Abraham Maslow
EDUCATION
1926 - 1934
Abraham was enrolled in Boys High School, One of the top in Brooklyn. During his time here he was an officer of many academic clubs. He served as editor to the Latin magazine and Principia (a physics paper).
Abraham’s parents wanted him to become a lawyer. In 1926 he enrolled in the City College of New York and stayed for three semesters before leaving to pursue psychology (Project Management, 2005). In 1927 he chose to transfer to Cornell University.
The high costs and low grades forced him back to City College of New York where he graduated from. He studied Psychology in a graduate programme at the University of Wisconsin. He re-located here with his first cousin, Bertha Goodman, who had become his wife in 1928.
Abraham Maslow completed his B.A. in psychology in 1930. The training he received there was experimental-behaviourist. His most influential mentor was Harry Harlow. Part of the research he pursued investigated primate dominance behaviour and sexuality (PBS, 1998).
His master’s thesis was written on “learning, retention, and reproduction of verbal material" upon completion he received his masters in 1931. This was later published in two articles in 1934, the same year he completed his doctorate.
City College of New York at the turn of the 20th century.
Courtesy of Vintage Everyday
AFTER COLLEGE
1934
Two of his daughters were born during this time period- Dr. Ellen Maslow and Ann Kaplan (Project Management, 2005).
Through correspondence with, Dr. Edward Lee Thorndike, Director of the Psychology Division in the Institute of Educational Research of Columbia University in New York an opportunity arose in 1935 for Abraham to travel to New York to further his research work on animal Motivation (Project Management, 2005).
It is in the environment of Columbia University, with Alfred Adler as his mentor, that Abraham’s research shifted toward social behaviour, personality traits, self-esteem and motivation theory in relation to human beings (Project Management, 2005).
