Abraham Moslow

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Abraham Moslow

The theorist I chose was Maslow, he was born in 1908 in Brooklyn, New York. He was the first of seven children born to his parents, Jewish immigrants from Russia. His parents, hoping for the best for their children in the New World, pushed him hard for academic success. He became the psychologist who many people consider the founder of a movement called humanistic psychology. The movement developed as a revolt against behaviorism and psychoanalysis, the two most popular psychological views of the mid- 1900’s. Humanistic psychologists believe individuals are controlled by their own values and choices and not by the environment, as behaviorists think, or by unconscious drives, as psychoanalyst believe. Maslow stressed the importance of studying well-adjusted people instead of just the disturbed ones.

Theory

Maslow’s contributions are many and diverse; perhaps his most famous is the hierarchy of needs. Beyond the details of air, water, food, and sex, he laid out five broader layers: the physiological needs, the needs for safety and security, the needs for love and belonging, the needs for esteem, and the need to actualize the self, in that order.

The physiological needs encompass specific biological requirements for water, oxygen, proteins, vitamins, proper body temperature, sleep, sex, exercise and so on. When the physiological needs are largely taken care of, the second layer of needs, the safety and security needs comes into play. We will become increasingly interested in finding safe circumstances, stability, and protection. We might develop a need for structure, for order, some limits. When physiological needs and safety needs are taken care of the third layer shows up, the love and belongin...

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...aslow’s parents pushed him hard in his studies and of course he himself falls as a self-actualizer. He has contributed this knowledge to the world which is available to me and anyone else and with the greatest gift my parents have given me; a love for education, I hope to at least touch some one’s life with this gift my parents have made available to me.

Bibliography:

Bibliography

Maslow, Abraham H. (1968). Towards a Psychology of Being. New York: Litton Educational Publishing Inc.

Allen, Ben P. (2000). Personality Theories, Development, Growth and Diversity. Massachusetts: Allyn & Bacon A Pearson Education Company.

Morant, Ricardo B. (1987). The World Book Encyclopedia, Vol.13, p.265

Unknown Writer, (1995). Britannica Encyclopedia Vol. 7, p.911

Schroeder, Beverly Allred, (1992). Human Growth and Development. Minnesota: West Publishing Company

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