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AO1 (Description)
| Physiological Needs | Basic biological needs. Example: A salary that allows you to afford food and rest breaks. |
| Safety Needs | Need for security and stability. Example: A safe work environment and a secure job contract. |
| Belongingness Needs | Need for social relationships and belonging. Example: Good relationships with your team and collaborative projects. |
| Esteem Needs | Need for recognition and respect. Example: Receiving praise for good work or a promotion. |
| Self-Actualisation Need | Need to achieve your full potential. Example: Being given challenging, creative tasks that use your unique skills. |
| Deficiency vs. Growth Need | Deficiency Needs: The first four levels, driven by a lack. Growth Needs: The highest level, driven by a desire to grow. Example: A company must meet basic deficiency needs (e.g., job security) before employees are motivated by growth (e.g., training). |
AO1 (Description) – for Saaednia (2011)
| Aim | To develop a new scale (BNSS – Basic Needs Satisfaction Scale) that measures a child’s satisfaction across all five of Maslow’s needs, which existing scales failed to do. |
| Procedure | 1. Qualitative: Interviews with 13 children, their parents, and teachers. 2. Used interview answers to write the questionnaire items. 3. Quantitative: Tested the 68-item BNSS on 300 children aged 9-11. |
| Results | – BNSS was overall reliable (α=.84). Esteem needs were most linked to life satisfaction. – Some subscales (Love, Physiological) had low reliability. |
| Conclusion | – BNSS is a valid first attempt but needs refinement. Qualitative methods are better for this research. – Findings only apply to wealthy urban children. |
AO3 (Evaluation)
| Application to Everyday Life | Point: A strength is high practical application. Evidence: Used by managers to motivate staff – e.g., ensuring good pay before teamwork. Explanation: This makes it a useful, real-world tool for improving motivation. Link: This strengthens its application to everyday life. Counterpoint: It can be rigid, ignoring individual differences in motivation. |
| Individual and Situational Explanations | Point: A weakness is its individualistic focus. Evidence: It blames a person’s lack of motivation on their own unmet needs, ignoring situational barriers like poverty. Explanation: This overlooks powerful situational factors that limit a person’s potential. Link: This reduces its validity for people in restrictive situations. Counterpoint: The safety need does acknowledge the importance of a secure environment. |
| Cultural Differences | Point: A weakness is cultural bias. Evidence: Collectivist cultures may prioritise group belongingness over individual self-actualisation. Explanation: The Western-centric hierarchy is not a universal model of motivation. Link: This challenges its generalisability across cultures. Counterpoint: The basic physiological needs are likely universal. |
| Determinism vs. Free Will | Point: A weakness is its deterministic nature. Evidence: It assumes that one cannot achieve higher needs until lower ones are satisfied. Explanation: This leaves little room for free will, where someone might pursue creativity despite poverty. Link: This determinism reduces validity for exceptional cases. Counterpoint: Maslow did acknowledge some exceptions like social activists. |
| Validity | Point: A weakness is low scientific validity. Evidence: Based on biased case studies (e.g., Einstein) rather than empirical testing. Explanation: Concepts like self-actualisation are vague and difficult to test empirically. Link: This means it has low reliability. Counterpoint: It has high face validity as it intuitively makes sense. |
AO3 (Evaluation) – for Saaednia (2011)
| Application to Everyday Life | Point: A strength is practical use in schools. Evidence: BNSS identifies children with unmet love/esteem needs. Explanation: Allows targeted support like counselling. Link: Increases application to everyday life. Counterpoint: However, its limited measurement of physiological needs limits this. |
| Individual and Situational Explanations | Point: A weakness is focus on individual over situation. Evidence: Measures feelings (“I am important”), not context like poverty. Explanation: Same score can have different causes, needing different solutions. Link: Reduces validity of results. Counterpoint: However, interviews with parents/teachers provided some context. |
| Cultural Differences | Point: A weakness is limited generalisability. Evidence: Study only on wealthy children in Tehran. Explanation: Findings, with esteem most important, may not apply to poorer cultures where safety is key. Link: Reduces generalisability. Counterpoint: However, the researchers acknowledge this limitation. |
| Determinism vs. Free Will | Point: A strength is it supports a mix of determinism and free-will. Evidence: Behaviour is driven by unmet needs, but we choose how to satisfy them. Explanation: A child can choose sports or academics to meet esteem needs. Link: Provides a valid explanation. Counterpoint: However, the fixed hierarchy is deterministic, limiting progress. |
| Validity | Point: A strength is good internal validity from triangulation. Evidence: Items on the BNSS came from child/parent/teacher interviews. Explanation: This ensured the scale measured real needs for that group. Link: Increases validity of findings. Counterpoint: However, low reliability of some sub-scales weakens overall validity. |
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