On The Tendency Of American Family Development Using Maslow’s Motivation Theory

American family has gone through fundamental changes ever since the1960s: risingdivorce rates, postponing of marriage, increase of working mother, cohabitationbefore marriage, dink family, same-sex marriage and etc. The recent-days diversifiedmarital and family forms caused a certain panic about the disappearing of family,degeneration of social morality, and even the backwardness of the modernindustrialized world. The conspicuous family issues also draw attention from theacademic world. The most influential schools of research and study regarding familyissues are Structural-Functionalism (SF) and Symbolic Interaction Theory. Despitetheir explanation of the causal relationship between nuclear family andindustrialization, they didn’t find the hidden mechanism that drives these familychanges.This thesis will use Maslow’s motivation theory to explore the driving forces ofAmerican family development and analyze how the hierarchy of human being’s needsexert influence upon family life.Human being’s first and second levels of needs were far from satisfied in colonialperiod, due to the low social productivity. Family was the economic unit, providingdaily necessities for its members. Driven by the need of physiological satisfaction andneed of safety, extended family was formed. The continuous force of physiologicalneeds led to industrialization, which in turn changed family form greatly: fromextended family to nuclear family; Family changed from production unit toconsumption unit. With the development of social productivity, satisfaction ofphysiological and safety needs were improved, meanwhile the need of love and senseof belongs increased and start to influence family life, as seen in the nuclear family. Inpost-industrial family, economic affluence makes physiological and safety need obtuse, when need of love and esteem steps into the frontline to influence family life,thus leads to a diversity.Based on this analysis of how people’s hierarchy of basic needs drives family changes,it is proper to predict that family, as a social institution, would not extinct, and willturn on a more diversified form, with people’s increasing needs of love, esteem,self-actualization.