Do You Accept Maslow's Assumption That Human Nature is Good or at the Very Least, Neutral? Why or Why Not?.

             To assert that human nature is fundamentally good seems to be as fundamentally flawed a position as to assert that human nature is essentially evil. However, one does not need to assume that all human beings are basically good to acknowledge the value of Maslow's creation hierarchy of human needs. Human beings can aspire to have their basic needs fulfilled in both good and evil ways. On the most basic level of sustenance, a human being can either seek to earn his or her bread through legal means, or to steal to fulfill this basic needs. A person can seek to fulfill his or her need for safety either through buying a home-or buying a gun. A person can seek love through showing his or her affection towards a beloved spouse or child, or can seek love by presenting a false persona to the world. Even the highest levels of acknowledgment and esteem can be fulfilled through good means, such as finding a cure for a disease for the sake of humanity, or by bad means, such as seeking a higher purpose in life by trying to make money for the sake of making money or through the shallow pursuit of fame. Thus, it would be best to say that human beings have a great many potential choices in life, and can seek to fulfill their hierarchies of needs in either good or bad ways. Human nature is fundamentally neutral, rather than essentially good or evil.

             Do you agree with Maslow that children need limits on their behavior? Why?.

             Yes. Without limits the child will experience confusion as to what his or her needs actually are in relation to other people's needs. Also, the child will lack a fundamental sense of acknowledgment as an individual person without a sense of loving limits. For example, without expectations that a child needs to finish his or her dinner, and sleep at an arranged time, the child does not learn to associate reasonable structures with love, and will instead seek structure by testing those limits, by not sleeping, subsiding on candy, and acting out in ways to gain attention from others.