Get to Know Maslow
After my last posting, Create a Conscious Consumer, I received an e-mail from a fellow CBS alum. Because the commentary was both insightful and thought-provoking, I asked permission to share it with all of you. (Note: due to the length, I’ve condensed the original e-mail):
“A core value of mine is individual liberties … From individual freedoms stems the notion that the government or state-run TV, advertising, marketing powers can’t tell us what to do and not do, short of physically harming others. This means that much of what is said will be unhealthy … but it also forces us to mature and take care of ourselves … As I raise my [child] … I love instilling critical thinking (the skepticism you mention you see in your little ones)… The world never has been a utopia or nirvana and never will be, and the big game– as I see it– is discovering who you can be freely…”
This commentary raises a myriad of interesting and important discussions, as well as underscores the importance of providing our children with a tool box to navigate the world around them. Since this topic keeps popping up, I think it would be useful take a look at exactly where this process of teaching our children to recognize and evaluate information falls within the continuum of social and psychological development.
I first encountered Abraham Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs” in a marketing class at CBS. The theory was presented as a pyramid designed to illuminate the stages we, as human beings, must pass through in order to reach self-actualization. At the bottom of the pyramid rest our most basic physical needs: food, clothing and shelter. As we move up the pyramid, we reach more complex and esoteric needs – the need for safety and security, the need to form meaningful relationships, and toward the top, self-esteem and self- actualization. According to Maslow, the needs at the bottom of the pyramid must be met before an individual can progress up the pyramid to less fundamental needs (from a survival perspective).
Although designed as a theoretical framework, Maslow’s hierarchy can serve as a useful roadmap for dealing with our children on a day-to-day basis.
Take Kitten, for example. I’m currently in the basement using the electronic babysitter so I can get this posting completed (in my defense, the girls are watching an education video as part of Puppy’s curriculum!). In any case, Kitten is in the process of working herself into a frenzy because I won’t give her a snack. Despite the fact that I’ve explained at least fourteen times that we will be eating dinner in a matter of minutes, her tantrum continues to escalate.
Enter Maslow. According to his framework, I am – right at this very moment – failing to meet Kitten’s basic needs. He would likely argue that her growling stomach anchors her at the bottom of the pyramid, rendering her incapable of rational thought.
On a macro level, this serves as a reminder that it is our task as parents to ensure that our children’s basic needs are met so that we can focus on the top end of Maslow’s pyramid, thereby giving us the opportunity to engage in discussions about conscious consumerism and the importance of protecting their civil liberties.
For now, I guess I’d better get to work on dinner.
March 11, 2010 at 9:14 pm
This is ever-so-funny that you are commenting on this topic as I have a motto that I have carried with me for many years and it is “You do what you can with what you have, as long as it doesn’t prevent you from eating!” I never stopped to think how close I was to Maslow’s heirarchy!