Abraham Maslow is an American humanist psychologist who has studied the problems of personal motivation, that is, the forces that motivate a person to act. The result of these studies was the well-known Maslow Pyramid of Needs. The basis of this model is the assumption that human needs are hierarchized, that is, unequal, and the satisfaction of conditionally higher ones is possible only after those at the lower level are satisfied. The pyramid of needs compiled by Maslow consists of 7 steps, it is based on the so-called basic or vital human needs. These are the first steps, without their “passing through”, without satisfying the vital physiological needs of a person, according to Maslow, does not even think about the needs of a higher order.
The researcher combines the needs into 5 groups:
- Physiological. They include hunger, thirst, satisfaction of sexual desire, etc.
- Existential. The desire for constancy of life, comfort, a sense of security.
- Social. The need for social contacts, communication, exchange of experience, attention and care both for oneself and for others, a sense of involvement and unity.
- The need to assert oneself, to receive praise and gratitude for the work done, development, respect of others.
- Spiritual. Self-knowledge, self-realization, the search for the meaning of life, self-actualization.
A more detailed Maslow pyramid of needs is as follows:
- A basic level of. Physiological needs. Satisfying it is a must for life. This includes the need for food, sex, sleep, etc.
- Feeling of confidence. A person with satisfied basic needs becomes calmer, the search instinct becomes dull and a need arises for protection, asylum, which in the framework of society is expressed in the need to find a close and understanding person, to find care and understanding. It is from this level that Maslow's pyramid of needs indicates the prevalence of social needs.
- The need for belonging and love. The desire to feel part of the whole, to be necessary and accepted. The need for understanding, tenderness, warm and trusting relationships.
- The need for respect and recognition. Relatively speaking, a well-fed person who is accepted and loved, strives for more - to respect strangers, to recognize himself as a developed and capable person.
- Cognitive needs. Following the acquisition of fame or recognition of the desired level, a thirst for "internal growth" - the acquisition of new knowledge, development. The horizons are expanding, and such a person wants to know the world around him, to expand the boundaries of his knowledge. That is, focusing on one’s life is replaced by a desire to study, to know the experience of other people in particular and the laws of nature and the world as a whole.
- Aesthetic needs. A look from the satisfaction of purely selfish needs begins to gradually shift towards the harmonization of life around itself. Emphasis on beauty, harmony both in the inner world of man and in the external. The place of fairly ordinary needs is occupied by an attraction to art.
- Highest level. The need for self-actualization. By self-actualization, Maslow understood the natural desire of a person with the satisfied needs of the lower levels to "fully reveal himself." Simply put, the driving force of such a person - mature - is the desire to find himself in the world, to become useful to society. Serve others and share their knowledge, skills and qualities with them. This level is the apotheosis of the development of personality, which went beyond the limits of selfish satisfaction of needs.
It should be noted that Maslow’s pyramid of needs is only a model of the structure of personality motives. Which absolutely does not mean the reduction of the previous level to achieve the next. A person striving for universal well-being still wants to have close relationships, and also feels hunger and thirst.
Maslow’s pyramid of needs contains information that a person is characterized by a desire to develop and self-actualize. However, this is only possible if current needs are met.