Essay

One of the main theories relating to motivation is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. People have needs. A need is a lack of something- something we want. This produces the drive and desire which motivates us to satisfy that need. Satisfying this need, or getting the thing we want or lack is the goal. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology proposed by the American psychologist Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation”. This is a theory of psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human needs in priority, culminating in self-actualization.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow’s theory of motivation is called the “hierarchy of needs”. Maslow believes that people have five main needs in the following order of importance:-

Physiological Needs -
i) the need to eat

ii) the need to drink

iii) the need to work

iv) the need to sleep

v) the need to reproduce

Maslow Safety Needs -
i) the need for shelter

ii) the need to feel secure

Belonging Needs -
i) the need to feel part of a group

ii) the need for acceptance

Self-Esteem Needs -
i) the need to feel good about themselves

ii) the need to be recognized for their achievement

Self-Realization Needs –
i) the need for personal fulfillment

ii) the need to grow and develop

Maslow believes that people would not move on down this list to be motivated by the next set of needs until the previous set(s) had been satisfied. Maslow wanted to understand what motivates people. He believed that people possess a set of motivation systems unrelated to rewards or unconscious desires. Maslow (1943) stated that people are motivated to achieve certain needs. When one need is fulfilled a person seeks to fulfill the next one, and so on. Maslow noted only one in a hundred people become fully self-actualized because our society rewards motivation primarily based on esteem, love and other social needs. The original hierarchy of needs...