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Abraham Maslow, His Theory & Contribution to Psychology

Among his many contributions to psychology were his advancements to the field of humanistic psychology and his development of the hierarchy of needs.

Maslow’s career in psychology greatly predated the modern positive psychology movement, yet the field as we know it would likely look very different were it not for him.

This article will discuss some of Maslow’s formative experiences, his contributions to psychology, and his work’s relationship to the positive psychology movement.

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Abraham maslow’s life, maslow’s contributions to humanistic psychology, maslow’s hierarchy of needs, abraham maslow and positive psychology, a take-home message.

Abraham Maslow was born in New York in 1908. He was the son of poor Russian-Jewish parents, who, like many others at the time, immigrated from Eastern Europe to flee persecution and secure a better future for their family (Hoffman, 2008).

Throughout various interviews, Maslow described himself as neurotic, shy, lonely, and self-reflective throughout his teens and twenties. This was, in part, because of the racism and ethnic prejudice he experienced owing to his Jewish appearance. He himself, however, was non-religious.

Maslow also did not enjoy being in the family home, so he spent much of his time at the library, where he developed his academic gifts (DeCarvalho, 1991). Consequently, Maslow later attributed his interest in self-actualization and the optimization of the human experience to his timid nature and the isolation it caused (Frick, 2000).

Education and Career

After attending public school in a working-class neighborhood in New York, Maslow attended the University of Wisconsin to study psychology. Initially, he was interested in philosophy, but he soon grew frustrated with its inapplicability to real-world situations and switched his focus to psychology (Frick, 2000).

Maslow was originally engaged in the field of behaviorism, which argues that human behavior can be explained and altered using forms of conditioning. In line with the laboratory-based methods at the time, Maslow conducted research with dogs and apes, and some of his earliest works looked at the emotion of disgust in dogs and the learning processes of primates (DeCarvalho, 1991).

While Maslow ultimately pivoted from behaviorism, he was observed to have remained staunchly loyal to the principles of positivism throughout all stages of his education and career, which are at the foundation of this branch of psychology (Hoffman, 2008).

According to this philosophy, only that which is scientifically verifiable or can be shown using logical or mathematical proof is considered valid.

As such, Maslow was a firm believer in the power of empirical data and measurability for forwarding human knowledge. He was known to have resisted the interest in mysticism that dominated in the 1960s, preferring instead to study businesses and entrepreneurship (Hoffman, 2008).

Maslow eventually studied gestalt psychology at the New School for Social Research in New York. He later joined the faculty of Brooklyn College and rose to become head of the psychology department at Brandeis University in Waltham, where he remained until 1969 (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2021).

During his career, Maslow co-founded the Journal of Humanistic Psychology in 1961, and the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology in 1969 (Richards, 2017). Today, both journals are highly cited, well-respected outlets in their fields, serving as a tribute to Maslow’s legacy in the field of psychology.

The Impact of World War II

With the onset of World War II, Maslow’s intellectual focus is reported to have changed, and this was when his work began to shift the landscape of the psychology field. At the time, Maslow was thirty-three years old and the father of two children.

In his writings, he lamented that the U.S. forces did not understand the German opposition and felt that the field of psychology could help facilitate understanding and restore peace to the world (Hoffman, 1999).

Therefore, given the horrors of the war, Maslow conducted his research with a renewed sense of urgency. This led to his famous works on the concept of self-actualization and the introduction of his seminal hierarchy of needs in the mid-1940s (Hoffman, 2008).

According to Maslow’s popular Hierarchy of Needs model, all human beings have needs relating to five key domains:

• Physiological
• Love/belonging
• Self-actualization.

Maslow initially argued that these needs have a hierarchical order, depicting that needs at the most basic levels require fulfillment before a higher level can be fulfilled, as visualized in the pyramid.

In line with this hierarchy, our most basic needs relate to physiology (i.e., nutrition, warmth, and rest), and the most transcendent needs relate to self-actualization (i.e., achieving one’s full potential and self-fulfillment). Over the years, Maslow (1970) made some important revisions to his initial theory, admitting that:

• The hierarchy’s order is not as rigid as he initially proposed; instead, it is flexible based on external circumstances and individual differences.
• Most human behavior is multi-motivated, meaning that any behavior simultaneously aims to fulfill many needs.
• Three more levels could be added: cognitive needs, aesthetic needs, and transcendence needs (e.g., mystical, aesthetic, sexual experiences, etc.).

Cross-cultural research by Tay and Diener (2011) supports the view that there are universal human needs regardless of cultural differences, but the order of importance is influenced by culture.

Additionally, this research has shown that needs work independently, meaning that even if one’s basic needs are not fulfilled, one can still benefit from fulfilling needs at other levels. So, even if we are cold, we can still be happy with our friends.

Research and practice within positive psychology aim to support individuals in fulfilling their needs at all levels by capitalizing on their strengths, values, and intrinsic motivation, ultimately enhancing wellbeing (Proyer et al., 2015).

Soon after Maslow began his career, he grew frustrated with the two dominant forces of psychology at the time, Freudian psychoanalysis and behavioral psychology (Koznjak, 2017).

Maslow believed that psychoanalysis focused too much on “the sick half of psychology” (Koznjak, 2017, p. 261). Likewise, he believed that behaviorism did not focus enough on how humans differ from the animals studied in behaviorism. He thus contributed to the third force of psychology that arose in response to this frustration: humanistic psychology .

Humanistic psychology gained influence in the mid-20th century for its focus on individuals’ innate drive to self-actualize, express oneself, and achieve their full potential.

Such foci represented a significant shift from the pathologizing and behaviorist approaches of the past, and Abraham Maslow’s work is widely considered having been at the center of this movement.

At the core of the humanistic psychology movement was the idea from gestalt psychology that human beings are more than just the sum of their parts and that spiritual aspiration is a fundamental part of one’s psyche.

Maslow himself was known to have been a big believer in this view; he was widely known for his optimism throughout his research. Further, his works were some of the first to deviate from psychology’s dominant focus on pathology and instead explore what it takes for humans to reach their full potential.

A key reason why Maslow’s work triggered a movement is owed to the way he positioned the role of human unconsciousness. Like Freud, a proponent of the dominant psychoanalytic approach at the time, Maslow acknowledged the presence of the human unconscious (Maslow, 1970).

However, whereas Freud argued that much of who we are as people is inaccessible to us, Maslow argued people are acutely aware of their own motivations and drives in an ongoing pursuit of self-understanding and self-acceptance. These ideas were ultimately reflected in his seminal works on self-actualization and his hierarchy of human needs (Maslow, 1970).

According to the theory, humans possess higher- and lower-order needs, which are arranged in a hierarchy.

These needs are:

• Physiological needs;
• Belongingness and love;
• Esteem ; and
• Self-actualization (Maslow, 1943).

In his article, Maslow (1943) describes these needs as being arranged in a hierarchy of prepotency.

In other words, the first level of needs are the most important and will monopolize consciousness until they are addressed. Once one level of needs is taken care of, the mind moves on to the next level, and so on, until self-actualization is reached.

Levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy

Let’s inspect each of the levels in Maslow’s hierarchy.

At the bottom of the hierarchy are physiological needs, which are considered universal. Among the physiological needs are air, water, food, sleep, health, clothes, and shelter. These needs’ positioned at the bottom of the pyramid signifies they are fundamental to human wellbeing and will always take priority over other needs.

Next in the hierarchy are safety needs. If a person does not feel safe in their environment, they are unlikely to guide attention toward trying to meet higher-order needs. In particular, safety needs include personal and emotional security (e.g., safety from abuse), financial security, and wellbeing .

Third in the hierarchy is the need for love and belonging through family connections, friendship, and intimacy.

Humans are wired for connection, meaning that we seek acceptance and support from others, either one-on-one or in groups, such as clubs, professional organizations, or online communities. In the absence of these connections, we fall susceptible to states of ill-being, such as clinical depression (Teo, 2013).

The fourth level of the hierarchy is esteem needs. According to Maslow, there are two subtypes of esteem. The first is esteem reflected in others’ perceptions of us. That is, esteem in the form of prestige, status, recognition, attention, appreciation, or admiration (Maslow, 1943).

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Self-Actualization, Peak Experiences and Self-Transcendence Needs

At the top of Maslow’s hierarchy is self-actualization. According to Maslow, humans will only seek the satisfaction of this need following the satisfaction of all the lower-order needs (Maslow, 1943).

While scholars have refined the definition of self-actualization over the years, Maslow related it to the feeling of discontent and restlessness when one is not putting their strengths to full use:

“A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately happy. What a man can be, he must be. This need we may call self-actualization.”

Maslow (1943, p. 382)

Examples of self-actualization needs include the acquisition of a romantic partner, parenting, the utilization and development of one’s talents and abilities, and goal pursuit (Deckers, 2018).

Toward the end of his career, Maslow revisited his original conceptualization of the pyramid and argued a sixth need above self-actualization. He called this need self-transcendence, defined as a person’s desire to “further a cause beyond the self and to experience a communion beyond the boundaries of the self through peak experience” (Koltko-Rivera, 2006, p. 303).

Examples of behaviors that reflect the pursuit of self-transcendence include devoting oneself to discovering a ‘truth,’ supporting a cause, such as social justice or environmentalism, or seeking unity with what is perceived to be transcendent or divine (e.g., strengthening one’s relationship with God).

According to Maslow, those pursuing self-actualization and self-transcendence are more likely to have peak experiences, which are profound moments of love, rapture, understanding, or joy (Maslow, 1961).

Examples of peak experiences can include mystical experiences, interactions with nature, and sexual experiences wherein a person’s sense of self transcends beyond the personal self (Koltko-Rivera, 2006).

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Criticisms and Modern Applications of Maslow’s Hierarchy

While modern research has confirmed the presence of universal human needs (Tay & Diener, 2011), most psychologists would agree that there is insufficient evidence to suggest such needs exist within a hierarchy.

This is one of just several criticisms of Maslow’s hierarchy and work. Other issues raised by scholars are:

• The failure to account for cultural differences stemming from one’s upbringing within an individualist versus a collective society, as these differences may influence how a person prioritizes their needs (Wahba & Bridwell, 1976);
• The positioning of sex within the hierarchy which Maslow argued falls under physiological needs (Kenrick, Griskevicius, Neuberg, & Schaller, 2010); and
• The possibility that the ordering of needs may change depending on region, geopolitics, and so forth. For instance, the positioning of safety and physiological needs in the hierarchy may change during times of war (Tang & West, 1997).

Despite these criticisms, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is still widely taught and a staple of any introductory psychology course. Further, the hierarchy has been adapted for use across a range of fields, including urban planning, development, management, and policing (de Guzman & Kim, 2017; Scheller, 2016; Zalenski & Raspa, 2006).

Among these modern applications of the theory are works adapting the theory to apply to communities rather than to individuals (de Guzman & Kim, 2017; Scheller, 2016), suggesting that Maslow’s hierarchy has influenced modern psychology in ways he likely did not intend.

Why Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Matters – The School of Life

So what does Abraham Maslow have to do with positive psychology?

According to humanistic psychologist Nelson Goud, “the recent Positive Psychology movement focuses on themes addressed by Maslow over 50 years ago.” Goud also believed “that Maslow would encourage the scholarly approach [positive psychology] uses for studying topics such as happiness, flow, courage, hope and optimism , responsibility, and civility” (Goud, 2008, p. 450).

More than anything, both Maslow and proponents of positive psychology are driven by the idea that traditional psychology has abandoned studying the entire human experience in favor of focusing on mental illness (Rathunde, 2001).

Indeed, Maslow held a conviction that none of the available psychological theories and approaches to studying the human mind did justice to the healthy human being’s functioning, modes of living, or goals (Buhler, 1971).

To proponents of positive psychology, this reasoning should sound familiar. In fact, Maslow even used the term “positive psychology” to refer to his brand of humanistic psychology, though modern positive psychologists like Martin Seligman claim that humanistic psychology lacks adequate empirical validation (Rennie, 2008).

At the end of the day, both proponents of positive psychology and Maslow believe(d) that humanity is more than the sum of its parts and especially more than its illnesses or deficiencies. To a positive psychologist, optimizing the life and wellbeing of a healthy person is just as important as normalizing the life of a person who is sick, and Abraham Maslow helped legitimize this idea within the field of psychology.

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If we are to sum up Maslow’s impact on the field of psychology, we might credit him for encouraging a generation of psychologists to think more holistically about their approach to studying the human condition.

For the psychologists of the time, pathologizing and theories from behaviorist research with animals were some of the only tools available to understand people’s complex inner worlds. Yet, these tools were inadequate as they failed to account for the uniqueness of each individual.

Shaped by his experiences as a child and during WWII, Maslow introduced a whole new set of tools to the psychologist’s toolkit, enabling scientists and practitioners to affect people’s lives positively beyond mental illness and treating symptoms.

It is clear that Maslow was driven by a desire to help people live the best lives they could, acknowledging their unique humanity along the way. May his work and dedication to pursuing human happiness serve as an inspiration to us all.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Positive Psychology Exercises for free .

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• Hoffman, E. (1999). The right to be human: a biography of Abraham Maslow (2nd ed.) . New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
• Hoffman, E. (2008). Abraham Maslow: A biographer’s reflections. Journal of Humanistic Psychology , 48(4), 439-443.
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• Koltko-Rivera, M. E. (2006). Rediscovering the later version of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: Self-transcendence and opportunities for theory, research, and unification. Review of General Psychology , 10(4), 302-317.
• Koznjak, B. (2017). Kuhn meets Maslow: The psychology behind scientific revolutions. Journal for General Philosophy of Science , 48(2), 257-287.
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• Maslow, A. H. (1961). Peak experiences as acute identity experiences. The American Journal of Psychoanalysis , 21(2), 254-262.
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• Proyer, R. T., Wellenzohn, S., Gander, F., & Ruch, W. (2015). Toward a better understanding of what makes positive psychology interventions work: Predicting happiness and depression from the person intervention fit in a follow-up after 3.5 years. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 7(1) , 108-128.
• Rathunde, K. (2001). Toward a psychology of optimal human functioning: What positive psychology can learn from the “experiential turns” of James, Dewey, and Maslow. Journal of Humanistic Psychology , 41(1), 135-153.
• Rennie, D. L. (2008). Two thoughts on Abraham Maslow. Journal of Humanistic Psychology , 48(4), 445-448.
• Richards, W. A. (2017). Abraham Maslow’s Interest in psychedelic research: A Tribute. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 57(4), 319-322.
• Scheller, D. S. (2016). Neighborhood hierarchy of needs. Journal of Urban Affairs , 38(3), 429-449.
• Tang, T. L. P., & West, W. B. (1997). The importance of human needs during peacetime, retrospective peacetime, and the Persian Gulf War. International Journal of Stress Management , 4(1), 47-62.
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• Zalenski, R. J., & Raspa, R. (2006). Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: A framework for achieving human potential in hospice. Journal of Palliative Medicine 9(5), 1120-1127.

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Biography of Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

Bettmann Archive / Getty Images

• Abraham Maslow's Early Life
• Career and Theories
• Contributions

Abraham Maslow was an American psychologist who developed a hierarchy of needs to explain human motivation. His theory suggested that people have a number of basic needs that must be met before people move up the hierarchy to pursue more social, emotional, and self-actualizing needs.

This article discusses Abraham Maslow's life, work, theory, and major contributions to psychology.

Abraham Maslow Was Best Known For:

• Hierarchy of needs
• Founder of humanistic psychology
• Peak experiences
• Self-actualization

At the end of this article, take the pop quiz to find out how much you know about Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

Abraham Maslow's Early Life

Abraham Maslow was born on April 1, 1908, in Brooklyn, New York, where he grew up the first of seven children born to his Jewish parents who emigrated from Russia. Maslow later described his early childhood as unhappy and lonely. He spent much of his time in the library immersed in books.

Maslow studied law at City College of New York (CCNY). After developing an interest in psychology, he switched to the University of Wisconsin and found a mentor in psychologist Harry Harlow who served as his doctoral advisor. Maslow earned all three of his degrees in psychology (a bachelor's, master's, and doctorate) from the University of Wisconsin.

Abraham Maslow's Humanistic Theories

Abraham Maslow began teaching at Brooklyn College in 1937 and continued to work as a member of the school's faculty until 1951. During this time, he was heavily influenced by Gestalt psychologist Max Wertheimer and anthropologist Ruth Benedict.

Maslow believed that they were such exceptional people that he began to analyze and take notes on their behavior. This analysis served as the basis for his theories and research on human potential.

Humanistic Psychology

During the 1950s, Maslow became one of the founders and driving forces behind the school of thought known as humanistic psychology . His theories—including the hierarchy of needs, self-actualization, and peak experiences —became fundamental subjects in the humanist movement.

How did Maslow's ideas compare to other theories that were popular at the time? Some key differences:

• Maslow felt that Freud's psychoanalytic theory and Skinner's behavioral theory were too focused on the negative or pathological aspects of existence.
• He also felt that these theories neglected all of the potential and creativity that human beings possess.
• Maslow's theories were more focused on maximizing well-being and achieving one's full potential.

Self-Actualization

The process of self-actualization played a critical role in Maslow's theory. He defined this tendency as "the full use and exploitation of talents, capacities, potentialities, etc." In other words, people are constantly in the process of striving to reach their full potential.

Self-actualization is not an endpoint or a destination. It is an ongoing process in which people continue to stretch themselves and achieve new heights of well-being, creativity, and fulfillment.

Maslow believed that self-actualizing people possess a number of key characteristics. Some of these include self-acceptance, spontaneity, independence, and the ability to have peak experiences.

Abraham Maslow's Contributions to Psychology

Abraham Maslow made a number of important contributions to the field of psychology. Today, he is remembered as one of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century. Among his contributions:

• His theories focused on the positive aspects of human nature . At a time when most psychologists focused on aspects of human nature that were considered abnormal, Abraham Maslow shifted focus to look at the positive sides of mental health.
• His work influenced how we see mental health . His interest in human potential, peak experiences, the improvement of mental health, and personal growth had a lasting influence on psychology.
• His work continues to exert an influence today . While Maslow’s work fell out of favor with many academic psychologists and some suggest his hierarchy might be due for an update , his theories are enjoying a resurgence due to the rising interest in positive psychology .

Maslow died in California on June 8, 1970, of a heart attack.

Selected Publications

• A Theory of Human Motivation, 1943
• Motivation and Personality, 1954
• Toward a Psychology of Being, 1962
• The Farther Reaches of Human Nature , 1971

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Pop Quiz

Abraham Maslow left an indelible mark on psychology. His groundbreaking theories continue to influence researchers and students interested in knowing more about human motivation, self-actualization, and humanistic psychology. 

Maslow, A. Motivation and Personality . New York: Harper; 1954.

Haggbloom SJ.  The 100 Most Eminent Psychologists of the Twentieth Century.   PsycEXTRA Dataset . 2001. doi:10.1037/e413802005-787

Cross, M. 100 People Who Changed 20th-Century America (1st volume.). Santa Barbara, CA; ABC-CLIO; 2013.

Encyclopaedia Britannica. Abraham Maslow . Updated June 4, 2019.

Lawson, R, Anderson, ED, & Cepeda-Benito, A. History of Psychology: Globalization, Ideas, and Applications (2nd ed.). New York: Taylor & Francis; 2017.

Public Broadcasting Station. Abraham Maslow: 1908-1970 .

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Abraham Maslow (Biography + Accomplishments)

A 2002 empirical study endorsed by the American Psychological Association ranked Maslow as the 10th most eminent psychologist of the 20th century.

Who Is Abraham Maslow?

Abraham Maslow was an American psychologist who is widely considered to be one of the founding fathers of humanistic psychology. He is best known for his theory of motivation based on a hierarchy of needs. In addition, Maslow helped to lay the groundwork for positive psychology and transpersonal psychology. 

Abraham Maslow's Early Life

Abraham Harold Maslow was born on April 1, 1908, in Brooklyn, New York. His parents, Samuel and Rose Maslow, were Jewish immigrants from Russia. They were poor and uneducated, but were able to improve their lot in life by starting a barrel-making company. As their financial situation improved, the family moved out of the slums and into a lower-middle-class neighborhood.

Maslow was the eldest of seven children born to his parents but he had a rather lonely and unhappy childhood. He grew up feeling unloved, neglected, and unwanted. He was rejected by his mother in favor of his younger siblings and often received less food than them. She also punished him harshly for even the slightest wrongdoing. According to Maslow, she criticized and belittled him often and never had anything good to say about him. She was also deeply religious and constantly told Maslow that God would strike him down because of his misdemeanors.

Abraham Maslow's Parents

On one occasion, young Maslow brought home two stray kittens and tried to hide them away in the basement. When his mother found out, Maslow watched in horror as she smashed the head of each kitten against the brick wall of the basement until it was dead. Little wonder then, that Maslow developed a deep-seated hatred for his mother. In later years, he described his family as “a miserable family” and his mother as “a horrible creature.” He never forgave her for the way she treated him as a child. He saw very little of her after leaving home and upon her death, refused to attend her funeral.

Maslow’s relationship with his father was somewhat better, but he also harbored feelings of hostility toward him. His father was distant and known as a heavy drinker, fighter, and womanizer. He frequently abandoned the family for long periods of time. Maslow had very few friends and spent much of his time visiting libraries and reading books. Reflecting on his childhood, Maslow once told an interviewer, “It’s a wonder I’m not psychotic.”

Abraham Maslow and Anti-Semitism

Maslow also had to deal with anti-Semitic sentiments from youth gangs in his community and from teachers at school. He was also bullied because of his religion. In order to defend himself, he once tried to join a Jewish gang but could not bring himself to carry out the acts that were required of gang members.

As a teen, Maslow faced other challenges. He felt insecure about his appearance due to his prominent nose and meagre frame. To make matters worse, his own parents teased him about his appearance and openly labeled him as awkward and ugly. At first, he attempted to compensate for his feelings of inferiority by engaging in athletics. After failing to succeed as an athlete, however, he shifted his focus to academics.

Maslow attended the prestigious Boys High School in Brooklyn and did fairly well in most of his courses. He became involved in several clubs and sporting activities, encouraged in part by his cousin Will, with whom he became close friends. At 14 years of age, Maslow met his first cousin, Bertha Goodman, and was at once attracted to her. Bertha had just arrived from Russia and Maslow offered to teach her English. She was the only girl the shy Maslow felt comfortable speaking with and the two eventually began to date.

Educational Background

After completing high school, Maslow knew he wanted to pursue further studies but took a while to settle into a degree program. He enrolled for classes at the City College of New York in 1925 with the intention of studying law. He made this decision primarily to please his father, whose wish was for him to become a lawyer. However, Maslow quickly got bored and unhappy with this course of study. His lack of interest in becoming a lawyer was reflected in his poor grades, and he quit during his second semester.

In 1927, Maslow transferred to Cornell University, where he received his first exposure to psychology by way of an introductory course taught by Edward B. Titchener. Maslow was less than impressed by Titchener’s approach to psychology and after just one semester, transferred back to City College. This move was partly influenced by his desire to be nearer to Bertha Goodman, who lived in the Bronx.

Was Abraham Maslow a Behaviorist? How Behaviorism Influenced His Studies

Maslow’s time at City College was once again short-lived. He was attracted by the liberal atmosphere at the University of Wisconsin and decided to transfer there. He initially planned on studying philosophy but switched focus after reading an essay by John B. Watson in the summer of 1928.  Watson’s behaviorism appealed to Maslow and seemed more applicable to real world problems than philosophy. He then decided that he would become a psychologist.

Maslow found the atmosphere in the psychology department at Wisconsin stimulating and exciting. He flourished in that environment and completed his bachelor’s degree in two years. He earned his B.A. in 1930, his master’s degree in 1931, and his PhD in 1934, all from the University of Wisconsin.

Social Psychology Influences

Around the time he was getting ready to work on his doctoral dissertation, Maslow met Harry Harlow, who later became known for his studies of attachment in monkeys. Maslow began working as Harlow’s research assistant and developed an interest in primate behavior. He decided to study the relationship between social dominance and sexual behavior in monkeys as the subject of his dissertation.

Upon completion of his doctoral degree, Maslow taught at the University of Wisconsin for a short time before taking up a temporary position at Columbia University in 1935. There, he became a research assistant to learning theorist, Edward Thorndike.  A year and a half later, Maslow was offered a permanent position at the newly formed Brooklyn College in 1937. He began as a tutor and eventually rose to the rank of associate professor. During that time, Maslow began to extend his earlier research on dominance in monkeys to the study of dominance in humans.

Who Did Abraham Maslow Study?

Throughout his fourteen years at Brooklyn College, Maslow had the opportunity to meet several prominent psychologists and anthropologists, including Karen Horney, Max Wertheimer, Alfred Adler, Erich Fromm, Margaret Mead, and Ruth Benedict. Their work had a major influence on him and helped to spur his transition from a stimulus-response view of behavior to a more holistic, humanistic approach.

In 1951, Maslow moved to Brandeis University where he served as chairman of the psychology department for many years. He remained at Brandeis until 1969  when failing health prompted his early retirement. He was subsequently appointed resident fellow of the W. P. Laughlin Foundation in Menlo Park, California.

Abraham Maslow Achievements in Humanistic Psychology

Soon after Maslow earned his PhD, he expressed dissatisfaction with the two major approaches to psychology that were dominant at the time—psychoanalysis and behaviorism. According to Maslow, psychoanalysts paid too much attention to “the sick half of psychology” and too little attention to “the healthy half.” He also thought behaviorists were too eager to compare the reactions of animals in a lab to the complex behaviors displayed by human beings. Maslow thus played a major role in spearheading the rise of the next major school of thought in the field— humanistic psychology .

Humanistic psychology quickly became a force in academia for its recognition of and appreciation for the human experience. Maslow believed that human beings were more than just the sum of their parts, and that a true understanding of what it means to be human involved more than simply studying each part of a person. However, Maslow also recognized that “the fundamental desires of human beings are similar.” From these beliefs, he developed a theory of motivation that included concepts such as a hierarchy of needs, self actualization, and peak experiences.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow proposed that human motivation is driven by a hierarchy of needs . He described the five needs as “physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization.” These needs are typically arranged in a pyramidal structure with the most important needs at the bottom of the pyramid.

Maslow believed physiological needs such as eating and sleeping are most important because they contribute directly to a person’s survival. Unless these needs are taken care of first, they will continue to dominate the individual's thoughts and behaviors. Once a person’s physiological needs are met, Maslow claimed it is easier to move up the pyramid and focus on higher level needs. All five tiers of needs are outlined below:

• Physiological - This tier includes physical and biological needs such as food, water, sex, sleep, excretion, homeostasis, shelter, clothes, etc., that are necessary for the survival of the individual.
• Safety - This tier of needs includes items or arrangements that promote order, security, and stability. Employment, property, personal security, and access to healthcare all fall within this category. Like physiological needs, safety needs also contribute to the survival of the individual.
• Love - This tier includes psychological needs that become important when the survival of the individual is already guaranteed. The individual wants to share himself or herself with others, build friendships, experience intimacy and belong to a group or family.
• Esteem - This tier describes the individual’s need to achieve social status. The individual wants to feel as if he or she accomplished something worthwhile and has a desire to be recognized and respected by others.
• Self-Actualization - In this tier the individual reaches his or her full potential and wants to be the best person he or she can be. The individual has a need for intellectual stimulation, creative expression, and focuses on building his or her brand or image.

While Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is often seen as a fixed sequence of progression, Maslow recognized that human needs are flexible and several needs may be present in a person at the same time. In the latter part of his life, Maslow suggested that people do not reach self-actualization automatically even if they address all their other needs in the pyramid.

What is Self-Actualization?

Maslow defined self-actualization as “the full use and exploitation of talents, capacities, potentialities, etc.” He believed that people are always trying to reach their full potential in terms of creativity, well-being, and fulfilment. However, Maslow did not view self-actualization as a fixed end point. Rather, he believed self-actualizing people continue to strive for new heights.

Rather than researching mental illness, Maslow focused on studying self-actualizing individuals with excellent mental health. He believed these individuals share a number of important traits such as independence, self-acceptance, spontaneity, wholeness, richness, and the ability to have peak experiences.

What are Peak Experiences?

Maslow described peak experiences as "rare, exciting, oceanic, deeply moving, exhilarating, elevating experiences that generate an advanced form of perceiving reality, and are even mystic and magical in their effect upon the experimenter." In other words, they are euphoric states of consciousness that are typically achieved by self-actualizing people. Peak experiences may occur during simple or intense activities. While the specific activity leading to a peak experience may vary, the ecstatic, blissful sensations of the experience are always felt.

Maslow believed self-actualizing individuals are more likely to have peak experiences as they indicated the highest level of personality development. His early research on self-actualizing people suggested that common triggers for a peak experience included music, work, advanced knowledge of science, nature, sex, art, and the ability to examine one’s own emotional and cognitive processes. Maslow suggested that self-actualizing people may have several peak experiences in a single day. His later research described “plateau experiences” as more serene, calm, and voluntary events that generally lasted longer than peak experiences.

Transpersonal Psychology

Maslow was familiar with the euphoric, mystical, or spiritual state associated with peak experiences. He believed these types of experiences transcended the ordinary or the average and referred to the empirical study of these experiences as transpersonal psychology. Maslow claimed that human beings need to feel connected to something that is bigger than themselves. He founded the school of transpersonal psychology in the 1960s along with Victor Frankl, Stanislav Grof, and other colleagues.

Positive Psychology

Abraham Maslow's accomplishments go beyond developing the hierarchy of needs. Maslow’s work in humanistic psychology laid the foundation for Martin Seligman and the positive psychology movement in the late 1990s. In fact, the term “positive psychology” was coined by Maslow in 1954. Like Maslow, modern day supporters of positive psychology believe that traditional psychology has chosen to focus on mental illness rather than the entire human experience. It is very likely that Maslow would have approved of the empirical approaches employed by positive psychologists today in the study of topics such as courage, hope, happiness, and optimism.

Applications of Maslow’s Theories

Maslow believed that human beings worked towards self-actualization by progressing through the hierarchy of needs. He saw psychological issues as a difficulty in satisfying one’s self-esteem needs, which ultimately block the individual from reaching self-actualization. Maslow suggested that therapy should be aimed at correcting people’s views of themselves, and boosting their self-esteem. This approach helps individuals in therapy to continue on the journey to self-actualization.

In addition to mental health counseling, principles from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs have been applied to:

• Urban planning - to develop cities that can adequately satisfy the needs of residents by reducing congestion, providing adequate services and resources, and maintaining a healthy economy.
• Hospice care - to fulfill the needs and improve the quality of life of people with life-limiting illnesses. Hospice care providers (1) address distressing symptoms such as pain, (2) allay fears of physical safety, dying, or abandonment, (3) show genuine affection and love even if a debilitating illness is present, (4) boost the self-esteem of patients by treating them with respect and appreciation, and (5) help patients to reach self-actualization and transcendence.
• Policing - to help motivate police officers and the people working under them. Law enforcement members have their physiology and safety needs met through local labor laws and their personal contracts, the guidance and comfort associated with being part of a group, and are encouraged to become the best they can be so they can contribute to positive changes in the organization.
• Education - to help build the relationship between teacher and learner, boost the learner’s self-esteem, and help the learner to take responsibility for his or her own education.
• Management - to foster a business environment in which the needs of employees are recognized and satisfied.
• Marketing - to identify the needs of potential customers and provide specific products or services that are able to satisfy those needs.

Criticisms of Maslow’s Theories

The major criticism of Maslow’s theories is the lack of supporting empirical evidence. For example, Maslow based the majority of his research on the writings of people he thought had reached self-actualization. Maslow’s list of subjects included psychologist Max Wertheimer, anthropologist Ruth Benedict, and physicist Albert Einstein. However, this approach is highly subjective and extremely vulnerable to the personal bias of the researcher.

A second criticism is that therapy grounded in humanistic principles may not be effective when treating serious mental health issues. This means people with chronic conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar issues, or posttraumatic stress disorder may have to seek other therapeutic approaches to manage their symptoms. As humanistic psychology focuses on events that go right, some critics question how suitable it is for solving real world problems.

A third criticism of Maslow’s theories is that they are not universally applicable because they mainly reflect Western values. Interestingly though, a five year study on Maslow’s concepts that was published in 2011 found that people in 123 countries have the same basic needs despite their cultural differences. Other critics have claimed that Maslow’s hierarchy does not necessarily follow a strict order. However, Maslow himself agreed with that viewpoint and stated that people’s needs were fluid on several occasions.

Abraham Maslow's Books, Awards, and Accomplishments

Maslow wrote several books throughout his career and some of his writings were published posthumously. His most well-known books are listed below:

• A Theory of Human Motivation , 1943
• Motivation and Personality , 1954
• Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences, 1964.
• Eupsychian Management, 1965
• The Psychology of Science: A Reconnaissance , 1966
• Toward a Psychology of Being, 1962
• The Farther Reaches of Human Nature, 1971
• Future Visions: The Unpublished Papers of Abraham Maslow , 1996
• Personality and Growth: A Humanistic Psychologist in the Classroom , 2019

A few of Maslow’s other awards and accomplishments include:

• Founding the Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 1961
• Member of the Association of Humanistic Psychology (declined the presidency), 1963
• Selected as the Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association, 1967
• Elected President of the American Psychological Association, 1968

Personal Life

Against his parents’ wishes and the advice of his friends and professors, Maslow married his first cousin Bertha Goodman on December 31, 1928, at the age of 20. In his later years, Maslow described his marriage to Bertha as one of the best decisions and one of the greatest joys in his life. The two loved each other dearly and eventually had two daughters, Ann, who was born in 1938, and Ellen, born in 1940.

Despite his successes as an adult, Maslow suffered from anxiety and intense stage fright. After a public presentation, he sometimes had to go on bed rest for several days. His fear of public speaking caused him to resign as president of the APA after only one year.

Maslow had a history of chronic heart disease and experienced a major heart attack in 1967. Three years later, on June 8, 1970, he suffered another massive heart attack which proved to be fatal. He was 62 years of age at the time of his death.

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Encyclopedia Britannica. (2020). Abraham Maslow. In Encyclopedia Britannica . Retrieved from  https://www.britannica.com/biography/Abraham-H-Maslow

Krapp, K. (Ed.). (2015). A study guide for psychologists and their theories for students: Abraham Maslow. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale.

Lawson, R. B., Graham, J. E., & Baker, K. M. (2016). A history of psychology: Globalization, ideas, and applications . New York: Routledge.

Martin, B. S. (n.d.). Managing police personnel using Scott’s pillars of organizations. Police Chief Magazine . Retrieved from  https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/managing-police-personnel-using-scotts-pillars/

Reevy, G. M., Ozer, Y. M., & Ito, Y. (2010). Encyclopedia of emotion, Volume 1 . Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood.

Schultz, D. P., & Schultz, S. E. (2016). A history of modern psychology (11th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Selva, J. (2019). Abraham Maslow, his theory and contribution to psychology. Retrieved from  https://positivepsychology.com/abraham-maslow/

Zalenski, R. J., & Raspa, R. (2006). Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: A framework for achieving human potential in hospice. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 9 (5), 1120-1127.

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Abraham Maslow Biography

Categories History

Abraham Maslow was an influential American psychologist who founded the school of thought known as humanistic psychology. His famous hierarchy of needs describes how people are motivated by increasingly complex needs.

Maslow was inspired to develop his theory by his dissatisfaction with some of the major theories of psychology that existed at the time. He believed that Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis focused too heavily on the negative aspects of human nature. On the other hand, behaviorism was too mechanistic and did not account for things such as free will and internal thoughts and feelings. Instead, humanistic psychology focused on people’s innate goodness and took a much more positive approach to human psychology.

Let’s take a closer look at Maslow’s life and theories.

Table of Contents

Abraham Maslow’s Early Life

Abraham Maslow was born on April 1, 1908. He was the first of seven children born to his Russian-Jewish immigrant parents. While his parents were working class, they valued education and pushed him hard academically and he spent much of his time immersed in books.

By all accounts, his parents were cold, insensitive, and even cruel at times. His father was a heavy drinker prone to making cutting remarks about his oldest son’s looks and intelligence, all the while pushing him to excel at things that held no interest for the young Maslow. His father once publicly derided his son’s appearance, deeming him “ugly.”

These negative experiences at home were further compounded by Maslow’s rocky relationship with his mother. He would later suggest that he loathed his mother and found her repulsive. To illustrate this point, Maslow recounted a tale of finding two abandoned kittens and bringing them home. When his mother discovered the kittens, she killed them in front of her son.

This damaging home life was enough to damage Maslow’s self-esteem, but he also struggled with challenges outside of the home. Anti-Semitism directed at him by his friends and teachers made his academic and social life difficult.

These challenges are perhaps why the young Maslow took such great refuge in books, which became a safe place away from the criticism and bigotry he faced. He would later describe his childhood as lonely and unhappy.

Maslow’s Education

He studied at City College of New York and took law courses to satisfy his father’s wishes. He quickly found that he hated law and quickly dropped the courses. He briefly studied at Cornell but had to drop out due to the high costs and his poor grades. Maslow very nearly lost his interest in psychology after taking a course from Edward B. Titchener, who Maslow found tedious.

He eventually returned to City College of New York and went to the University of Wisconsin. He married his longtime love and first cousin, Bertha Goodman, in 1928, and the two would go on to have two daughters. While Maslow’s childhood was marred by unhappy relationships with his parents, his marriage and family life were a happy affairs. He would later suggest that his marriage marked the true beginning of his life.

Maslow earned his BA in 1930, his MA in 1931, and his PhD in 1934, all in psychology and all from the University of Wisconsin. During his studies, he became the very first doctoral student of psychologist Harry Harlow, best remembered for his controversial monkey experiments on maternal deprivation.

After earning his Ph.D., Maslow spent 18 months at a fellowship at Columbia, where he worked with Edward Thorndike and began to study human sexuality.

Maslow’s Career

Maslow took a position teaching at Brooklyn College in 1937 and continued to work at the school until 1951. The development of his groundbreaking theories was heavily influenced by his observations of the world around him. World War II played a role in his desire to search for a more peaceful vision of human psychology.

His observations of his esteemed mentors, anthropologist Ruth Benedict and psychologist Max Wertheimer, contributed significantly to his concept of the self-actualized individual.

Maslow’s Role in Humanistic Psychology

In 1951, Maslow took a position as the psychology department chair at Brandeis University. During this time, Maslow became the key figure behind the rise of humanistic psychology, often referred to as the “third force” (psychoanalysis and behaviorism being the first and second).

In 1954, Maslow published his most famous work, Motivation and Personality , which detailed his approach. In 1962, Maslow founded the American Association of Humanistic Psychology. Early members of the association included major figures such as Carl Rogers and George Kelly.

In 1966, he was elected President of the American Psychological Association. Eventually, Maslow relocated to California due to his increasingly poor health and passed away on June 8, 1970, from a heart attack.

Maslow’s Theory of Motivation

Maslow’s theory grew out of his belief that so much of early psychology had focused on dysfunction but not enough on the psychology of healthy, happy people. In his now-famous hierarchy of needs, Maslow detailed how increasingly complex needs build on each other and compel people to pursue things that fulfill those needs.

The needs he described were arranged in a hierarchy, which is most often portrayed as a pyramid.

At the base of this pyramid lie the physiological needs. These are the needs for basic survival, such as food, water, sleep, and sex. Once these needs have been adequately fulfilled, the next level of needs, which are focused on safety and security, becomes more critical.

The third level of the hierarchy is focused on belonging and includes social needs such as friendships, family, romantic relationships, and other social affiliations. Once these needs have been met, people begin to pursue the need for esteem, both for the self and for others.

It is once all of these lower-level needs have been satisfied that people begin the pursuit of the peak need in the hierarchy, that of self-actualization . Maslow described self-actualization as the desire to become all that a person can be and to fulfill one’s total potential.

While it is usually suggested that lower-level needs must be met before moving on to higher-level ones, researchers have found that even people living in utter poverty and deprivation are still moved to satisfy higher-level needs such as belongingness and esteem.

How Did Abraham Maslow Contribute to Psychology?

Abraham Maslow’s early life may have been marked by pain and difficulty, but he turned that pain into a positive force in psychology. His hierarchy of needs stands as Maslow’s best-known achievements.

His hierarchy of needs contributed to understanding how and why people engage in different actions. His focus on the goodness of people led to the emergence of humanism as a powerful force within psychology.

From this approach emerged new ways of treating people who were struggling with mental health issues and psychological distress. His work also contributed immensely to the development of positive psychology, a branch centered on understanding what makes people happy.

You can learn more about your levels of self-actualization by taking our self-actualization test .

Brady-Amoon, P. (2012). Maslow, A. H.. In: Rieber, R.W. (eds) Encyclopedia of the History of Psychological Theories . Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0463-8_182

Hall, M. H. (1968). A conversation with Abraham Maslow. Psychology Today, pp. 35-37, 54-57.  

King, D.B., Woody, W.D., & Viney, W. (2015). History of Psychology: Ideas and Context. New York: Routledge.

Maslow, A.H. (1943). A Theory of Human Motivation. Psychological Review, 50, 370-396.

Maslow, A.H. (1987). Motivation and Personality. (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Harper & Row.

Navy, S.L. (2020). Theory of Human Motivation—Abraham Maslow. In: Akpan, B., Kennedy, T.J. (eds) Science Education in Theory and Practice . Springer Texts in Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43620-9_2

Tay L, and Diener E. (2011). Needs and subjective well-being around the world. Journal of Personal Social Psychology, 101, 2, 354-65.

Psychologized

Psychology is Everywhere...

The Contribution of Abraham Maslow to Psychology 

Abraham Maslow

Have you ever stood on top of a mountain and looked down at the valley below filled with insect-sized cars, houses and people; birds riding the wind below and a view which leads right out to sea and across the landscape of mountain and river too? That not work for you? Ok, how about a gig or concert? A beach with warm sunshine or snow so fresh and cold it bites you, yet overwhelms your senses?  If you have ever had that “top of the world” feeling where it was so good to be alive that little else mattered, you have felt what Abraham Maslow called “peak experience”, true self actualisation and the top of his Hierarchy of Needs.

Maslow, born the eldest of seven children in 1908 to émigré Jews in New York, who suffered anti-Semitism as a child and lived through some of the darkest days of the 20 th century, spent his life and work concentrating on what we as human beings need to be happy and successful.  Maslow is almost unique in his generation of psychologists in that while most psychologists were studying Freud and behaviourism, concentrating on abnormal psychology, he chose to study how we might, in the right circumstances, experience joy.

Maslow was one of the founding fathers of “humanistic” psychology and along with Carl Rogers, he focussed on the strength of humanity including free will, creativity, love and human potential.  This perspective, unlike the psychoanalytic and the behavioural schools of psychology, attempts to see the person as a whole and instead of looking at others from the outside only to try to analyse their problems.  While some of Maslow’s ideas have been criticised by academic psychologists as lacking empirical (research) proof,  his ideas along with others have remained popular and have even gained ground in recent years with the emergence  of  therapies such as solution focussed therapy and mindfulness thinking.

The “Self-Actualising” person

To anyone familiar with this model of the human existence it is impossible to dissociate it from the figurative representation of it as a triangle, pyramid or a series of steps.  In typical style, rather than start at the bottom, Maslow, started at the top.  He was interested in what characteristics and attitudes made people “Self Actualising”.  So he studied a range of successful, positive people including Eleanor Roosevelt and Albert Einstein.   He argued for the sake of psychology as a discipline;

“The study of crippled, stunted, immature, and unhealthy specimens can yield only a cripple psychology and a cripple philosophy ”

While those words offend our 21 st century sensibilities, what he appeared to mean was that psychology needed to study more than just abnormality.  So in addition to his exceptional people he studies the healthiest 1% of the college student population. From both studies he determined that “self-actualising” people have certain characteristics. Maslow noticed that they had self-acceptance, were sceptical about burdensome rules, had been tested through adversity yet could still rely on their inner potential.

Most of all, he suggested, they were people who meet their potential as human being but in particular they have all or some of the following characteristics:

• A need of or a liking for  Truth
• Honest in word, deed and thought
• An appreciation of beauty and rightness in form or in symbolism
• Synergy or feeling connected with the world
• An ability to work with complex and opposing idea
• Appropriately spontaneous
• Comfortable with their own uniqueness
• Ability to behave in an impartial way
• Ability to see through over complexity to the core of ideas and thinking
• Playful and enjoyment
• Self-determination

While there are some amiable characteristics and we all know someone who is like that some of the time, one of the stronger criticisms of the concept of self-actualisation is that it is a “mirage” or at best a temporary state.

Maslow however, gave us a gift because his theory didn’t just focus on exceptional people it also explained the drivers which motivate people and his 1954 book Motivation and Personality set out the stages or steps between basic drives and becoming a self-actualising person.  While core to humanistic psychology,  the hierarchy is used in a wide range of training in fields as diverse as sports coaching, management training and even community development.

So what does the “pyramid” look like?

The 5 stages Pyramid of Maslow

The pyramid or staircase has five steps:

• On the bottom or base of the pyramid are the needs that we all have for survival. These are basic needs such as food, water, sleep, health.  If we don’t have these things then we cannot spend “mental energy” on higher ideas such as self-actualisation. These states are experienced frequently by billions of people across the world.  Genocides, tsunamis, famine and war all push people down to the basic survival state of “where is my next meal coming from?”
• When the basic needs are met the nest motivators are to feel secure.  The needs here are having a job, accommodation, links to close family and having health.  Many fairly wealthy people could be brought down to this level of insecurity due to poor relationships, or having job insecurity or threats to home.  A recession, temporary unemployment or marriage breakdown could confine a person to this level and prevent personal growth.
• The third step on Maslow’s hierarchy is social needs. We all need family friends and intimacy and a sense of belonging, perhaps to our community or a group. But no matter how much we need these things unless we have food, shelter and security we can’t keep this state going well.
• Spirituality and self-esteem come next and this includes an appreciation of ourselves, our bodies, what we know and can learn and an appreciation of the beautiful.
• At the top of the pyramid is Maslow’s concept of self-actualisation. Being all you can be, having self-acceptance even in full knowledge of yourself, “warts and all”.  In this state some people achieve transcendence and most want to help others or feel driven to make a contribution to the world

Maslow made several observations about the links between achievement of steps on the hierarchy and motivation.  He stated that “a satisfied need never motivates” but the corollary to this is that an unsatisfied need is highly motivating.  Comparatively few people in the North America and Europe will be on the bottom rung of Maslow’s hierarchy (especially if the basic drive to reproduce is discounted) Many, however, will be stuck at certain aspects of the second layer – an unenjoyable job, living in an area or housing which is unsatisfactory.  Maslow doesn’t answer whether it is possible to have elements of level 3-4 for example a sense of creativity and friends but have no money and nowhere to live.   I would suggest that perhaps a more realistic design for the hierarchy might be a “Rubics pyramid” of needs where you can have some elements from each layer in your life. With a topping of self-actualisation for the best days.

Maslow’s ideas are now over 70 years old and remain influential especially for the understanding of motivation. Personally, I think it is a little too simplistic especially if we consider the lives of many a great artist, content to leave us magnificent works,  yet to die young,  in virtual poverty.  With this in mind I want to leave the last word to an impecunious poet born at a similar time to Maslow, but who at times, gave us the peak experience which Maslow described so well:

“ Oh, as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means, Time held me green and dying Though I sang in my chains like the sea.” Fern Hill by Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('article2'); });

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What Was Maslow's View of Peak-Experiences?

Abraham maslow's take on bliss in everyday life.

Posted September 4, 2011

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During the tumultuous years of the 1960s, Abraham Maslow devoted considerable attention to the topic of peak-experiences. Relying mainly on phenomenological reports of college students and colleagues, he became convinced of two key findings: First, that ordinary people may undergo genuine peaks in the seemingly most commonplace events and surroundings--while waiting for a bus on a sunlit city street, listening nostalgically to a romantic song on the radio, or preparing dinner for one's family.

Maslow found it incredible that some of his undergraduates at Brandeis University unknowingly described their peak-experiences in language of rapture similar to those of famous spiritual teachers, East and West. The implication was clear: We needn't be great religious mystics or even practitioners to undergo an unforgettable epiphany during daily living. Nor, as a corollary, Maslow asserted, is it necessary to meditate in a Tibetan monastery or travel exotically to gain such a wondrous encounter. As he poetically observed in RELIGIONS, VALUES, AND PEAK-EXPERIENCES, "The great lesson from the true mystics {is that} the sacred is in the ordinary, that it is to be found in one's daily life, in one's neighbors, friends, and family, in one's backyard."

Second, Maslow eventually felt sure that the more emotionally healthy we are, the greater the likelihood of a peak-experience and also the more frequent such episodes become in the course of daily-to-daily living. Maslow also suggested that as we age physically, the intensity of peak moments gives way to a gentler, more sustained state of serenity that he called plateau-experiences. Unlike peak-experiences, he advised, such plateaus can be cultivated through conscious, diligent effort.

Shortly before Maslow's sudden death from a heart attack in 1970, he began developing exercises to help people achieve the plateau state of consciousness, such as gazing at a tiny flower intensely and with total attention, or at a familiar family member or friend and imagining "that you [or he/she] is going to die soon." Such methods, Maslow proposed, can serve to break the dull, habitual way we relate to others and help us to see the world once more with freshness and delight.

As Maslow's biographer, I can report that he almost never discussed his own peak-experiences, even with family members and close friends. Why? Because he was a very private person. From their scattered remembrances, I learned that he found greatest peace when listening to classical music--especially the Romantic composers--or when bird-watching on Audubon Society nature walks in pastoral New England. Sometimes, at night, to reach a desired inner state, he listened to recordings of birdcalls. Lovemaking with his wife, Bertha, was another source of revelatory joy for him, as he sometimes told her.

Unfortunately, Maslow as an experimentally-trained psychologist had almost no formal background in theology or comparative religion with which to gain additional conceptual ground in his explorations of numinous experience. His unpublished diaries from the 1940s through the 1960s certainly reveal a sharp intellect whose favorite philosophical thinkers included Martin Buber, Mircia Eliade, Viktor Frankl, William James, D.T. Suzuki, Paul Tillich, and Alan Watts. But Maslow's reading in this domain was haphazard and unsystematic--and he lacked both a conceptual framework and a vocabulary for reaching higher into human transcendence.

After the birth of Maslow's granddaughter Jeannie in 1968, he gained renewed interest in peak-experiences--especially concerning childhood . Intuitively, he felt sure that even young children possess the capacity for epiphanies and numinous moments, but lack the vocabulary for articulating these. Maslow hoped to begin empirical research on children's peaks once his health improved. But he died before starting any systematic exploration on this fascinating topic. For the past six years with colleagues internationally, I've been researching peak-experiences of our early years. But that's a subject for another blog post.

copyright by Edward Hoffman, Ph.D.

Edward Hoffman, Ph.D. , teaches psychology at Yeshiva University.

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Abraham Maslow and his theories

Introducing the key concept of one of the fathers of Humanistic Psychology

BIOGRAPHY - Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

Abraham Harold Maslow was born on 1st April 1908 in Brooklyn, NY. After him, his parents had six other children. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Russia. They were uneducated so pushed him towards academia.

After he satisfied his parents by studying law at the City College of New York, Abe decided to pursue the career he really wanted. Against his parents' wishes, he married his first cousin Bertha and moved to Wisconsin. Abe and Bertha had two daughters, and Abe received a BA in 1930, an MA in 1931 and a PhD in 1934 all in Psychology and all from the University of Wisconsin. At the University of Wisconsin, Abe started to work with Harry Harlow, a famous American psychologist, known for his experiments on attachments that he conducted on baby monkeys.

After graduation, Maslow went back to New York where he began teaching full time at Brooklyn College. This was a particularly stimulating time for his intellectual development as he came in contact with a lot of intellectuals, several Freudian and Gestalt psychologists, Adler and Fromm. A turning point was when he finally met Kurt Goldstein, who first originated the concept of self-actualisation, in his book The Organism (1934). From this point onwards, his theorising became distinctively Humanistic.

Abraham Maslow spent the final years of his life retired in California, where he died of a heart attack in 1970.

THE HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

Maslow started to work on attachments with monkeys, early in his career. He observed how monkeys take care of certain needs before others (for example they prioritise thirst and hunger over the need for sex). Maslow first put these needs on a scale, from more basic and essential needs, to more sophisticated ones. The same scale is applied to humans. Beyond physiological needs, such as food and water, he added other 5 layers: the needs for safety and security, the need for love and belonging, the need for esteem and the need to actualise the self. This became one of his most famous pieces of theory: the Hierarchy of Needs (1943).

(Rogers, 1951, p. 487)

I’m aware that Rogers and Maslow use the terms in slightly different ways, and I want to side with Rogers, because his use of the term is more inclusive and less elitist. Maslow says only 2% of the population is self-actualising, while Rogers applies the term more generically to describe the tendency towards reaching one’s own potential.

Peak experiences

A peak experience is when we feel very tiny, or very large and in touch with nature and life. During a peak experience, we can feel part of the infinite. These experiences leave a mark in our life and they change us for the better. In religious terms they’re referred to as mystical experiences.

‘Self-actualizers’ and anxiety

Maslow does not describe those ‘self-actualizers’ as perfect. In fact, he highlights they are often more prone to anxiety and guilt. He distinguishes their anxiety as ‘realistic’, as opposed to others’ anxiety, which would be a neurotic displacement. In my opinion, this concept is a bit obscure in Maslow, and Heidegger’s terminology can help to clarify what I think he means. Maslow refers to the difference between ontic and ontological anxiety. Maslow refers to the ‘self-actualizers’ as more in touch with the ontological nature of anxiety, while everyone else is just entangled in ontic and circumstantial anxieties.

Maslow also says that often the ‘self-actualizers’ can be absent-minded or unpredictably cold and ruthless. At the same time he also describes them as overly kind.

Meta-needs and Meta-patologies

Maslow lists the need that self actualizers feel: Truth

Goodness Beauty

Unity, wholeness and transcendence of opposites

Perfection and necessity (I think a good word would also be ‘intentionality’, as opposed to inconsistency and accidental)

Justice and order

Richness (obviously not necessarily in materialistic terms)

Effortlessness

Playfulness

Self-sufficiency

Meaningfulness

A good argument is that we all need those. But when a ‘self-actualizer’ finds him/her-self without those conditions, they develop meta-pathologies (depression, despair, alienation…).

THE THIRD AND FOUTH FORCE OF PSYCHOLOGY Freud and the ‘ depth-psychology ’ is often referred to as the first force of psychology. After that, there was a new wave of thinkers that are referred to as Behaviourists; they constitute the second force. In the 1950s and 60s in America, people began to question this mechanistic view of human nature and Maslow was an inspiration for a lot of influential thinkers of that time. We now refer to that movement as the third force of psychology: Humanistic and Existential psychologies.

Towards the end of his life, Maslow was considered between the founders of yet another wave of thinkers: a fourth force. The fourth force is referred to as transpersonal psychology. The key philosophical ideas of the fourth force of psychology are: Eastern philosophies, levels of consciousness, meditation and even parapsychological phenomena.

Essential texts

For a good introduction to Maslow: http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/maslow.html  

Maslow's texts are also very accessible and easy to read. The most influentials are:

(1968) Psychology of Being

(1954/1970) Motivation and Personality

(1971) The Further Research on Human Nature

Bibliography

Heidegger, M. (1953/1966). Being and Time. State University of New York Press: New York. Maslow, A.H. (1943). ‘A Theory of Human Motivation’, in Psychological Review. 50 (4): 370–96.

Rogers, C.R. (1951). Client-centered therapy: Its current practice, implications and theory. London: Constable. Rogers, C.R. (1961). On Becoming a person: A psychotherapists view of psychotherapy. Houghton Mifflin.

Exploring Abraham Maslow’s Contributions to Psychology

Abraham Maslow, a renowned psychologist, is widely recognized for his groundbreaking contributions to the field of psychology. From his influential Hierarchy of Needs theory to his emphasis on self-actualization and humanistic psychology, Maslow’s ideas have left a lasting impact on the study of human behavior.

This article delves into Maslow’s key concepts, examines how his ideas have shaped the field of psychology, critiques of his theories, and explores his enduring legacy in modern psychology. Join us on a journey to uncover the fascinating world of Abraham Maslow and his profound influence on the realm of psychology.

• Maslow’s hierarchy of needs presents a framework for understanding human motivation and behavior, starting from basic physiological needs to higher level needs such as self-actualization.
• Maslow’s humanistic approach emphasized the importance of individual growth, self-actualization, and fulfillment, shifting the focus from pathology to personal potential and well-being.
• While Maslow’s contributions have greatly influenced the field of psychology, his theory has also faced criticism for being culturally biased, lacking empirical evidence, and oversimplifying human behavior.
• 1 Who Was Abraham Maslow?
• 2.1 Hierarchy of Needs
• 2.2 Self-Actualization
• 2.3 Humanistic Psychology
• 3.1 Shift Towards Humanistic Approach
• 3.2 Influence on Positive Psychology
• 3.3 Rejection of the ‘Sick’ Model of Psychology
• 4.1 Cultural Bias
• 4.2 Lack of Empirical Evidence
• 4.3 Oversimplification of Human Behavior
• 5.1 Continued Relevance in Self-Help and Motivational Literature
• 5.2 Incorporation into Various Therapy Approaches
• 5.3 Ongoing Research and Debate on His Ideas
• 6.1 What are some key contributions made by Abraham Maslow in the field of psychology?
• 6.2 How did Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs impact the development of humanistic psychology?
• 6.3 What is the main premise of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?
• 6.4 In what ways did Maslow’s contributions impact the field of positive psychology?
• 6.5 What criticisms have been made against Maslow’s contributions to psychology?
• 6.6 How can Maslow’s theories be applied in practical settings, such as in education or the workplace?

Who Was Abraham Maslow?

Abraham Maslow, a renowned psychologist, is best known for his contributions to humanistic psychology and the development of the hierarchy of needs theory. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Maslow pursued a successful career in psychology, shaping the field with his innovative ideas.

His early life was marked by a keen curiosity and passion for understanding human behavior, which led him to delve into psychology early on. Maslow’s education journey took him to the University of Wisconsin, where he explored various aspects of psychology and began to form the foundational theories that would later define his work.

• During World War II, Maslow’s career took a different turn as he worked with the military to develop a deeper understanding of human motivation and behavior under extreme circumstances.
• Interacting with influential figures like Harry Harlow and Ruth Benedict further enriched Maslow’s perspectives and influenced the evolution of his theories.

What Are Maslow’s Contributions to Psychology?

Abraham Maslow’s significant contributions to psychology include his groundbreaking theories on the hierarchy of needs, self-actualization, and humanistic psychology. Through his research and publications, Maslow emphasized the importance of self-acceptance, spontaneity, and independence in achieving personal growth and wellbeing.

One of Maslow’s key theories, the hierarchy of needs , is often depicted as a pyramid, with basic needs like food, shelter, and safety forming the foundation, followed by higher-level needs such as love, esteem, and self-actualization at the pinnacle. This model revolutionized psychology by highlighting the sequential nature of human motivation and the intrinsic drive for personal fulfillment.

Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory postulates that individuals have a series of needs that must be met in a specific order for personal fulfillment and growth.

According to this renowned psychological theory, the five levels are categorized as physiological needs, safety needs, love and belongingness needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs. These levels form a pyramid structure, with each level building upon the one below it to facilitate an individual’s psychological development.

• Starting at the foundation, physiological needs encompass basic requirements for survival, such as air, water, food, and sleep.
• Once these needs are sufficiently met, individuals move on to the next level, which is safety needs , involving security, stability, and protection.
• After safety needs, individuals seek love and belongingness needs , which emphasize relationships, friendships, and intimacy.
• Once these social connections are established, individuals then pursue esteem needs , which include feelings of accomplishment, recognition, and respect from others.
• At the peak of the pyramid lies self-actualization needs , representing the desire for personal growth, fulfillment of potential, and self-improvement. Maslow believed that individuals strive towards self-actualization once their lower-level needs are sufficiently satisfied.

Self-Actualization

Self-actualization , a central concept in Maslow’s humanistic psychology, refers to the realization of one’s full potential and the pursuit of growth and fulfillment.

Self-actualized individuals are characterized by their ability to embrace reality and accept themselves and others fully. They demonstrate a strong sense of autonomy, creativity, and are deeply in tune with their inner values and motivations. This heightened awareness allows them to experience life more fully and authentically, leading to a greater sense of satisfaction and fulfillment.

Self-actualization plays a significant role in promoting mental health and positive psychology by fostering resilience, optimism, and a deep sense of purpose. When individuals strive for self-actualization, they are more likely to experience greater overall well-being and contentment in their lives.

Humanistic Psychology

Humanistic psychology, championed by Maslow and other notable figures, focuses on the positive aspects of human experience, emphasizing self-acceptance, growth, and wellbeing.

Central to humanistic psychology is the belief in each individual’s capacity to reach their fullest potential, regardless of their past experiences or current struggles. This approach emphasizes the importance of subjective experiences and personal agency in shaping one’s mental and emotional well-being. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, a cornerstone of humanistic psychology, highlights the sequential progression of human needs, starting from basic physiological requirements to self-actualization. Maslow’s theory has had a profound influence on modern therapeutic practices, encouraging therapists to focus on fostering personal growth, self-awareness, and holistic well-being in their clients.

How Did Maslow’s Ideas Impact the Field of Psychology?

Abraham Maslow’s ideas revolutionized the field of psychology by shifting the focus towards a humanistic approach that emphasized personal growth, self-actualization, and positive aspects of human behavior.

His hierarchy of needs theory provided a framework for understanding human motivation, outlining the progression from basic physiological needs to higher levels of psychological fulfillment.

Maslow’s notion of self-actualization, the pinnacle of his hierarchy, highlighted the innate drive for individuals to reach their full potential and lead fulfilling lives. Exploring Abraham Maslow’s Contributions to Psychology

This concept influenced subsequent psychological theories, such as positive psychology, which aimed to promote well-being and flourishing rather than just treating mental illness.

Shift Towards Humanistic Approach

Maslow’s advocacy for a humanistic approach in psychology paved the way for modern applications that prioritize individual experiences, self-acceptance, and personal growth.

His emphasis on the hierarchy of needs, with the pinnacle being self-actualization, revolutionized the understanding of motivation and human development. This framework continues to guide therapy approaches that aim to help individuals reach their full potential and lead fulfilling lives.

Maslow’s theory also underpins positive psychology, a branch focusing on strengths and virtues to enhance well-being. Through concepts like peak experiences and flow, psychologists apply Maslow’s teachings to promote happiness, resilience, and mental health.

His notion of a need for connection and belonging influences social psychology research pertaining to relationships and community interactions.

Influence on Positive Psychology

Maslow’s emphasis on positive aspects of human behavior laid the foundation for the emergence of positive psychology, a field dedicated to studying human strengths, virtues, and optimal functioning.

His famous hierarchy of needs, outlining the progression from basic physiological requirements to self-actualization, provided a roadmap for understanding human motivation and fulfillment. By shifting the focus from pathology to well-being, researchers have delved into topics such as positive emotions, character strengths, and resilience.

Studies like Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi’s work on flow and authentic happiness have deepened our understanding of what contributes to a fulfilling life, while publications like ‘Positive Psychology: The Science of Happiness’ by Snyder and Lopez have become cornerstone texts in the field. Maslow’s legacy continues to inspire a wealth of research that underscores the importance of positive aspects of human experience in cultivating thriving individuals and communities.

Rejection of the ‘Sick’ Model of Psychology

Maslow’s rejection of the traditional ‘sick’ model of psychology challenged the prevailing focus on pathology and instead promoted a more holistic view that emphasized mental health, potential, and growth.

In his critique, Maslow highlighted the inherent limitation of focusing solely on negative aspects of human behavior and mental health. He argued that by neglecting the positive qualities and strengths of individuals, the ‘sick’ model failed to offer a comprehensive understanding of human nature.

By shifting the focus towards positivity and human potential, Maslow paved the way for a more balanced approach that recognized the importance of both acknowledging and nurturing individual strengths alongside addressing weaknesses.

What Are Some Criticisms of Maslow’s Theory?

While Maslow’s theory has had a profound impact, it has also faced criticisms for potential cultural bias, the lack of empirical evidence supporting some aspects, and oversimplification of complex human behavior.

One common criticism directed at Maslow’s theory is its potential cultural bias, as it primarily reflects Western values and assumptions about human motivations.

Some argue that the lack of rigorous empirical validation has led to concerns about the scientific validity of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

This theory has also been accused of oversimplifying the complexities of human behavior, reducing individuals to a hierarchical system.

These critiques have spurred researchers to delve deeper into the cultural nuances of motivation and explore more diverse and comprehensive models that capture the intricacies of human psychological development.

Cultural Bias

Critics have pointed out potential cultural biases in Maslow’s theory, suggesting that the hierarchy of needs and self-actualization may not be universally applicable across diverse cultural contexts.

When examining the critique of cultural bias in Maslow’s theory, it becomes evident that perceptions of needs hierarchy and concepts of self-actualization can differ significantly depending on the cultural norms and values prevalent within a particular society. Cultural diversity plays a crucial role in shaping psychological theories and understanding human behavior. Recognizing and appreciating the variances in perspectives that arise from diverse cultural backgrounds is essential in conducting thorough and inclusive research in the field of psychology.

Lack of Empirical Evidence

One of the criticisms against Maslow’s theory revolves around the perceived lack of robust empirical evidence to substantiate all aspects of his hierarchy of needs and humanistic psychology.

While Maslow’s work has offered valuable insights into human motivation and behavior, some scholars argue that his theories have faced challenges when it comes to empirical validation.

Many researchers have scrutinized the empirical validity of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, questioning the generalizability of his findings across different cultures and contexts.

Empirical studies in recent years have shown mixed results, with some supporting Maslow’s framework while others suggesting modifications or alternative explanations.

Oversimplification of Human Behavior

Critics have argued that Maslow’s theory oversimplifies the complexities of human behavior by reducing multifaceted psychological processes to a linear hierarchy of needs and self-actualization.

In criticizing the oversimplification in Maslow’s theory, scholars have pointed out that the linear progression of needs fails to capture the intricate web of motivations that drive individuals’ actions. Human behavior is influenced by a range of factors beyond basic needs, such as social, cognitive, and emotional aspects, that interact in dynamic ways.

To gain a more comprehensive understanding of human complexity, many psychologists and researchers advocate for embracing a more holistic approach that considers the interconnectedness of various psychological dimensions. By exploring alternative perspectives and frameworks, such as those emphasizing cultural influences, relational dynamics, and existential meanings, we can delve deeper into the nuanced intricacies of psychological functioning that go beyond Maslow’s simplistic model.

What Is Maslow’s Legacy in Psychology Today?

Abraham Maslow’s legacy endures in contemporary psychology, manifesting in the continued relevance of his ideas in self-help literature, therapeutic approaches, and ongoing research that explores the depths of human potential.

His groundbreaking concept of the hierarchy of needs, illustrating the progression from basic physiological requirements to self-actualization, serves as a foundation for many psychological interventions today. Maslow’s emphasis on the pursuit of personal growth and peak experiences has greatly influenced positive psychology and mindfulness practices.

The ongoing debate surrounding Maslow’s work focuses on the universality of his hierarchy and the extent to which it applies across cultures and diverse populations. Researchers continue to adapt and expand upon his original framework, integrating new findings and insights to address the complexities of human motivation and well-being.

Continued Relevance in Self-Help and Motivational Literature

Maslow’s ideas continue to resonate in self-help and motivational literature , inspiring individuals to embark on journeys of personal growth, self-acceptance, and self-actualization.

His notion of the hierarchy of needs, starting from basic physiological requirements to self-actualization, forms a foundational principle in many self-help books. Writers often draw upon Maslow’s concept of ‘peak experiences’ to encourage readers to seek moments of profound fulfillment and purpose. The emphasis on self-awareness and personal fulfillment mirrors the core messages found in various motivational practices that stress the importance of introspection and goal setting.

Incorporation into Various Therapy Approaches

Therapeutic approaches have incorporated Maslow’s humanistic principles , emphasizing the importance of personal growth, wellbeing, and self-actualization in therapeutic interventions.

This client-centered approach shifts the focus to the client’s unique needs and experiences, fostering a deep sense of empathy and understanding within the therapeutic relationship. By prioritizing individual potential and positive change, therapists aim to create a safe and supportive environment that encourages clients to explore their inner world, values, and aspirations. Maslow’s emphasis on self-actualization has led to interventions that enable individuals to achieve their full potential and lead fulfilling lives, transcending mere symptom relief to promote long-lasting transformation and holistic well-being.

Ongoing Research and Debate on His Ideas

Scholars and practitioners engage in ongoing research and debate surrounding Maslow’s ideas, exploring their applicability in modern psychology and contributing to the evolution of theoretical frameworks.

Recent studies have delved into the nuances of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, investigating how these innate human motivators interact with individual differences and cultural influences. Publications have scrutinized the role of self-actualization in today’s fast-paced society, questioning whether the pursuit of personal growth remains a universal goal.

Debates have emerged around the prioritization of needs in Maslow’s pyramid and the impact of societal changes on the hierarchy’s relevance. Despite the critiques, Maslow’s emphasis on humanistic psychology and the innate drive for self-improvement continues to resonate with researchers seeking to understand the complexities of human behavior and motivation.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some key contributions made by abraham maslow in the field of psychology.

Abraham Maslow is best known for his theory of human motivation, also known as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. He also made significant contributions to the fields of humanistic psychology and positive psychology.

How did Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs impact the development of humanistic psychology?

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs emphasized the importance of individual growth and self-actualization, which became key components of humanistic psychology. This theory shifted the focus of psychology from the study of mental illness to the study of positive and healthy human functioning.

What is the main premise of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs states that individuals have a hierarchy of needs that must be met in order for them to reach their full potential and achieve self-actualization. These needs include physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization.

In what ways did Maslow’s contributions impact the field of positive psychology?

Maslow’s emphasis on the importance of self-actualization and personal growth greatly influenced the development of positive psychology, which focuses on the study of human flourishing and well-being. His theories helped shape the positive psychology movement and continue to be relevant in this field today.

What criticisms have been made against Maslow’s contributions to psychology?

Some critics argue that Maslow’s theories are too simplistic and do not take into account individual differences and cultural influences. Others suggest that his Hierarchy of Needs is not universally applicable and may not accurately represent the needs of all individuals.

How can Maslow’s theories be applied in practical settings, such as in education or the workplace?

Maslow’s theories can be applied in various settings to promote personal growth and motivation. In education, teachers can use his principles to create a supportive and stimulating learning environment. In the workplace, managers can use the Hierarchy of Needs to understand and meet the needs of their employees, leading to increased job satisfaction and productivity.

Rachel Liu, a social psychologist, examines the influence of societal and cultural factors on individual behavior. Her research has spanned topics from group dynamics and social identity to the psychological impacts of social media. Rachel’s writing aims to illuminate the ways in which social environments shape our thoughts, feelings, and actions, offering insights into improving interpersonal relationships and fostering inclusive communities.

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A NEED FOR HOME

By Tony Hiss

• April 7, 1991

THE HUMAN NEED for richly nurturing surroundings is so pervasive and so fundamental that wherever we are -- at home, at work, on the road or on vacation and away from it all -- we have to have places around us that nourish our eyes, our ears and all our senses simultaneously to be able to flourish as human beings and feel at home with ourselves. Indeed, there's now a lot of evidence that in any kind of diminished setting -- not just in slums or public schoolrooms 20 feet away from rumbling, screeching elevated trains, but also in places generally considered clean and neat and adequate to their purposes -- our health can deteriorate, and even our judgment can be impaired. One hospital study found that patients recovering from surgery who could look out their windows and see leafy trees rather than blank brick walls required milder painkillers and recovered faster. In fact, they were released from the hospital almost a day sooner than patients who had to stare at a featureless and unchanging view.

In a famous experiment devised in the 1950's, the humanistic psychologist Abraham H. Maslow and a colleague at Brandeis University, Norbett L. Mintz, demonstrated that people's surroundings can affect their mood, their behavior and their ability to form conclusions. The two men, with the help of Maslow's wife, furnished three university rooms: the "beautiful," the "average" and the "ugly" rooms, as they came to be known. The beautiful room had large windows and was designed to be as inviting as possible, with soft lights, artwork, a comfortable chair, a bookcase and a pretty rug. The ugly room, on the other hand, was dirty, had battleship-gray walls and an overhead light with a torn shade, and was cluttered with boxes, mops, a box spring and bare mattress. The average room, which was intended to resemble a "worked-in" office, was neat and clean but otherwise undistinguished.

Volunteers were then called into each of the three rooms and asked to look at photographs of faces, ostensibly to see whether the faces showed "energy" and "well-being." It turned out that what they saw depended on where they were: When the photographs were scrutinized in the beautiful room, volunteers found the faces vibrant-looking, but the same faces appeared displeased and fatigued to volunteers who examined them in the ugly room. Maslow and Mintz were even more intrigued by another observation: Supervisors who had been hired to conduct the experiment but not told its real purpose failed to notice how much the setting influenced their own job satisfaction and job performance. In the ugly room, they tended to be snappish, rushed through the interview sessions and complained of fatigue and boredom. It was as if in the ugly room they could no longer even see the vitality in the living faces in front of them.

The Maslow-Mintz experiment uncovered an even more ominous finding: The volunteers' responses to the average, "clean, neat" room were only slightly more positive than to the ugly room. All too often, it seems, we set our sights far too low. Looking around at the appalling squalor that many people have to endure in their homes and workplaces, we think it would be a great achievement to provide neat and clean substitutes for that degradation. Anything beyond such a bare minimum, though, we assume to be beyond our means, an almost unattainable paradise. But, in fact, such a "paradise" -- an inviting, stimulating and supportive setting -- is a basic public health requirement, a prerequisite for a fully developed human life. It is something we all need as much as clean air in order to be able to think clearly. Deprived of the kind of enriching, diversified and enlivening surroundings our minds respond to, we limp along, stranded in an almost prehuman situation. If home is a safe spot that offers security and contentment, a place that restores and sustains us, where we can be both grounded and rooted, then far too many people who seem to be adequately sheltered are, in a more basic sense, homeless.

"Comfort has many dimensions," says Toni Sachs Pfeiffer, one of the most original researchers looking at how people interact with their surroundings. "It's not of the body alone." People like Pfeiffer, an American who founded a communications research institute in Bonn, are helping us extend our definition of home and look at how it affects us and what it could be doing to promote our health and fulfillment. In interviewing and filming people in hundreds of neighborhoods in both Germany and America, Pfeiffer has found that home is not a place that ends abruptly when you leave your front door; rather, it is a continuum. There are zones of home that can spread far into the surrounding neighborhood. On a typical city block, for instance, the sidewalk in front of a house is commonly, if unconsciously, divided into three separate kinds of space: semiprivate space next to the building, used for talking to friends; semipublic space near the curb, used for conversations with people you don't know as well and don't want to be as close to, and a band of public space running down the middle, used for pedestrians.

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Who is Abraham Maslow and Why is He Important in Psychology?

Abraham Maslow was an American psychologist who is best known for his theory on the hierarchy of human needs, also known as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. He is considered one of the most influential figures in the field of psychology, and his work continues to be widely studied and applied in various areas of human behavior and motivation. Maslow’s ideas have had a significant impact on the development of psychology, and his theories have been instrumental in shaping our understanding of human motivation and personal growth. In this essay, we will explore who Abraham Maslow was, his contributions to psychology, and why his work remains relevant and important in the field today.

Abraham Harold Maslow

Abraham Harold Maslow (April 1, 1908 – June 8, 1970) was an American professor of psychology at Brandeis University, Brooklyn College, New School for Social Research and Columbia University who founded humanistic psychology and created Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. He stressed the importance of focusing on the positive qualities in people, as opposed to treating them as a ‘bag of symptoms.’

Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Maslow was the oldest of seven children. His parents were first generation Jewish immigrants from Russia who were not intellectually oriented but valued education. Maslow described himself as shy, timid, and awkward during his childhood. It was a tough time for Maslow, as he experienced Anti-semitism from his teachers and from other children around the neighborhood. He had various encounters with anti-semitic gangs who would chase and throw rocks at him. The tension outside of his home was also felt within it, he never got along with his mother, and actually developed a strong revulsion towards her. He is quoted as saying “What I had reacted to and totally hated and rejected was not only her physical appearance, but also her values and world view, her stinginess, her total selfishness, her lack of love for anyone else in the world — even her own husband and children — her narcissism, her Negro prejudice, her exploitation of everyone, her assumption that anyone was wrong who disagreed with her, her lack of friends, her sloppiness and dirtiness…” He also grew up with few friends other than his cousin Will, and as a result “…[He] grew up in libraries and among books.” It was here that he developed his love for reading and learning. He went to Boys High School, one of the top high schools in Brooklyn. Here, he served as the officer to many academic clubs, and became editor of the Latin Magazine. He also edited Principia, the school’s Physics paper, for a year.

After graduating from High School Maslow went to the City College of New York. In 1926 he began taking legal studies classes at night in addition to his undergraduate course load. He hated it and almost immediately dropped out. In 1927 he transferred to Cornell, but due to poor grades and the high cost of the education, he left after just one semester. He re-enrolled at city college and upon graduation went to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin to study psychology. In 1928, he married his first cousin Bertha, whom he had met in Brooklyn years earlier and who was still in High School at the time. Maslow’s psychology training at UW was decidedly experimental-behaviorist. At Wisconsin he pursued a line of research which included, investigating primate dominance behaviour and sexuality. Maslow, upon the recommendation of Professor Hulsey Cason wrote his master’s thesis on ‘learning, retention, and reproduction of verbal material.’ Maslow regarded the research as embarrassingly trivial, but he completed his thesis the summer of 1931 and was awarded his master’s degree in Psychology. Afterward, he was so ashamed of the thesis that he removed it from the psychology library and tore out its catalog listing. Ironically, Professor Carson admired the research enough to urge Maslow to submit it for publication. Much to Maslow’s surprise, his thesis was published as two articles in 1934.

He went on to further research at Columbia University, continuing similar studies; there he found another mentor in Alfred Adler, one of Sigmund Freud’s early colleagues. From 1937 to 1951, Maslow was on the faculty of Brooklyn College. In New York he found two more mentors, anthropologist Ruth Benedict and Gestalt psychologist Max Wertheimer, whom he admired both professionally and personally. These two were so accomplished in both realms, and such “wonderful human beings” as well, that Maslow began taking notes about them and their behaviour. This would be the basis of his lifelong research and thinking about mental health and human potential. He wrote extensively on the subject, borrowing ideas from other psychologists but adding significantly to them, especially the concepts of a hierarchy of needs, metaneeds, metamotivation, self-actualizing persons, and peak experiences. Maslow became the leader of the humanistic school of psychology that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s, which he referred to as the “third force” — beyond Freudian theory and behaviourism. In 1967, the American Humanist Association named him Humanist of the Year.

Maslow was a professor at Brandeis University from 1951 to 1969, and then became a resident fellow of the Laughlin Institute in California. He died of a heart attack on June 8, 1970.

Humanistic theories of self-actualization

Many psychologists have made impacts on society’s understanding of the world. Abraham Maslow was one of these; he brought a new face to the study of human behavior. He called his new discipline, “Humanistic Psychology.”

His family life and his experiences influenced his psychological ideas. After World War II, Maslow began to question the way psychologists had come to their conclusions, and though he didn’t completely disagree, he had his own ideas on how to understand the human mind.

Humanistic psychologists believe that every person has a strong desire to realize his or her full potential, to reach a level of “self-actualization”. To prove that humans are not simply blindly reacting to situations, but trying to accomplish something greater, Maslow studied mentally healthy individuals instead of people with serious psychological issues. This informed his theory that people experience “peak experiences”, high points in life when the individual is in harmony with himself and his surroundings. In Maslow’s view, self-actualized people can have many peak experiences throughout a day while others have those experiences less frequently.

Hierarchy of needs

An interpretation of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, represented as a pyramid with the more basic needs at the bottom.

A visual aid Maslow created to explain his theory, which he called the Hierarchy of Needs, is a pyramid depicting the levels of human needs, psychological and physical. When a human being ascends the steps of the pyramid he reaches self actualization. At the bottom of the pyramid are the “Basic needs or Physiological needs” of a human being, food and water and sex. The next level is “Safety Needs: Security, Order, and Stability.” These two steps are important to the physical survival of the person. Once individuals have basic nutrition, shelter and safety, they attempt to accomplish more. The third level of need is “Love and Belonging,” which are psychological needs; when individuals have taken care of themselves physically, they are ready to share themselves with others. The fourth level is achieved when individuals feel comfortable with what they have accomplished. This is the “Esteem” level, the level of success and status (from self and others). The top of the pyramid, “Need for Self-actualization,” occurs when individuals reach a state of harmony and understanding. (The Developing Person through the Life Span, (1983) pg. 44)

Maslow based his study on the writings of other psychologists, Albert Einstein and people he knew who clearly met the standard of self actualization. Maslow used Einstein’s writings and accomplishments to exemplify the characteristics of the self actualized person. He realized that all the individuals he studied had similar personality traits. All were “reality centered”, able to differentiate what was fraudulent from what was genuine. They were also “problem centered”, meaning that they treated life’s difficulties as problems that demanded solutions. These individuals also were comfortable being alone and had healthy personal relationships. They had only a few close friends and family rather than a large number of shallow relationships. One historical figure Maslow found to be helpful in his journey to understanding self actualization was Lao Tazu, The Father of Taoism. A tenet of Taoism is that people do not obtain personal meaning or pleasure by seeking material possessions.

When Maslow introduced these ideas some weren’t ready to understand them; others dismissed them as unscientific. Sometimes viewed as disagreeing with Freud and psychoanalytic theory, Maslow actually positioned his work as a vital complement to that of Freud. Maslow stated in his book, “It is as if Freud supplied us the sick half of psychology and we must now fill it out with the healthy half.” (Toward a psychology of being, 1968) There are two faces of human nature—the sick and the healthy—so there should be two faces of psychology.

Consequently, Maslow argued, the way in which essential needs are fulfilled is just as important as the needs themselves. Together, these define the human experience. To the extent a person finds cooperative social fulfillment, he establishes meaningful relationships with other people and the larger world. In other words, he establishes meaningful connections to an external reality—an essential component of self-actualization. In contrast, to the extent that vital needs find selfish and competitive fulfillment, a person acquires hostile emotions and limited external relationships—his awareness remains internal and limited.

Ruth Benedict and Max Wertheimer were Maslow’s models of self-actualization. From them he generalized that, among other characteristics, self-actualizing people tend to focus on problems outside themselves; have a clear sense of what is true and what is false; are spontaneous and creative; and are not bound too strictly by social conventions.

Beyond the routine of needs fulfillment, Maslow envisioned moments of extraordinary experience, known as Peak experiences, which are profound moments of love, understanding, happiness, or rapture, during which a person feels more whole, alive, self-sufficient and yet a part of the world, more aware of truth, justice, harmony, goodness, and so on. Self-actualizing people have many such peak experiences.

Maslow used the term Metamotivation to describe self actualized people who are driven by innate forces beyond their basic needs, so that they may explore and reach their full human potential

In studying accounts of peak experiences, Maslow identified a manner of thought he called “Being-cognition” (or “B-cognition”, which is holistic and accepting, as opposed to the evaluative “Deficiency-cognition” or “D-cognition”) and values he called “Being-values”. He listed the B-values as:

• WHOLENESS (unity; integration; tendency to one-ness; interconnectedness; simplicity; organization; structure; dichotomy-transcendence; order);
• PERFECTION (necessity; just-right-ness; just-so-ness; inevitability; suitability; justice; completeness; “oughtness”);
• COMPLETION (ending; finality; justice; “it’s finished”; fulfillment; finis and telos; destiny; fate);
• JUSTICE (fairness; orderliness; lawfulness; “oughtness”);
• ALIVENESS (process; non-deadness; spontaneity; self-regulation; full-functioning);
• RICHNESS (differentiation, complexity; intricacy);
• SIMPLICITY (honesty; nakedness; essentiality; abstract, essential, skeletal structure);
• BEAUTY (rightness; form; aliveness; simplicity; richness; wholeness; perfection; completion; uniqueness; honesty);
• GOODNESS (rightness; desirability; oughtness; justice; benevolence; honesty);
• UNIQUENESS (idiosyncrasy; individuality; non-comparability; novelty);
• EFFORTLESSNESS (ease; lack of strain, striving or difficulty; grace; perfect, beautiful functioning);
• PLAYFULNESS (fun; joy; amusement; gaiety; humor; exuberance; effortlessness);
• TRUTH (honesty; reality; nakedness; simplicity; richness; oughtness; beauty; pure, clean and unadulterated; completeness; essentiality).
• SELF-SUFFICIENCY (autonomy; independence; not-needing-other-than-itself-in-order-to-be-itself; self-determining; environment-transcendence; separateness; living by its own laws).

Maslow’s thinking was original — most psychologists before him had been concerned with the abnormal and the ill. He wanted to know what constituted positive mental health. Humanistic psychology gave rise to several different therapies, all guided by the idea that people possess the inner resources for growth and healing and that the point of therapy is to help remove obstacles to individuals’ achieving them. The most famous of these was client-centered therapy developed by Carl Rogers.

Maslow’s influence extended beyond psychology – his work on peak experiences is relevant to religious studies, while his work on management is applicable to transpersonal business studies.

In 2006, conservative social critic Christina Hoff Sommers and practicing psychiatrist Sally Satel asserted that due to lack of empirical support for his theories, Maslow’s ideas have fallen out of fashion and are “no longer taken seriously in the world of academic psychology.” However, Maslow’s work has enjoyed a revival of interest and influence among leaders of the positive psychology movement such as Martin Seligman.

Stanford Marshmallow Test Experiment

Angel E. Navidad

Philosophy Expert

B.A. Philosophy, Harvard University

Angel Navidad is an undergraduate at Harvard University, concentrating in Philosophy. He will graduate in May of 2025, and thereon pursue graduate study in history, or enter the civil service.

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Saul McLeod, PhD

Editor-in-Chief for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester

Saul McLeod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

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Take-home Messages

• The marshmallow test is an experimental design that measures a child’s ability to delay gratification. The child is given the option of waiting a bit to get their favorite treat, or if not waiting for it, receiving a less-desired treat. The minutes or seconds a child waits measures their ability to delay gratification.
• The original marshmallow test showed that preschoolers’ delay times were significantly affected by the experimental conditions, like the physical presence/absence of expected treats.
• The original test sample was not representative of preschooler population, thereby limiting the study’s predictive ability. (Preschool participants were all recruited from Stanford University’s Bing Nursery School, which was then largely patronized by children of Stanford faculty and alumni.)
• A 2018 study on a large, representative sample of preschoolers sought to replicate the statistically significant correlations between early-age delay times and later-age life outcomes, like SAT scores, which had been previously found using data from the original marshmallow test. The replication study found only weak statistically significant correlations, which disappeared after controlling for socio-economic factors.
• However, the 2018 study did find statistically significant differences between early-age delay times and later-age life outcomes between children from high-SES families and children from low-SES families, implying that socio-economic factors play a more significant role than early-age self-control in important life outcomes.

In a 1970 paper, Walter Mischel, a professor of psychology at Stanford University, and his graduate student, Ebbe Ebbesen, had found that preschoolers waiting 15 minutes to receive their preferred treat (a pretzel or a marshmallow) waited much less time when either treat was within sight than when neither treat was in view.

Children with treats present waited 3.09 ± 5.59 minutes; children with neither treat present waited 8.90 ± 5.26 minutes.

The study suggested that gratification delays in children involved suppressing rather than enhancing attention to expected rewards. For instance, some children who waited with both treats in sight would stare at a mirror, cover their eyes, or talk to themselves, rather than fixate on the pretzel or marshmallow.

Mischel, Ebbesen, and Antonette Zeiss, a visiting faculty member at the time, set out to investigate whether attending to rewards cognitively made it more difficult for children to delay gratification.

The Stanford Marshmallow Experiments

Mischel, Ebbesen and Zeiss (1972) designed three experiments to investigate, respectively, the effect of overt activities, cognitive activities, and the lack of either, in the preschoolers’ gratification delay times.

Experiment 1

Fifty-six children from the Bing Nursery School at Stanford University were recruited. To build rapport with the preschoolers, two experimenters spent a few days playing with them at the nursery.

Children were randomly assigned to one of five groups (A – E).

The children were individually escorted to a room where the test would take place. Each child was taught to ring a bell to signal for the experimenter to return to the room if they ever stepped out.

Treat vs. No Treats Condition

Children in groups A, B, and C were shown two treats (a marshmallow and a pretzel) and asked to choose their favorite.

They were then told that the experimenter would soon have to leave for a while but that they’d get their preferred treat if they waited for the experimenter to come back without signaling for them to do so.

They were also explicitly allowed to signal for the experimenter to come back at any point in time but told that if they did, they’d only get the treat they hadn’t chosen as their favorite. Both treats were left in plain view in the room.

Children in groups D and E were given no such choice or instructions.

Children in groups A, B, or C who waited the full 15 minutes were allowed to eat their favored treat. Those in groups A, B, or C who didn’t wait 15 minutes were allowed to have only their non-favored treat.

Children in groups D and E weren’t given treats. All children got to play with toys with the experiments after waiting the full 15 minutes or after signaling.

Distraction vs. No Entertainment Condition

Children in groups A and D were given a slinky and were told they had permission to play with it.

Children in groups B and E were asked to “think of anything that’s fun to think of” and were told that some fun things to think of included singing songs and playing with toys.

Each child’s comprehension of the instructions was tested. Six children didn’t seem to comprehend and were excluded from the test. The remaining 50 children were included.

All 50 were told that whether or not they rang the bell, the experimenter would return, and when he did, they would play with toys.

Waiting time was scored from the moment the experimenter shut the door. The experimenter returned either as soon as the child signaled or after 15 minutes if the child did not signal.

The results suggested that children were much more willing to wait longer when they were offered a reward for waiting (groups A, B, C) than when they weren’t (groups D, E)

The results also showed that children waited much longer when they were given tasks that distracted or entertained them during their waiting period (playing with a slinky for group A, thinking of fun things for group B) than when they weren’t distracted (group C).

Experiment 2

This test differed from the first only in the following ways :

• Thirty-eight children were recruited, with six lost due to incomplete comprehension of instructions.
• Thirty-two children were randomly assigned to three groups (A, B, C).
• All children were given a choice of treats, and told they could wait without signalling to have their favourite treat, or simply signal to have the other treat but forfeit their favoured one.
• In all cases, both treats were left in plain view.
• Children in group A were asked to think of fun things, as before.
• Those in group B were asked to think of sad things, and likewise given examples of such things.
• Those in group C were asked to think of the treats.

The results suggested that children who were given distracting tasks that were also fun (thinking of fun things for group A) waited much longer for their treats than children who were given tasks that either didn’t distract them from the treats (group C, asked to think of the treats) or didn’t entertain them (group B, asked to think of sad things).

Experiment 3

• Sixteen children were recruited, and none excluded.
• Children were randomly assigned to three groups (A, B, C),
• In all cases, both treats were obscured from the children with a tin cake cover (which children were told would keep the treats fresh).
• Children in group A were asked to think about the treats.
• Those in group B were asked to think of fun things, as before.
• Those in group C were given no task at all.

The results suggested that when treats were obscured (by a cake tin, in this case), children who were given no distracting or fun task (group C) waited just as long for their treats as those who were given a distracting and fun task (group B, asked to think of fun things).

On the other hand, when the children were given a task that didn’t distract them from the treats (group A, asked to think of the treats), having the treats obscured did not increase their delay time as opposed to having them unobscured (as in the second test).

Final Conclusions

The studies convinced Mischel, Ebbesen, and Zeiss that children’s successful delay of gratification significantly depended on their cognitive avoidance or suppression of the expected treats during the waiting period, e.g., by not having the treats within sight or by thinking of fun things.

Children, they reasoned, could wait a relatively long time if they –

Believed they really would get their favoured treat if they waited (eg by trusting the experimenter, by having the treats remain in the room, whether obscured or in plain view). Shifted their attention away from the treats. Occupied themselves with non-frustrating or pleasant internal or external stimuli (eg thinking of fun things, playing with toys).

Critical Evaluation

• Sample size determination was not disclosed.
• The study population (Stanford’s Bind Nursery School) was not characterized and so may differ in relevant respects from the general human population or even the general preschooler population. (In fact, the school was mostly attended by middle-class children of faculty and alumni of Stanford.)
• The findings might also not extend to voluntary delay of gratification (where the option of having either treat immediately is available, in addition to the studied option of having only the non-favored treat immediately).

Longitudinal Studies Using Stanford Data

Delayed gratification and sat scores.

In 1990, Yuichi Shoda, a graduate student at Columbia University, Walter Mischel, now a professor at Columbia University, and Philip Peake, a graduate student at Smith College, examined the relationship between preschoolers’ delay of gratification and their later SAT scores.

Six-hundred and fifty-three preschoolers at the Bing School at Stanford University participated at least once in a series of gratification delay studies between 1968 and 1974.

Four hundred and four of their parents received follow-up questionnaires. One hundred and eighty-five responded. Ninety-four parents supplied their children’s SAT scores.

Children were divided into four groups depending on whether a cognitive activity (e.g., thinking of fun things) had been suggested before the delay period or not and on whether the expected treats had remained within sight throughout the delay period or not.

The difference in the mean waiting time of the children of parents who responded and that of the children of parents who didn’t respond was not statistically significant (p = 0.09, n = 653).

Preschoolers’ delay times correlated positively and significantly with their later SAT scores when no cognitive task had been suggested and the expected treats had remained in plain sight.

Other correlations were not significant.

Limitations

Shoda, Mischel, and Peake (1990) urged caution in extrapolating their findings since their samples were uncomfortably small.

Delayed Gratification and Positive Functioning

In a 2000 paper, Ozlem Ayduk, at the time a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia, and colleagues, explored the role that preschoolers’ ability to delay gratification played in their later self-worth, self-esteem, and ability to cope with stress.

Five-hundred and fifty preschoolers’ ability to delay gratification in Prof. Mischel’s Stanford studies between 1968 and 1974 was scored.

Each preschooler’s delay score was taken as the difference between the mean delay time of the experimental group the child had been assigned to and the child’s individual score in that group.

Between 1993 and 1995, 444 parents of the original preschoolers were mailed with questionnaires for themselves and their now adult-aged children. A hundred and eighty-seven parents and 152 children returned them.

The questionnaires measured, through nine-point Likert-scale items, the children’s self-worth, self-esteem, and ability to cope with stress. The scores on these items were standardized to derive a positive functioning composite.

The positive functioning composite, derived either from self-ratings or parental ratings, was found to correlate positively with delay of gratification scores.

Preschoolers who were better able to delay gratification were more likely to exhibit higher self-worth, higher self-esteem, and a greater ability to cope with stress during adulthood than preschoolers who were less able to delay gratification.

Delayed Gratification and Body Mass Index

In a 2013 paper, Tanya Schlam, a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin, and colleagues, explored a possible association between preschoolers’ ability to delay gratification and their later Body Mass Index.

Prof. Mischel’s data were again used. Of 653 preschoolers who participated in his studies as preschoolers, the researchers sent mailers to all those for whom they had valid addresses (n = 306) in December 2002 / January 2003 and again in May 2004.

Of these, 146 individuals responded with their weight and height. Individual delay scores were derived as in the 2000 Study.

Preschoolers’ ability to delay gratification accounted for a significant portion of the variance seen in the sample (p < 0.01, n = 146).

Specifically, each additional minute a preschooler delayed gratification predicted a 0.2-point reduction in BMI in adulthood.

Marshmallow Test Replication Study

In a 2018 paper, Tyler Watts, an assistant professor and postdoctoral researcher at New York University, and Greg Duncan and Haonan Quan, both doctoral students at UC, Irvine, set out to replicate longitudinal studies based on Prof. Mischel’s data.

Data on 918 individuals from a longitudinal, multi-center study on children by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (an institute in the NIH) were used for the study.

The sample was split into two groups –

• Data on children of mothers who had not completed university college by the time their child was one month old (n = 552);
• Data on children of mothers who had completed university college by that time (n = 366).

The first group (children of mothers without degrees) was more comparable to a nationally representative sample (from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey—Kindergarten by the National Center for Education Statistics). Even so, Hispanic children were underrepresented in the sample.

A variant of the marshmallow test was administered to children when they were 4.5 years old. An interviewer presented each child with treats based on the child’s own preferences.

Children were then told they would play the following game with the interviewer –

• The interviewer would leave the child alone with the treat;
• If the child waited 7 minutes, the interviewer would return, and the child would then be able to eat the treat plus an additional portion as a reward for waiting;
• If the child did not want to wait, they could ring a bell to signal the interviewer to return early, and the child would then be able to eat the treat without an additional portion.

Delay of gratification was recorded as the number of minutes the child waited.

Academic achievement was measured at grade 1 and age 15. Measures included mathematical problem solving, word recognition and vocabulary (only in grade 1), and textual passage comprehension (only at age 15). Scores were normalized to have a mean of 100 ± 15 points.

Behavioral functioning was measured at age 4.5, grade 1, and age 15. Mothers were asked to score their child’s depressive and anti-social behaviors on 3-point Likert-scale items.

For intra-group regression analyses, the following socio-economic variables, measured at or before age 4.5, were controlled for –

• Demographic characteristics like gender, race, birth weight, mother’s age at child’s birth, mother’s level of education, family income, mother’s score in a measure-of-intelligence test;
• Cognitive functioning characteristics like sensory-perceptual abilities, memory, problem-solving, verbal communication skills; and
• Home environment characteristics are known to support positive cognitive, emotional, and behavioral functioning (the HOME Inventory by Caldwell & Bradley, 1984).

• Watts, Duncan, and Quan (2018) did find statistically significant correlations between early-stage ability to delay gratification and later-stage academic achievement, but the association was weaker than that found by researchers using Prof. Mischel’s data.
• In addition, the significance of these bivariate associations disappeared after controlling for socio-economic and cognitive variables.
• There were no statistically significant associations, even without controlling for confounding variables , between early gratification delay and later behavioral functioning at age 15.

Conclusions

These results further complicated the relationship between early delay ability and later life outcomes.

Prof. Mischel’s findings, from a small, non-representative cohort of mostly middle-class preschoolers at Stanford’s Bing Nursery School, were not replicated in a larger, more representative sample of preschool-aged children.

Increasing Delayed Gratification

The following factor has been found to increase a child’s gratification delay time –

Trust in rewarders:

Children who trust that they will be rewarded for waiting are significantly more likely to wait than those who don’t. Kidd, Palmeri, and Aslin, 2013, replicating Prof. Mischel’s marshmallow study, tested 28 four-year-olds twice.

In the first test, half of the children didn’t receive the treat they’d been promised. In the second test, the children who’d been tricked before were significantly less likely to delay gratification than those who hadn’t been tricked.

The following factors may increase an adult’s gratification delay time –

Knowledge of time-to-reward:

Individuals who know how long they must wait for an expected reward are more likely to continue waiting for said reward than those who don’t.

McGuire and Kable (2012) tested 40 adult participants. One group was given known reward times, while the other was not. The first group was significantly more likely to delay gratification.

Probability of the expected reward materializing:

When the individuals delaying their gratification are the same ones creating their reward.

For example, for someone going on a diet to achieve a desired weight, those who set realistic rewards are more likely to continue waiting for their reward than those who set unrealistic or improbable rewards.

Gelinas et al. (2013) studied the association between unrealistic weight loss expectations and weight gain before a weight-loss surgery in 219 adult participants.

The correlation coefficient r = 0.377 was statistically significant at p < 0.008 for male (n = 53) but not female (n = 166) participants.)

What is the marshmallow test?

The Marshmallow Test is a psychological experiment conducted by Walter Mischel in the 1960s. In this study, a child was offered a choice between one small reward (like a marshmallow) immediately or two small rewards if they waited for a short period, usually 15 minutes, during which the tester left the room.

What does the marshmallow test measure?

The marshmallow test measures a child’s ability to delay gratification by offering them a choice to eat a marshmallow immediately or wait for a reward for an additional marshmallow after a short period.

It assesses self-control, impulse control, and the capacity to delay instant gratification, which is connected to future success and self-regulation skills.

Ayduk, O., Mendoza-Denton, R., Mischel, W., Downey, G., Peake, P. K., & Rodriguez, M. (2000). Regulating the interpersonal self: strategic self-regulation for coping with rejection sensitivity . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79 (5), 776.

Bradley, R. H., & Caldwell, B. M. (1984). The HOME Inventory and family demographics. Developmental psychology, 20 (2), 315.

Gelinas, B. L., Delparte, C. A., Hart, R., & Wright, K. D. (2013). Unrealistic weight loss goals and expectations among bariatric surgery candidates: the impact on pre-and postsurgical weight outcomes. Bariatric Surgical Patient Care, 8 (1), 12-17.

Kidd, C., Palmeri, H., & Aslin, R. N. (2013). Rational snacking: Young children’s decision-making on the marshmallow task is moderated by beliefs about environmental reliability . Cognition, 126 (1), 109-114.

McGuire, J. T., & Kable, J. W. (2012). Decision makers calibrate behavioral persistence on the basis of time-interval experience . Cognition, 124 (2), 216-226.

Mischel, W., & Ebbesen, E. B. (1970). Attention in delay of gratification . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 16 (2), 329.

Mischel, W., Ebbesen, E. B., & Raskoff Zeiss, A. (1972). Cognitive and attentional mechanisms in delay of gratification . Journal of personality and social psychology, 21 (2), 204.

Schlam, T. R., Wilson, N. L., Shoda, Y., Mischel, W., & Ayduk, O. (2013). Preschoolers” delay of gratification predicts their body mass 30 years later . The Journal of pediatrics, 162 (1), 90-93.

Shoda, Y., Mischel, W., & Peake, P. K. (1990). Predicting adolescent cognitive and self-regulatory competencies from preschool delay of gratification: Identifying diagnostic conditions . Developmental psychology, 26 (6), 978.

Watts, T. W., Duncan, G. J., & Quan, H. (2018). Revisiting the marshmallow test: A conceptual replication investigating links between early delay of gratification and later outcomes . Psychological science, 29 (7), 1159-1177.

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