Discuss Maslow's concept of conative, aesthetic, cognitive, and neurotic needs.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

A. Maslow believed motivation is quite complex and people are not only motivated by several needs on the hierarchy but by aesthetic, cognitive, and neurotic needs as well.

B. Needs on the hierarchy are called conative needs.

C. Aesthetic needs do not seem to be universal, and some people are motivated more by the need for beauty and aesthetically pleasing experiences than are others. Aesthetic needs, like conative needs, can lead to pathology when they are not adequately met. People living in ugly, disorderly environments feel a kind of spiritual illness, Maslow said.

D. Cognitive needs include the needs to know, to solve mysteries, to understand, and to be curious. The frustration of cognitive needs, like the thwarting of other needs, leads to a kind of pathology. When people cannot search for the truth and feel that they are constantly lied to, they become sick, resulting in paranoia and depression. The satisfaction of cognitive needs also is necessary for the pursuit of the conative needs.

E. Neurotic needs differ from the previous three dimensions of needs in that they lead to pathology regardless of whether they are satisfied. For example, a person with sadistic needs is pathological if he finds a partner to torture as well as if he cannot find such a partner.