Understand a person better using Psychology - Part 2

In the previous Understand a person better using Psychology - Part 1, I was sharing with you all about the Id, Ego and Superego. Now in this Part 2, I shall share with you the Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. In the next part, I will include Erik Erikson's 8 stages of Psychosocial Developement.


Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs



According to Maslow, human needs exist in a hierarchy. It is when lower-order needs are satisfied can higher order needs be activated and served as sources of motivation.

The lower 4 levels are known as the basic needs or the deficiency needs in some sources while the highest level is the growth needs. The bottom-up hierarchy is as follows:

• Physiological needs
• Safety and Security
• Love and Belonging
• Esteem and Self Esteem
• Self-Actualization

Physiological needs

Physiological needs consists of: air, food, water, shelter, sleep, sex, etc. If a person is hungry or thirsty or their body is chemically unbalanced, all of their energies turn toward remedying these deficiencies and other needs remain inactive.


Safety and Security

After one's physical needs is relatively satisfied, the individual's safety needs take over and dominate their behavior. The safety and security needs include:

• Personal security
  
• Financial security
• Health and well-being
  
• Safety net against accidents/illness and the adverse impacts

Love and Belonging

After having the physiological needs and safety and security needs being satisfied, the third level is the love or belonging. In his theory, humans need to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance, whether it comes from a large or small social groups. This psychological aspect of Maslow's hierarchy involves emotionally-based relationships in general, such as:

• Friendship
• Intimacy
• Having a supportive and communicative family
  

We need to love and be loved (sexually and non-sexually) by others. In the absence of these elements, many people become susceptible to loneliness, cocial anxiety, and Clinical depression. This need for belonging can often overcome the physiological and security needs, depending on the strength of the peer pressure; an anorexic, for example, ignores the need to eat and the security of health for a feeling of control and belonging.


Esteem and Self-Esteem

"All humans have a need to be respected, to have self-esteem, self-respect, and to respect others. People need to engage themselves to gain recognition and have an activity or activities that give the person a sense of contribution, to feel accepted and self-valued, be it in a profession or hobby. Imbalances at this level can result in low self-esteem or inferiority complexes. People with low self-esteem need respect from others. They may seek fame or glory, which again depends on others. It may be noted, however, that many people with low self-esteem will not be able to improve their view of themselves simply by receiving fame, respect, and glory externally, but must first accept themselves internally. Psychological imbalances such as depression can also prevent one from obtaining self-esteem on both levels."


Self- Actualization

"Based on Maslow's beliefs, it is stated in the hierarchy humans need beautiful imagery or something new and aesthetically pleasing to continue towards Self-Actualization. Humans need to refresh themselves in the presence and beauty of nature while carefully absorbing and observing their surroundings to extract the beauty the world has to offer." Self-actualization as expressed through meta-needs: wholeness, perfection, completion, justice, richness, simplicity, aliveness, beauty, goodness, uniquiness, playfulness, truth, antonomy, meaningfulness


According to Maslow, to motivate someone, we need to understand what level of hierarchy that the person is currently on and focus on satisfying those needs at or above that level. Hmm... Maybe that's why some people want some financial security before feeling loved and belonging?

That's is Maslow's Theory but of course there are always critic on his law as well. Like the lower needs need not be fulfilled before the higer needs.

In any way, you know where are you focusing now?