Self-Actualization, Human Nature, and Global Social Problems: I. Foundations

Abraham Maslow’s classic theory of motivation was in some ways a precursor to modern evolutionary approaches to human behavior, in that he posited multiple independent and universal motivational systems. Maslow’s hierarchical model, often conceptualized as a pyramid of motives, has recently been renovated to fit with the last half century of research and theory at the interface of evolutionary biology and the social sciences. Adopting a modern evolutionary life history approach to human motivation could be useful to understand important social problems.