Revisiting Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: Is it still universal content?

The purpose of this research is to investigate the current validity of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory (HNT). Based on social role theory, Mannheim’s theory of generations and income inequality approach and in the light of the purpose, this research is conducted with MMR (mixed-methods research) which has two sub-studies. In the first study, 240 randomly chosen people were asked to compare the satisfaction priority of needs pairwise. The data were examined according to different demographic groups that participated in the study. Results showed that Maslow’s HNT depends on gender, age, and income level. The second study was conducted to deeply understand why this variety in the hierarchy occurs. Thus, we interviewed 12 people, chosen with purposive sampling, of different age, gender, and income level of the aforementioned sample. In the discussion part, the results of both sub-studies were interpreted.