Abraham Harold Maslow (1908-1970) has made a major contribution to teaching and classroom management in schools. Humanistic theory is an approach to development that examines the “whole person”—taking into consideration all aspects of human existence—and the uniqueness of all individuals. Maslow believed that people are motivated to meet certain basic needs and that some needs take precedence over others. 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. His theory is also called the Theory of Hierarchical Needs and is often depicted as a pyramid with five distinct levels. Needs lower down in the hierarchy must be satisfied before individuals can attend to needs higher up. From the bottom of the hierarchy upwards, the needs are physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization.

Maslow believed that while 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 one-directional manner but may move back and forth between the different types of needs, depending on each person’s specific life circumstances.

The first level of physiological needs is related to survival. These are biological requirements for human sustenance (for example, air, food, drink, shelter, clothing, warmth, sex, and sleep.) The human body cannot function normally if these needs are not satisfied. Maslow considered physiological needs the most important as all the other needs become secondary until these needs are met.

Safety needs appear when physiological needs are fulfilled. These include the need for structure and predictability, protection from elements, security—physical and emotional, law and order, stability, and freedom from fear. Reducing uncertainty is the chief objective at this stage. Individuals are free from danger, fear, and chaos when their safety needs are adequately met.

After physiological and safety needs have been fulfilled, the third level of human needs is social and involves feelings of belongingness. The need for interpersonal relationships motivates behavior.

Examples include friendship, intimacy, trust, acceptance, receiving and giving affection and love, affiliation, or being part of a group (family, friends, work, etc.). In this stage, approval must come from earned respect, not fame or social status.

Maslow classified the next level, esteem needs, into two categories: esteem for oneself (for example, dignity, achievement, mastery, and independence) and the desire for reputation or respect from others (for example, status, and prestige). Maslow indicated that the need for respect or reputation is most important for children and adolescents and precedes real self-esteem or dignity.

If the previous needs are sufficiently met, a person now has the opportunity to reach self-actualization—realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences– the ability “to become everything one is capable of becoming” (Maslow, 1987, p. 64). Maslow believed this to be an exceptional feat since it so rarely occurs. A person who reaches this stage strives for growth and self-improvement—like Gandhi or Oprah.

It is important to note that Maslow himself continued to refine his theory over several decades (Maslow, 1987), and proposed that the order in the hierarchy “is not nearly as rigid” (p. 68) as he may have implied in his earlier description. Maslow also 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). His revised model includes levels of:

• Cognitive needs: knowledge and understanding, curiosity, exploration, need for meaning and predictability.
• Aesthetic needs: appreciation and search for beauty, balance, form, etc.
• Transcendence needs: A person is motivated by values which transcend the personal self (e.g., service to others, mystical experiences, religious faith, etc.)—like the Dalai Lama or the Pope (Berk, 2017; Crain, 2011; Santrock, 2013).

Educational Implications

Applications of Maslow’s hierarchical needs 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. He suggests students must be shown that they are valued and respected in the classroom and the teacher should create a supportive environment. Students with low self-esteem will not progress academically at an optimal rate until their self-esteem is strengthened.

Criticisms of Humanistic Theory

The most significant limitation of Maslow’s theory concerns his methodology. He looked at the biographies and writings of 18 people he identified as being self-actualized. From these sources, he developed a list of qualities that seemed characteristic of this specific group of people, as opposed to humanity in general. From a scientific perspective, there are numerous problems with this particular approach. First, it could be argued that this type of analysis is extremely subjective, as it is based entirely on the opinion of the researcher. Therefore, Maslow’s operational definition of self-actualization must not be blindly accepted as scientific fact. Additionally, Maslow’s analysis focused on a biased sample of self-actualized individuals, limited to highly educated white males (such as Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, William James, Aldous Huxley, Beethoven).

Although Maslow (1970) studied 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 ethnicities.