Abraham Maslow
Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) was a prominent American psychologist best known for his role as a founding figure of humanistic psychology. He is particularly famous for developing the Hierarchy of Needs, a theoretical framework that categorizes human motivations into five levels, visualized as a pyramid. This hierarchy begins with basic physiological needs like food and safety, progressing through social needs for love and belonging, self-esteem, and culminating in self-actualization, which represents personal growth and fulfillment.
Maslow's educational journey began in law but shifted to psychology, leading him to earn his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin in 1934. He held academic positions at Columbia University and Brooklyn College before becoming a professor at Brandeis University. Throughout his career, Maslow authored over twenty books and contributed significantly to psychological literature, including titles such as "Motivation and Personality" and "Toward a Psychology of Being."
His contributions earned him recognition, including being named Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association in 1967 and serving as president of the American Psychological Association. Maslow's work has had a lasting impact on psychology, emphasizing the importance of understanding individual motivations in the pursuit of personal development.
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Subject Terms
Abraham Maslow
- Date of birth: April 1, 1908
- Place of birth: Brooklyn, New York
- Date of death: June 8, 1970
- Place of death: Menlo Park, California
TYPE OF PSYCHOLOGY: Motivation; personality
Maslow is considered a father of humanistic psychology and is remembered particularly for his theory describing a hierarchy of human needs and motivations.
Life
Abraham Maslow was born the first of seven children to Jewish immigrants from Russia. Though uneducated themselves, Maslow’s parents pushed him to excel academically and encouraged him to go into law. He married his first cousin, Bertha Goodman, and they eventually had two daughters.
Maslow studied law at the City College of New York, but after three semesters transferred to Cornell University, and later to the University of Wisconsin to study psychology. He received his bachelor’s degree in 1930, a master’s degree in 1931, and a doctorate in 1934, all in psychology from the University of Wisconsin. Maslow worked for a time at Columbia, then served on the faculty of Brooklyn College from 1937 to 1951, and was professor and chairman of the psychology department at Brandeis University from 1951 to 1969.
Maslow was an articulate and prolific scholar; an author of more than twenty books and close to one hundred articles. His books included Motivation and Personality (1954), Toward a Psychology of Being (1962), Religions, Values, and Peak-Experiences (1964), and The Farther Reaches of Human Nature (1971). He cofounded the Journal of Humanistic Psychology and is considered a father of humanistic psychology.
His theory of a hierarchy of human needs has been particularly influential. Maslow proposed that human needs and motivations could be construed in a hierarchy, often pictured as a pyramid with five levels, from bottom to top: basic physiological needs such as hunger and thirst, safety needs, needs for love and belonging, needs for self-esteem, and a need for self-actualization. In this hierarchy, lower, more basic needs must be met before higher needs emerge. The uppermost need, self-actualization, Maslow saw as a need for personal growth and self-fulfillment.
In recognition of his many contributions to psychology, Maslow was elected president of the American Psychological Association for 1967–68. Maslow moved to California in 1969 and served as resident fellow of the Laughlin Institute while semiretired. He died of a heart attack in Menlo Park, California, on June 8, 1970.
Bibliography
Berecz, John M. Theories of Personality: A Zonal Perspective. Allyn, 2009.
Burton, Neel. "Our Hierarchy of Needs." Psychology Today, 21 June 2019, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hide-and-seek/201205/our-hierarchy-needs. Accessed 29 Jul. 2024.
"Dr. Abraham Maslow, Founder Of Humanistic Psychology, Dies." The New York Times, 10 Jun. 1970, www.nytimes.com/1970/06/10/archives/dr-abraham-maslow-founder-of-humanistic-psychology-dies.html. Accessed 29 Jul. 2024.
Feist, Jess, and Gregory J. Feist. Theories of Personality. 8th ed. McGraw, 2013.
Hergenhahn, B. R. An Introduction to the History of Psychology. 7th ed. Wadsworth, 2014.
Hoffman, Edward. The Right to Be Human: A Biography of Abraham Maslow. Rev. ed. McGraw, 1999.
Schultz, Duane, and Sydney Schultz. Theories of Personality. 10th ed. Wadsworth, 2013.
Valiunas, Algis. “Abraham Maslow and the All-American Self.” New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology & Society 33.(2011): 93–110. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Jan. 2016.