Maslow Elder Applying Maslow's Hierarchy

Maslow Elder Applying Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs to Elder Care In 1954, psychologist Abraham Maslow attempted to bring a great deal of disparate research and findings regarding human motivation into one over-arching theory, which resulted in his description of a hierarchy of human needs (Huitt 2007).

Rather than focusing solely and specifically on factors like biology, power, and simple conscious definitions of achievement as many other psychologists and other researchers of motivators had tended to do in the past, Maslow attempted to incorporate all of these factors in his hierarchy based on his own observations and past conclusions from other researchers (Huitt 2007). The hierarchy is built in a pyramid shape, with the lower needs requiring fulfillment before the others can be fulfilled, yet with greater motivation and satisfaction resulting from the higher needs (Huitt 2007).

In order from bottom to top, the needs that Maslow identified over several decades of fine-tuning are: physiological needs, safety needs, belongingness and love needs, esteem needs, cognitive needs, aesthetic needs, self-actualization, and finally transcendence (Huitt 2007). Using this model can be a very effective way to ensure that needs are being met in any care situation, including elder care institutions.

Every state as well as the federal government has laws regarding the provision of the basic needs of individuals in any licensed care facility, and these are the simplest needs to fulfill -- medical, nutritional, and safety needs all have specific procedures defined by law and practice (ECO 2010). This only fulfills the bottom two needs on the pyramid, however, and in fact research clearly shows that fulfilling needs of belongingness and esteem -- the next two levels -- can improve physiological health (ECO 2010).

Providing for interpersonal interactions through community building events like discussion groups and classes can help provide this need for belonging and esteem. These activities can also assist in fulfilling the cognitive needs of individuals. This need can also be defined as a "need to know," and in fact showing individuals in elder care facilities the respect they deserve by explaining the structure, policies, schedules, and other aspects of care so that individuals know how their world is organized is a surprisingly rare occurrence in many elder care facilities (Huitt 2007; ECO 2010).

Providing these simple explanations can fill cognitive needs, as can allowing freedom to pursue ongoing learning through reading and discussion and classes as mentioned above.

Some freedom in decorative aspects of private rooms and engagement in art projects, music events, and even simply ensuring that every individual in the care facility has access to music and other entertainment sources that they particularly enjoy will help to fulfill the aesthetic needs of individuals, and this can also have tremendous impacts on some of the lower-level needs of individuals in elder care facilities (ECO 2010).

Not only will these efforts assist in the fulfillment of lower-level needs, but they also contribute directly to the fulfillment of higher-level needs (Huitt 2007). These needs are the must.