Ava Welty

Introduction to Psychology

October 24, 2022

Maslow and Pandemics

As with most other people, COVID had a large impact on my life. My entire life was

different than I had remembered it before. My family was very scared at first and continued to be

cautious months and months after the main action. My grandparents are immunocompromised,

so we had to be very careful about who we exposed ourselves to. I was limited on which of my

friends I could spend time around. I could only see friends that were equally careful as my family

was, which limited who I could see a great deal. The sports that I had loved all growing up were

all cancelled, and the community of people that came along with sports was gone for that period.

I could not work on lacrosse other than by myself, which got old very quickly. Almost all the

things that I enjoyed most were either cancelled or in an unrecognizable form. The things that

made me happy were no longer aspects of my life.

Also, during this period, my grades started to slip. It was hard to keep up with all my

schoolwork with it being online. I lost motivation to join my classes, and even less motivation to

complete my work. My days turned into repetitive cycles of procrastination, hours on my phone,

and failing to complete work. My parents were very concerned about me, and tried to get me

tutors in my class, but that was not the problem. The problem was my own lack of interest. As

some of my friends excelled online, I felt myself falling farther and farther behind.

Maslow’s hierarchy can explain my struggle. Maslow’s hierarchy defines that there are

different levels of needs. These five levels: Physiological, Safety, Love and Belonging, Esteem,

and Self Actualization are the levels, from most basic to most complex. For the higher levels to
be fulfilled the baseline levels below it need to be completed. During COVID, some of my lower

levels could not be completed. The lack of safety and friendship that I was experiencing was key

for my lack of happiness otherwise. I could not even be sure of my own bodily safety, so of

course I was not going to be having self-actualization. This clearly explains the reasoning behind

great portions of my struggle during COVID.