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Human Growth and Development
The development of people has been studied by many theorists, for example Maslow, Erikson, Piaget and Bowlby.
There are various models that can be used to see if an individual’s needs are being met and one that I am going to use is the model of Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. This is a theory in psychology that Maslow proposed in his 1943 article, ‘A theory of human motivation’. As you can see, it has five levels to it, with the most basic needs at the bottom of the pyramid.
According to Maslow, until the two bottom levels are achieved, it is unlikely that a person can move on and develop. There will be some people who you support who may have achieved the majority or all of these stages and there may be some who have not. Therefore, you need to consider with each individual where they are at and how you can provide the individual with the right support to achieve the other levels and reach self-actualization (assuming these have not been reached yet).
Looking at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, which levels are being met in your place of work?
HOW TO REACH THE HIGHER LEVELS
Personal development and growth: the service user needs opportunities to communicate and maintain skills and/or learn new skills and achieve. This can be anything from learning to prepare a snack, vacuum a carpet, swim, read or write, learn how to use the website, how to catch a bus, getting a job, chairing his own review, etc.
Status, recognition: we all need a role or two and when we carry out these roles people thank us and appreciate us. We all need to be able to communicate to decide what roles we would like.
Think of an individual (call him ‘Mr A’) who lives in the service. What is your role in your house (where you live) and the individual’s role where he lives?
Mr A’s roles | My roles |
.............................. | .............................. |
.............................. | .............................. |
.............................. | .............................. |
.............................. | .............................. |
If Mr A has not got any roles or responsibilities, you may wish to discus with him about bringing one or two in to start with if he is able to. They can be large or small, e.g. clearing the table after a meal or taking his crockery to the kitchen, or taking it in turn to chair the house meeting etc.
Social – belonging to a group: support is needed to enable the service user to be in a group (if he wants to). The individual needs to be able to communicate to decide what he would like to do. Examples of being in a group can be anything from doing voluntary work clearing woodland once a week, playing in a pool team in the pub, belonging to a book circle, being part of a club, going to bingo with a group of friends, attend...
