A Theory of Human Motivation: A.H. Maslow

A Theory of Human Motivation: A.H. Maslow
A human motivation is centered to the human being and is not synonymous with behavior theory. The motivations are only one class of determinants of behavior, while behavior is almost always biologically, culturally and situational. The motivation theory is related to the basic needs of human being, in relation to the existence of human being, the fulfillment of basic needs is way to get the truly existence of human being signed by self actualization. Maslow divides the basic needs of human being into five needs, the physiological need, the safety need, the love need, the esteem need, and the need for self actualization.
1. The physiological needs. It is based on physiological drives related to the concept of homeostasis and finding the appetites concerned to the preferential choices among foods. The physiological needs is the most surface need of human being, because it is related to the physiological drive such as hunger, thirsty, sleepy, and another physiological things. Interconnected to the concept of homeostasis and finding the appetites refer to the body automatic effort to maintain the health of the body. The concept of homeostasis such as maintain the normal state of blood stream (It has been described that the normal blood stream is related to water content of blood, salt content, sugar content, protein content, fat content, calcium content, oxygen content, constant hydrogen-ion level (acid-base balance) and the constant temperature of the blood, those are the physical appearance need of human being and it is so base need of human being. When the basic need of physiological has been completed, then human being moves to the next steep of need.
2. The safety need. Sometimes, human being feel to be dominated by the other one, and that makes uncomfortable feeling to the human itself, and they need the safety need. So, the safety need is not only concern to the safe of accident, safe of disaster, or safe of violence but also safe of comfortable feeling and safe to their selves.
If the physiological needs are relatively well gratified, there then emerges a new set of needs, which we may categorize roughly as the safety needs all that has been said of the physiological needs is equally true, although in lesser degree, of these desires.
The organism may equally well be wholly dominated by them. They may serve as the almost exclusive organizer of behavior, recruiting all the capacities of the organism in their services, and we may then fairly describe the whole organism as a safety-seeking mechanism. Again we may say of the receptors, the effectors, of the intellect and the other capacities that they are primarily safety-seeking tools. Again, as in the hungry man, we find that the dominating goal is a strong determinant not only of his current world-outlook and philosophy but also of his philosophy of the future. Practically everything looks less important than safety, (even sometimes the physiological needs which being satisfied, are now underestimated). A man, in this state, if it is extreme enough and chronic enough, we may characterized as living almost for safety one.
3. The third is the love need, if the physiological and safety need has been fulfilled, then human will hunger of love, they hunger of affectionate relation with people in general. In society relationship, there are the cases of maladjustment which influences the fulfillment of the love need of human being. Maladjustment is the inability of human to adapt in society and it is related to the severe psychopathology. Love and affection as usually are expressed in sexuality, are generally looked upon to the ambivalence to the human needs. And the prominent point of the love need is involved both giving and receiving love.
4. The fourth is the esteem need. All of people in the world have desire to stable, firmly based then next to be appreciated by another people. The esteem need is the need to be respected, to be valued, to be appreciated as human by upon of their own real capacity, achievement, and for the esteem of the other. The love need is divided into two subsidiary sets, first is the desire for strength, achievement, adequacy, for confidence in the face of the world, and for independence and freedom. Secondly, is the desire for reputation or prestige defining it as the respect from the other people. Satisfaction of self esteem need leads to the self-confidence, worth, strength, capability, and adequacy of being useful in the world.
5. The need for self actualization. It is the highest step of human basic need as the sign of human existence. The need of actualization lead to the way of human actualizes their self. As the proverb says that what a man can be he must be, as the teacher can be? She must teach. The conclusion is that the need of self actualization is the highest process of human to get their truly existence.
Summary
1. There are at least five sets of goals, which we may call basic needs. These are briefly physiological, safely, love, esteem, and self-actualization. In addition, we are motivated by the desire to achieve or maintain the various conditions upon which these basic satisfactions rest and by certain more intellectual desires.
2. These basic goals are related to each, being arranged in a hierarchy of prepotency. This means that the most prepotent goal will monopolize consciousness and will tend of itself to organize the recruitment of the various capacities of the organism. The less prepotent needs are minimized, even forgotten or denied. But when a need is fairly well satisfied, the next prepotent (higher) need emerges, in turn to dominate the conscious life and to serve as the center of organization of behavior, since gratified needs are not active motivators.
Thus man is a perpetually wanting animal. Ordinarily the satisfaction of these wants is not altogether mutually exclusive, but only tends to be. The average member of our society is most often partially satisfied and partially unsatisfied in all of his wants. The hierarchy principle is usually empirically observed in terms of increasing percentages of non-satisfaction as we go up the hierarchy. Reversals of the average order of the hierarchy are sometimes observed. Also it has been observed that an individual may permanently lose the higher wants in the hierarchy under special conditions. There are not only ordinary multiple motivations for usual behavior, but in addition many determinants other than motives.
3. Any thwarting or possibility of thwarting of these basic human goals, or danger to the defenses which protect them, or to the conditions upon which they rest, is considered to be a psychological threat. With a few exceptions, all psychopathology may be partially traced to such threats. A basically thwarted man may actually be defined as a ‘sick’ man, if we wish.
4. It is such basic threats which bring about the general emergency reactions.
5. Certain other basic problems have not been dealt with because of limitations of space. Among these are:
a. The problem of values in any definitive motivation theory
b. The relation between appetites, desires, needs and what is ‘good’ for the organism
c. The etiology of the basic needs and their possible derivation in early childhood
d. Redefinition of motivational concepts, i. e., drive, desire, wish, need, goal
e. Implication of our theory for hedonistic theory
f. The nature of the uncompleted act, of success and failure, and of aspiration-level
g. The role of association, habit and conditioning
h. Relation to the theory of inter-personal relations
i. Implications for psychotherapy
j. Implication for theory of society
k. The theory of selfishness
l. The relation between needs and cultural patterns
m. The relation between this theory and Alport’s theory of functional autonomy
These as well as certain other less important questions must be considered as motivation theory attempts to become definitive.

References
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4. FREUD, S. New introductory lectures on psychoanalysis. New York: Norton, 1933.
5. FROMM, E. Escape from freedom. New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1941.