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Maslow’s Human Needs Pyramid

Psychologist Abraham Maslow first introduced his concept of a hierarchy of needs in 1943. This hierarchy suggests that people are motivated to fulfill basic needs before moving on to other, more advanced needs.

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As people progress up the pyramid, needs become increasingly psychological and social. Soon, the need for love, friendship, and intimacy become important. Further up the pyramid, the need for personal esteem and feelings of accomplishment take priority. Maslow emphasized the importance of self-actualization, which is a process of growing and developing as a person in order to achieve individual potential.

This hierarchy is most often displayed as a pyramid, as shown below. The lowest levels of the pyramid are made up of the most basic needs, while the more complex needs are located at the top of the pyramid. Needs at the bottom of the pyramid are basic physical requirements including the need for food, water, sleep, and warmth. Once these lower-level needs have been met, people can move on to the next level of needs, which are for safety and security

Types of Needs

Maslow believed that these needs are similar to instincts and play a major role in motivating behavior. Physiological, security, social, and esteem needs are deficiency needs (also known as D-needs), meaning that these needs arise due to deprivation. Satisfying these lower-level needs is important in order to avoid unpleasant feelings or consequences.

Maslow termed the highest-level of the pyramid as growth needs (also known as being needs or B-needs). Growth needs do not stem from a lack of something, but rather from a desire to grow as a person.

Five Levels of the Hierarchy of Needs

There are five different levels in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs:

1. Physiological Needs
These include the most basic needs that are vital to survival, such as the need for water, air, food, and sleep. Maslow believed that these needs are the most basic and instinctive needs in the hierarchy because all needs become secondary until these physiological needs are met.

2. Security Needs
These include needs for safety and security. Security needs are important for survival, but they are not as demanding as the physiological needs. Examples of security needs include a desire for steady employment, health insurance, safe neighborhoods, and shelter from the environment.

3. Social Needs
These include needs for belonging, love, and affection. Maslow considered these needs to be less basic than physiological and security needs. Relationships such as friendships, romantic attachments, and families help fulfill this need for companionship and acceptance, as doe’s involvement in social, community, or religious groups.

4. Esteem Needs
After the first three needs have been satisfied, esteem needs becomes increasingly important. These include the need for things that reflect on self-esteem, personal worth, social recognition, and accomplishment.

5. Self-actualizing Needs
This is the highest level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Self-actualizing people are self-aware, concerned with personal growth, less concerned with the opinions of others, and interested fulfilling their potential.

Human Needs Activity 1:

List the levels and specific Maslow’s human needs required by the following cases

Case	Level	Specific needs at each level
A child in a hospital	1	Medical Attention
A physically disabled person	1,2,3,4	Support from other people and money
A lonely poor old lady in Sri Lanka	1,2,3	Food and Social
A shy rich widow who has a loving family and friends but has not achieved much in life	4,5	Problem Solving
A family trapped underground because of a bomb shell	1,2	Food and safety
An orphaned child who was forced to work to make a living	1,2,3	Food, safety and house to live
Physically and mentally abused person	3,4	Family affection and self esteem
A father who lost his job and has a family to support	2,3,4	Money, house and property