Maslow Case Study

Maslow Case Study 15 1) Cindy’s first year of life was a very trying one, and according to Maslow, the primary needs on her hierarchy were not being sufficiently met. The first need is to have physiological needs satisfied for sheer survival purposes, such as receiving adequate food, water, elimination and sleep. Maslow explained that for a person not receiving these things, their idea of a perfect place would be one where there is plenty of food and water and they can sleep and eliminate whenever they want; if they had all of these things they would believe that they would be perfectly content and happy.

For many, these needs are easily satisfied, but for Cindy this was not the case. The physician who performed Cindy’s checkups noted that she was not developing at the rate of normal infants her age, so she immediately suspected neglect, which would include not giving Cindy adequate nutrition. Since everyone of her checkups were late and infrequent, the physician began to question the amount of formula Cindy was receiving and learned that it was nowhere near enough for a child her age.

Cindy had also developed a sever diaper rash accompanied by a yeast infect by the third check up which the physician was also very concerned about. The need to be physically well would also fall under the physiological needs. Although Cindy’s physiological needs were not fully satisfied, degrees of satisfaction would allow Cindy to have the needs of other stages working at the same time. Safety needs, or the need to feel a sense of structure, order, security and predictability, are next on Maslow’s hierarchy.

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Cindy’s mother was said to be a 40 year old drug addict who live in a relatively poor neighborhood that housed African Americans and Latinos, mostly. The mother had no home of her own and did not know who the father was, she would move from house to house where her friends would put her up for a little while. The mother would also stay with the grandmother from time to time. This constant moving, with no home of her own, inadequate nutrition, no love or affection shown and no predictability from day to day would definitely show that Cindy’s safety needs were not satisfied.

The third need, the need for belongingness and love, was obviously also not satisfied. Her mother neglected her so much that on one occasion Cindy was dehydrated to the point of medical danger. Once she was finally fostered, her initial foster family was able to provide her with sufficient physiological and safety needs, however, they still did not provide belongingness and love. They showed her little affection and rarely held her or talked to her.

By the end of Cindy’s first year, she looked as if she were only 6 months old developmentally. Also, when the family moved to another state they had no desire to adopt her, which also showed how little they cared for her emotionally. The outcome of Cindy’s first trying year of life was severe underdevelopment in which she could barley crawl at one year, an aversion to affection where Cindy would cringe at someone’s touch, and a sense of uncertainty and shyness to her. ) During Cindy’s second year of life, she was placed with a much better foster family would not only fulfilled her needs for survival and safety, they were also very loving. The family had two other daughters, who were trilled to have a baby sister to take care of, the mother stayed at home with the kids during the day and the father was there in the evenings when the mother was working four nights a week inside the home. Cindy had a clean, quiet environment where she was exposed to other children.

She was also shown a lot of affection, which at first she resisted, but eventually she began to become accustom to it and even began seeking it out and developed more rapidly. By the time she was living with this family for six months, she had caught up to the development of children her age. Once Cindy’s biological mother overdosed and died, the option for adoption was there and the new family happily accepted Cindy into there life permanently. The outcome of all of this was that Cindy became a happy, confident child on the same level as other children her age. ) According to Maslow, if Cindy were to actualize, the type of values she would have to embrace would include an acceptance of herself, others and of nature in general, which would allow her not to feel a sense of anxiety, shame or guilt due to her situation as a child. Also, autonomy, appreciation for life events, creativity from an openness to experience and spontaneity, an unhostile sense of humor and a strong ethical sense would all be values Cindy would have to embrace to be a self-actualizer.

There are other characteristics that Maslow listed as belonging to these types o people, but these have a more immediate relationship to Cindy and her upbringing. Her early childhood would defiantly not give Cindy the predisposition to have these values, however, her fortunate situation in which she was later adopted by a loving and providing family would be able to give her the other needs she craves to reach self-actualization.

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