"Criticisms of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

While some research supported Maslow's theories, most research has yet to substantiate the idea of a needs hierarchy. Wahba and Bridwell reported that there needed to be more evidence for Maslow's ranking of these needs and even less evidence that these needs are hierarchical.

Other criticisms of Maslow's theory note that his definition of self-actualization is challenging to test scientifically. His research on self-actualization was also based on a minimal sample of individuals, including people he knew and biographies of famous individuals that Maslow believed to be self-actualized, such as Albert Einstein and Eleanor Roosevelt. Regardless of these criticisms, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs represents part of a psychological shift. Rather than focusing on abnormal behaviour and development, Maslow's humanistic psychology focused on healthy individuals' development.

While there was relatively little research supporting the theory, the hierarchy of needs is well-known and popular both in and out of psychology. In a study published in 2011, researchers from the University of Illinois set out to put the hierarchy to the test. They discovered that while fulfilment of the needs was strongly correlated with happiness, people from cultures all over the reported that self-actualization and social needs were significant even when many of the most basic needs were unfulfilled."