Life Span Development and Personality
Abraham Maslow was born April 1, 1908 in Brooklyn, New York. Abraham Maslow grew up in Brooklyn, New York, the first of seven children born to his Jewish parents who emigrated from Russia. His parents were uneducated, but they insisted that he study law. Maslow later described his early childhood as unhappy and lonely, and he spent much of his time in the library immersed in books. At first, Abraham acceded to their wishes and enrolled in the City College of New York (CCNY). However, after three semesters, he transferred to Cornell University then back to CCNY.
Maslow attended City College in New York. His father hoped he would pursue law, but he went to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin to study psychology. At twenty years of age he married his childhood sweetheart, Bertha Goodman, an artist, whom was also his cousin on December 31. 1928. While attending college Maslow studied with his chief mentor Professor Harry Harlow. At Wisconsin he pursued an original line of research, investigating primate dominance behavior and sexuality. He went on to further research at Columbia University, continuing similar studies. He found another mentor in Alfred Adler, one of Freud 's early followers.
From 1937 to 1951, Maslow was on the faculty of Brooklyn College. In New York he found two more mentors, anthropologist Ruth Benedict and Gestalt psychologist Max Wertheimer, whom he admired both professionally and personally. These two were so accomplished in both realms, and such "wonderful human beings" as well, that Maslow began taking notes about them and their behavior. This would be the basis of his lifelong research and thinking about mental health and human potential. He wrote extensively on the subject, borrowing ideas from other psychologists but adding significantly to them, especially the concepts of a hierarchy of needs, metaneeds, self-actualizing persons, and peak experiences. Maslow first proposed
References: DeCarvalho, Roy Jose. 1991. The Founders of Humanistic Psychology. Praeger Publishers. Maslow, A. (1954). Motivation and Personality. NY: Harper. Maslow, A. (1962). Toward a Psychology of Being. NY: Van Nostrand.