Topic > Abraham Maslow and Humanistic Theory

In the mid to late 1900s, psychology was nothing new, as it had already been around for years by then. During this time many new ideas had emerged and one of them came from an inspiring young man named Abraham Maslow. His new idea was an advance on humanistic theory, which was lackluster at the time, and a completely new hierarchical system called The Hierarchy of Needs, a system of ranking needs that hinder self-realization. This new idea of ​​his would become a real blessing for psychology, but how he managed to understand it and come to the realization of his theory is fascinating. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Abraham Maslow was born in April 1908 in Brooklyn, New York. He was the eldest of seven children and spent much of his childhood immersed in books. He would marry his first cousin Bertha Goodman against his parents' permission. Maslow would go on to study law at the City College of New York, but would move on to the University of Wisconsin where he developed an interest in psychology (Cherry, 2020). During the 1950s, Maslow became one of the founders and driving forces of humanistic psychology (Cherry, 2020). His theories included the hierarchy of needs, self-actualization, and peak experiences. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a motivational theory in psychology that compromises a five-level model of human needs, often depicted as hierarchical levels within a period (Mcleod, 2020). Abraham Maslow shifted focus to look at the positive side of mental health while other psychologists focused on human nature (Cherry, 2020). His interest in human potential, the pursuit of peak experiences, and the improvement of mental health through personal growth have had a lasting influence on psychology. Maslow expanded the field of humanistic psychology to include an explanation of how human needs change over the course of an individual's life and how these needs influence personality development ("Maslow's Humanistic Theory of Personality," 2020). Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory has made an important contribution to teaching and classroom management in schools. All of Maslow's findings would end up being very vital to psychology today. We know a lot more thanks to everything he's done. Maslow died in June 1970 of a heart attack. As for his successes, he had a few. Notable achievements include the Hierarchy of Needs, Maslow's Hammer, positive psychology, self-actualization, and his advancement into humanistic psychology. His most notable achievement, The Hierarchy of Needs, is a system in place for establishing people's needs and how, if they are not met, they can be an obstacle to self-realization. The hierarchy states that an urgent human need should be mostly satisfied in order for the person to move on to the next higher division of need. Beginning with his first publication in 1943, Maslow described human needs as fluid and flowing, with many needs present at once. His theory states that if a person reaches the top of the hierarchy and has satisfied all the new things, he or she can eventually achieve self-actualization, but self-actualization does not just come from satisfying all the other needs ( Maslow, 2020, January 24). The hierarchy is as follows: the lowest level includes basic needs, food, water, sex, breathing, homeostasis and sleep. The next level is about safety and security needs.