Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and the Road to Self-Actualization
PSY 330: Theories of Personality
January 30th, 2012

Abraham Maslow: Hierarchy of Needs and the Road to Self-Actualization

Abraham Maslow was an American theorist that was one of the advocates of humanistic psychology. He believed that self-actualization is “a situation that exists when a person is acting in accordance with his or her full potential” (Hergenhahn & Olson, 2011). I will illustrate the key concepts of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs of humans, research the methodologies of his concept, and address how self-actualization has conceptualized on this type of personality development. His contribution
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human needs is one of his most popular theories.

Maslow’s focal point on his theory of motivation was the concept was that humans have a set of needs. According to our text, the “hierarchy of human needs is an arrangement of the needs from lowest to highest in terms of their potency” (Hergenhahn & Olson, 2011). (see figure1).

Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
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Figure 1, Maslow Enhanced 2011. This figure illustrates the various levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs was one of the main theories that assisted in paving the route to what he believed was self-actualization. The lowest part of the pyramid is the Biological and Physiological needs. One would think that basic life needs like “air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, etc., would be an essential need. How would we as humans, be able to live without it. To Maslow he didn’t look at it that way. “According to Maslow, psychology has overemphasized the importance of such needs in determining the behavior of humans in a modern society; a person’s life cannot be dominated by hunger or thirst” (Hergenhahn & Olson, 2011). He was interested in knowing what happens when the needs of the physiological nature have been met. The second tier on the pyramid is Safety Needs. Feeling safe and