Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs



Putting Our Clients in PerspectiveBefore we can get into any depth discussing substance use disorders we need to lay some foundational knowledge that will help us understand clients as people. Towards that end several key concepts are discussed in this module note. You will be studying these in more depth in other courses while you are in the Mental Health program. If you had already had other mental health classes you will be familiar with many of these ideas.Key to understanding people is developing a basic knowledge of the stages of psychosocial, cognitive, moral, and empathy development, and understanding how self-esteem is formed. In addition a review of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs will provide you a beginning foundation in studying client behavior. Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages of DevelopmentPsychoanalyst Erik Erikson described the physical, emotional and psychological stages of development and relates specific issues, or developmental tasks, to each stage. For example, if an infant’s physical and emotional needs are met sufficiently, the infant completes the developmental task by mastering the psychosocial crisis of trust. However, an infant whose needs were not met and who did not master the psychosocial crisis develops mistrust. The remnants of this unfinished task are carried over to the next developmental stage. For instance if a toddler is not allowed to learn by doing, the toddler develops a sense of doubt in his or her abilities, which may complicate later attempts at independence. Similarly, a preschooler who is made to fee that the activities he or she initiates are bad may develop a sense of guilt that inhibits the person in later life.The following chart reflects key elements of Erikson’s theory. Due to many sociological changes in our current society as well as an elongation of adolescence it is commonly held that there are three distinct stages of adolescence: early adolescence where the psychosocial crisis is group affiliation verses alienation and middle adolescence where the crisis is individuality within the group verses isolation and late adolescents where the crisis is identity verses role confusion. Early adulthood is also often viewed as late adolescence with the crisis being intimacy versus isolation.ERIKSON'S EIGHT STAGES OF DEVELOPMENTStageAgeCentral TaskIndicators of Positive ResolutionIndicators of Negative ResolutionInfancyBirth to 18 monthsTrust versus MistrustLearning to trust othersMistrust, withdrawal, estrangementEarlyChildhood18 months to 3 yearsAutonomy versus Shame & DoubtSelf-control without loss of self-esteem*Ability to cooperate and to express oneself*Compulsive self-restraint or compliance*Willfulness and defianceLate Childhood3 to 5 yearsInitiative versus Guilt*Learning the degree to which assertiveness and purpose influence the environment*Beginning ability to evaluate one’s own behavior*Lack of self-confidence*Pessimism, fear of wrongdoing *Over control and over restriction of own activitySchool Age6 to 12 yearsIndustry versus Inferiority*Beginning to create, develop, and manipulate*Developing sense of competence and perseverance*Loss of hope, sense of being mediocre*Withdrawal from school or peersAdolescence12 to 18 yearsIdentity versus Role Confusion*Coherent sense of self*Plans to actualize one’s abilitiesConfusion, indecisiveness, and inability to find occupational identityYoung Adulthood18 to 25 yearsIntimacy versus Isolation*Intimate relationship with another person*Commitment to work and relationships*Impersonal relationships*Avoidance of relationships, career or life-style commitmentsAdulthood25 to 65 yearsGenerativity versus StagnationCreativity, productivity, concern for othersSelf-indulgence, self-concern, lack of interest and commitmentsMaturity65 years to deathIntegrity versus Despair*Acceptance of worth and uniqueness of one’s own life*Acceptance of deathSense of loss, contempt for othersThe newer model has the following stages and is more relevant to today’s culture:Life StageDevelopmental TasksInfancy (birth to 2 years)Social attachment, Maturity of sensory, perceptual, and motor functionsSensorimotor intelligence and primitive causality, understanding the nature of objects and the creation of categories, emotional developmentToddlerhood (2-3)Elaboration of locomotion, Fantasy play, Language development, Self-controlEarly school age (4-5)Sex-role identification, Early moral development, Self-theory, Group playMiddle childhood (6-10)Friendship, Concrete operations, Skill learning, Self-evaluation, Team playEarly adolescence (11-13)Physical maturation, Formal operations, emotional development, membership in peer groupMiddle adolescence (14-17)Individual identity with in peer group, further development of abstract thinking, continued physical maturation, Begin gaining autonomy from parentsLate adolescence (18-22)Autonomy from parents, Gender identity, Sexual relationships, Internalized morality, Career choiceEarly adulthood (23-34)Exploring intimate relationships, Childbearing, Work, Lifestyle developmentMiddle adulthood (35-59)Managing a career, Nurturing the marital relationship, Expanding caring relationships, Managing the householdLater adulthood (60-74)Promoting intellectual vigor, Redirecting energy toward new roles and activities, Accepting one’s life, Developing a point of view about deathVery old age (75 until death)Coping with physical changes of aging, Developing a psycho-historical perspective, Travel through uncharted terrainTo better understand the significance of the stages of development in understanding the client; let’s spend some time discussing the components of this developmental theory: Stages of development are periods of life that is characterized by a specific underlying organization. A wide variety of behaviors can be viewed as an expression of the underlying structure of each stage. Every stage has some characteristics that differentiate it from preceding and succeeding stages. Erikson warned against becoming too structural in one’s thinking about development because important ego strengths emerge out of the successful resolution of conflicts at every stage. Developmental tasks, the second organizing concept of psychosocial theory consists of a set of skills and competencies that contributes to increased mastery over the environment. These tasks define healthy, normal development at each age. Generally the developmental tasks reflect areas of accomplishment in physical, cognitive, social, emotional, and self-development during each stage. Failure at the tasks of one stage leads to greater difficulty with later tasks or may render them impossible to master.A psychosocial crisis, the third organizing concept of psychosocial theory arises as a person makes psychological adjustments to social demands at each stage of development. The word crisis in this context refers to a normal set of stresses and strains rather than to an extraordinary set of events. At each stage of development, society and social groups make demands on the individual. Success in mastering developmental tasks is influenced by the resolution of the psychosocial crisis from the previous stage, which fosters new social capabilities. Equipped with these capabilities, a person encounters the challenging experiences and relationships of the new stage with enhanced feelings of personal worth. The skills learned while meeting the developmental tasks of a particular stage then enable a personal to resolve the psychosocial crisis pf that stage. Task accomplishment and crisis resolution interact to produce human development.Every psychosocial crisis involves some discrepancy between a person’s developmental competencies as the beginning of the stage and societal pressures for more effective, integrated functioning. The central process, the fourth organizing concept of psychosocial theory, refers to a mechanism that links the individual’s needs with cultural requirements at each life stage. Significant relationships and relevant competencies change at every life stage, so stage-specific modes of psychological work and social interaction must occur if a persona is to continue on to the next stage. The Central Process for Resolution of the Psychosocial CrisisLife StageCentral ProcessInfancy (birth to 2 years)Mutuality with caregiverToddlerhood (2-3)ImitationEarly school age (4-5)IdentificationMiddle childhood (6-10)EducationEarly adolescence (11-13) Peer pressureMiddle adolescence (14-17)Self identity within relationshipsLate adolescence (18-22)Role experimentationEarly adulthood (23-34)Mutuality among peersMiddle adulthood (35-59)Person-environment fit & creativityLater adulthood (60-74)IntrospectionVery old age (75 until death)Social supportThe radius of significant relationships at each stage of development expands. Initially, a person focuses on a small number of relationships. During childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood, the number of relationships expands, and they take on greater variety in intensity. In middle and later adulthood, the person often returns to a small number of extremely important relationships that provide opportunities for great depth and intimacy. Coping behavior consists of active efforts to resolve stress and create new solutions to the challenges of each developmental stage. The three components of the coping process include (1) the ability to gain and process new information, (2) the ability to maintain control over one’s emotional state, and (3) the ability to move freely within one’s environment. Individuals create their own strategies for coping with life challenges. The variation in coping styles reflects people’s talents and motives, as well as the responses of significant others to a particular strategy. An individual’s characteristic style of coping appears to be influenced by a variety of factors including: gender, available resources, the nature of the particular interpersonal relationships, and accumulation of life experiences. Erikson proposed that the prime adaptive ego qualities that resulted from the positive resolution of a stages psychosocial crisis provided resources for coping during the next stage. He described these qualities as mental states that form a basic orientation toward the interpretation of life experiences. A sense of competence, for example that permits a child to exercise his or her wits to solve problems without being hindered by a sense of inferiority. The Prime Adaptive Ego Quality at Each Psychosocial StageLife StageEgo QualityDefinitionInfancy (birth to 2 years)Hopean enduring belief that one can attain one’s deep and essential wishesToddlerhood (2-3)Willa determination to exercise free choice and self-controlEarly school age (4-5)Purposethe courage to imagine and pursue valued goalsMiddle childhood (6-10)Competencethe free exercise of skills and intelligence in completing tasksEarly adolescence (11-13)Fidelity Ithe ability freely to pledge and sustain loyalty to individuals and groupsMiddle adolescence (14-17)Fidelity IIthe ability freely to pledge and sustain loyalty to values and ideologiesLate adolescence (18-22)Aspirationthe ability to design and implement plans of action based on self-identityEarly adulthood (23-34)Lovea capacity for mutuality that transcends childhood dependencyMiddle adulthood (35-59)Carea commitment to concern about what has been generatedLater adulthood (60-74)Wisdoma detached yet active concern with life itself in the face of deathVery old age (75 until death)Confidencea conscious trust in oneself and assurance about the meaningfulness of lifeAlthough most people develop prime adaptive ego strengths, there is also the potential core pathology or destructive force that may develop as a result of ineffective, negative crisis resolution at each stage. Core pathologies also serve as guiding orientations for behavior. These pathologies serve as a barrier to relationships, exploration of the interpersonal domain, and resolution of subsequent psychosocial crises. The energy that would normally be directed toward mastering a stage’s developmental task is directed instead toward resisting or avoiding change. The Core Pathology at Each Life StageLife StageCore PathologyDefinitionInfancy (birth to 2 years)Withdrawalsocial and emotional detachmentToddlerhood (2-3)Compulsionrepetitive behaviors motivated by impulse or by restrictions against the expression of impulseEarly school age (4-5)Inhibitiona psychological restraint that prevents freedom of thought, expression , and activityMiddle childhood (6-10)Inertiaa paralysis of action and thought that prevents productive workEarly adolescence (11-13)Isolationlack of companionsMiddle adolescence (14-17)Repudiationrejection of roles and values that are viewed as alien to oneselfLate adolescence (18-22)Constrictionrepression of one’s own feelings, behavior, or action based on the limited views of othersEarly adulthood (23-34)Exclusivityan elitist shutting out of othersMiddle adulthood (35-59)Rejectivityunwillingness to include certain others or groups of others in one’s generative concernsLater adulthood (60-74)Disdaina feeling of scorn for the weakness and frailty of oneself and othersVery old age (75 until death)Diffidencean inability to act because of overwhelming self-doubtPiaget’s Cognitive StagesChild psychologist Jean Piaget described the mechanism by which the mind processes new information; he said that a person understands whatever information fits into their established view of the world (paradigm). When information does not fit, the person must re-examine and adjust his thinking to accommodate the new information. Piaget described four stages of cognitive development and relates them to a person’s ability to understand and assimilate new information.Sensorimotor (birth to about age 2): during this stage, the child learns about himself and his environment through motor and reflex actions. Thoughts derive from sensation and movement. The child learns that he is separate from his environment - his parents or favorite toy - continue to exist even thought they may be outside the reaches of his senses (object permanence). Teaching for a child in this stage should be geared to the sensorimotor system. You can modify behavior by using the senses: a frown, a stern or soothing voice - all serve as appropriate techniques.Preoperational (2 to about age 7): applying his new knowledge of language, the child begins to use symbols to represent objects. Early in this stage he also personifies objects. He is now better able to think about things and events that aren’t immediately present. Oriented to the present, the child has difficulty conceptualizing time. His thinking is influenced by fantasy - the way he’d like things to be - and he assumes that others see situations from his viewpoint. He takes information and then changes it in his mid to fit his ideas. Teaching must take into account the child’s vivid fantasies and undeveloped sense of time. Using neutral words, body outlines and equipment a child can touch gives him and active role in learning.Concrete (7 to about age 13): during this stage, accommodation increases. The child develops an ability to think abstractly and to make rational judgments about concrete or observable phenomena, which in the past he needed to manipulate physically to understand. In teaching this child, giving him the opportunity to ask questions and to explain things back to you allows him to mentally manipulate information.Formal Operations (adolescence): this stage brings cognition to its final form. This person no longer requires concrete objects to make rational judgments. At this point, he is capable of hypothetical and deductive reasoning. Teaching for the adolescent may be wide-ranging because he will be able to consider many possibilities from several perspectives.Moral DevelopmentMorality, the ability to judge right and wrong and to act accordingly is another major conceptual scheme that serves as an organizing principle during the early-school age period. Early moral development involves a process called internalization, which means taking society’s standards and values as one’s own. Internalization takes place gradually over the early-school age years. Lawrence Kohlberg was, for many years, a professor at Harvard University. He became famous for his work there beginning in the early 1970's. He started as a developmental psychologist and then moved to the field of moral education. He was particularly well-known for his theory of moral development which he popularized through research studies conducted at Harvard’s Center for Moral Education. His theory of moral development was dependent on the thinking of the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget and the American philosopher John Dewey. Kohlberg believed and was able to demonstrate through studies that people progressed in their moral reasoning (i.e., in their bases for ethical behavior) through a series of stages. He believed that there were six identifiable stages which could be more generally classified into three levels.Kohlberg’s Model of Moral DevelopmentLevelStageSocial OrientationPre-conventional1Obedience & Punishment: judgments are based on whether behavior is rewarded or punished.2Individualism, Instrumentalism & Exchange: judgments are based on whether the consequences result in benefits for self or loved ones.Conventional3“Good boy/girl”: judgments are based on whether authorities approve or disapprove.4Law & Order: judgments are based on whether the behavior upholds or violates the laws of society.Post-conventional5Social Contract: judgments are based on preserving social contracts based on cooperative collaboration.6Principled Conscience: judgments are based on ethical principles that apply across time and cultures.Pre-conventional: the first level of moral thinking is that generally found at the elementary school level. In the first stage of this level, people behave according to socially acceptable norms because they are told to do so by some authority figure (e.g., parents or teachers). This obedience is compelled by the threat or application of punishment. The second stage of this level is characterized by a view that right behavior means acting in one’s own best interest. Conventional: the second level of moral thinking is that generally found in society, hence the name “conventional.” The first stage of this level (stage 3) is characterized by an attitude which seeks to do what will gain the approval of others. The second stage is on oriented to abiding by the law and responding to the obligations of duty.Post-conventional: the third level of moral thinking is one that Kohlberg felt is not reached by the majority of adults. Its first stage (stage 5) is an understanding of social mutuality and a genuine interest in the welfare of others. The last stage (stage 6) is based on respect for universal principles and the demands of individual conscience. While Kohlberg always believed in the existence of Stage 6 and had some nominees for it, he could never get enough subjects to define it, much less observe their longitudinal movement to it.Kohlberg believed that individuals could only progress through these stages one stage at a time. They could not, for example, move from an orientation of selfishness to the law and order stage without passing through the good boy/girl stage. They could only come to a comprehension of a moral rationale one stage above their own. EmpathyEmpathy has been defined as sharing the perceived world of another. Outside of the counseling world empathy emphasizes one’s emotional reaction to the observation of another person’s emotional conditioning. Children can identify another person’s emotion and feel it personally by observing facial expressions, body posture, and vocalizations. The range of emotions with which one can empathize depends on the clarity of the other person’s cues and on one’s prior experiences.The capacity for empathy changes with development. Four levels of empathy are described below:Global empathy: you experience and express distress as a result of witnessing someone else in distress. Example: a baby cries upon hearing the cries of other infants.Egocentric empathy: you recognize distress in another person and respond to it in the same way you would respond if the distress were your own. Example: a toddler offers his own cuddle blanket to another child who is crying.Empathy for another’s feelings: you show empathy for a wide range of feelings and anticipate the kinds of reactions that might really comfort someone else. Example: a child sees another child crying because his favorite toy is broken and they offer to help fix the toy.Empathy for another’s life conditions: you experience empathy when you understand the life conditions or personal circumstances of a persona or group. Example: a child learns of children in another town who have become homeless after a flood. The child asks his mother if he can send some of his clothes to the children in that town.Points to PonderThere has been a recent return to the concept that schools and communities should play a role in the moral development of children. Development of empathy is critical as a deterrent to youth violence. What role does empathy and moral development have on the development of character? What role should human services workers play in character development in children? What individual steps can you take to improve your character? Does having a high self-esteem always mean having a positive moral character?Developing the Whole PersonMaslow’s Hierarchy of NeedsThe basis of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is his theory of motivation. He believed that humans are motivated by the lowest level of unmet need. Why is that important for counselors to understand? It can help you to focus on what is most critical first. For instance you are working in an after-school program with middle school children. You see the kids as soon as their school day ends. Using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and knowing that the kids will be hungry you will know that the first thing you need to do is feed them before you can begin working on other higher level issues. Take a look at the model below: Notice that physiological and safety needs form the bottom of the pyramid. These two needs are referred to as maintenance needs; the other three are growth needs. You cannot work on growth needs until maintenance needs have been met. Some key things to remember when using the hierarchy are:Behavior is motivated by the lowest level of unmet need.Once a need has been met it no longer motivates (especially true with maintenance needs, once you feed the kids, food will no longer motivate their behavior).Needs may overlap.This simple chart may be one of the most important tools you can use in helping your client identify their needs and putting them in perspective.From a psychosocial perspective, development is the product of the interaction of the individual within their environment; it is impacted by the individual’s changing sense of self-awareness. When looking at the development of the whole person three critical issues stand out: vision, character and competence. Vision has to do with dreams and goals of what is possible and desirable to do and is related to the development of self-efficacy. Character deals with patterns of thinking, feeling, decision making, and behaving; related to right and wrong, to justice and equality, and to morality and is tied to moral development and empathy. Competence is concerned with the knowledge, values, attitudes, and skills (the formation of habits) that are linked to successful performance. All three issues are intertwined and difficult to isolate. They are tied to the development of self-concept, locus of control and the resulting self-evaluation: self-esteem.In our work in human services it is easy to focus on only the presenting problems of our clients. By doing this we tend to focus only on the crisis, and avoid dealing with the more complex issue of development of the whole person. In order to truly evaluate the nature of the problem we need to take a more complete look at the individual within the context of their environment. This involves looking at, and evaluating growth and development in all six domains of the whole person: volition or decision making; social relationships and environments; emotional maturity; physical, spiritual and mental wellness. Central to the development of the individual is character; vision and competence are natural outgrowths of balance and development in each of the six domains. In order to better understand the interplay between character and self-esteem, let’s take a look at where self-esteem comes from.We must begin with self-concept: the characteristics and attributes that we apply to ourselves; the answer to age old questions like: who am I, what should I be, how should I act? Input on self-concept comes from a variety of sources: parents, friends, teachers, mentors, media: TV, music, print, and other significant adults. How do we determine what input to keep and what to throw away? This is where locus of control comes into play. Locus of control refers to the degree to which the individual attributes the cause of his behavior to environmental factors or to his own decisions. There are two types of locus of control: internal and external. An individual with an internal locus of control assumes responsibility for their behavior; they are better able to sort out the appropriate level of ownership to take for events that happen to them. These individuals have a strong sense of self-efficacy: a confidence that they can perform the behaviors expected to include the ability to grow and change. Individuals with an external locus of control feel that things are out of their control, they are the victim of fate to the point that when good things happen to them they believe it is the result of luck and not their own efforts. These individuals have a low self-efficacy, and experience higher levels of anxiety and depression. How does locus of control effect self-concept? An individual’s locus of control serves as a filter; all the input the individual receives about themselves is strained by their locus of control. If the individual has an internal locus of control they pick and choose what to except from the outside world to form their self-concept. If the individual has an external locus of control they buy into what the world says they should be.Self-esteem is the result of how the individual perceives they measure up to their self-concept. One of the mistakes that beginning human services workers make is trying to change the individuals’ self-esteem directly. Self-esteem is a by-product of self-concept which is affected by locus of control and self-efficacy. You cannot directly change an individual’s self-esteem. You must begin by looking at their locus of control. One of the most promising ways to affect locus of control is by helping the individual to develop the skills of optimism. ................
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