Abraham Maslow researched and came up with his own hierarchy of needs that are now known across all fronts in psychology. It’s important to understand these needs because they are needs of our own species – a humanistic psychology theory surrounding our needs as humans. It’s also important to know the man behind the hierarchy to further our understanding.
Abraham Maslow was a Brooklyn, New York native; while his parents were “…uneducated Jewish immigrants from Russia” (Boeree). He studied law at City College of New York and then transferred to Cornell, then back to City College of New York. He married and had two daughters. Then, he moved to Wisconsin with his family and attended the university of Wisconsin. He then became interested in psychology and worked with Harry Harlow. After years, he received his PhD in psychology and returned to New York to work with E. L. Thorndike, where he did research on human sexuality. He then served as the chair of psychology department at Brandeis and “…began his crusade for a humanistic psychology – something untimely more important to him than his own theorizing” (Boeree).
Maslow created his own famous hierarchy of needs and based it on a pyramid. There are five layers to this: “the physiological needs, the needs for safety and security, the needs for love and belonging, the needs for esteem, and the need to actualize the self, in that order” (Boeree). It’s quite simple to know what these pertain to – physiological is the need for water, oxygen, calcium, et. Safety and security is our need for protection. Love and belonging is the need for friends, a lover, relationships. Esteem needs are fame, glory, attention, etc. 
Self-actualization is a little more complicated though. It’s at the very top of the pyramid with a space between the rest. It’s the last one of the needs. “He has called it growth motivation, being needs, and self-actualization” and “[t]hey involve the continuous desire to fulfill potentials, to “be all that you can be.” They are a matter of becoming the most complete, the fullest, “you” – hence the term” (Boeree).
This last need only needs to happen when you have the rest of the needs taken care of first. It makes sense because “If you are hungry, you are scrambling to get food; if you are unsafe, you have to be continuously on guard; If you are isolated and unloved, you have to satisfy that need; If you have a low sense of self-esteem, you have to be defensive or compensate” (Boeree). So, when these are unmet, you can’t truly fulfill yourself in fulfilling your potential.
Maslow called the “the highest level of the pyramid as growth needs” which don’t come from a lack of something, but a desire to grow as a person (Cherry). And then, the lowest are the basic needs like security and physiological needs that are discussed above (McLeod).
To summarize, these needs that Maslow created are organized from the bottom of the pyramid, to the top, in that order. You need to complete the bottom needs first, before getting to the top. It’s not super rigid, but it makes sense this way. “Most behavior is multi-motivated, that is, simultaneously determined by more than one basic need” (McLeod).
References
Boeree, C. George. “Abraham Maslow.” Personality Theories, 2006, http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/maslow.html
Cherry, Kendra. Reviewed by a board-certified physician, Kendra. “How Maslow’s Hierarchy Explains Human Motivation.” Verywell, 16 May 2017, www.verywell.com/what-is-maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-4136760.
McLeod, Saul. “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.” Simply Psychology, 16 Sept. 2016, https://simplypsychology.org/maslow.html
