All quotes from Maslow are from A Theory of Human Motivation, A. H. Maslow (1943) published in Psychological Review, 50, 370-396: http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Maslow/motivation.htm
Maslow’s Heirarchy describes five levels of needs, the first/lowest four termed “deficiency needs”. Maslow described these as needs, that when unmet, result in negative repercussions, either physiologically or psychologically. These levels of deficiency needs are, from lowest to highest,
- Physiological (air, food, water, sleep, etc.)
- Safety (security, health, resources, employment, etc.)
- Love/belonging (friendship, family, etc.)
- Esteem (self-esteem, confidence, respect of and by others)
Higher level needs only come into play and receive focus when the levels below them are met. Maslow explains:
These basic goals are related to each other, 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.
One implication on which we’d like to focus is that realization of the highest level (Self-Actualization) in any sustained and focused way (as a primary goal or motivator) requires that each of the deficiency needs are met first.
In Maslow’s own words:
It (the term self-actualization) refers to the desire for self-fulfillment, namely, to the tendency for him to become actualized in what he is potentially. This tendency might be phrased as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming.
The specific form that these needs will take will of course vary greatly from person to person. In one individual it may take the form of the desire to be an ideal mother, in another it may be expressed athletically, and in still another it may be expressed in painting pictures or in inventions. It is not necessarily a creative urge although in people who have any capacities for creation it will take this form.
The clear emergence of these needs rests upon prior satisfaction of the physiological, safety, love and esteem needs. We shall call people who are satisfied in these needs, basically satisfied people, and it is from these that we may expect the fullest (and healthiest) creativeness. Since, in our society, basically satisfied people are the exception, we do not know much about self-actualization, either experimentally or clinically. It remains a challenging problem for research.
Assuming then that the vast majority of students are not basically satisfied people, to what degree must educators focus on helping them meet their deficiency needs before meaningful learning can take place? At one end of the spectrum (or level of need) is the case of young homeless children. That is very clear-cut example of deficiency needs not being met and the subsequent impact this can have on learning. These young students must have food, shelter, and some degree of safety before they can even begin to focus on learning things like reading or math. (It is nice to note that more school districts are beginning to find ways to meet those needs so that students in this unfortunate situation are still able to learn. There are many resources available on this topic; http://www.serve.org/nche/ is one such site.)
But what of college-level students? At one time, college was seen as part of the pursuit of self-actualization…it was not necessary to obtain a college degree to “live the good life.” But things have changed in such a way that attaining a college degree is now seen as a basic prerequisite for the majority of jobs that pay more than minimum wage. More concerning, something as basic as life expectancy is positively affected by having a college degree. As such, attending college is not the luxury it once was and may actually qualify, in many cases, as an attempt to meet needs at the level of Physiological and Safety.
If this is the case, we have to wonder: To what degree do deficiency needs at the level of Security, Belonging, or Esteem affect or even make impossible meaningful teaching within our higher education classrooms? We think this likely enough that we’d like to put forward the notion that the Classification of Learning Skills, especially the Social and Affective Domains, might well hold the key for helping students meet their deficiency needs even as opportunities for some degree of self-actualization are realized. Not only will helping students build learning skills such as Persisting (continuing on a reasonable path despite low mood or mounting difficulties), Adapting (changing direction when feedback to do so is reasonable and trusted), and Seeking help (accepting that you need outside assistance and asking for it) literally help them be more effective learners; helping students build those skills will help them do what they can to meet their deficiency needs.
