Abraham maslow biography definition of management

American psychologist (1908–1970)

Abraham Harold Maslow (MAZ-loh; April 1, 1908 – June 8, 1970) was an American psychologist who created Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a theory of psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human needs in priority, culminating in self-actualization. Maslow was a psychology professor at Brandeis University, Brooklyn College, New School for Social Research, and Columbia University. He stressed the importance of focusing on the positive qualities in people, as opposed to treating them as a "bag of symptoms". A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Maslow as the tenth most cited psychologist of the 20th century.

Biography

Youth

Born in 1908 and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Maslow was the oldest of seven children. His parents were first-generation Jewish immigrants from Kiev, then part of the Russian Empire (now Kyiv, Ukraine), who fled from Czaristpersecution in the early 20th century. They had decided to live in New York City and in a multiethnic, working-class neighborhood. His parents were poor and not intellectually focused, but they valued education. He had various encounters with antisemitic gangs who would chase and throw rocks at him. Maslow and other young people with his background were struggling to overcome such acts of racism and ethnic prejudice in an attempt to establish an idealistic world based on widespread education and economic justice.

The tension outside his home was also felt within it, as he rarely got along with his mother and eventually developed a strong revulsion towards her. He is quoted as saying, "What I had reacted to was not only her physical appearance, but also her values and world view, her stinginess, her total selfishness, her lack of love for anyone else in the world—even her own husband and children

1965 book by Abraham Maslow

Maslow on Management (originally Eupsychian Management: A Journal) is a work on industrial psychology by Abraham Maslow, first published in 1965. Maslow's work is frequently invoked in attempts to explain and predict work behavior. In his work Maslow advocated the eupsychian (meaning moving towards psychological health or self-actualization) management as the ideal model for industrial organizations. Maslow took a keen interest in the application of humanistic psychology beyond one-on-one therapy to larger endeavors in organizations and education settings, where greater numbers of people could be positively affected.

The idea for Eupsychian Management originated with a journal of Maslow's impressions of his 1962 observations of a California electronics plant. The study resulted in Maslow conceiving a theoretical framework on which research in the area of self-actualization may be applied to industrial organizations. Not wanting to use the word "utopian", Maslow coined the term "eupsychian" to describe human-oriented institutions generated by self-actualized people. He said it could also be used to mean "moving toward psychological health".

Maslow noted the commitment to work in self-actualizing people's lives: "These highly evolved individuals assimilate their work into the identity, into the self, ie, work actually becomes part of the self, part of the individual's definition of himself." These most highly evolved persons would actually assimilate work as part of their personal identity.

Maslow's industrial motivation theory

Abraham Maslow was an American psychologist who developed a hierarchy of needs to explain human motivation. His theory suggested that people have a number of basic needs that must be met before people move up the hierarchy to pursue more social, emotional, and self-actualizing needs.

Maslow's approach was quite a bit different than many of his contemporaries. While other psychologists were focused on disorders and dysfunctions, Maslow was more interested in understanding what helped people to thrive. His now-iconic pyramid of needs helped redefine how we think about human motivation. It offered a framework for understanding what drives us to go beyond just surviving to focus on things like love, esteem, and self-fulfillment.

Keep reading to learn more about Abraham Maslow's life, work, theories, and significant contributions to psychology. At the end of this article, take the pop quiz to find out how much you know about Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

Abraham Maslow's Early Life

Abraham Maslow was born on April 1, 1908, in Brooklyn, New York, where he grew up, the first of seven children born to Jewish parents who emigrated from Russia. Maslow later described his early childhood as unhappy and lonely. He spent much of his time in the library immersed in books.

Maslow studied law at City College of New York (CCNY). After developing an interest in psychology, he switched to the University of Wisconsin and found a mentor in psychologist Harry Harlow, who served as his doctoral advisor. Maslow earned all three of his degrees in psychology (a bachelor's, master's, and doctorate) from the University of Wisconsin.

Abraham Maslow's Humanistic Theories

Abraham Maslow began teaching at Brooklyn College in 1937 and continued to work as a member of the school's facu