Maslow’s Pyramid: The Hierarchy of Human Needs

Analyzing one of the most famous theoretical artifacts: the hierarchy of needs.

Maslow's Pyramid is part of a psychological theory that inquires into the motivation and needs of the human being: what drives us to act as we do and what drives us to act as we do. and human needs: what drives us to act the way we do. According to Abraham Maslow, a humanist psychologist, our actions are born from motivation directed towards the objective of meeting certain needs, which can be ordered according to their importance for our well-being.

In other words, Maslow proposed a theory according to which there is a hierarchy of human needs. hierarchy of human needsHe argued that as the most basic needs are satisfied, human beings develop higher needs and desires. Based on this hierarchy, he established what is known as the Maslow's Pyramid.

Abraham Maslow first introduced the concept of the hierarchy of needs. hierarchy of needs in his article "A Theory of Human Motivation" in 1943 and in his book "Motivation and Personality". Later, the fact that this hierarchy used to be graphically represented in the form of a pyramid in the form of a pyramid the core of the theory came to be known as Maslow's pyramid. Maslow's pyramidwhose popularity is remarkable even today, decades after it was first proposed.

Maslow's Pyramid: what is it?

While some schools of thought in the mid-20th century (psychoanalysis or behaviorism) focused on problem behaviors and learning from a passive being and without much option to influence the environment more than it influences him, Maslow was more concerned with learning about what makes people happier and what can be done to enhance personal development and self-actualization.

As a humanist, his idea was that people have an innate desire for self-actualization, to be whatever they want to be, and that they have the capacity to pursue their goals autonomously if they are in a supportive environment. However, the different goals that are pursued at each moment depend on which goals have been achieved and which remain to be fulfilled, according to the pyramid of needs. To aspire to the goals of self-actualization, previous needs such as food, security, etc., must first be met. For example, we only concern ourselves with issues related to self-actualization if we are sure that we have a stable job, secure food and accepting friends.

In Maslow's Pyramid, from the most basic needs to the most complex needs, this hierarchy is composed of five levels. The basic needs are at the bottom of the pyramid, while the more complex needs are at the top.

Thus, the five categories of needs in Maslow's Pyramid are: physiological, security, affiliation, recognition and self-actualization.The physiological needs being the lowest level, and moving up the pyramid in the order indicated. Of course, as we have seen, the visual representation in the form of a pyramid is a later contribution to Maslow's approach to this explanatory model. However, here we will treat it as if it were equivalent to the hierarchy of needs described by this psychologist.

Types of needs

In Maslow's pyramid, this researcher speaks about the instinctive needs and makes a distinction between "deficit" needs (physiological, security, affiliation, recognition) and "development of the self" (self-actualization). The difference between the two is due to the fact that "deficit" needs refer to a deficiency, whereas "development of the self" needs refer to the individual's activity. Satisfying deficit needs is important to avoid unpleasant consequences or feelings.

The needs of the "development of the self", on the other hand, are important for personal growth, and do not have to do with the deficit of something, but with the desire to grow as a person.

Thus, Maslow's pyramid has 5 levels of needs. They are as follows.

Physiological needs

These include the vital needs for survival and are of a Biological order. Within this group, we find needs such as: the need to breathe, to drink water, to sleep, to eat, to have sex, to find shelter.

Thus, in this stratum of needs are those that make possible the most fundamental biological processes. the most fundamental biological processes that make the body's existence viable. They provide coverage for the physiological functions that maintain equilibrium in our tissues, cells, organs and, especially, our nervous system.

Maslow thinks that these needs are the most basic in the hierarchy, since the other needs are secondary until those at this level have been met.

2. Security needs

This part of Maslow's pyramid includes security needs, which are necessary to live, but are at a different level than physiological needs. That is to say, until the first needs are satisfied, a second link of needs does not arise, which is oriented to the personal securityorder, stability and protection.

It can be said that the needs belonging to this level of Maslow's pyramid have to do with expectations and with the way in which living conditions make it possible to develop medium and long-term projects. They are based on a kind of "cushion" based on goods, rights and social capital.

These include: physical, employment, income and resource, family, health, etc. security.

3. Affiliation needs

Maslow describes these needs as less basic, and they make sense when the previous needs are satisfied.

For Maslow, this need is expressed when people seek to overcome feelings of loneliness and feel that there are affective ties between them and certain people. In other words, when people try to transcend the individual sphere and establish links with the social environment.

These needs are continuously present in daily life, when human beings show desires to get married, to have a family, to be part of a community, to be a member of a church or to attend a social club. Belonging to a group, be it more or less small, helps to give meaning to what we do on a daily basis, and the personal contact and social relationships that foster these ties stimulate us in such a way that, for Maslow, the resulting experience can be qualified as a need.

Examples of these needs are requited love, affection and belonging or affiliation to a certain social group.

4. Recognition needs

This level of the hierarchy of human needs is also known as esteem needs, and has to do with how we value ourselves and how others, the rest of society, value us.

After covering the needs of the first three levels of Maslow's Pyramid, the needs of recognition appear as those that favor the strengthening of self-esteem, recognition of one's own person, personal achievement and respect for others; by satisfying these needs, the person feels self-confident and thinks he/she is valuable in society. value in society. When these needs are not satisfied, people feel inferior and worthless.

This need in Maslow's hierarchy is best understood as a way to feel good about one's self-concept through those things about ourselves that we see reflected in the way others treat us.

According to Maslow there are two recognition needs: a lower one, which includes the respect of others, the need for status, fame, glory, recognition, attention, reputation, and dignity; and a higher one, which determines the need for self-respect, including feelings such as self-confidence, competence, achievement, independence, and freedom.

Thus, this level of the hierarchy of human needs is based on all those advantages of having a good status in the eyes of others.

5. Self-realization needs

Finally, at the highest level are the needs for self-actualization and the development of internal needs. development of inner needsThe highest level is the need for spiritual and moral development, the search for a mission in life, selfless help to others, etc.

This level of Maslow's pyramid is one of the ranks of the hierarchy of needs that is most difficult to define, because it has to do with highly abstract goals that are not achieved through concrete actions, but through chains of actions that occur over relatively long periods of time. Consequently, each individual will have different and personalized self-actualization needs.

Criticism of Maslow's Pyramid

Although some research supports Abraham Maslow's theory, most of the data collected in much research do not seem to be in line with it. do not appear to be along the same lines as Maslow's pyramid. Maslow's pyramid. For example, Wahba and Bridwell (1986) conclude that there is little evidence to demonstrate the hierarchy postulated by Maslow, even though it is still very popular today.

In addition, Maslow's Pyramid has also been criticized for being difficult to prove his concept of self-actualization, as it is very abstract.as it is very abstract. After all, in science it is necessary to specify very well the meaning of words and to propose "operational" implications of them, and if a concept leaves much room for interpretation, it is not possible to carry out research aimed at studying it, nor to draw clear conclusions. Many of the concepts and categories described in Maslow's pyramid of needs are too ambiguous to be studied scientifically.

In a study published in 2011, researchers at the University of Illinois tested Maslow's pyramid and found that satisfaction of the pyramid's needs correlated with a person's happiness. But this research, contrary to Maslow's theory, concluded that the needs for recognition and self-actualization were also important even if the most basic needs were not met. Therefore, he questioned the sequentiality that Maslow proposed in his theory: it was not necessary to have fulfilled basic needs in order to aspire to achieve the goals related to more refined needs.

On the other hand, Maslow's research was based on a very small and therefore unrepresentative sample of individuals. The criticism of his methodology refers to the fact that he himself chose the people he considered self-actualized, after reading about them or talking to them and reaching conclusions about what self-actualization is. In fact, the people Maslow interviewed for his pyramid of needs can hardly represent the majority of the human population, since they were people belonging to Western culture, rich or very influential. Some of the people he investigated are Albert Einstein or Eleanor Roosevelt. Eleanor Roosevelt. Maslow's pyramid was created from the study of exceptional cases, rather than what is normal in human populations.

The relevance and legacy of this theory

Regardless of these criticisms, Maslow's pyramid represents an important contribution to a change of vision within psychology. change of vision within psychology and contributed to establishing a third force within the profession (the other two main forces were psychoanalysis and behaviorism). His approach to psychology and to life in general inspires enthusiasm; it no longer assumes that people are passive beings, nor does it focus on pathological behaviors. The study of motivations and behavioral patterns not linked to mental disorders became a sign that psychology need not be limited to mental health.

On the other hand, Maslow's work was a first attempt to study something of utmost importance: the common goodthose contextual elements that are a priority for all people. If the need to have access to food is one of the most important aspects for people, it is possible to propose space management models that take this principle into account.

Moreover, Maslow's pyramid has had a great impact not only in psychology, but has also been important in the business world (especially in marketing, but also in the world of Human Resources) or in sports, for example. The fact that it establishes a hierarchy of needs provides an easy and intuitive way to establish plans to motivate and to generate attractive products depending on the type of people you want to influence.

Current scientific psychology must continue to investigate what it is that motivates us and leads us to aspire to goals, and Maslow's pyramid may not be a construct that can explain well how we act, but at least it is a first brick in this type of studies and can be used as a reference. That said, further work is needed to generate concrete concepts that lend themselves to scientific research, beyond the appeal to vague ideas that may mean different things to different individuals.

Bibliographical references:

• Boeree, George. (2003). Theories of personality, by Abraham Maslow. Translation: Rafael Gautier.
• Camino Roca, J.L. (2013). The Origins of Humanistic Psychology: Transactional Analysis in psychotherapy and education. Madrid: CCS.
• Mahmoud A. Wahba, Lawrence G. Bridwell. (2004). Maslow reconsidered: A review of research on the need hierarchy theory. Baruch College, The City University of New York USA.
• Maslow, A. H. (1982). The Creative Personality. Barcelona: Kairós.
• Rosal Cortés, R. (1986). Personal growth (or self-realization): goal of humanistic psychotherapies. Anuario de psicología / The UB Journal of psychology. No.: 34.