Maslow Hierarchy of Needs and Domestic Abuse

Tackling the basic needs of an individual, could encourage victims to interact with other services, promote their well-being and motivate the victim to climb Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1943), possessing the opportunity to reach self-actualisation. Thus, allowing the victim to live and survive independently. Isolation is further explored by Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1943), which suggests that people require a foundation layer of support and sense of security: before they can feel comfortable or confident enough to redevelop connections with family and friends and begin to feel confident.  In further detail, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1943) is the physiological driving force that establishes the needs of an individual to achieve their potential and feel empowered. The model consists of five stages, which are categorised into three overall needs. Fundamentally, physiological and safety needs are the basic needs a person requires to survive; belonging, love, and esteem are psychological needs. Self-actualisation is the achievement of the person’s potential, known as the self-fulfilment need.

Understandably, the psychological drivers vary within each case, as Maslow (1943) explains, someone may believe they are hungry and eat when in actuality, they are seeking emotional support, resulting in the person becoming dependent upon their physiological/psychological need, rather than a basic need of survival. Although, love and belonging are not necessary for all, and Maslow (1943) explains that love and freedom do not ensure happiness or the ability to achieve self-fulfilment, as, without the basic needs of safety or food, the love will fail to line their stomachs. When aptly comparing this to a domestic abuse relationship, victims may be blinded by the love or honeymoon stage of their relationship, while the perpetrator entraps them without their basic needs being provided.

Reference:

• Maslow, A, H. (1943) A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50, pp. 370-396. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0054346