Abraham Maslow Theory Of Motivation

Abraham Maslow’s “A Theory of Human Motivation” published in 1943 introduces the idea that humans are motivated internally to achieve certain needs. His hierarchy of needs begins with humans meeting their physiological or basic needs. Those basic needs motivate people when they are unmet such as hunger, thirst, sleep, air and shelter. Once these needs are met and satisfied, then the person is motivated to reach the second need of safety. Safety needs include security especially in children and a sense of routine that is familiar. The safety aspect of the hierarchy of needs involves not feeling fearful in order for a healthy man not to feel “endangered” (375). Maslow addresses OCD where people with this diagnosis have not met their safety

It states an idea thoroughly and clearly with examples and then summarizes his previous points. It has an organized structure that talks about each step in his heiracrhy of needs. Another strength that Maslow makes is that people in general have an innate motivation to progress to the next need, making the progression possible. His biggest strength is the acknowledgement that a person may not meet a need 100% but rather the normal person reaches the stages in smaller doses and a gradual inclination to progress evolves.(11) If a person is starving, their sole focus is to find a way to satisfy their immense hunger and they are not trying to find a intimate relationship. By meeting the basic needs first is the only way to progress to self actualization. Some weakness is the overall simplicity of the theory. There is no real empirical evidence due to how hard it would be to tailor motivation on one individual. People vary dramatically in what motivates them and Maslow remarks that it would be impossible to group humans in one category. There are many exceptions as he mentions on the character of a person compared to those that do not have basic freedoms such as freedom as