Psychology - Fun Activity - Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Activity Package

Go shopping at the Life Store! Buy your ideal life! The only problem is… you have just 20 dollars to spend. How will you spend it? Which needs will you value the most… safety and security? Social Belonging? Self-Actualization? Or do you just really like food? My students love this. I bet yours will too.

This is an intensely student-centered approach to teaching one of the most famous psychological theories of all, Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs. It’s part of every Psych. 101 course, and with this package you can make it both fun and memorable for your classes. Students must choose from among 8 levels of hypothetical life circumstances to build the best possible life for them, making decisions about their own values and goals, and about which sacrifices they would be willing to make in order to realize those goals. After sharing and discussing their choices, it is revealed to them that the life-store they went shopping in is based directly on Maslow’s theory. This then leads to a very personalized critical analysis, comparing their own perceived needs with those on Maslow’s “pyramid”. The activity also encourages discussion by requiring students to review one another’s choices and compare them with their own, as well as with Maslow’s predictions.

The package includes: “Life-store” shopping activity sheet (double-sided); Review Worksheets (3 pages); PowerPoint on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory for lecture and whole-class discussion; special print-version of same PowerPoint; double-sided quiz sheet for either practice or assessment (or both); and a Teacher’s Guide Sheet to help you get the most out of the activity package.