The needs of Maslow distributed with increasing explaining such a construction that a person can not feel the need of high-level, yet in need of more primitive things. At the bottom is physiology (satisfaction of hunger, thirst, sexual desire, and so on). Located next higher need for security, and above it - the need for love and affection, as well as being a member of a particular social group. The next step - the need for respect and approval, on which Maslow put cognitive needs (thirst for knowledge, the desire to take as much information). This is followed by the need for aesthetics (thirst harmonize life, fill it with beauty, art). Finally, the last step of the pyramid, the highest - the desire to reveal the internal potential (it is self-actualization). It is important to note that each of the requirements need not be quenched completely - enough to partially saturate the transition to the next stage.
"I am absolutely convinced that man lives by bread alone only in circumstances where there is no bread, - explained Maslow. - But what happens to the human aspirations, when the bread enough and stomach is always full? There are higher requirements, and it is they, rather than physiological hunger, control our body. As you meet certain needs arise, more and more high. Thus, gradually, step by step a person comes to the need for self-development - the highest of them. "
Maslow was well aware that the satisfaction of primitive physiological needs - the cornerstone. In its submission to the perfect happy society - it is primarily a society of well-fed people who have no reason to fear or anxiety. If a person, for example, constantly lacking in food, it is unlikely he will be in great need of love. However, people crowded amorous feelings, still need food, and regularly (even if the ladies' novels and say the opposite). Under satiety Maslow meant not only the absence of a power outage, but also a sufficient amount of water, oxygen, sleep and sex.
Forms in which the manifest needs may be different, there is no uniform standard. Each of us has their own motivation and ability. So, for example, the need for respect and recognition of different people can be manifested differently: one need to become a prominent politician and win the approval of a majority of their fellow citizens, and the other is enough to own children recognize his authority. Such a wide range within the same requirements can be observed at any level of the pyramid, even in the first (physiological need).
Abraham Maslow recognized that people have many different needs, but also believed that these needs can be divided into five main categories:
- Physiological: hunger, thirst, sexual desire, and so on. D.
- Safety needs: comfort, stability of living conditions.
- Social: social relationships, communication, affection, caring for others, attention to themselves, the joint activity.
- Prestigious: self-respect, respect of others, recognition, success and appreciation, career development.
- Spiritual-knowledge, self-actualization, self-expression, self-identification.
There is also a more detailed classification. The system stands seven levels (priority):
- (lower) Physiological needs: hunger, thirst, sexual desire, and so on. d.
- The need for safety: a sense of confidence, freedom from fear and failure.
- Need for belonging and love.
- Need for respect: success, approval, acceptance.
- Educational needs: to know, to be able to investigate.
- Aesthetic needs: harmony, order and beauty.
- (top) The need for self-actualization: the implementation of their goals, abilities, development of the personality.
As satisfaction of underlying needs, becoming increasingly important requirements of a higher level, but this do not mean that the place of the previous requirements takes new, only when the former is fully satisfied. Also need is not in close sequence and has no fixed positions, as shown. This pattern holds as the most stable, but the relative position of different people needs may vary.
You can also pay attention to some roll with the theory of the development of Gumilev cultural needs with an increase in the level of civilization, and their rapid degradation (e.g., in violation of the base of the pyramid of Maslow, i.e. physiological or enforcement needs).
Works Cited
Maslow, A. (1954). Motivation and personality. New York, NY: Harper. pp. 93.
Heylighen, Francis (1992). "A cognitive-systemic reconstruction of Maslow's theory of self-actualization". Behavioral Science 37 (1): 39–58. doi:10.1002/bs.3830370105.
Kress, Oliver (1993). "A new approach to cognitive development: ontogenesis and the process of initiation". Evolution and Cognition 2 (4): 319–332.
