04 Mar Behind every conscious desire, other more basic goals of the individual are satisfied. (ABRAHAM MASLOW)
Our first proposition states that the individual is an integrated. organized whole. This theoretical statement is usually accepted piously enough by psychologists. who then often proceed calmly to ignore·it in their actual experi~ents. That it is an experimental reality as well as a theoretical one must be realized before sound experimentation and sound motivation theQry are possible. In motivation theory this proposition means many specific things. For instance. it means the whole individual is motio vated rather than just a part of him. In good theory there is no such entity as a need of the stomach or mouth, or a genital need. There is only a need of the individual. It is John Smith who wants food, not John Smith’s stomach. Furthermore satisfaction comes to the whole indio vidual and not just to a part of him. Food satisfies John Smith’s hunger and not his stomach’s hunger.
Dealing with John Smith’s hunger as a function merely of his gastrointestinal tract has made experimenters neglect the fact that when an individual is hungry he changes not only in his gastrointestinal function, but in many, perhaps even in most other functions of which he is capable. His perceptions change (he will perceive food more readily than he will at other times). His memories change (he is more apt to remember a good meal at this time than at other times). Hi~ emotions change (he is more tense and nervous than he is at other times). The content of his thinking changes (he is more apt to think of getting food than of solving an algebraic problem). And this list can be extended to almost every , other faculty, capacity, or function, both physiological and psychic. In other words, when John Smith is hungry, he is hungry all over; he is different as an individual from what he is at other times.
What are the more common immediate motivations? We can find these easily enough by introspecting during the course, . of an average day. The desires that flit through consciousness are most often desires for clothes, automobiles, friendliness, company, praise, prestige, and the like. Customarily these have been phrased as secondary or cultural drives and have been regarded as of a different order from the truly “respectable” or primary drives, i.e., the physiological needs. In actuality these are far more important for us and they are far more common.
If we examine carefully the average desires that we have in daily life, we find that they have at least one important characteristic, i.e., that they are usually means to an end rather than ends in themselves. We want money so that we may have an automobile. In turn we want an automobile because the neighbors have one and we do not wish to feel inferior to them, so that we can retain our own self-respect and so that we can be loved and respected by others. Usually when a conscious desire is analyzed we find that we can go behind it, so to speak, to other, more fundamental aims of the individual.
MOTIVATION AND PERSONALITY
ABRAHAM H.MASLOW
