Age Differences in Motivation Related to Maslow's Need Hierarchy

Changes in motivation related to age differences and their relationship to Maslow's hierarchy of needs were investigated with 111 subjects, ages 9 years to 80 years (58 females, 53 males), divided into five age groups (children, adolescents, young adults, middle-aged adults, old adults). Using the Life Motivation Scale, subjects ranked statements representing Maslow's five needs on 11. life components. Analyses of variance (Age X Sex) yielded significant developmental differences for four needs but limited support for Maslow's theory as a developmental model. Findings suggest further research is needed to make a valuable contribution toward a more comprehensive theory of motivational development. The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in motivation related to age differences, and their relationship to Maslow's hierarchy of needs (1943, 1963, 1968, 1970, 1971). Theories of development exist in most major areas of psychology including personality, cognition, learning, social, vocational, and moral. Many of these theories incorporate into the developmental sequence an implied or stated hierarchy such as Freud's psychosexual stages (see Hall, 1954), Erikson's (1968) psychosocial stages, Piaget's (1953) periods of cognitive development, Gagne's (1974) learning prerequisites, Super's vocational life stages (Super & Bonn, 1970), Havighurst's (1972) social developmental tasks, and Kohlberg's (1969) levels of moral development. Despite obvious differences among these theorists, there seems to be consensus on the meaning of development as a series of progressive changes that individuals characteristically show as they progress in time through the human life cycle.

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