Abstract
Maslow was an American psychologist whose work on precedence of needs is renowned as “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs”. The five levels of needs according to Maslow are physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs and self-actualization. Physiological needs are the lowest level of needs and self-actualization, the highest. One needs to fulfil lower level of needs to move to higher level of needs. The limitations of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs are it does not explain spiritualism, selflessness and that profiling of self-actualizers is done on a very small sample of people.
Keywords: Hierarchy of needs, social needs, physiological needs, safety needs, self-actualization, esteem needs
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Background
According to Boeree (2006), Maslow completed his BA, MA and PhD in psychology and he worked on various behavioural experiments with baby rhesus monkeys during his school work. It was during these studies that Maslow observed an interesting fact about the relative importance of needs. For instance, some of the basic needs of a human being are food, water and sleep. But, there is relativity in the importance of these three needs. A person who has not eaten and slept for two days will tend to look for food first. But a person who is hungry and thirsty will tend to look for water. Hence, there is a relative importance of food, water and sleep in the life of a human being. While all the three are basic needs, the need for water takes precedence over the need for food or sleep. Maslow’s well-known theory “Hierarchy of needs” is based on this fundamental concept of precedence of one need over the other.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
In the words of Maslow (1943), “Man is a wanting animal and rarely reaches a state of complete satisfaction except for a short time. As one desire is satisfied, another one pops up to take its place.” But these desires or motivations cannot be studied in isolation. However good a composer one is, he or she cannot be motivated to compose music with empty stomach. Hence, there are various orders of needs. When the basic order of need is satisfied, a person moves to other higher orders. The physiological needs of a person are the basic needs, which are followed by safety needs, social needs, esteem needs and self-actualization. The motivation of a person is determined by his order of need fulfilment. Satisfaction with lower order of needs motivates a person to crave for higher order of more complex needs.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs is displayed in the form of a pyramid. The lowest level of the pyramid is formed of physiological needs, whereas the highest level constitutes of the need for self-actualization.
Physiological Needs
Physiological needs are the basic human needs that are important for a man’s survival. A person’s ‘being’ is in threat if these needs are not fulfilled. The basic needs of a human being include oxygen, water, food, clothes, shelter, sleep and sexual desires. Unmet basic needs make a person uncomfortable, irritated and may even cause life threat.
The second level of needs, after physiological needs are satisfied, is the need for safety and security.
Safety Needs
Once the physical or physiological need of a person our fulfilled, his or her safety needs take precedence. According to Wikipedia (2012), the safety and security needs of a person include personal security, financial security, health and safety nets against adversities.
Personal security means absence of situations like war, natural calamities, violence and abuses. Financial security means job security, insurance and growing economy. Health and well-being means lack of any illness or diseases. Safety nets against adversities are insurance schemes and savings. The absence of security in any of these parameters will lead to conditions of mental traumas and disorders in human beings.
Safety and security is the second level in the human hierarchy of needs pyramid. Once it is satisfied, a person moves to the higher level of needs. The third level of needs is social and belonging needs.
Social and Belonging Needs
The need for belongings and love arises when the physiological and safety needs are already met. Social need is nothing but the need for feeling loved and accepted in the society. Man is a social being and cannot live in isolation. It is the need to have friends, spouse, children and other emotional relationships. It is the need of emotional support, love and care in one’s life. The absence of social or emotional support makes one feel lonely, restless, depressed and vulnerable.
The social needs are fulfilled by marrying, having children, making friends, joining forums, club memberships and being on social networking sites.
Esteem Needs
Esteem needs is the fourth level of needs in the hierarchy of needs pyramid. It becomes dominant once the physiological, safety and social needs are taken care of. According to Boeree (2006), Maslow observed two types of esteem needs, a lower one and higher one. The lower esteem need is the need to be respected, renowned, appreciated and recognised.
The higher level of esteem need includes the need for respecting yourself, being confident and competent. It is the need of self-acceptance and feeling of being worthy. The lack of this would lead to inferiority complex in an individual. The adverse effects of this would be fear in public speaking, intimated behaviour, dependency on other, lack of assertiveness and inability to make decisions.
Self-Actualization
Self-actualization is the highest level in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It becomes dominant only when all other levels of needs are satisfied. It is the need to fully comprehend oneself and one’s potentials, and the desire to fully utilise it. It is the need to complete oneself as a human being.
According to Boeree (2006), Maslow used a biographical analysis test to understand the profile of self-actualizers. He did this analysis on a set of people and concluded that self-actualizers had a different way of living. They liked being alone or with fewer but close friends and preferred independence. Some of the ‘being’ needs driving self-actualizers are honesty, flawlessness, meaningfulness and wholesomeness.
Limitations of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
As stated by Bradley (2010), there are some of the weaknesses of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Firstly, it does not talk about the virtue of selflessness which includes acts of charity, social service and bravery. Secondly, it does not explain how one can reach the level of self-actualization without satisfying the lower order needs. For example, he does not explain why a struggling actor does not give up acting even without proper food or shelter. Thirdly, Maslow does not account for a spiritual self in a human being. Lastly, the biographical analysis to profile self-actualizers was done on a small sample of people. Hence, it does not show a true picture of self-actualizers and cannot be generalised.
References
Boeree, G. C. (2006). Personality Theories: Abraham Maslow. Retrieved from http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/maslow.html
Bradly, Steven (2010). Designing For a Hierarchy of Needs. Retrieved from http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/04/26/designing-for-a-hierarchy-of-needs/
Maslow, A.H. (1943). Preface to Motivational Theory. Psychosomatic Medicine, 5 (1). Retrieved from http://www.psychosomaticmedicine.org/content/5/1/85.full.pdf+html
Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. (2012, March 29). FL: Wikimedia Foundation Inc. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs
