Reaching Self-Actualizion Through Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

 Jannie Ellis 

Ms. Harris 

ENGL 2017-6847 

2, May 2022 

 

Reaching Self-Actualizion Through Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs 


Abraham Maslow was an American psychologist who was best know for the development of the hierarchy of needs that explained human motivation. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a theory of psychological health predicated on fulfilling natural human needs in priority, and reaching a final peak of self-actualization. His theory suggested that people have a number of basic needs that must be met to pursue a more social, emotional, and fulfiling life. 

For us to better understand what it is that human beings need in order to motivate themselves, Maslow proposed this hierarchy of needs. The hierarchy of needs is a set of human requirements that are important to meet in order for a person to achieve complete personal growth, development, and self-actualization. He presented the hierarchy in a pyramid with 5 levels to it, with the more basic needs at the bottom and the more higher-level impalpable needs at the top. According to Maslow, when the lower need is met, the next need becomes your focus of attention (MasterClass staff). 

Maslow's hierarchy of needs: 

The first stage is physiological needs. This refers to air, water, food shelter, sleep, clothing, and reproduction. The basic, the most essential human survival needs. The second stage is safety needs. This refers to personal security, employment (financial security), resources, health, family, emotional stability, and well-being. The third stage is loving and belonging needs. This refers to friendship, intimacy, family, a sense of connection. These three stages are considered the lower level of the pyramid. 

The fourth stage is esteem. This refers to self-esteem, which is the confidence in your potential for personal growth and accomplishments. Self-respect, the belief that you are valuable and deserving of dignity. Also, status, recognition, strength, freedom. Maslow specifically notes that self-esteem can be broken into two types: esteem which is based on respect and acknowledgment from others, and esteem which is based on your own self-assessment. Self-confidence and independence stem from this latter type of self-esteem (MasterClass staff). When a human being self-esteem needs are met, they tend to feel more confident and they see their contributions and achievements as valuable and important.  

The fifth stage is self-actualization. This refers to the desire to become the most one can be. Self-actualization describes the fulfillment of your full potential as a person. This is important because it is how you are able to find meaning and purpose in your life and how you can truly and honestly say that you’ve “truly lived”. These last two stages are considered the high-level, intangible part of the pyramid. 

Throughout Hurston novel, in Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie struggles with self-identity, and self- actualization. Janie’s journey to self–actualization had a lot of struggles, but she climbed her way through the hierarchy pyramid to reach her growth and fulfillment.  

In the beginning, Janie’s grandma provided her with the first level of the pyramid; physiological needs. Janie was able to have those illusions that she contstantly had about the pear tree because life was always good for her, because her grandma made sure to see it that way. The pear tree symbolized her fairytail image of life, marriage, and love. Her grandma worked her way through life although she was tired, to make sure that Janie’s physsiological neeeds (air, water, food, shelter, clothing) were met (Hurston,Zora). 

The second level of the pyramid; safety needs, comes in for Janie when the world as she has known it changes when she is caught kissing Johnny (Hurston, Page 12). That is when Janie’s grandma helps her meet the second level of the Moslow’s hierarchy of needs; personal/financial security,by setting her up to marry Logan. Logan provideded her with both the first and second level of the pyramid. 

When Janie left Logan for Jody, he stopped/ stalled her from climbing up the pyramid. Janie and Jody relationship still only met her physiological and safety needs. The way that Jody treated her kept her from reaching the third level of the hierarchy of needs. It was not until she met Tea Cake that she fulfilled the loving and belonging stage of the hierarchy. Although Tea Cake did not provide her with the physiological and safety needs, she didn’t need him to because she was able to provide herself with that from her previous marriage. Instead, he showed her something she never felt before, the very thing she wanted most in the world, love. She got to experience love with him. She chose to be with him because she developed a sense of connection with him (Hurston, Zora). This experience helped her meet the third stage, of the hierarchy; love and belonging. 

Janie also meets the fourth stage of the hierarchy; esteem, with Tea Cake as well. When she was with Jody, he was jealous and possessive and he made her cover her hair as a claim that her sexuality belonged to him, (Hurston, Page 55). When she was got with Tea Cake after Jody died, Tea Cake embraced it. He would tell Janie that she had beautiful hair, eyes, and lips, which started to make her stare in the mirror more and embrace and enjoy her own beauty, something that she didn’t do with Jody (Hurston, Page 103). 

The moment Janie shot Tea Cake (Hurston, Page 184), is the moment when she reached her full potential, which meant that she finally reached the final level of the hierarchy (self-actualization). She was able to achieve self-actualization because after chosing him over and over again over herself because of what he stood for in her life, she was finally able to chose herself at the end when it mattered the most (Hurston, Zora). The moment that she chose herself, that was her strongest moment in the whole book. Her choosing her self showed her growth and defined the moment that she achieved self-actualization. 



References: 

Cherry, Kendra. “Abraham Maslow Is the Founder of Humanistic Psychology.” Verywell Mind, Verywell Mind, 16 Mar. 2020, https://www.verywellmind.com/biography-of-abraham-maslow-1908-1970-2795524. 

 

Mcleod, Saul. “Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.” Simply Psychology, 29 Dec. 2020, https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html. 

 

Anand, Ashesh. “5 Levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs - An Overview,” Analytic Steps, 10 Sept. 2021, https://www.analyticssteps.com/blogs/5-levels-of-maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-an-overview. 

 

Hurston, Zora Neale. “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 2021. 

 

MasterClass staff. “A guide to the 5 levels of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.” MasterClass, 8 November 2020, https://www.masterclass.com/articles/a-guide-to-the-5-levels-of-maslows-hierarchy-of-needs 

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