Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs

Abraham Maslow was an American psychologist who believed that human behaviour is motivated by certain needs.

These needs, according to Maslow, must be satisfied in a particular order starting with our lower level needs before we can satisfy our higher level needs. Today we know this as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

So let’s have a look at each of these needs now by starting with the “lower needs” and working our way up to the “higher needs”.

Physiological Needs

Our first needs are associated with basic survival, such as the need for food, water, sex and sleep.

These are all associated with our biological drives and are therefore needs you must satisfy in order to stay alive.

Safety Needs

Our safety need involves the need for shelter and protection from harm or injury.

Safety needs can be found in behaviours such as installing a home alarm system, wearing a seat belt and looking both ways before you cross the street.

Belongingness And Love Needs

These needs include the need for affection and love from others. Some examples could include joining a club, or finding a romantic partner.

Esteem Needs

Esteem needs includes our need to be liked and respected by others, and for us to feel the same way about ourselves (self esteem).

This behaviour often manifests itself as ambition, whereby we hope to become successful so that other people will respect and admire us.

Self esteem can broadly be divided into being either high or low.

With low self esteem you will often have a negative outlook on life, doubt your own abilities and your own personal worth.

With high self esteem you are likely to feel confident in your abilities and worthiness to achieve success.

Cognitive Needs

Cognitive needs include the need for mental stimulation, creativity and using your intelligence.

Some behaviours that stem from our cognitive needs include reading, writing and solving puzzles.

Note : This stage was added later, and was not included in Maslow’s original hierarchy of needs

Need For Self Actualisation

According to Maslow the need for self actualisation was an “emergent” need, because we only acted upon it once all our lower level needs had been fulfilled.

Self actualisation refers to the need to be who you were meant to be, by maximising your talents and abilities. If you are unable to do this then you will feel disappointed in life and with yourself.

If however you are able to become self actualising, then you will feel happy with your life and occasionally have “peak experiences”, which are moments of intense joy and satisfaction that you get from overcoming an obstacle or reaching a goal.

The Will To meaning

Viktor Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist and a holocaust survivor, who argued that our highest need is the need for life to make sense and to have a purpose in life. He called this “the will to meaning”.

According to Frankl, if a person lives a meaningful life then they will find that life satisfying and rewarding. If however they live a meaningless life, they will find it empty and pointless.

Frankl called this later state the “existential vacuum”, which describes a state in which a person becomes demoralised because they see no point in their existence and have no purpose in life.

Finding Your Values

Frankl’s theory of motivation stems largely from his own experience in a Nazi concentration camp, where as a trained psychiatrist, he saw it as his duty to help others in anyway he could.

From this experience he came to the conclusion that when someone feels they have a purpose or reason for existing in life, they can endure much hardship and pain to fulfil that purpose.

In order to realise this will to meaning, Frankl asserts that we need to sense that what we are doing has significance to others or society as a whole.

For example, raising your children in the best way possible or creating a charity for those in need could be examples of a persons will to meaning.

The underlying theme is of making a contribution or helping others rather than helping yourself.

For those who are suffering from an existential vacuum (feel like their life has no purpose), Frankl believed that they need to discover what their core values are so that they can act upon them to give their life meaning and purpose.

Summary

• Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs states that lower level needs must be satisfied before we are able to satisfy higher level needs.

• Physiological needs are everything that is involved in keeping our body alive.

• Safety needs are the need to be safe from danger or harm.

• Belongingness and love needs involve our need to be respected and loved by other people, and also by ourself.

• Cognitive needs are our need to use our intelligence.

• The need for self actualisation is our highest level need according to Maslow, and refers to the stage when we reach our full potential in life.

• Viktor Frankl believed that our highest level need was the will to meaning. This describes finding our true purpose and place in life.

• An existential vacuum describes a state in which a person feels there is no point to their life and they have no purpose in it.