THEORIES

RELEVANT TO
NURSING
PRACTICE
 "Self-actualizing people are those who have
come to a high level of maturation, health and
self-fulfillment... the values that self-actualizers
appreciate include truth, creativity, beauty,
goodness, wholeness, aliveness, uniqueness,
justice, simplicity, and self-sufficiency."

ABRAHAM MASLOW
(April 1, 1908 - June 8 1970)
ABRAHAM MASLOW
• Abraham Harold Maslow was born April 1, 1908 in Brooklyn, New York.
• He was the first of seven children born to his parents, who themselves were
uneducated Jewish immigrants from Russia.
• His parents, hoping for the best for their children in the new world, pushed
him hard for academic success.
• Not surprisingly, he became very lonely as a boy, and found his refuge in
books.
ABRAHAM MASLOW
• He received his BA in 1930, his MA in 1931, and his PhD in 1934, all in
psychology, all from the University of Wisconsin.
• A year after graduation, he returned to New York to work with E. L. Thorndike
at Columbia, where Maslow became interested in research on human
sexuality.
• To satisfy his parents, he first studied law at the City College of New York
(CCNY). After three semesters, he transferred to Cornell, and then back to
CCNY.
ABRAHAM MASLOW
• He married Bertha Goodman, his first cousin, against his parents
wishes. Abe and Bertha went on to have two daughters.
• He and Bertha moved to Wisconsin so that he could attend the University of
Wisconsin. Here, he became interested in psychology, and his schoolwork
began to improve dramatically.
• He spent time there working with Harry Harlow, who is famous for his
experiments with baby rhesus monkeys and attachment behavior.
ABRAHAM MASLOW
• He began teaching full time at Brooklyn College.
• During this period of his life, he came into contact with the many European
intellectuals that were immigrating to the US, and Brooklyn in particular, at
that time -- people like Adler, Fromm, Horney, as well as several Gestalt and
Freudian psychologists.
ABRAHAM MASLOW
• Maslow served as the chair of the psychology department at Brandeis from
1951 to 1969.
• While there he met Kurt Goldstein, who had originated the idea of self-
actualization in his famous book, The Organism (1934).
• It was also here that he began his crusade for a humanistic psychology --
something ultimately much more important to him than his own theorizing.
• He spend his final years in semi-retirement in California, until, on June 8
1970, he died of a heart attack after years of ill health.
ABRAHAM MASLOW’S

Hierarchy of Needs
Hierarchy of Needs
• Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a motivational theory in psychology
comprising a five-tier model of human needs, often depicted as hierarchical
levels within a pyramid.
• The five levels of the hierarchy are physiological, safety, love/belonging,
esteem, and self-actualization.
• Lower-level basic needs like food, water, and safety must be met first before
higher needs can be fulfilled.
• Few people are believed to reach the level of self-actualization, but we can
all have moments of peak experiences.
Hierarchy of Needs
• The order of the levels is not completely fixed. For some, esteem outweighs
love, while others may self-actualize despite poverty. Our behaviors are
usually motivated by multiple needs simultaneously.
• Applications include workplace motivation, education, counseling, and
nursing.
Hierarchy of Needs
• One of the many interesting things Maslow noticed while he worked with
monkeys early in his career, was that some needs take precedence over
others.
• For example, if you are hungry and thirsty, you will tend to try to take care of
the thirst first.
• After all, you can do without food for weeks, but you can only do without
water for a couple of days! Thirst is a “stronger” need than hunger. Likewise,
if you are very very thirsty, but someone has put a choke hold on you and
you can’t breath, which is more important?
Hierarchy of Needs
• The need to breathe, of course. On the other hand, sex is less powerful than
any of these. Let’s face it, you won’t die if you don’t get it!
• Maslow took this idea and created his now famous 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.
Hierarchy of Needs
1. Physiological needs are biological requirements for human survival,
e.g., air, food, drink, shelter, clothing, warmth, sex, and sleep.

• Our most basic need is for physical survival, and this will be the first thing
that motivates our behavior. Once that level is fulfilled, the next level up is
what motivates us, and so on.

• The human body cannot function optimally if physiological needs are not
satisfied. Maslow considered physiological needs the most important as all
the other needs become secondary until these needs are met.
Hierarchy of Needs
1. Physiological needs are biological requirements for human survival,
e.g., air, food, drink, shelter, clothing, warmth, sex, and sleep.

• Once an individual’s physiological needs are satisfied, the need for security
and safety becomes salient.
Hierarchy of Needs
2. Safety needs – people want to experience order, predictability, and
control in their lives.

• Safety needs can be fulfilled by the family and society (e.g., police, schools,
business, and medical care).

• For example, emotional security, financial security (e.g., employment, social

welfare), law and order, freedom from fear, social stability, property, health,
and well-being (e.g., safety against accidents and injury).

• After physiological and safety needs have been fulfilled, the third level of
human needs is social and involves feelings of belongingness.
Hierarchy of Needs
3. Love and belongingness needs refers to a human emotional need for
interpersonal relationships, affiliating, connectedness, and being part of a
group.

• Examples of belongingness needs include friendship, intimacy, trust,

acceptance, receiving and giving affection, and love.

• This need is especially strong in childhood and can override the need for
safety, as witnessed in children who cling to abusive parents.
Hierarchy of Needs
4. Esteem needs are the fourth level in Maslow’s hierarchy and include
self-worth, accomplishment, and respect.

• Maslow classified esteem needs into two categories: (i) esteem for oneself
(dignity, achievement, mastery, independence) and (ii) the desire for
reputation or respect from others (e.g., status, prestige).

• Esteem is the typical human desire to be accepted and valued by others.

People often engage in a profession or hobby to gain recognition, which
gives them a sense of contribution or value.
Hierarchy of Needs
4. Esteem needs are the fourth level in Maslow’s hierarchy and include
self-worth, accomplishment, and respect.

• Low self-esteem or an inferiority complex may result from imbalances during

this level in the hierarchy.

• Maslow indicated that the need for respect or reputation is most important for
children and adolescents and precedes real self-esteem or dignity.
Hierarchy of Needs
5. Self-actualization needs are the highest level in Maslow’s hierarchy, and
refer to the realization of a person’s potential, self-fulfillment, seeking
personal growth, and peak experiences.

• This level of need refers to what a person’s full potential is and the realization
of that potential.

• Maslow (1943, 1987, p. 64) describes this level as the desire to accomplish
everything that one can, and “to become everything one is capable of
becoming”.
Hierarchy of Needs
5. Self-actualization needs are the highest level in Maslow’s hierarchy, and
refer to the realization of a person’s potential, self-fulfillment, seeking
personal growth, and peak experiences.

• Individuals may perceive or focus on this need very specifically. For example,
one individual may have a strong desire to become an ideal parent.

• In another, the desire may be expressed athletically. For others, it may be

expressed in paintings, pictures, or inventions.
Hierarchy of Needs
5. Self-actualization needs are the highest level in Maslow’s hierarchy, and
refer to the realization of a person’s potential, self-fulfillment, seeking
personal growth, and peak experiences.

• Although Maslow did not believe that many of us could achieve true self-
actualization, he did believe that all of us experience transitory moments
(known as ‘peak experiences’) of self-actualization.

• Such moments, associated with personally significant events such as

childbirth, sporting achievement and examination success), are difficult to
achieve and maintain consistently.