10/14/10 Thursday

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Unconditional Love, This American Life episode


Unconditional Love

Stories of unconditional love between parents and children, and how hard love can be sometimes in daily practice.

Prologue.

Hard as it is to believe, during the early Twentieth Century, a whole school of mental health professionals decided that unconditional love was a terrible thing to give a child. The government printed pamphlets warning mothers against the dangers of holding their kids. The head of the American Psychological Association and even a mothers' organization endorsed the position that mothers were dangerous—until psychologist Harry Harlow set out to prove them wrong, through a series of experiments with monkeys. Host Ira Glass talks with Deborah Blum, author of Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection.

Act One. Love Is A Battlefield.

Alix Spiegel tells the story of a couple, Heidi and Rick Solomon, who adopt a son who was raised in terrible circumstances in a Romanian orphanage, unable to feel attachments to anyone...and what they do about it. Song: "Loveless Town," Sarah Blust

Act Two. Hit Me With Your Best Shot.

Dave Royko talks about the decision he and his wife faced recently about his autistic son's future, and whether he should continue to live with the family.




Pets fit into Maslow's hierarchy of needs. They serve as a solution to a basic human need. Pets serve under 2 of the deficiency needs of love/belonging and esteem. The increase in mobility of modern society and has led to the disruption or fragmentation of the traditional family clan. This trend has increased the need for alternative sources of emotional support and companionship, particularly within the socially alienating and depersonalizing environments created by large cities. This explains and the recent and anticipated growth of pet populations in western societies.

2. Esteem

All humans have a need to be respected and to have self-esteem and self-respect. Also known as the belonging need, esteem presents the normal human desire to be accepted and valued by others. People need to engage themselves to gain recognition and have an activity or activities that give the person a sense of contribution, to feel accepted and self-valued, be it in a profession or hobby. Imbalances at this level can result in low self-esteem or an inferiority complex. People with low self-esteem need respect from others. They may seek fame or glory, which again depends on others. Note, however, that many people with low self-esteem will not be able to improve their view of themselves simply by receiving fame, respect, and glory externally, but must first accept themselves internally. Psychological imbalances such as depression can also prevent one from obtaining self-esteem on both levels.

Most people have a need for a stable self-respect and self-esteem. Maslow noted two versions of esteem needs, a lower one and a higher one. The lower one is the need for the respect of others, the need for status, recognition, fame, prestige, and attention. The higher one is the need for self-respect, the need for strength, competence, mastery, self-confidence, independence and freedom. The latter one ranks higher because it rests more on inner competence won through experience. Deprivation of these needs can lead to an inferiority complex, weakness and helplessness.

3. Love and belonging

After physiological and safety needs are fulfilled, the third layer of human needs are social and involve feelings of belongingness. This aspect of Maslow's hierarchy involves emotionally based relationships in general, such as:

• Friendship
• Intimacy
• Family

Humans need to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance, whether it comes from a large social group, such as clubs, office culture, religious groups, professional organizations, sports teams, gangs, or small social connections (family members, intimate partners, mentors, close colleagues, confidants). They need to love and be loved (sexually and non-sexually) by others. In the absence of these elements, many people become susceptible to loneliness, social anxiety, and clinical depression. This need for belonging can often overcome the physiological and security needs, depending on the strength of the peer pressure; an anorexic, for example, may ignore the need to eat and the security of health for a feeling of control and belonging.

Serpell, James. In the Company of Animals. Cambridge University Press. New York, 1996.

Maslow, Abraham H. Toward A Psychology of Being. John Wiley and Sons. New York, 1999.

Blum, Deborah. Love At Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection. Berkley Book. New York, 2002.