Humanistic Approach and Theories

¶ … Maslow's work, specifically his hierarchy of needs theory that provided insight into basic human needs and a potential hierarchical structure of said needs. This is a great way to introduce Maslow's concept of self-actualization and helps the reader gain insight into the nature of the concept by addressing the background and theoretical framework. "The five needs that were originally enlisted were physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem and self-actualization. Maslow further expanded self-actualization into four needs, namely cognitive, aesthetic, self-actualization, and self-transcendence" (D'Souza & Gurin, 2016, p. 210). Although the information is a great addition to the introduction, there is no real development of thesis.

Literally for the entire paragraph, it is more of a regurgitation of information on Maslow's humanistic approach to development. Some of the lines even sound very similar from textbook descriptions of his work. The authors only begin to lean more towards their own examination of Maslow's concepts under the heading: A Sampling of Prominent Theories Correlated to Maslow's Self-Actualization Process. Here they provide five prominent theories they feel associate strongly with growth motivation and self-actualization.

They describe the theories as: "the Hindu stages of life, Erikson's theory of Psycho-social development, Freud's theory of the id, ego and superego, the ancient Jewish tradition's understanding of human progression, and Kohlberg's stages of moral development" (D'Souza & Gurin, 2016, p. 211). This was a great and interesting addition to the article because it opened the way to examine Maslow's work from a new and multiple perspective. The authors began describing the various theories with the most interesting being the Hindu stages of life. The Hindu stages of life has a first stage that last for roughly twenty years and is given the name 'celibate student'.

The first stage of the Hindu stages of life is about gaining skills and knowledge that will then enable growth towards gaining a profession and raising a family. The second stage is named the householder stage and lasts for twenty years. Here is when people focus on family life, love, and pursuit of wealth. The third stage focuses on social causes and starts at about 40-60 years of age. The final stage is a pursuit of enlightenment and lasts until death.

Again, this felt more like a summary without any insightful addition or interpretation by the authors. They did not even tie the theories back to Maslow or compare and contrast them. They did not state weaknesses or strengths. Rather, they simply provided information on each theory. That means there was no examination of the text, no real critical thinking applied, just data collection and summary.

The discussion section stated the authors aim to revisit Maslow's theory to develop a need-based activity chart to help others self-actualize. This should have been placed in the introduction as part of the thesis. What is doing at the end? It was the last page and left no other tie in or summary of what was learned. There was no conclusion. It was just their desire to create a project centered on Maslow's work and that's it.