Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

In this week’s post, I wanted to highlight Abraham Maslow’s conception of human motivation. In a classic paper he wrote in 1943, Maslow suggested that there are certain needs that urge us to do what we do. Unlike many other theories on human needs, he thought about these needs to fall in a hierarchy. That is to say that one needs to fulfill a more basic need, at least to some extent, before moving on to the next higher need.

This hierarchy of needs can be summarized using the above pyramid, as taken from the following source <http://dinamehta.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/800px-maslows_hierarchy_of_needssvg.png>

What this theory suggests is that we all have the potential to work towards self-actualization, that state of being when we are able to maximize our potentials and become the persons we have always wanted to become. Such people are often able to accept themselves for who they are. Similarly, they are also able to accept others in equal measure. They face reality squarely and are able to adapt themselves in ways that accommodate the situation they face.

According to this hierarchy of needs, a person is only able to achieve one’s desire to self-actualize when one has already met lower needs, at least to some extent. So what are these other needs?

The most basic set of needs are physiological needs. Simply put, this includes survival needs, like, food, water, shelter, exercise, and enough rest.

Next are safety needs. Going beyond mere survival, the next set of needs include health and a sense of wellbeing. There is a sense of security of one’s person and within one’s environment.

A step further is the love and belonging needs. When we have basics met and we feel secure enough, we often strive towards identifying ourselves with a group of people. This group could be a family or a group of friends with whom we can identify ourselves. This is also the time we seek out intimate relationships.

According to Maslow, only when we are secure about our belongingness to a group of people can we begin to work towards the esteem of others. This is a good time for us to make our mark and to achieve something significant.

These are all the necessary steps that we need to take before we can effectively work towards self-actualization.

Oftentimes, what happens with many of us is we attempt the achievement of higher needs in the hierarchy while forgetting to meet more basic needs first. How many people have we seen working very hard to gain the esteem of others while omitting to take care of themselves? They might not eat well or sleep very little just to fulfill higher needs. This can be problematic.

Of course, there are some exceptions to this rule. Some self-actualizing people actually sacrifice lower needs in order to fulfill much higher needs, oftentimes beyond their own personal gain. For instance, when a martyr suffers for the sake of other people, that person is likely to be self-actualizing.

We all desire to fulfill higher needs. In fact, many religions espouse sacrificing lower needs for the sake of higher needs. And yet, what I am saying here is the importance of fulfilling lower needs first before meeting higher needs. I guess the paradox to all this is that only when we are able to fulfill lower needs knowingly can we later on give them up in place of fulfilling higher needs.