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What is the criticism of Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory?

      

What is the criticism of Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory?

  

Answers

BONFACE
1. Fundamental human needs are non-hierarchical and are ontologically universal and invariant in nature. Poverty may result from any of these needs being frustrated, denied or unfulfilled. In a country like in Kenya the basic needs of most schools are not hierarchical but are rather constant.
2. Criticism of Maslow’s pyramid as ethnocentric may stem from the fact that Maslow’s hierarchy of needs neglects to illustrate and expand upon the difference between the social and intellectual needs of those raised in individualistic societies and those raised in collectivist societies. Hofstede (1984) stated that the needs of individualistic societies reflects the needs of self-actualization and self-fulfillment, whereas a collectivist society is focused upon the community, acceptance and belonging within this structure.
3. Another criticism concerns Maslow’s assumption that the lower needs must be satisfied before a person can achieve their potential and self-actualization. This is not always the case since in Kenya some intelligent and creative students come from poor families who cannot afford good shelter, food and clothing and they are still capable of higher order needs such as love and belonging.
4. Maslow’s biographical analysis focused on a biased sample of self-actualized individuals, predominantly limited to highly educated white males such Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, albert Einstein, William James, Gandhi and a few self-actualized females such as Eleanor Roosevelt and mother Teresa who comprised a small proportion of his sample. This makes it difficult to generalize his theory to females and individuals from lower social classes such as learners or different ethnicity such as Kenya.
5. Maslow created his hierarchy of needs from an individualistic perspective, being that he was from the United States, a highly individualistic nation. The needs and drives of those in individualistic societies tend to be more self-centered than those in collectivist societies, focusing on improvement of the self, with self-actualization being the apex of self-improvement. For instance, in Kenyan schools students wo perform better than the rest in school normally isolate themselves and become highly self-centered.
6. No single motivation theory can bold up to any circumstance and need of all people is not uniform. For instance, most schools in Kenya cannot be fully motivated since once a single item has been satisfied e.g. if a school buys a school bus, another need arises of fueling the bus.
7. Maslow’s theory failed to consider the influence of different cultures. Maslow didn’t consider varying cultures of people, like in Kenyan schools some students do not eat some types of food hence they can end up failing to satisfy their lower needs while satisfying higher order needs.
Mwalimu Bonface answered the question on April 14, 2018 at 06:54

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