Apply Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs to your every day interactions - Essay Example

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and my everyday interaction Maslows “Hierarchy of Needs” is a ‘psychological theory’ that was projected by Abraham Maslow in his work, “A Theory of Human Motivation” in 1943. This theory focuses on the importance of self-actualization (Maslows Hierarchy of Needs, n.d., p. 1). This paper is aimed at describing very briefly the Hierarchy of Needs theory and relating this theory with everyday interaction of the writer of this paper.Maslows Hierarchy of Needs:Maslows Hierarchy of Needs theory is a theory that has been proposed as a theory in psychology, but in modern times the theory has been used by almost all areas of research and business.

Maslow suggested that there exists a hierarchy of needs and motives that is the main determinant of human behavior. It has been argued that if the existence of unsatisfied needs drives for higher motivation, then people need to understand and identify those needs which are more important for their successful behavior. In this context, Abraham Maslow proposed a model of human motivation and suggested that the higher-level needs can be satisfied and achieved only after satisfying or achieving the lower-level needs.

In this regard, Maslow used a pyramid of needs with five levels, each level depicting each need. In the lowest level there are Psychological needs, such as need for air, water, sleep, and nourishment, which are required for the sustainability of life. In the next level there are Safety needs, such as need for safe area to live, job and financial security, need for medical insurance etc., which are required for safe, secure, and harmless life. In the next level there are Social needs, such as need for friends and belongings, need to give as well as receive love, which are required to interact with other people.

In the forth level there are esteem needs, such as needs for self-respect, attention, achievement, recognition, reputation etc., which are needed for a person to feel the sense of “belonging”. In the upper-most level there are Self-actualization needs, such as needs for truth, justice, wisdom etc., which are needed for a person to achieve his full potential in life. The figure below shows the Hierarchy of Needs (Slater and Bremner, 2003, pp. 57-58; Maslows Hierarchy of Needs, n.d., p. 1-3).

Figure: Maslow’s Hierarchy of NeedsApplication of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in my life:In my life the need for friends and family is the most. They played most crucial role in motivating me to achieve successes in every sphere of my life. In my life both friendship and love are highly important to achieve potential performances in every section of my life. These needs give me enough strength and happiness to do any task and to tackle any hard situation of my life. Friends and family have helped me a lot to stabilize my life, to achieve higher education and most importantly to become successful in life and thus to make them happy.

Hence, I started to feel important after achieving those social needs and the need for self-esteem arises. In my educational, working, and professional life I have learnt from my friends, family, colleagues, and seniors to achieve goals in life, to gain attention, recognition, and reputation. Hence, I achieved sufficient self-respect for myself and respect for others (Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman, 2009, p. 448).References:1. Maslows Hierarchy of Needs, (n.d.), Arab British Academy for Higher Education, retrieved on January 18, 20122.

Slater, A. and Bremner, G. (2003), An introduction to developmental psychology, USA: Wiley-Blackwell Publishers3. Zastrow, C. and Kirst-Ashman, K. K. (2009), Understanding Human Behavior and the Social Environment, USA: Cengage Learning