Maslow

Motivation blog post three on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

At first I saw the length of this particular article and I thought to myself, there is no way I am going to read this whole thing, but after getting a few pages in I found myself becoming very interested in the topics discussed. Although not surprising I found it very interesting that the basic hunger drive is the foundation of an individual’s needs and motivations. The article discusses how if this basic need is not met then mainly other needs will be suppressed or non-existent until this need is met. The author states that if the physiological needs are relatively well gratified, only then does a new set of needs emerge, otherwise known as safety needs. These needs are described as organizers of behavior, putting the particular organism into a safety-seeking mechanism.

The author stresses that the dominating goal is a strong determinant not only of the current world outlook and philosophy but also of a philosophy of the future. I really like how the author applied and explained this by turning to “neurotic” or “near neurotic” person. Relating this to my life, and environment I go through every day, I feel as if the term neurotic applies to a good population of people I see from day to day. He compares a neurotic individual to an unsafe child in their desire for safety, explaining that their reaction to a stimulus is sometimes unknown. I feel this applies to many students with very high standards on achievement. It is not uncommon to hear someone react to a test grade, or test preparation as a catastrophic affair, but the thing is, it seems as if the people that do react neurotically to stresses of tests and work are usually the most well prepared although they may feel inferior or not completely “safe” until the grade comes back to them. I liked the information on the compulsive-obsessives who are determined to order and stabilize their world, so that nothing unexpected or unfamiliar dangers happen. This topic of the compulsive-obsessive individual is a quality that I think most individuals go through at least once. It almost seems as though a good amount of successful people are in fact like this. These type of people run on set schedule, rituals, among other things to keep order in their lives and continue on the path they feel is appropriate.

When applying this hierarchy of needs to myself I can sort of go back and understand my behavior at certain times. For example I went through a good amount of time where I was struggling car problems. At this time it seemed like the most important thing to me, it was all I thought about, and all I wanted was a car that would be reliable. I felt so engulfed in this desire that nothing else really mattered, and I felt as if I was going no where. I was not focusing my attention on much else besides my ever breaking 89 camaro. It was not until I had a decent form of transportation that other needs seemed to come to surface, now that getting to school wasn’t a problem doing work, getting good grades, and so on seemed to become bold drives. Seeing that my basic hunger drive has been met my whole life, the emergence of other needs have come out throughout the years. There was also a good amount of time where my needs pertaining to self esteem and self worth were not being correctly met. I found that after developing some confidence in my self and some new effective social connections my focus moved onto something else, my need for love. As you may see and know from reading the article it seems if there is no end to ones basic drives and needs, hopefully just a basic understanding-jason