Theory Begins
Psychologist Abraham Maslow developed a theory based on people's needs - the Maslow Hierarchy of Motivational Needs suggest that different motivational needs are ordered in a hierarchy, and that before more sophisticated, higher-ordered needs can be met, certain primary needs must be satisfied.

AI (Afromerica Interpretation)
By analyzing this hierarchy, we will apply the theory to the growth and development of Black-America, and as to the reason we excel in some areas and never advance in others. The reason we would study this from a racial perspective is because when applying some common historical Western philosophy to the reasoning behind the race problems in today's society, we can find many contradictions of thought and use them to our benefit.

Theory Continued
The model can be conceptualized as a pyramid (see figure below) in which the more basic needs are at the bottom and the higher-level needs are at the top. In order for a particular need to be activated and thereby guide a person's behavior, the more basic needs in the hierarchy must be met first.

The most basic needs are those described as primary drives: needs for water, food, sleep, and the like. In order to move up the hierarchy, a person must have these basic physiological needs met. Safety needs come next in the hierarchy, it is suggested that people need a safe, secure environment in order to function effectively. Physiological and safety needs comprise the lower-order needs.

Self-Actualization
Esteem
Love and Belongingness
Safety Needs
Physiological Needs

AI
If the above hypothesis are correct, that basic needs and safety needs should be met first before a person can effectively function in life, then this would explain why so many people in poverty and crime-ridden urban areas do not and cannot excel beyond what they know as normal life. But this would bring into question of which came first, poverty or the low motivation to succeed.

Unquestionably, Black-America as a whole was thrown into poverty from the start and have been striving to overcome every since. Slaves were given the needs at the lowest level, which was food, water, and sometimes sleep, but nothing beyond that. In essence, one can say that whites have always regulated the basic motivational needs and in turn the development of Black-America. But let us look deeper.

Theory Continued
Only when the basic lower-order needs are met can a person consider fulfilling higher-order needs, such as the need for love and a sense of belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. Love and belongingness needs include the need to obtain and give affection and to be a contributing member of some group or society. After these needs are fulfilled, the person strives for esteem. In Maslow's thinking, esteem relates to the need to develop a sense of self-worth by knowing that others are aware of one's competence and value.

AI
Well let's see, the ability to give and receive love based on the fulfillment of basic physiological needs seem unconnected because love is the essence of life and the reason we are all here. People can be poor and in love or even hungry and in love, and quite possibly able to love even when suffering from a lack of sleep, however, a sense of belonging in respect to contributing to a given society is different.

This need - belonging - can be considered the demise in the search for individuality and identity of Black-America to this day simply because it is masked as integration. Not to imply that integration is a negative thing, but if used to fulfill a need rather than to enforce justice, it is nothing more than a vehicle to shed one's original identity in order to fit in.

In correlation with the theory's level from belonging to self-worth, "by knowing that others are aware of one's competence and value," once some Blacks have succeeded in "fitting in," they seek self-worth by attempting to make whites aware of their competence and value. This is where the fight for identity is exceptionally compromised because these Blacks, in proving themselves, basically shed their heritage and values by measuring themselves against white ones. If successful, these Blacks feel they are accepted by whites and are thus equal.

Theory Continued
Once these four sets of needs are fulfilled - no easy task - the person is ready to strive for the highest-level need, self-actualization. Self-actualization is a state of self-fulfillment in which people realize their highest potential in their own unique way. When Maslow first proposed the concept, he used it to describe just a few well-known individuals such as Abraham Lincoln and Albert Einstein. But self-actualization is not limited to the famous.

A parent with excellent nurturing skills who raises a family, a teacher who year after year creates an environment that maximizes student's opportunities for success, and an artist who realizes her creative potential might all be self-actualized. The important thing is that people feel at ease with themselves and satisfied that they are using their talents to the fullest.

AI
A popular biblical scripture says that "in whatsoever state you find yourself, therewith be content." Meaning, regardless of a person's current state, they should always find a sense of peace and security, not refraining from giving or receiving love, or utilizing opportunities for success. However, after so long awhile and if conditions never change or continually change for the worst, a person can fall into a state of depression and in turn not display any forms of concern for other's, or even their own situation.

When comparing this image to that of the state of Black-America, if opportunities are not there to be used as vehicles of advancement, many would resort to a more primal sense of survival. The only reasonable view by someone in such a mind-set would be one of pessimism for the current state of society and those who control it. A deep resentment sets in and there is no hope and or desire to advance beyond daily life.

There is a such thing as oppression. Not all acts of personal defeat are intentional acts but are a result of a society gone astray; one that caters to the needs of those who can either afford it or who are somehow deemed worthy. In other words, American society has always placed the needs of whites before Blacks. And if many Blacks suffer from a lack of success, it cannot always be contributed to Black under-achievement, but to the accommodations of a grouped society.

Theory Concludes
In a sense, achieving self-actualization produces a decline in the striving and yearning for greater fulfillment that marks most people's lives and instead provides a sense of satisfaction with the current state of affairs. Unfortunately, research has not been able to validate the specific ordering of the stages of Maslow's theory, and it has proven difficult to measure self-actualization objectively.

However, Maslow's model is important for two reasons: It highlights the complexity of human needs, and it emphasizes that until more basic biological needs are met, people will be relatively unconcerned with higher-order needs.

If people are hungry, their first interest will be in obtaining food; they will not be concerned with such needs as love and self-esteem. The model helps explain why victims of disasters such as famine and war may suffer the breakdown of normal family ties and be unconcerned with the welfare of anyone other than themselves.

AI
Again, people can be poor and still love. Not being able to advance beyond the level of basic needs or of belonging is one that Black-America cannot wholly attribute to their own doings simply because our existence here in America was not a need we initially sought to fulfill. If pondered thoroughly, one could say that Black-America has reached a kind of level of self-actualization because according to Maslow, if achieving self-actualization can produce a decline in striving and yearning for greater fulfillment and thus provides a sense of satisfaction with current state of affairs, then the plight of Black-America is at its end.

Too many Blacks have left off the struggle for more and have accepted their current lot in life. Is this a good thing or not? It is not good because we still lack identity. What we have done is adapted to the values of another culture and assimilated into a society that continues to segregate almost every aspect of society from a racial perspective. We are actually no better off now than we were 200 years ago as compared to the highest level of achievement America has to offer now. The point at which we have reached now can be equally compared to the state we were in 200 years ago if viewed along the timelines of advancement.

Only then we were held at a lower level of the needs model, which were the basics. Now, we are held to the lowest level of the economic and educational needs level. Though the majority have food and water, we have not reached the level of self-actualization in the sense of its meaning, where as we would have achieved what is achievable in this society.

Thus, Maslow.s theory of Motivational Needs all but mirrors the lifeline of Black-America and explains many things. We are measured against American standards but are never given a fair hearing. No scholars or politicians seem to understand that our growth here was stunted from the beginning and if there are needs being unmet in the Black community it is a result of past treatment of Blacks by whites.

If Blacks are not achieving levels expected by whites, it is because our abilities and intelligence are undermined, our lifestyles and behavior is criticized, and our accomplishments and contributions to America are unrecognized. In essence and according to Maslow's theory, neither Blacks nor whites have reached the level of self-actualization because the most successful and note-worthy Blacks are nothing more than products of white society and whites have not yet realized who they are, not as long as they are race conscious and refrain from loving all humanity.

Source from: Understanding Psychology, Feldman 2000

© 2003 by AfroStaff