Psychological Needs Paper
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a psychological concept that details a series of human needs and how more basic needs must be met before an individual can achieve self-fulfillment. This hierarchy is best summarized by a pyramid because the larger, more basic needs must establish a firm foundation before one can build up to higher needs. Abraham Maslow described self-actualized people has having the following traits: Realism and acceptance, spontaneity, problem centering, autonomy, continued freshness of appreciation, and peak experiences. Maslow’s hierarchy explains how people are constantly motivated to realize their potential and better lives.
Maslow’s concept is easy to understand once put into perspective. A homeless person that lives on abandoned scraps of food is more motivated to secure food and a warm place to live than to need to feel a sense of accomplishment or self-esteem. According to Don Gorman (“Maslow's hierarchy and social and emotional wellbeing,” 2010) Maslow’s concept suggests “that people are motivated by different needs that can be classified in a hierarchy with the lower level needs having to be fulfilled before the higher level needs can be” (“Maslow's hierarchy and social and emotional wellbeing,” 2010). In other words, as an individual is able to meet their more basic, low-level, needs their determination shifts to higher-level needs and, eventually, may reach self-actualization—a set of self-fulfillment needs. Maslow characterized a self-actualized person as someone who have realistic, accurate perceptions of themselves, spontaneous, open-minded and open in behavior—yet they conform to conventional societal behaviors where necessary, they focus on problems bigger than their own petty problems and focus on a larger purpose, are autonomous, enjoy the simple things in life, and generally have what he called