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The Purpose-Driven Life: Commentary on Kenrick et al. (2010)
Joshua M Ackerman1, John A Bargh2
1Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge joshack@mit.edu.
Summary
This study revitalizes Maslow's hierarchy of needs by integrating evolutionary psychology to explain fundamental human motives. The new framework offers a unified approach to understanding motivation across different levels of analysis.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Evolutionary Psychology
- Motivation Theory
Background:
- The cognitive revolution in social psychology has seen a resurgence of interest in motivation.
- A theory-based approach to motivational content has been lacking.
- Maslow's hierarchy of needs offers a classic framework for understanding motivation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To present a new, evolutionarily inspired framework for fundamental human motives.
- To integrate functional, developmental, and proximal levels of analysis in motivation research.
- To discuss the relevance of this framework for goal conflict, multigoal priming, and goal scaffolding.
Main Methods:
- Revisiting and reinterpreting Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
- Integrating evolutionary principles with motivational theory.
- Analyzing the complementary nature of different levels of analysis.
Main Results:
- A novel framework of evolutionarily inspired, fundamental motives has been proposed.
- This framework unifies functional, developmental, and proximal levels of analysis.
- The framework demonstrates how these levels complement each other.
Conclusions:
- Kenrick and colleagues have reinvigorated Maslow's theory by integrating it with evolutionary insights.
- The proposed framework offers a comprehensive approach to understanding human motivation.
- The framework has significant implications for future research on goal-directed behavior.