Abstract
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is often cited as a possible basis for a fuller understanding of the individual's needs, particularly with regard to Quality of Life. The reluctance to use these concepts is based primarily on lack of empirical evidence in this field. To rectify this situation, a new methodology based on Q sorting was developed to measure the individual's need importance for each of the five needs Maslow proposes. After an estimation of reliability, the test was administered to 240 adults, made up of three social groups, lower class, working class and middle class, balanced for age and sex.
The results provided evidence that individuals of a similar social class share similar notions of which needs are most important to them, and these notions differ across social class. It appeared the majority of the middle class sample were esteem, self-actualization orientated, while the majority of the working class were esteem, belonging orientated. Conversely, the majority of the lower class sample were physiology and belonging orientated.
However, a cluster analysis of the need items revealed that the items representative of a need were not necessarily assigned similar importance by any one group. It would appear that each need can not be viewed as a unitary whole of equal importance, but rather must be seen as a conglomerate.
Methodologically, the article illustrates the feasibility of directly measuring need importance and the use of cluster analysis to group both need items and individuals. Further, the assessment of group differences allows a fuller understanding of needs and the importance the individual assigns to their satisfaction.
Similar content being viewed by others
Bibliography
AronoffJ.: 1967, Psychological Needs and Cultural Systems, A Case Study (London, Van Nostrand Company Ltd.).
AronoffJ.: 1971, A Test and Scoring Manual for the Measurement of Safety, Love and Belongingness, and Esteem Needs (East Lansing, Mich. Department of Psychology, Mimeo).
BernsteinB.: 1958, ‘Some sociological determinants of perception’, British Journal of Sociology ix pp. 161–66.
CampbellA., ConverseP. and RogersW.: 1976, The Quality of American Life, Perceptions, Evaluations and Statisfactions (New York, Russell Sage Foundation).
EverittB.: 1974, Cluster Analysis. (London, Heinemann Educational Books).
GrahamW. and J.Balloun: 1973, ‘An empirical test of Maslow's need hierarchy theory. Journal of Human Psychology 13, pp. 97–108.
GurinG. and GurinP.: 1976, ‘Personal efficacy and the ideology of individual responsibility’, in B.Strumpel (ed.) Economic Means for Human Needs, Social Indicators of Well-being and Discontent (Michigan, Inst. of Social Research, Univ. of Michigan).
HartJ. F.: 1972, ‘Some statistics of social contrast in Liverpool from the 1971 consensus (Liverpool Council for Voluntary Service, 14, Castle St., Liverpool L2 ONJ.).
HuizingaB.: 1970: Maslow's Need Hierarchy in the Work Situation (Groningen, Wolters Noordhoff Publishing).
Lundberg, M.: 1974, The Incomplete Adult, Social Class Constraints on Personality Development (Greenwood Press).
MaslowA.: 1943, ‘A theory of human motivation’, Psychological Review 50, pp. 370–396.
MaslowW.: 1954, Motivation and Personality (New York, Harper and Brothers).
McCallS.: 1975, ‘Quality of life’, Social Indicators Research 2, pp. 229–248.
PayneR.: 1970, ‘Factor analysis of a Maslow-type need satisfaction Questionnaire’, Personnel Psychology 23, 2, pp. 251–268.
Roberts, T. B.: 1972, Maslow's Human Motivation Needs Hierarchy, A bibliography (Northern Illinois University, Dekelb. ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED-099 591).
StephensonW.: 1953, Study of Behaviour: Q-technique and its methodology (Chicago, Univer. of Chicago Press).
Strumpel, B. 1976, ‘Economic life styles, values and subjective welfare’, in B. Strumpel (ed.) Economic Means for human needs, Social Indicators of Well-Being and Discontent (Inst. of Social Research, Univ. of Michigan).
WahbaM. A. and L. G.Bridwell: 1976, ‘Maslow reconsidered: A review of research on the need hierarchy theory, Organizational Behaviour and Human Performance 15, pp. 212–240.
WanousJ. and A.Zwany: 1977, ‘A cross sectional test of need hierarchy theory’, Organizational Behaviour and Human Performance 18, pp. 78–97.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gratton, L.C. Analysis of Maslow's Need Hierarchy with three social class groups. Soc Indic Res 7, 463–476 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00305612
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00305612