Abraham Maslow facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Quick facts for kids Abraham Maslow

Born	Abraham Harold Maslow April 1, 1908 (1908-04) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died	June 8, 1970(1970-06-08) (aged 62) Menlo Park, California, U.S.
Alma mater	City College of New York University of Wisconsin–Madison
Known for	Maslow's hierarchy of needs
Spouse(s)	Bertha Goodman Maslow (m. 1928)
Children	2
Scientific career
Fields	Psychology
Institutions	Cornell University Brooklyn College Brandeis University Columbia University
Doctoral advisor	Harry Harlow
Influences	Alfred Adler Kurt Goldstein Henry Murray
Influenced	Douglas McGregor Roberto Assagioli Colin Wilson Abbie Hoffman Wayne Dyer Elliot Aronson

Abraham Harold Maslow (born April 1, 1908 – died June 8, 1970) was an American psychologist. He is famous for creating Maslow's hierarchy of needs. This theory explains how people try to meet their basic needs first. Then, they move on to higher needs, eventually reaching something called "self-actualization."

Maslow taught psychology at several universities. These included Brandeis University and Columbia University. He believed it was important to focus on people's good qualities. He thought psychology should not just look at problems or "symptoms." In 2002, a study showed Maslow was one of the ten most mentioned psychologists of the 20th century.

Biography

Early Life

Abraham Maslow was born in 1908 in Brooklyn, New York. He was the oldest of seven children. His parents were immigrants from Ukraine. They came to New York to escape hardship. They were not rich or highly educated. But they believed strongly in the value of learning.

Growing up, Maslow faced prejudice because he was Jewish. He also had a difficult relationship with his mother. He often felt alone and found comfort in books. He said he "grew up in libraries." This is where he developed his love for reading and learning. He attended Boys High School, a top school in Brooklyn. He was active in academic clubs and edited school papers.

College and University Studies

After high school, Maslow went to the City College of New York. He tried studying law at night but quickly quit. In 1927, he transferred to Cornell University. However, he left after one semester because of low grades and high costs. He later graduated from City College.

He then went to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin to study psychology. In 1928, he married his cousin, Bertha Goodman. At Wisconsin, Maslow studied how animals behave. He also wrote his master's thesis on learning and memory. He felt his early research was not very important. But his professor encouraged him, and his work was published in 1934.

Academic Career

Maslow continued his research at Columbia University. There, he met Alfred Adler, another important psychologist. From 1937 to 1951, Maslow taught at Brooklyn College. His own life and family experiences shaped his ideas about psychology.

After World War II, Maslow started to think differently about psychology. He felt that psychologists focused too much on mental illness. He wanted to understand what makes people mentally healthy. He called his new approach "humanistic psychology."

During the war, Maslow was not able to join the military. But the war's horrors made him want to study peace. He began to research "self-actualizing" people. He was inspired by his mentors, Ruth Benedict and Max Wertheimer. They were "wonderful human beings" who helped him understand human potential. Maslow developed new ideas like the hierarchy of needs and self-actualization.

Maslow taught at Brandeis University from 1951 to 1969. In 1967, he had a serious heart attack. He saw himself as a pioneer in psychology. He created new ways for others to study the human mind. He believed leaders should not control too much. Because of this, he turned down the chance to be president of the Association for Humanistic Psychology in 1963. He thought the group should grow without a single leader.

Death

Abraham Maslow died on June 8, 1970, at age 62. He had a severe heart attack while jogging in Menlo Park, California. He is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery.

Maslow's Contributions to Psychology

Humanistic Psychology

Before Maslow, most psychologists studied people with mental problems. Maslow wanted to know what made people mentally healthy. He believed people have inner strengths for growth and healing. Humanistic psychology focuses on helping people remove obstacles to reach their full potential. One famous therapy from this idea is client-centered therapy by Carl Rogers.

Here are the main ideas of humanistic psychology:

Your current feelings and actions are most important. Humanists focus on the "here and now." They don't just look at the past or future.
To be mentally healthy, you must take responsibility for your actions. This is true whether your actions are good or bad.
Every person has value just by being alive. Even if someone does something wrong, it doesn't take away their worth.
The goal of life is to grow and understand yourself. You can only be truly happy by always improving and understanding who you are.

Humanistic psychology is good for people who believe in free will. It also fits well with other ideas in psychology. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs can even apply to other areas like money or history. Some people criticize humanistic psychology. They say it doesn't have enough scientific proof. They also say it might not help people with serious mental illnesses.

Humanistic psychologists believe everyone wants to reach their full potential. This is called "self-actualization." This movement, popular in the 1960s, focused on the positive side of human beings. Maslow was critical of Sigmund Freud's ideas. Humanistic psychology did not focus on spirituality as a main driver of behavior.

To show that humans are not just reacting to things, Maslow studied healthy people. He looked at those who were "self-actualizing." These people showed strong, healthy personalities. They were functioning at their best.

This led to his idea of "peak experiences." These are amazing moments when a person feels completely in tune with themselves and the world. Maslow believed self-actualized people have many peak experiences. Others might have them less often.

Peak and Plateau Experiences

Maslow believed people could have special moments called Peak experiences. These are deep feelings of love, understanding, or happiness. During these times, a person feels more complete and alive. They feel more connected to truth, justice, and goodness. People who are self-actualizing are more likely to have these experiences. These "peak experiences" show a person reaching their full potential.

Later, Maslow also talked about "plateau experiences." These are longer, calmer periods of deep understanding. He learned this term from an Indian scientist. Maslow thought these plateau experiences were linked to getting older. As people age, their values might change. They might focus more on what is truly important in life.

B-values

When studying peak experiences, Maslow found a way of thinking he called "Being-cognition." This is a way of seeing things as a whole and accepting them. He also identified "Being-values," which are important qualities.

Some of these B-values include:

Truth: Being honest, seeing reality clearly, being simple and complete.
Goodness: Doing what is right, being kind and fair.
Beauty: Finding beauty in form, aliveness, and perfection.
Wholeness: Feeling united, connected, and organized.
Aliveness: Being spontaneous, full of life, and self-regulating.
Uniqueness: Being individual and special.
Perfection: Feeling that things are just right and complete.
Completion: Reaching an end, finishing something.
Justice: Being fair and orderly.
Simplicity: Being honest and clear.
Richness: Seeing complexity and detail.
Effortlessness: Doing things with ease and grace.
Playfulness: Having fun, joy, and humor.
Self-sufficiency: Being independent and self-reliant.

Hierarchy of Needs

An interpretation of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, represented as a pyramid, with the more basic needs at the bottom

Maslow described human needs as a "hierarchy." This means some needs are more important than others. You usually need to meet the basic needs first. Only then can you focus on the higher ones. Maslow himself never drew a pyramid. But a pyramid shape is often used to show his ideas. It helps to understand how needs build on each other.

Maslow believed that needs are somewhat flexible. Many needs can be present at the same time. But generally, the most urgent need gets your attention first.

Here are the levels of human needs, from bottom to top:

Basic or Physiological Needs: These are the most important for survival. They include food, water, sleep, and breathing.
Safety Needs: Once basic needs are met, you need to feel safe. This includes security, order, and stability in your life.
Love and Belonging: After physical safety, people need to feel connected. This means having friends, family, and a sense of belonging.
Esteem Needs: When you feel loved, you want to feel good about yourself. This level is about feeling competent and recognized. It includes self-respect and respect from others.
Cognitive Needs: At this level, people want to learn and explore. They seek knowledge and understanding.
Aesthetic Needs: This is the need for beauty, harmony, and order. It's about appreciating art and nature.
Self-actualization: This is the highest level. It means reaching your full potential. You feel a sense of purpose and understanding. You focus on growing as a person.

The first four levels (Physiological, Safety, Love, Esteem) are called Deficit needs or D-needs. If you don't have enough of these, you feel a strong need to get them. Once you have them, you feel content.

Maslow also said that certain conditions are needed to meet these basic needs. For example, freedom to speak and express yourself is important. If these freedoms are blocked, it can stop you from meeting your basic needs.

Maslow's Hierarchy is still used today. It helps people understand student needs in schools. You might even see funny internet pictures about it. These jokes often add Wi-Fi as a "basic human need" in today's world!

Self-actualization

Maslow defined Self-actualization as using all your talents and interests. It means becoming "everything that one is capable of becoming." This idea is very personal. It shows Maslow's belief that each person is unique. They have their own tastes, opinions, and values. Some people even call self-actualization "healthy narcissism."

Qualities of Self-Actualizing People

Maslow studied people he believed were self-actualizing. He found they shared similar traits. Some of these people included Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Eleanor Roosevelt. He also looked at people like Albert Einstein and Henry David Thoreau.

These individuals were "reality centered." They could tell what was real from what was fake. They were also "problem centered." This means they saw life's challenges as problems to solve. They were comfortable being alone. They had deep, meaningful relationships with a few close friends and family. They didn't need many shallow connections.

Self-actualizing people often focus on problems outside themselves. They are spontaneous and creative. They don't follow social rules too strictly. They have a good understanding of reality. They accept themselves, others, and the world. They are also very independent.

Maslow believed that how basic needs are met is important. If needs are met through cooperation, people form good relationships. They connect with the world around them. This is key to self-actualization. But if needs are met selfishly, people might feel hostile. Their connections to others might be limited.

Metamotivation

Maslow used the term metamotivation for self-actualized people. These individuals are driven by inner forces beyond basic needs. They want to explore and reach their full human potential. Maslow believed they are motivated by a special calling or life purpose. This kind of motivation is linked to "B-creativity." This is a creativity that comes from a higher stage of personal growth.

Methodology

Maslow based his studies on the writings of other psychologists. He also looked at the lives of people like Albert Einstein. He chose people he felt clearly showed self-actualization.

Some critics say this method is too subjective. It relies on the researcher's opinion. This can lead to bias. So, Maslow's definition of self-actualization is not always seen as a hard scientific fact.

Transpersonal Psychology

In the 1960s, Maslow helped start a new field called transpersonal psychology. He felt that humanistic psychology couldn't explain everything. He saw "peak experiences" as spiritual or mystical moments. Maslow called this a "fourth force in psychology."

Transpersonal psychology studies spiritual and higher states of consciousness. It looks at how people can grow beyond their individual selves. Maslow believed that without this spiritual connection, people can become unhealthy. He thought humans need something bigger than themselves. He was an atheist, but he saw God in terms of beauty, truth, and goodness.

The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology was started in 1969. This helped spread awareness of this new field. Transpersonal psychology also encouraged the study of non-Western ideas and meditation.

Positive Psychology

Maslow called his work positive psychology. This field focuses on the good things in life. It looks at how things go right, rather than just what goes wrong. Since 1999, Maslow's work has become popular again. Leaders of the modern positive psychology movement, like Martin Seligman, have been influenced by him.

Maslow's Hammer

Abraham Maslow is also known for "Maslow's hammer." This idea is often said as: "if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." It means that if you only know one way to solve problems, you might try to use that one way for every problem, even if it doesn't fit.

Criticism

Maslow's ideas have faced some criticism. Some say his work lacks strict scientific proof. They felt he was "too soft" scientifically. Some experts believe his ideas are "no longer taken seriously" in academic psychology.

His Hierarchy of Needs has also been criticized for being too focused on Western cultures. Some argue that needs and their order might be different in other societies. However, a study of over 60,000 people in 123 countries found that Maslow was mostly right. People do tend to meet basic and safety needs first. But the order of higher needs might be more flexible.

Maslow himself admitted there were exceptions to his theory. Some people met their basic needs but didn't become self-actualized. He tried to solve this problem but died before he could.

Bias

Some critics point out that Maslow chose to study people who fit his own ideas. If he had studied different historical figures, his ideas about self-actualization might have been very different.

Legacy

Later in his life, Maslow wondered why more people didn't self-actualize. He also thought about how to understand evil from a humanistic point of view.

In 1961, Maslow helped start the Journal of Humanistic Psychology. This journal still publishes academic papers today. In 1967, the American Humanist Association named Maslow "Humanist of the Year."

Writings

A theory of human motivation. (1943)
Motivation and Personality (1954, 1970, 1987)
Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences (1964)
Eupsychian Management (1965); republished as Maslow on Management (1998)
The Psychology of Science: A Reconnaissance (1966)
Toward a Psychology of Being (1962, 1968, 1999)
The Farther Reaches of Human Nature (1971)
Future Visions: The Unpublished Papers of Abraham Maslow (1996)
Personality and Growth: A Humanistic Psychologist in the Classroom (2019)