Further critique of Maslow
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Over on Bernie White’s blog, The Moment, he has mentioned Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and wondered aloud how you can stay self-actualising at the top of the hierarchy when you are worried about security, safety and belonging needs. This has made me revisit my objections to Maslow’s hierarchy.
In an earlier post I pointed out the individualist perspective that is inherent, but unacknowledged, in Maslow. I want to say a little more about this here. According to this hierarchy, humans are bundles of needs, walking around seeking to fulfill these needs in a certain order. At the bottom of the hierarchy, in other words the first levels, people seek security and safety – a roof over their heads and food to eat. As these needs are met, people then seek to meet higher order needs including the jackpot, self-actualising. According to the hierarchy, people can not be worried about self-actualising if they have no food – they first seek to take care of the need to eat.
That probably sounds fair enough, and the fact that it does, to me shows how much we have come to take Maslow’s hierarchy for granted.
So, our human bundles are walking around seeking to have their needs met, some of which are emotional and social needs that require input from other people. This perspective does not, in my opinion, allow enough recognition of the interdependent nature of our society – we not only have needs that others meet, but in turn others need us and our society perpetuates as a web of interdependent people. Not as a population of self-contained units taking in and giving out needs.
So Maslow has, through its strong popularity, helped foster this view of the world that leads people to think of their own needs for self-actualisation but not their interdependence with others.
I agree with your conclusion about interdependance. I think that the significant and rapid evolution of social networking tells me that much of human behaviour is moving beyond the self. For instance, thinking and problem solving is now best developed in conversation with others. It’s faster, more creative and more practical to extend the thinking that we once did within the confines of our our mind. Tools like facebook, LinkedIn and more significantly Twitter seem like the wiring for a global brain! A complex web of interdependence. By the way, I think this is a significant challenge for those who internalise their thinking.
However I don’t agree that Maslow isn’t a useful model for thinking about human behaviour. Aren’t you assuming that because someone identify’s their needs that they will also believe that the best way to satisfy them is through individualistic behaviour? In my experience self actualisation comes with a belief in individual potential. And it gets reflected onto others. People believe in others potential too, and that the best way for them to meet their needs to be meet others needs as well. If people are concerned about paying their bills, for instance,(a legitimate & individualistic need), I’d hope that they would realise they need to satisfy the legitimate individualistic needs of their employer!
I don’t think Maslow implies individualism. But people can and do behave that way to meet their needs. But you can also take a interdependent view of needs – mine and yours. People who don’t behave this way often get plenty of opportunities to learn that selfishly pursueing their own needs without considering others yields poor results. They don’t always see it though.
Philosphically though, is their anything other than self? (serious question)
Comment by Bernie White — April 8, 2009 @ 2:07 pm
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Comment by cloud computing training — November 11, 2011 @ 12:10 pm