashing-your-real-self