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Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (1943) is a theory of motivation that assumes the need for fulfilment or self-actualisation determines human behaviour. We achieve satisfaction by progressing through the different levels of a five-level pyramid, which is a sequential model of human needs.
In the hierarchy of needs, basic needs should be met first before moving upward to achieve higher psychological needs. Physiological needs, safety, belonging and love, esteem, and self-actualisation are the needs that show up in a linear progression.
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We can divide the five-level sequential pyramid model into deficiency needs, consisting of the first four structural levels, also known as (D-needs), and growth needs or B-needs (at the top of the pyramid).
Deficiency needs arise from the lack of basic needs, which causes people to become demotivated if these needs are not met. The motivation to fulfil these needs becomes stronger the longer they are neglected.
A vivid example is when you think about being thirsty, but the longer you go without drinking, the thirstier you become.
The deficiency needs aim at raising awareness to maintain physical and psychological balance. The needs in question are:
Growth needs arise from the desire to grow as an individual. When earlier needs such as physiological, safety, love, and belonging are met, the individual may strive for higher needs such as self-actualisation.
Humanistic psychologists advocate personal and individual growth as fundamental to being human.
Personal growth is about the development and changes a person undergoes to reach their full potential.
All people have an innate predisposition to reach their full potential and become the best version of themselves. Self-actualisation is the highest level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Maslow (1943) previously asserted that individuals should follow the hierarchy of needs in a linear faction, meaning that they can only develop in that order. Maslow (1986) also acknowledged that each person is different, and the model only works depending on each person’s circumstances.
If someone has the need to create a family but lacks resources, this could affect their physiological and safety needs while meeting love and belonging.
The most basic survival needs are physiological and consist of biological needs, such as:
Air, water, food, sleep, shelter, clothing, homeostasis, etc.
Maslow claimed that physiological needs are the most important because the human body cannot function without satisfying these basic needs. All other levels of the sequence become secondary until the essential needs for existence are met.
Once the physiological needs are met, the human is satisfied and ready to move on to the second level, safety needs, which include:
Personal security, material resources, work, family, and health.
Material resources help us plan to achieve specific goals, such as travel or a healthy lifestyle. The security of being able to move freely is an example of the actions driven by the need for safety and security.
The two first sequential layers of the hierarchy of needs, safety and physiological levels, form the basic needs.
The third next level is love and belonging, socialisation. Social needs play an important role when avoiding loneliness, depression, and anxiety. It is vital to feel loved and accepted by others. These also includes:
Social life, friendship, family, intimacy and feeling connected.
The fourth level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs represents the need for appreciation and respect. The fourth level includes:
Respect from others, self-esteem, identity, recognition, strength, freedom.
When the previous needs are met, esteem plays a more significant role in the person’s behaviour. At this point, it is important others respect and appreciate us. We need to achieve goals and have other people recognise our efforts, including our worth or self-esteem.
We need to feel valued by ourselves and others. It gives us a sense of community and purpose when we know we contribute to a better world. When we lack self-esteem and respect from others, developing feelings of inferiority is one of the consequences.
Esteem and social needs together form the psychological needs of hierarchy.
A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be. This need we may call self-actualisation. (. . .) This tendency might be phrased as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming. — Abraham Maslow, Motivation and Personality.
When the preceding deficiency needs are satisfied, the individual can proceed to the satisfaction of the self-actualisation needs, which consist in the desire to become the best one can be. At the top level of Maslow’s hierarchy is self-actualisation. Maslow said,
what a man can be, he must be,
suggesting that people must follow their inner intuition to reach their full potential as human beings. Examples of these needs are as follows:
Cognitive needs, knowledge, insight, wisdom and aesthetic needs; symmetry, congruence, integration, spirituality, meditation, creativity, harmony and acceptance of the world as it is.
According to Maslow’s definition of self-actualisation:
It may be loosely described as the full use and exploitation of talents, capabilities, potentialities, etc. Such people seem to be fulfilling themselves and to be doing the best that they are capable of doing. They are people who have developed or are developing to the full stature of which they are capable.
Self-actualised people are self-aware and interested in their personal growth, including developing their true potential. It gives them the strength to hold on to their truth, not worry about others’ opinions of themselves, and follow their life, purpose, and mission.
Carl Rogers, another humanistic psychologist, believed that self-actualisation is possible only when it is congruent. A person’s ideal self should be congruent (in harmony) with their behaviour, what they are (the real self). For this congruence to be possible, a child must grow up with a sense of unconditional positive regard from their parents, i.e., their parents love and accept them, even when they make mistakes. If children grow up with conditional positive regard (i.e., their parents show them love and acceptance only when they behave in a certain way), they will learn this behaviour. They will act only in such a way as to receive positive regard from their parents. This dynamic will affect their self-actualisation because they will not be free to develop as they wish.
When a person’s behaviour and life experiences (the real self) do not match their ideal self, it is called incongruence. When there is incongruence, self-actualisation cannot occur.
Time to examine some critical points of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.Among the weaknesses of Maslow's model are:
From a scientific perspective, there are several issues with this approach:
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a motivational theory in psychology that consists of a sequential model that outlines human needs portrayed through a hierarchical sequence of a five-level pyramid, from basic needs (physiological needs) to more complex needs, such as psychological needs and furthermore self-actualisation.
Maslow proposed the hierarchy of needs in order to comprehend the relations behind human drives and motives surrounding our existence. He conducted the research based on eighteen biographies and writings of self-actualised people, aiming to arrange a model to create a structure for people to realise themselves and if so to let them be aware and free to achieve self-actualisation.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs is important for us to realise that we are unique human beings, and to allow us to think more creatively and strategically when organising how to achieve our goals. It helps us to better understand career development plans, behaviours, goals, and experiences. It empowers us to identify our interests, skill sets, strengths, and values.
We can divide the five-level sequential pyramid model into deficiency needs, consisting of the first four structural levels, also known as (D-needs), and growth needs or B-needs (at the top of the pyramid).
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