Maslow's needs pyramid

Abraham Maslow is an American humanistic psychologist who studied the problems of motivating an individual, that is, the forces that drive her to action. The result of these studies was the widely known Pyramid of Maslow's needs. This model is based on the assumption that human needs are hierarchical, that is, unequal, and the satisfaction of conditionally higher ones is possible only after those at the bottom step are satisfied. The Maslow's pyramid of needs consists of 7 steps, based on the so-called basic or vital human needs. These are the first steps, without their "passage," without satisfying the vital physiological needs, a person, according to Maslow, does not even think about the needs of a higher order.

The researcher combines the needs of 5 groups:

• Physiological. They include hunger, thirst, satisfaction of sexual desire, etc.
• Existential. Striving for the constancy of life, comfort, sense of security.
• Social. The need for social contacts, communication, exchange of experience, attention and concern for themselves and others, a sense of involvement and unity.
• The need to assert itself, receive praise and gratitude for the work done, development, respect for others.
• Spiritual. Self-knowledge, self-realization, the search for the meaning of life, self-actualization.

A more detailed Maslow demand pyramid is as follows:

1. A basic level of. Physiological needs. Satisfaction is mandatory for life. This includes the needs for food, sex, sleep, etc.
2. Sense of confidence. A person with satisfied basic needs becomes more calm, the search instinct is dulled and there is a need for protection, a refuge that within the society is expressed in the need to find a close and understanding person, to receive care and understanding. It is from this level that Maslow's pyramid of needs indicates the predominance of social needs.
3. The need for belonging and love. The desire to feel part of the whole, to be needed and accepted. The need for understanding, tenderness, warm and trusting relationships.
4. The need for respect and recognition. Relatively speaking, a well-fed person, who is accepted and loved, strives for greater - to respect for strangers, to recognize himself as a developed and capable person.
5. Cognitive needs. Following the acquisition of fame or recognition of the desired level, there is a thirst for "internal growth" - gaining new knowledge, development. The horizon widens, and such a person wants to know the world around him, expand the boundaries of his knowledge. That is, the concentration on one's life is replaced by the desire for research, knowledge of the experience of other people in particular and the laws of nature and the world - in general.
6. Aesthetic needs. The view from the satisfaction of purely selfish needs begins to shift gradually toward harmonizing life around itself. The emphasis is on beauty, harmony both in the inner world of man, and in the outer world. The place of quite ordinary needs is attracted to art.
7. Highest level. The need for self-actualization. Under self-actualization, Maslow understood the natural aspiration of a person with the satisfied needs of the lower levels to "fully reveal oneself." Simply put, the driving force of such a person - mature - is the desire to find oneself in the world, to become useful to society. Serve others and share with them their knowledge, skills, qualities. This level is the apotheosis of the development of the personality, which has transcended the limits of selfish satisfaction of needs.

It should be noted that the Maslow's pyramid of needs is only a model of the structure of the motives of the individual. Which absolutely does not mean a reduction of the previous level after the achievement of the next one. Personality, striving for universal well-being, still wants to have intimate relations, as well as hunger and thirst.

Maslow's pyramid of needs bears information about the fact that a person has a tendency to develop and self-actualize. However, this is possible only if the current needs are met.