The main essence of Maslow's concept is a hierarchy of human needs, the satisfaction of which occurs gradually: from the lowest to the highest. Only by satisfying basic physiological needs does an individual proceed to satisfy higher needs - in recognition and self-actualization. Maslow's theory (the pyramid of needs) undergoes changes only if society establishes the priority of certain values, calling some needs “bad” and others “good” or “neutral”. Therefore, in some societies, sexual desires or the desire for enrichment fall under the ban.
The standard Maslow pyramid has five levels:
1. Physiological needs. They are basic, because human life would be impossible without food. A hungry individual cannot think of anything other than food. From a very early age, the satisfaction of this need is trained and improved, and acquires a cultural setting.
2. Security needs. The first year of a child’s life is associated with a feeling of reliability, security on the part of parents, freedom from fear and anxiety. Getting older, a person expects safety within educational institutions from people who organize training and educational processes.
3. The need for love. Otherwise, you can call it a desire to be accepted. It occurs when the previous two are satisfied. Initially, a person begins to communicate with close relatives, and then awaits acceptance among peers, in the training and working groups.
4. The need for recognition. It can be achieved through a desire for achievement, which gives a person self-confidence, testifies to his competence in a particular field of knowledge. Recognition can be achieved through the establishment of a reputation in society, through self-affirmation and gaining high status.
5. The need for self-actualization. It is realized through creative free activity of a person, which helps to reveal his spiritual potential to him, as well as the desire for self-embodiment, for the realization of the potential of inherent opportunities and abilities.
The Maslow pyramid can be fully realized in a person or needs are fixed at a certain level, directing an individual's activity to satisfy only the first two, three or four levels. It is known that in young, newly formed societies, categories of people appear that are called to raise this society, contribute to its development and sustainable functioning.
The values of such a society stimulate motivation in some, the most active part of people to satisfy the needs for self-actualization. According to some researchers, it is the motivation of society that contributes to the emergence of passionate leaders in whom “passionarity” is a sharply increased energy potential plus a specific value system when the Maslow pyramid is presented upside down. For such people, self-actualization becomes most important. They do not need recognition or acceptance in society; for a long time they can do without sleep and food, if they are in the process of realizing their goal. The priority of the fifth level with a non-standard distribution of the importance of motives makes these people unlike others, but very beneficial for the development of society.
In each ethnic group, in addition to passionate leaders, there is a category of people who live at the expense of others, without making efforts to recognize or accept people in the team. Their energy level is very low and the most important thing for them is to save their life in any way. Therefore, the Maslow pyramid for them consists of one or two levels. Their safety level is insignificant, because Subpassionaries live in unsanitary conditions or are used by passionaries as mercenaries who die in large numbers in military skirmishes. Most of the people in the ethnic group live according to the laws of satisfying needs, which are reflected in the Maslow pyramid. Examples can be seen in large numbers among businessmen, politicians, scientists, who in the process of life reach the fourth or even fifth step of the pyramid.
Thus, the hierarchy of needs, which is built in the Maslow pyramid, can be violated among passionate people, which are the more, the earlier the development of the society in which they live.