Activity time: 15 minutes

Materials for Activity

• Handout 2, Economic Adaptation of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Preparation for Activity

• Copy Handout 2, Economic Adaptation of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, for all participants.
• Write the following list of needs on newsprint, and post:
  • Self-Actualization (Personal Growth and Fulfillment)
  • Self-Esteem (Self-Respect, Recognition)
  • Social (Love, Affection, Belonging)
  • Safety (Shelter, Health Care, etc.)
  • Physiological (Food, Water, Air, etc.)

Description of Activity

In a 1943 paper, Dr. Abraham H. Maslow investigated different human needs as motivators for particular actions and approaches to life. Distribute Handout 2, Economic Adaptation of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Share this excerpt from Maslow’s paper:

Human needs arrange themselves in hierarchies of pre-potency. That is to say, the appearance of one need usually rests on the prior satisfaction of another, more pre-potent need. Man is a perpetually wanting animal. Also no need or drive can be treated as if it were isolated or discrete; every drive is related to the state of satisfaction or dissatisfaction of other drives.

Allow five minutes for comment and questions, asking if this hierarchy is familiar. Invite participants who are familiar with Maslow’s work to share stories and examples of how, in their experience, it has been applied in public or educational policy contexts. Then ask: “How might this model reinforce class and gender stereotypes?”

Lead a discussion using these questions:

• How does Maslow’s model differ from Hurst’s argument that all people require purpose in their work to be happy?
• At what point in Maslow’s hierarchy is “thriving” rather than “surviving” through our work a possibility? How about in Hurst’s?
• What might be the implications if our institutions (including our congregations) viewed everyone’s work through Hurst’s model, rather than Maslow’s?