List of theories that maslow contributed to psychology. What's he known for, and how is it beneficial?

Answer 1

Abraham Maslow is one of the founders of humanistic psychology and transpersonal psychology. He believed that an accurate and viable theory of personality must include not only the depths but also the heights that each individual is capable of attaining. The concepts of both Skinner and Freud, and their followers, have tended to ignore or to explain away the cultural, social, and individual achievements of humanity, including creativity, love, altruism, and mysticism. These were among Maslow's greatest interests.

Abraham Maslow has done more to change our view of human nature and human possibilities than has any other American psychologist of the past fifty years. His influence, both direct and indirect, continues to grow, especially in the fields of health, education, and management theory, and in the personal and social lives of millions of Americans.

http://www.itp.edu/about/abraham_maslow.cfm

Maslow hoped that his efforts at describing the self-actualizing person would eventually lead to a “periodic table” of the kinds of qualities, problems, pathologies, and even solutions characteristic of higher levels of human potential. Over time, he devoted increasing attention, not to his own theory, but to humanistic psychology and the human potentials movement.

Toward the end of his life, he inaugurated what he called the fourth force in psychology: Freudian and other “depth” psychologies constituted the first force; Behaviorism was the second force; His own humanism, including the European existentialists, were the third force. The fourth force was the transpersonal psychologies which, taking their cue from Eastern philosophies, investigated such things as meditation, higher levels of consciousness, and even parapsychological phenomena.

http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/maslow.html

Answer 2

Do you really need Yahoo Answers for this? Just do a search on Abraham Maslow, he's a pretty well known psychologist and wouldn't be hard to research at all.

Basically he started Humanism. He created a hierarchy of human needs, and is most well known for his stressing of self-acualization.

Here's the wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Maslow