PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN MOTIVATION

An integration of diverse theories and philosophies, for a holistic approach that’s relevant today

Lawrence Toye - 24 September 2020



For the full blog, including visual images - click here.

Written blog, below:

Some “food for thought…”

Most would agree that when we’re unable to determine when we might next eat, little else matters besides solving that specific need. Ever been there..? 

“Every society is three meals away from chaos.” - Vladimir Lenin (c early 1900's)

"[society in Britain is] 4 meals away from anarchy" - British Security Agency - MI5 (2011)  

Considering what we have seen with the arrival of a global pandemic…what do you think it would be today? What about in other nations where there is a degree of self sufficiency?

As the chaos of the world continues to mutate, many humans in Werstern society are being kept "on our toes" in regards to our food supply chains and every-day product availability (have you got your toilet roll?!). There's also less stable job security and growing uncertainty around our homes and livelihoods. 

Questions that are echoing among us: 

“Will I lose my job...?”, “How will I afford the rent...?”, “Is it safe to go outside yet...?”

Secondary needs such as buying the “latest consumer tech”, or getting the “employee of the month award” become much less of a priority. Or at least, that’s according to a certain well known model depicting the motivational needs of humans in the Western world


Western Thinking

“Man is a continually wanting animal” Abraham Maslow (A theory of Human Motivation, 1943).

. Maslow’s original theory was that most people spend most of their time and energy attending to the fulfillment of the first 3 or four kinds of needs, (up to Esteem) with less time and energy to spend on “achieving one’s full potential” (Self-actualisation). 

In more recent times the original version of the popular model, which is still used heavily in personal and organizational development today, has been labelled as inaccurate and due an update for modern times.


New Horizons

One man who has embarked on a journey to revise and update the way we might view human motivational needs in the 21st Century and beyond, is humanistic psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman. 

Kaufman’s revised theory implies that fulfilling human motivational needs is an integrative and holistic process.  

“The familiar pyramid shape suggests that once we complete each step, we’re done dealing with that need forever. As if life were a video game, and once we complete each level, we unlock the next, with no looking back. It’s an appealing concept. It’s also a gross misrepresentation of the humanistic vision that propelled Maslow’s work…

...Life isn’t a trek up a summit. It’s more like a vast ocean, full of new opportunities for meaning and discovery but also danger and uncertainty. In this choppy surf, a pyramid is of little use. What we really need is something more flexible and functional: a sailboat...” 
           
“...With holes in your boat, you can’t go anywhere. All of your energy and focus is directed toward increasing the stability of the boat. The human needs that comprise the boat are safety, connection, and self-esteem — security needs that, under good conditions, work together toward greater stability.” 

escripts from “Sailboat Metaphor” - Scott Barry Kauffman 2019


Indigenous Wisdom

A little known fact; Maslow’s theories and publications on human motivational needs were heavily influenced by his experiences with the indigenous Blackfoot Nation of Alberta, Canada, who he spent several months with in 1938.  

“We have been given the ancestors’ teachings and the feelings and the spirit...You can breathe in even deeper the knowledge of others and understand it at a deep level and then breathe it forward. That’s the breath of life.” 

Cindy Blackstock on Blackfoot influence of Maslow and Cultural Perpetuity, April 2014

More broadly, this “First Nations” perspective probably represents the attitude and priorities of many indigenous peoples. Where indigenous communities are self sufficient in their food production, they would be a lot less shaken by disruption to global food supply chains. The model on the right also indicates what’s possible when a group of self actualised humans unite and work together. A vastly different focus to Malsow’s model, much of his work and his wider experience of what it means to be human.  

The Blackfoot Nation is a culture of high synergy. Basically - do for community, you benefit from community (including “place” or the land). Do for yourself and only you benefit from your own efforts (this would be low synergy). Along with many other indigenous people, the people of the Blackfoot Nation generally have a much more sacred code of ethics around relationship to place and land. Could there be something to learn from indigenous peoples concerning the vital importance of connection to place, to land?      

Maslow’s time with the Blackfoot people was generally a very transformative phase of his life. 

He found the humility to acknowledge that there were now rather obvious flaws and gaps in his work. The shift that this caused in his approach to humanistic psychology undoubtedly contributed to a revision of his Hierarchy of Needs, which saw Self-transcendence become the highest, most ultimate frame of human motivation. 

This is where it gets really good…!


Transcendence

“This sixth need, to feel part of something bigger and to develop joint strategies as humans, is essential for our life today. It is what inspires people to fight climate change, hunger or poverty.”

Jessi Christian for Medium - The New Hierarchy of Needs — Maslow’s lost apex

Having transcended our own self interests to focus on the border issues faced by society and the world at large, what might we begin to do? Fight climate change? Tackle extreme poverty?

When you consider what’s becoming more important to many of us today, Maslow was clearly on to something when he dropped self-transcendence onto the apex of the model. 

What is it that we are transcending, exactly? What if I told you it has to do with seeing what’s beyond the need to fulfill our individual needs? To be in service of something greater than ourselves.


Emergence

Kaufman refers to the notion of a “healthy transcendence” as an emergent phenomenon resulting from the harmonious integration of one’s whole self in the service of cultivating the good society. 

So it’s not about being above humanity but it’s about being a part of humanity and the rest of the world as much as possible. 

One of the most inspiring characteristics of the Blackfoot Nation is that their culture is one of high synergy. Basically - do for community, you benefit from community (including “place” or the land). Do for yourself and only you benefit from your own efforts (this would be low synergy). 

What could combining the Indigenous attitude on connection to land and community with Kaufman’s holistic framing of Western values allow for?   

 

As this quote from Maslow so beautifully illustrates: 

“Transcendence refers to the very highest and most inclusive or holistic levels of human consciousness, behaving and relating, as ends rather than means, to oneself, to significant others, to human beings in general, to other species, to nature, and to the cosmos.” 

Abraham Maslow - The Farther Reaches of Human Nature, New York, 1971, p. 269

Links:
“3 meals away from chaos” - Vladimir Lenin

“4 meals away from anarchy” - Mi5 Security agency 2011 

“Maslow’s - A Theory of Human Motivation” 1943. Retrieved from here.

Scott Barry Kaufman - Sailboat metaphor. Retrieved from here.

Cindy Blackstock - on Cultural Perpetuity (quoted in this article). Retrieved from here.

Jessi Christian - The New Hierarchy of Needs — Maslow’s lost apex