Maslow Adult Educator of All

Maslow

Adult Educator of All Time Award: Abraham Maslow

Meet Abraham Maslow

Abraham Maslow was the eldest of seven children of uneducated Jewish immigrants who had settled in Brooklyn, New York, where he was born on April 1, 1908. Abraham attended public schools throughout his childhood, and after graduating high school enrolled in the City College of New York (CCNY), studying law to please his father. In 1927 he left CCNY to attend Cornell and decided to study psychology. He next attended the University of Wisconsin for graduate studies in psychology, where he met his first mentor, Harry Harlow (Hoffman, 1988). Returning to New York to continue his studies, Dr. Maslow attended Columbia University, where the noted psychologist Alfred Adler was his mentor for studies (Hoffman, 1988). During one of the most productive periods of his career, from 1937 -- 1951, Dr. Maslow taught at Brooklyn College where he was able to gain mentorships with noted anthropologist Ruth Benedict and psychologist Max Wertheimer (Hoffman, 1988). In his memories Dr. Maslow credits this time with the catalysts of thought regarding his Hierarchy of Needs theory (Hoffman, 1988). This time period served as the basis of Dr. Maslow becoming the leader of the area of psychology known of as the humanistic school, which took shape during the 1960s. From 1951 to 1969 Dr. Maslow taught at Brandeis University and was also awarded the Humanist of the Year Award in 1967 by the American Humanist Association. He passed away on June 8, 1970.

Major Contributions to Adult Education

Of the many contributions Dr. Maslow made to the areas of adult education, his most significant is the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs (Hoffman, 1988). The Hierarchy of Needs serves as a framework for organizing the progression of needs people have, from the biological and safety-based to the needs for affiliation and the need for esteem and respect. The greatest level of attainment according to Maslow's hierarchy of needs is self-actualization which has been described as the state or condition a person is in when they are attaining the greatest potential given their unique talents and abilities (Sarin, 2009). The five levels of the hierarchy of needs have become one of the most often-used frameworks for analyzing, enhancing and optimizing the performance of individuals, groups and entire companies (Bazigos, Burke, 1997). It is credited with revolutionizing the concepts of how individual motivation is managed in organizations of all types, from educational institutions to public and private companies and governments globally (Stum, 2001).

The foundational elements of the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs are often graphically represented as a pyramid with the base being the widest point, progressing to the apex with self-actualization at the top. The foundational element of the pyramid is the most basic biological and psychological needs including oxygen, water, food and the need to have shelter from the elements. The next level up on the pyramid are safety needs, which vary in terms of their intensity and need state depending on the current situation a child or adult faces. For children, this need is often more critical than for adults, as they often look to their parents, teachers and guardians to protect them from harm. For adults this is much more context-driven where safety may be critically important in the middle of a natural disaster or civil unrest relative to being in an environment they can more easily control. The third level up the pyramid is the need for affection, belonging and love. This is the need state area were people are who want to alleviate feelings of loneliness, isolation or alienation (Hoffman, 1988). This level is also critically important for the development of trust in the workplace and within workplace teams and the sense of identity that comes from being part of a group (Harris, Kleiner, 1993). Fourth there is the need for esteem and while it often connotes the esteem from others as a layer of the model, it encompasses self-esteem as well. This is the level where the critical aspects of self-worth, self-confidence and self-discipline come into how a person approaches their life and their goals (Bazigos, Burke, 1997). The top layer of the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs Model is self-actualization. This is the level of where people are who have found their innate strengths and aligned their passion to excel with those strengths. It has often been equated with a theory of existence for achievement (Sarin, 2009). The Maslow Hierarchy of Needs is the best known of the research completed by Dr. Maslow, one of the leading contributors to modern psychological thought. In addition to publishing seven books on the areas of human motivation and psychology, Dr. Maslow averaged seven research studies every year for forty years of research and educational service, which is a remarkable feat just by itself. His contributions to motivation theory have changed entire cultures as a result (Stum, 2001).