Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
On This Page:
1. Hierarchy of Needs
3. Self-Actualization Needs
5. Critical Evaluation
Key Takeaways
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.
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.
Higher needs become increasingly psychological and long-term rather than physiological
and short-term, as in the lower survival-related 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.
Once an individual’s physiological needs are satisfied, the need for security and safety
becomes salient.
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 wellbeing (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.
3. Love and belongingness needs refers to a human emotional need for interpersonal
relationships, affiliating, connectedness, and being part of a group.
This need is especially strong in childhood and can override the need for safety, as witnessed
in children who cling to abusive parents.
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).
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Esteem presents the typical human desire to be accepted and valued by others. People often
engage in a profession or hobby to gain recognition. These activities give the person a sense
of contribution or value.
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.
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”.
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.
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.
Maslow posited that human needs are arranged in a hierarchy:
“It is quite true that man lives by bread alone — when there is no bread. But what
happens to man’s desires when there is plenty of bread and when his belly is
chronically filled?
At once other (and “higher”) needs emerge and these, rather than physiological
hungers, dominate the organism. And when these in turn are satisfied, again new
(and still “higher”) needs emerge and so on. This is what we mean by saying that the
basic human needs are organized into a hierarchy of relative prepotency” (Maslow,
1943, p. 375) .
Key Point: Keep in mind that Maslow’s hierarchy of needs doesn't follow a strict linear
progression. Individuals can feel various needs at the same time or shift between
levels.
Maslow continued to refine his theory based on the concept of a hierarchy of needs
over several decades (Maslow, 1943, 1962, 1987).
Regarding the structure of his hierarchy, Maslow (1987) proposed that the order in the
hierarchy “is not nearly as rigid” (p. 68) as he may have implied in his earlier
description.
Maslow noted that the order of needs might be flexible based on external
circumstances or individual differences. For example, he notes that for some
individuals, the need for self-esteem is more important than the need for love. For
others, the need for creative fulfillment may supersede even the most basic needs.
Maslow (1987) also pointed out that most behavior is multi-motivated and noted that
“any behavior tends to be determined by several or all of the basic needs
simultaneously rather than by only one of them” (p. 71).
Maslow (1954) proposed that human beings possess two sets of needs. This five-stage
model can be divided into deficiency needs and growth needs. The first four levels
are often referred to as deficiency needs ( D-needs ), and the top level is known as
growth or being needs (B-needs ).
Deficiency needs
Deficiency needs are concerned with basic survival and include physiological needs (such as
the need for food, sex, and sleep) and safety needs (such as the need for security and
freedom from danger).
Behaviors associated with these needs are seen as ‘deficiency’ motivated, as they are a means
to an end.
Deficiency needs arise due to deprivation and are said to motivate people when they are
unmet. Also, the motivation to fulfill such needs will become stronger the longer they are
denied. For example, the longer a person goes without food, the more hungry they will
become.
Maslow (1943) initially stated that individuals must satisfy lower-level deficit needs before
progressing to meet higher-level growth needs.
When a deficit need has been “more or less” satisfied, it will go away, and our activities
become habitually directed toward meeting the next set of needs we have yet to satisfy.
These then become our salient needs. However, growth needs continue to be felt and may
even become stronger once engaged.
Growth needs
Growth needs are more psychological and are associated with realizing an individual’s full
potential and needing to ‘self-actualize’. These needs are achieved more through intellectual
and creative behaviors.
Growth needs do not stem from a lack of something but rather from a desire to grow as a
person. Once these growth needs have been reasonably satisfied, one may be able to reach
the highest level, called self-actualization. Growth needs are achieved more through
intellectual and creative behaviors.
Every person is capable and has the desire to move up the hierarchy toward a level of self-
actualization. Unfortunately, progress is often disrupted by a failure to meet lower-level
needs.
Life experiences, including divorce and the loss of a job, may cause an individual to fluctuate
between levels of the hierarchy.
Therefore, not everyone will move through the hierarchy in a uni-directional manner but
may move back and forth between the different types of needs.
1. Biological and physiological needs – air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep, etc.
2. Safety needs – protection from elements, security, order, law, stability, freedom from fear.
3. Love and belongingness needs – friendship, intimacy, trust, and acceptance, receiving
and giving affection and love. Affiliating, being part of a group (family, friends, work).
4. Esteem needs – which Maslow classified into two categories: (i) esteem for oneself (dignity,
achievement, mastery, independence) and (ii) the need to be accepted and valued by others
(e.g., status, prestige).
Cognitive needs drive our pursuit of knowledge and understanding. For instance, a
student’s desire to understand complex mathematical theories, a traveler’s
curiosity about diverse cultures, or an individual’s quest for life’s deeper meanings
all exemplify these needs.
6. Aesthetic needs – appreciation and search for beauty, balance, form, etc. Fulfilling
these needs leads to a deeper sense of satisfaction and harmony in life, as
individuals seek environments and experiences that are pleasing and resonant
with their sense of beauty.
This involves the appreciation and pursuit of art, music, nature, and other forms
of aesthetic expression.
Fulfilling these needs isn’t just about physical beauty but also the emotional and
psychological satisfaction derived from experiencing order and elegance.
This level emphasizes altruism, spiritual connection, and helping others achieve
their potential.
Self-Actualization Needs
Instead of focusing on psychopathology and what goes wrong with people, Maslow (1943)
formulated a more positive account of human behavior which focused on what goes right.
He was interested in human potential, and how we fulfill that potential.
Psychologist Abraham Maslow (1943, 1954) stated that human motivation is based on people
seeking fulfillment and change through personal growth. Self-actualized people are those
who are fulfilled and doing all they are capable of.
The growth of self-actualization (Maslow, 1962) refers to the need for personal growth and
discovery that is present throughout a person’s life. For Maslow, a person is always
“becoming” and never remains static in these terms. In self-actualization, a person comes to
find a meaning in life that is important to them.
As each individual is unique, the motivation for self-actualization leads people in different
directions (Kenrick et al., 2010). For some people, self-actualization can be achieved through
creating works of art or literature; for others, through sports, in the classroom, or within a
corporate setting.
Maslow (1962) believed self-actualization could be measured through the concept of peak
experiences. This occurs when a person experiences the world totally for what it is, and
there are feelings of euphoria, joy, and wonder.
“It refers to the person’s desire for self-fulfillment, namely, to the tendency for him
to become actualized in what he is potentially.
The specific form that these needs will take will of course vary greatly from person
to person. In one individual it may take the form of the desire to be an ideal mother,
in another it may be expressed athletically, and in still another it may be expressed
in painting pictures or in inventions” (Maslow, 1943, p. 382–383).
Although we are all, theoretically, capable of self-actualizing, most of us will not do so, or
only to a limited degree. Maslow (1970) estimated that only two percent of people would
reach the state of self-actualization.
7. Highly creative;
3. Listening to your own feelings in evaluating experiences instead of the voice of tradition,
authority or the majority;
5. Being prepared to be unpopular if your views do not coincide with those of the majority;
7. Trying to identify your defenses and having the courage to give them up.
Although people achieve self-actualization in their own unique way, they tend to share
certain characteristics. However, self-actualization is a matter of degree, ‘There are no
perfect human beings’ (Maslow, 1970a, p. 176).
It is not necessary to display all 15 characteristics to become self-actualized, and not only
self-actualized people will display them.
Maslow did not equate self-actualization with perfection. Self-actualization merely involves
achieving one’s potential. Thus, someone can be silly, wasteful, vain and impolite, and still
self-actualize. Less than two percent of the population achieve self-actualization.
Subsidize gym memberships – Some companies offer monthly gym subsidies or onsite
fitness centers to support physical health and stress management.
Make the space ergonomic – Ensure workstations, chairs, keyboards, etc. are height
adjustable and comfortable to work at for extended periods to prevent bodily strain or
injury.
Pay for wellness services – Some companies offer perks like free annual flu shots,
smoking cessation programs, or biometric screenings to proactively address health.
Define and reinforce ethical standards – Clearly establish and model expected conduct
to prevent ethical lapses that undermine security.
Develop mother’s rooms – Providing clean, private lactation rooms supports new
mothers’ needs to pump breast milk during work hours.
Train supervisors in mental health first aid – Equip leaders to recognize signs of
depression, anxiety, substance abuse and properly intervene or connect employees with
help.
Model inclusive language and behavior – Use words and actions that are welcoming and
respectful to all groups.
Make the most of performance reviews – Regular performance evaluations not only
offer recognition but also highlight areas for growth, feeding into the employees’ need for
esteem. Thoroughly highlight strengths, progress made, and areas of influence.
Entrust employees with mentoring roles – Having them share knowledge and coach
others recognizes their expertise.
Foster innovation – Dedicate time and resources for experimenting with new ideas
without pressure.
Nursing
Patient care should be holistic, not just medical. Nurses must assess and address the
spectrum of patient needs – physical, mental, emotional, and social (Jackson et al., 2014;
Toney-Butler & Thayer, 2023). Doing so motivates greater engagement in care, faster healing,
and improved outcomes.
1. Physiological needs – Ensure patients have adequate nutrition, hydration, pain control,
sleep, and physical comfort. Address pain that hinders sleep and recovery.
2. Safety needs – Maintain a clean, quiet environment with call bells for assistance. Prevent
injuries through fall precautions, blood clot prevention, and pressure ulcer avoidance.
Explain tests, treatments, and medications to patients to relieve anxiety. Keep patient info
confidential. Foster a climate of trust through compassionate listening. Prevent medication
errors.
3. Belongingness – Loneliness impedes healing. Make patients feel welcomed and included.
Introduce them to other patients. Allow for family visitation and spiritual practices.
5. Self-actualization – Align care with patient values and aspirations. Perhaps share
motivational stories of those with similar diagnoses who stayed active. Or provide
resources on coping with grief over health changes.
Education
Maslow’s (1962) hierarchy of needs theory has made a major contribution to teaching and
classroom management in schools. Rather than reducing behavior to a response in the
environment, Maslow (1970a) adopts a holistic approach to education and learning.
Maslow looks at the complete physical, emotional, social, and intellectual qualities of an
individual and how they impact learning.
Applications of Maslow’s hierarchy theory to the work of the classroom teacher are obvious.
Before a student’s cognitive needs can be met, they must first fulfill their basic physiological
needs.
For example, a tired and hungry student will find it difficult to focus on learning. Students
need to feel emotionally and physically safe and accepted within the classroom to progress
and reach their full potential.
Maslow suggests students must be shown that they are valued and respected in the
classroom, and the teacher should create a supportive environment. Students with a low self-
esteem will not progress academically at an optimum rate until their self-esteem is
strengthened.
Maslow’s hierarchy provides a humanistic lens for teaching the whole child.
Maslow (1971, p. 195) argued that a humanistic educational approach would develop
people who are “stronger, healthier, and would take their own lives into their hands
to a greater extent. With increased personal responsibility for one’s personal life,
and with a rational set of values to guide one’s choosing, people would begin to
actively change the society in which they lived”.
Here are some ways a teacher can apply Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in the
classroom:
1. Physiological – Ensure students have access to water, food, restroom breaks, and
movement. Allow snacks, flexible seating, and adequate breaks.
2. Safety – Maintain an orderly classroom with clear expectations. Prevent bullying. Build
trust through consistency and fairness. Allow students to make mistakes safely.
4. Esteem – Recognize student strengths and progress. Display student work. Empower
leadership roles like line leader or tech helper. Praise efforts, not just achievement.
When these foundational needs are met, students are more motivated to learn and perform
well academically. But needs fluctuate. Be observant and nurture needs as they arise.
Critical Evaluation
The most significant limitation of Maslow’s theory concerns his methodology. Maslow
formulated the characteristics of self-actualized individuals by undertaking a qualitative
method called biographical analysis.
From a scientific perspective, there are numerous problems with this particular approach.
First, it could be argued that biographical analysis as a method is extremely subjective as it is
based entirely on the opinion of the researcher. Personal opinion is always prone to bias,
which reduces the validity of any data obtained. Therefore Maslow’s operational definition of
self-actualization must not be blindly accepted as scientific fact.
Although Maslow (1970) did study self-actualized females, such as Eleanor Roosevelt and
Mother Teresa, they comprised a small proportion of his sample. This makes it difficult to
generalize his theory to females and individuals from lower social classes or different
ethnicity. Thus questioning the population validity of Maslow’s findings.
Another criticism concerns Maslow’s assumption that the lower needs must be satisfied
before a person can achieve their potential and self-actualize. This is not always the case, and
therefore Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in some aspects has been falsified.
Through examining cultures in which large numbers of people live in poverty (such as
India), it is clear that people are still capable of higher-order needs such as love and
belongingness. However, this should not occur, as according to Maslow, people who have
difficulty achieving very basic physiological needs (such as food, shelter, etc.) are not capable
of meeting higher growth needs.
Also, many creative people, such as authors and artists (e.g., Rembrandt and Van Gogh) lived
in poverty throughout their lifetime, yet it could be argued that they achieved self-
actualization.
Contemporary research by Tay and Diener (2011) has tested Maslow’s theory by analyzing
the data of 60,865 participants from 123 countries, representing every major region of the
world. The survey was conducted from 2005 to 2010.
Respondents answered questions about six needs that closely resemble those in
Maslow’s model: basic needs (food, shelter); safety; social needs (love, support);
respect; mastery; and autonomy.
They also rated their well-being across three discrete measures: life evaluation (a
person’s view of his or her life as a whole), positive feelings (day-to-day instances of
joy or pleasure), and negative feelings (everyday experiences of sorrow, anger, or
stress).
The results of the study support the view that universal human needs appear to exist
regardless of cultural differences. However, the ordering of the needs within the hierarchy
was not correct.
“Although the most basic needs might get the most attention when you don”t have
them,” Diener explains, “you don”t need to fulfill them in order to get benefits [from
the others].”
Even when we are hungry, for instance, we can be happy with our friends. “They”re
like vitamins,” Diener says about how the needs work independently. “We need them
all.”
Conclusion
While Maslow’s work was indeed relatively informal and clinically descriptive, it did provide
a rich source of ideas, and as such, a framework for discussing the richness and complexity
of human motivation that goes beyond homeostatic models and other biological models.
Maslow proposes a positive view of humans, however, it could be argued that this might not
be very realistic when considering everyday reality such as domestic violence and genocides.
Furthermore, the hierarchy’s focus on meeting our needs and fulfilling our growth potential
reflects an individualistic, self-obsessed outlook that is part of the problem faced by our
society rather than a solution.
There are five levels in Maslow’s pyramid. From the bottom of the hierarchy upwards, the
needs are: physiological (food and clothing), safety (job security), love and belonging needs
(friendship), esteem, and self-actualization.
Maslow asserted that so long as basic needs necessary for survival were met (e.g., food,
water, shelter), higher-level needs (e.g., social needs) would begin to motivate behavior.
Maslow’s theory has given rise to a new way to look at people’s needs. For example, Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs is widely used in health and social work as a framework for assessing
clients’ needs.
Problems or difficult circumstances at one point in a person’s life can cause them to fixate on
a particular set of needs, and this can affect their future happiness.
For example, a person who lived through a period of extreme deprivation and lack of
security in early childhood may fixate on physiological and safety needs. These remain
salient even if they are satisfied.
So even if this person later has everything they need they may nonetheless obsess over
money or keeping enough food in the fridge.
This, for Maslow, was the root cause of many ‘neurotic’ mental health problems, such as
anxiety or depression.
Self-actualizing people have both a more efficient perception of reality and more
comfortable relations with it. This includes the detection of what is phony and/or dishonest
and the accurate perception of what really exists – rather than a distortion of perception by
one’s needs.
Self-actualizers accept themselves, others and nature. They are not ashamed or guilty about
being human, with shortcomings, imperfections, frailties, and weaknesses.
Nor are they critical of these aspects in other people. They respect and esteem themselves
and others.
References
Geller, L. (1982). The failure of self-actualization theory: A critique of Carl Rogers and
Abraham
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Jeremy P. Tarcher.
Ivtzan, I. (2008). Self actualisation: For individualistic cultures only? International Journal on
Humanistic Ideology, 1, 113–140.
Jackson, J. C., Santoro, M. J., Ely, T. M., Boehm, L., Kiehl, A. L., Anderson, L. S., & Ely, E. W.
(2014). Improving patient care through the prism of psychology: Application of Maslow’s
hierarchy to sedation, delirium, and early mobility in the intensive care unit. Journal of
Critical Care, 29(3), 438-444.
Jerome, N. (2013). Application of the Maslow’s hierarchy of need theory; impacts and
implications on organizational culture, human resource and employee’s
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cognition and functional behavior: The fundamental-motives framework. Current Directions
in Psychological Science, 19 (1), 63-67.
King-Hill, S. (2015). Critical analysis of Maslow’s hierarchy of need. The STeP Journal (Student
Teacher Perspectives), 2(4), 54-57.
Maslow, A. H. (1954). Motivation and personality. New York: Harper and Row.
Maslow, A. H. (1970a). Motivation and personality. New York: Harper & Row.
Maslow, A. H. (1970b). Religions, values, and peak experiences. New York: Penguin. (Original
work published 1966)
Maslow, A. H. (1987). Motivation and personality (3rd ed.). Delhi, India: Pearson Education.
Toney-Butler, T.J., & Thayer, J.M. (2023, April 10). Nursing Process. In StatPearls. StatPearls
Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499937/
Wahba, M. A., & Bridwell, L. G. (1976). Maslow reconsidered: A review of research on the
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Further Information
Maslow’s Theories
Hierarchy of Needs
Images
Video: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Pyramid
Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs Summary
Reviewer Author
Olivia Guy-Evans is a writer and associate editor for Simply Psychology. She has previously worked
in healthcare and educational sectors.
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