It is the year 2013 and we deal with totally different social dynamics than say... 1980. And if I have to believe my parents, who clearly lose a lot of touch with ?the now? they don?t really perceive the world as it is now and live more in the past. Not drastically though. My dad has a cellphone, my mom uses email. They?re just in their 60?s, so they?re not ancient fossils. So anyhow; social dynamics. Here?s an interesting theory I?ve been toying around with.
Many of you have heard about it. Some more and/or earlier than others. There once was this guy who created a pyramid. His name; Maslow.
I?ll borrow this pyramid from wikipedia (since it saves me a lot of work in whatever program I need to use for it)
Anyone not familiar with the pyramid depicted. Start from the bottom and go up. That?s how in psychology a human should develop according to this Maslow person.
Now; my current ?theory? holds up as this. In this day and age, this model is faulty at best. I actually believe that Self-actualisation is more important now than ever and it is no longer the top. I don?t even know if it?s a pyramid at all anymore. I might even wonder if it should be 5 pillars side by side even.
My reasoning about the top not being the final step is, aside from psychological development, on a practical note, more and more you already have to be someone with a full load of say ?morality?, identity, skills and appearance before you can start enabling stuff like food. You also need that self-realisation to afford safety (a house). And let?s not forget how you need self-actualisation to have friends and/or intimacy. Clearly he was spot on that without (or with low) self-esteem you can?t work on self-actualisation. That by itself is correct, yet I wonder that if actualization is no longer the top and esteem is a foundation of that, what is the top? Is there a top? A goal? (yeah, there?s a thing called metamotivation; but let?s keep it at this basic hierarchy for now)
What one can also wonder is how society puts this construct in practice, cause if you ask me, I feel society does nothing to keep this in line, but does everything to make it crumble.
Simply put, and this is somewhat of a personal example. If I need to meet the physiological demands I?m expected to be someone. If I am someone, that?s not right. I need to be someone they want me to be. That in turn messes with esteem. It also messes with love/belonging. Since I don?t know if I could love myself if I were someone else, let alone if others would love me for not being myself.
And on a parallel route; Safety. Self-preservation is rattled sometimes due to malpractice of society. Not only financially (due to manmade crisis) but physical danger, war, etc. Morality is being skewered by people somewhat responsible for safety; the government (insert any dubious practice your national government participated in). I mean, it?s hard to learn by faulty example.
Sometimes I think the pyramid is upside down in this day and age. Granted it looks weird, but it would make a more sense if self-actualisation (and as such the motivation to achieve that) would be a first. I mean; one can say but you need sleep and excretion? funny how these things are being taxed and charged for in a more ridiculous way than self-actualisation.
Many of you have heard about it. Some more and/or earlier than others. There once was this guy who created a pyramid. His name; Maslow.
I?ll borrow this pyramid from wikipedia (since it saves me a lot of work in whatever program I need to use for it)
Anyone not familiar with the pyramid depicted. Start from the bottom and go up. That?s how in psychology a human should develop according to this Maslow person.
Now; my current ?theory? holds up as this. In this day and age, this model is faulty at best. I actually believe that Self-actualisation is more important now than ever and it is no longer the top. I don?t even know if it?s a pyramid at all anymore. I might even wonder if it should be 5 pillars side by side even.
My reasoning about the top not being the final step is, aside from psychological development, on a practical note, more and more you already have to be someone with a full load of say ?morality?, identity, skills and appearance before you can start enabling stuff like food. You also need that self-realisation to afford safety (a house). And let?s not forget how you need self-actualisation to have friends and/or intimacy. Clearly he was spot on that without (or with low) self-esteem you can?t work on self-actualisation. That by itself is correct, yet I wonder that if actualization is no longer the top and esteem is a foundation of that, what is the top? Is there a top? A goal? (yeah, there?s a thing called metamotivation; but let?s keep it at this basic hierarchy for now)
What one can also wonder is how society puts this construct in practice, cause if you ask me, I feel society does nothing to keep this in line, but does everything to make it crumble.
Simply put, and this is somewhat of a personal example. If I need to meet the physiological demands I?m expected to be someone. If I am someone, that?s not right. I need to be someone they want me to be. That in turn messes with esteem. It also messes with love/belonging. Since I don?t know if I could love myself if I were someone else, let alone if others would love me for not being myself.
And on a parallel route; Safety. Self-preservation is rattled sometimes due to malpractice of society. Not only financially (due to manmade crisis) but physical danger, war, etc. Morality is being skewered by people somewhat responsible for safety; the government (insert any dubious practice your national government participated in). I mean, it?s hard to learn by faulty example.
Sometimes I think the pyramid is upside down in this day and age. Granted it looks weird, but it would make a more sense if self-actualisation (and as such the motivation to achieve that) would be a first. I mean; one can say but you need sleep and excretion? funny how these things are being taxed and charged for in a more ridiculous way than self-actualisation.
