The paper focused on Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and assessment of needs in community development. Abraham Maslow as a renowned researcher in the study of human needs and motivation, came up with his famous hierarchy of needs theory with a proposal that people are motivated by five levels of needs namely: (1) Physiological needs (2) Safety needs (3) Love and belonging needs (4) Esteem and prestige needs (5) Self-actualization needs. Two additional levels of needs namely: (6) Understanding needs and (7) Aesthetic needs were later included in Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The focus of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is now on motivation of people by seven (7) levels of needs in human environment. The emphasis on Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is that there are certain basic needs which must be met before other needs can, indeed, be considered in human environment. Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs further focus on exploration of human desire to address people’s needs in order to improve their living conditions in human environment. No man is an island unto himself in the society. Social groupings, associations, affiliations and belongings which are based on love are needed to enhance harmonious human co-existence in various social settings. This gives people the courage and confidence to contribute to community development to improve their living conditions. This article helps to equip people with a better understanding of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and its application to real life situations assessment of needs in community development in the society.
Keywords: Abraham Maslow, Assessment of Needs, Community development, Hierarchy of needs
