Satisfying A Need

Hiearchy of Needs

Published on July 29, 2004 By psychx In Philosophy

It's good to have a nice life. A life that reflects our ideals, beliefs, and desires. Some people get to witness this higher plain of life so to speak. This higher plain, for the most part, must be worked for in order to achieve it. I know that someday I want to have a professional career but what exactly motivates me to want this? I want to live my life the way I want it while reaching success. Currently I am working towards it and I focus on what I have to do now in order to reach it. I still am lacking in certain areas that I know I must improve upon before I will feel accomplished. My needs are relative to my current situation, or in other words, only what I need now. As I age and reach further success or failure my needs will change depending on the outcome. For instance if I completely fail and end up on the streets I will need a place to stay and money to eat, things that I have now. What governs these needs and can they be placed in any sensible order?

In 1954 a man named Abraham Maslow tried to understand what motivates us through life. Maslow's theory states that we have to satisfy our needs in a certain order. He dubbed it the hierarchy of our needs.

Maslow established our needs based on two categories; deficiency needs and growth needs. These deficiency needs must be met before one can reach the growth stage and they must be met in order. If we ever lose any of these needs they will come to attention and we will focus on fixing them first regardless of how high we have made it up his hierarchy.

Maslow believed that our most basic underlying needs include our bodily comforts, hunger, and thirst. Our body needs these things in order to function properly or in another sense to move on in life. Once we have achieved these basic needs to survive, our next goal will be to reach security and safety. I believe this means putting a roof over our heads and to make sure that we are not constantly at danger. This need is important to reaching a calm state of mind to move onto the more complex needs.

The next goal we encounter up his hierarchy is our need for a sense of belonging or love. This deals with social relationships and is important for most of us to have relationships in our lives. Whether it’s through a team, family, dating, or group affiliation we all need to feel as if we are accepted for whom we are. The next step we come to is our esteem. I can see why we need to have social relationships first in order to improve upon our self-esteem. We need that support in order to feel better about ourselves which improves us and sends us to the next category, our growth needs.

The growth category begins with the cognitive stage or in simpler terms our need to understand things outside of our basic existence. It is at this point we reach self-actualization and where we begin to better ourselves in different aspects. With the esteem and security in our lives we can invest attention on improving our knowledge. At this point we have a thirst for information. Once we are constantly learning and exploring reaching understanding we may have never thought we would in the past we will want to improve on our aesthetic needs. We will want to have order in our lives and improvement with our physique and what we have in our environment. This is where we do most of our advancement in life. We better ourselves until we are satisfied with our lives. Most people would be happy just to get to this stage but the next stage is reserved for this that reach ultimate fulfillment.

The final stage we reach is our desire to edify others. We seek to give others that same satisfaction we have achieved through life. Whatever assistance we can give we try to give back in order to make our lives more fulfilling.

Through life we always have needs and desires. What we can accomplish is directly related to our will. Maslow offers a great theory for placing all these needs and dreams we have, in order from chaos. Since he established this theory, even with little evidence, it has been widely accepted. I know that I am not at the final stage and I have obstacles and work to overcome before I reach this final place. Success can be measured in many different ways but personally we all have a final goal we wish to reach.

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Comments

mignuna

on Jul 30, 2004

this is great stuff, carlos. "the hierarchy of our needs" is an interesting term of expression. i find myself trying it out and i like it !. sometimes needs are tyrants that must be met, and the emphasis on "order" of needs you describe is fascinating. the diagram does read like a map of well-being, particularly in that we cannot advance successfully past one level unless we have comfortably occupied the prior one. i really enjoyed this, i'll look up the website when i get time.

vanessa XX

psychx

on Jul 30, 2004

Thanks Vanessa glad you liked it. I think for the most part we all work to get to the top but if your missing something like security, that aspect of your life demands attention. It's interesting how well this theory works with how we actually decide on what actions to take. Will, of course, is the most important factor because it determines how quickly we accomplish one of these stages and strengthens our resolve. Physiological needs are at the bottom which include hunger, and that explains why I can't think while on an empty stomach

notsohighlyevolved

on Jul 31, 2004

I have read some interesting criticism of Maslow's hierarchy. One involves the relative definitions of self-actualisation, what does it mean and to who. Was Hitler or Stalin self-actualised human beings. Maslow stated that the hierarchy has an inherent morality encoded into its language. I would argue that it also has encoded a normative perception of the world and human nature. It has also been criticised for having materialism as not only its pyramidical base, but as it philosophical base as well, no matter how much it attempts to be a humanist approach to psychology. I dismiss, almost instantly, the criticism of it being unscientific and non-verifiable. To apply this criteria we would have to dismiss all knowledge that is a priori, ascertained through reason alone. Sometimes it is nothing more than a technological lag period where our mechanisms for measurement are not the equal of our theoretical knowledge. Freud may have been debunked on many a scientific ground, but who will deny him his undying influence on all arts and sciences. You cannot scientifically verify Shakespeares genius, but there are not many who would deny it.

Marco

psychx

on Jul 31, 2004

Thanks for replying Marco, I enjoyed your response you make some good points. I think up until recently psychologists always relied heavily on behavior and what is physically noticeable. With science moving as quickly as it is we are beginning to understand some of the brain's mysteries that before where just theoretical. There are scientists currently working on finding out things like what in our brains makes us feel like we are in love, how empathy works between people, and the differences between men and women. These are all things once were theoretical and metaphysical and we are now finding out how it actually works within our minds. At times I am astounded with how quick things are going and I fear we may reach a point when we know enough about our minds to predict what our actions will be and why we do things. Wouldn't that take away from our humanity as we know it now? Individuality? It would diminish some of the weight we hold to falling in love and the romantic aspects of it. Science itself is moving quicker than morality and ethics with things like stem cells and genetic counseling. What if we can figure out that falling in love is just a process that we can define into physiogical reactions?

When it comes to actual influence and impact that a person can have that is something that is very hard to predict and sometimes explain. You said it better than me, Freud's impact cannot just be measured by his research but because he was the "father of psychology" his influence on others is substantially more important. You made a great point there. As far as Stalin and Hitler they had different things that motivated them. Self-actualization is intrinsic and can be different for each individual. As far as what they wanted to accomplish and to feel that they have fulfilled that, they might have reached it personally. They might have been murderers but that is what their motivations led them to be. Morality has a lot of grey area so it is debatable. They didn't contribute anything positive to this world or give back to others which Maslow states is the last step, to want to edify others.

on Jul 31, 2004

I find it interesting that the edification of others is the final step in the process, sure it sounds great, helping others achieve there potential in turn. However if each of the steps can only be reached by mastering the step below it, then that means by Maslows reckoning that we have the right to be completely selfish beings until we reach a point of selfishness so advanced that we cannot think any more highly of ourselves without first helping others so that they too can be selfish and we can feel morally stronger in turn.

I am exagerrating, but I think that love and the desire to edify and exhort others is not dependant on ALL of the needs listed previous in Maslows hierachy. Sure if I am hungry I won't be as fast on my feet as usual, but if someone needs encouragement or needs advice and support I would like to think that I would be prepared to give that right then and there. Instead of looking to my own needs, I should be able to put the needs of others before my own in certain situations. It is in this respect that I disagree with Maslow (but perhaps I am interpreting his meaning wrong?) the heirachy makes sense to me in most of it's other respects however.

psychx

on Jul 31, 2004

Thanks for your comment. I like your perspective it's altruistic. I can see what you mean, we should always be ready to help those in need and if we can with ease we should. I think the hunger stage or the physiological stage is if it's in the extremes. Or in other words if I am having difficulty providing food for myself...

Sly But Shy 1958

on Aug 01, 2004

Thank you for your edifying article.

What motivated you to write this in the first place?
Oh, is there just the slightest possibility you might be closer to the top of the pyramid than you give yourself credit for?
...
Anyway, it caused me to think a little about my situation in life and have a bit of an epiphany. I've been very frustrated in my search for a boyfriend. Due to your information, I realized that the "sense of belonging" is what I am actually seeking, and that perhaps there are other ways to satisfy that need. Some of this I had felt intuitively, and I had already been exposed to Maslow's theory before.
>>> However, your blog really helped crystalize my thinking, and will actually HELP ME in my life right now!
Thanks!
Cathy

psychx

on Aug 02, 2004

Cathy, you're welcome. I think what motivated me to write this blog about Maslow was a need to receive feedback on what others might think that drives our motivation in the first place. I had heard about Maslow and his theory a couple years back in a class and I was wondering where I fit in now, in his theory. I also wanted to present this to others because his theory sometimes places things in your life into priorities.

I'm glad I made you think and analyze your life. There is some advice I have been given before that did not make sense then but makes sense now; before we can make anyone else happy we have to be happy ourselves. Maybe you already had the answer, as you said you felt it intuitively, you just needed to reflect on it or to be pushed in that direction. It's good to hear that my blog helped you out this blog had a better outcome than I expected. Thanks for your response it certainly adds meaning to this writing.

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