Maslow's Pyramid

We explain what Maslow's pyramid is and its main characteristics. Also, how it prioritizes the different needs of people and examples.

Maslow's pyramid
Social needs are a type of needs proposed by Maslow.

What is Maslow's pyramid?

Maslow's pyramid, also called the pyramid of human needs, is a psychological theory that prioritizes the main needs of human beings and organizes them. It was proposed by Abraham Maslow in 1943, in his essay A theory of human motivation (in English: A Theory of Human Motivation).

Although Maslow does not literally use a pyramid, he does hierarchize the needs of individuals in his study and organizes them into five main levels:

  1. Basic or physiological needs.
  2. Safety and security needs.
  3. Social or affiliation needs.
  4. Esteem or recognition needs.
  5. Self-actualization needs.

Your theory maintains that the satisfaction of higher needs cannot occur until lower needs have been fully or partially covered. The individual will only be able to focus on the following needs once the others have been covered, since, when faced with two needs, the human being will always opt for the most basic or fundamental one.

Despite having organized the needs in this way, Maslow suggests that this order is not entirely rigid and that there may be differences in the degree of importance and intensity that each individual gives to each need. Furthermore, he maintains that not all human beings can experience all of them.

Maslow's pyramid is important both in the field of psychology and in other disciplines such as marketing and advertising, where it is used to adapt goods and services to the needs of consumers.

See also: Human development

Types of needs in Maslow's pyramid

The human needs that Maslow raises are:

  1. Basic or physiological needs. They are those basic needs that every human being needs for physical survival, such as breathing, hydrating, eating, sleeping, avoiding pain, eliminating body waste, maintaining body temperature, among others.
  2. Safety and security needs. They are those needs linked to the safety of the person and the sense of care and protection. Although these needs are clearly seen in infants, they are essential in adults, and involve avoiding stimuli such as: annoying noises, dazzling lights, temperature changes, insecurity, crime, nightmares, and all those that put health at risk. physical or mental health of the individual.
  3. Social or affiliation needs. They are those needs linked to the gregarious and social nature of the human being, such as friendship, couple, and family relationships. They involve actions such as: finding belonging groups, a place in a certain circle, among others.
  4. Esteem or recognition needs. They are those needs that are linked to strength, the feeling of independence, freedom and confidence that the individual has about himself. They also include the need for appreciation from others or recognition in a professional or life area of ​​relevance. The lack of these needs leads to feelings of inferiority, loneliness or weakness.
  5. Self-actualization needs. They are those needs that are part of the highest rung of the pyramid and have to do with vital motivation, that is, the highest psychological need of human beings, which involves finding an intimate meaning to existence. This includes unfolding individual potential and becoming what you want. Self-actualization is a need that is difficult to achieve completely and varies according to each individual.
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Features of Maslow's pyramid

Maslow's pyramid is a widely used tool, which It emerged within psychology but is useful in several disciplines in which it is important to identify and prioritize the needs of individuals.

With this theory, Abraham Maslow, American humanistic psychologist, sought to understand human motivation to determine what drives behavior. Furthermore, she became interested in the desires that guide her and the human capacity to always go for more. Although he focuses his study on adults, Maslow maintained that human behavior is easily identifiable in children.

For Maslow, when meeting a specific need, human beings minimize or do not take into account the others. However, hierarchy does not imply that a need has to be fully satisfied to take into account the needs of another level, but only partially. Besides, The transition between one type of need and another usually occurs gradually.

Human behavior, for Maslow, is governed by these unsatisfied needs, which are motors, since he maintains that satisfied needs do not function as a driver of behavior, but rather the organism is dominated and moved by unsatisfied needs.

Of all the needs raised by Maslow, Only those on the first step are born with the human being, the others are acquired as they integrate into society. For this reason, they predominate above the superior ones. It is also important to note that self-actualization needs do not occur in all individuals and disappear from sight if any of the most basic needs momentarily fail.

Examples of Maslow's pyramid

Some examples of the needs raised in Maslow's pyramid are:

  1. Physiological needs: Eat, drink water, breathe, reproduce, sleep, clean yourself.
  2. Safety and security needs: Be healthy, have a home to live in, have the protection of the law, obtain life insurance, live in a safe environment, have job stability.
  3. Social needs: Build healthy bonds, belong to a specific social group, be a member of a club, make friends in the work environment, build a family, have a sexual-affective bond, receive the affection of third parties.
  4. Esteem Needs: Trust in yourself, be valued by family and friends, have the respect of others, strengthen self-esteem, have fame, obtain an achievement.
  5. Self-actualization needs: Develop a talent, reach the maximum of personal potential.
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Criticisms of Maslow's pyramid

There are various criticisms of Maslow's theory, which arose both within psychology and in other disciplines. First of all, the definition of “self-realization” proposed in his study is criticized as many maintain that it is almost impossible to determine when individuals feel that way, that is, when they believe they have reached their peak. In this sense, it is discussed whether it is possible for a person to determine that a need, of any order, is already resolved, that is, it may be difficult for the individual to recognize the point at which he or she is satisfied.

From that same sense, Authors such as Mahmoud Wahba and Lawrence Bridwell criticized order and hierarchy of the needs established by Maslow, since they maintain that there is no empirical evidence or studies that can reliably determine that the common population, or a significant sample of it, reacts in the same way and seeks the same needs.

On the other hand, from the social aspect, Scholars such as Manfred Max Neef and Martín Hopenhayn criticized social hierarchization that can arise from the order of needs established by Maslow. They maintain that, following the idea of ​​a hierarchy of needs, those who can easily meet the most qualified first rungs will be able to cover their needs of all kinds, while those who do not have the capital to meet their physiological needs, for example, will not. They will be able to access all the others.

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References

  • “A theory of human motivation” in Citeseer.
  • “How correct is Maslow's pyramid” on BBC.
  • “Maslow hierarchy of needs” in Simply Psychology.
  • “Maslow reconsidered: a review of research on the necessary hierarchy theory” in Science Direct.
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