The existence of social needs is determined by the life of a person with other individuals and with constant interaction with them. Society has an impact on the formation of the personality structure, its needs and desires. Harmonious development of personality outside of society is impossible. The need for communication, friendship, love can be satisfied only in the process of interaction between man and society.
What is a “need”?
It is a need for something. It can be both physiological and psychological in nature, serves as a motive for action and “forces” the individual to take steps aimed at satisfying his needs. Needs act in the form of emotionally colored desires and, as a result, her satisfaction is manifested in the form of evaluative emotions. When an individual needs something, he feels negative emotions, and as his needs and desires are satisfied, positive emotions appear.
Failure to meet physiological needs can lead to the death of a living organism, and psychological ones - cause internal discomfort and tension, depression.
Satisfying one need entails the appearance of another. Their infinity is one of the features of the development of the individual as a person.
Needs make one perceive the surrounding reality selectively, through the prism of one's needs. They focus the individual's attention on objects that contribute to the satisfaction of current needs.
Hierarchy
The diversity of human nature is the reason for the existence of various classifications of needs: by object and subject, fields of activity, temporary stability, significance, functional role, etc. The hierarchy of needs proposed by the American psychologist Abraham Maslow is the most widely known.
- The first stage is physiological needs (thirst, hunger, sleep, sexual desire, etc.).
- The second step is security (lack of fear for one’s existence, confidence).
- The third stage is social needs (communication, friendship, love, caring for others, belonging to a social group, joint activities).
- The fourth step is the need for respect from others and oneself (success, recognition).
- The fifth step is spiritual needs (self-expression, disclosure of inner potential, achievement of harmony, personal development).
Maslow claims that satisfying the needs at the lower levels of the hierarchy leads to an increase in overlying ones. A person who is thirsty concentrates on finding a source of water, and the need for communication fades into the background. It is important to remember that needs can exist simultaneously, the question is only a priority.
Social needs
Human social needs are not as acute as physiological, but they play a crucial role in the interaction of the individual and society. Realization of social needs is impossible outside society. Social needs include:
- need for friendship;
- approval;
- love
- communication;
- joint activities;
- caring for others;
- membership in a social group, etc.
At the dawn of human development, it was social needs that contributed to the development of civilization. People united to protect and hunt, fight against the elements. Their satisfaction in joint activities contributed to the development of agriculture. The realization of the need for communication pushed the development of culture.
Man is a social creature and he is inclined to communicate with his own kind, therefore the satisfaction of social needs is no less important than physiological.
Types of social needs
Distinguish social needs according to the following criteria:
- “For yourself” (desire for self-affirmation, recognition by others, authorities).
- “For others” (need for communication, protection of others, selfless help, abandonment of one’s desires in favor of others).
- “Together with others” (expressed as the desire to be part of a large social group to implement large-scale ideas that will benefit the whole group: unification for the sake of confronting the aggressor, for the change of the political regime, for peace, freedom, security).
The first kind can be realized only through the need "for others."
Classification by E. Fromm
The German sociologist Erich Fromm was proposing a different classification of social needs:
- communication (individual's desire to be part of a social community, group);
- affection (friendship, love, desire to share warm feelings and receive them in return);
- self-affirmation (the desire to feel significant for others);
- self-awareness (desire to stand out against the background of others, to feel your own individuality);
- reference point (the individual needs a certain standard for comparing and evaluating his actions, which can be religion, culture, national traditions).
D. McClelland classification
American psychologist David McClellad proposed his classification of social needs based on a typology of personality and motivation:
- Power. People tend to influence others and the ability to control their actions. There are two subtypes of such individuals: those who desire power for the power itself, and those who seek power for the solution of other people's problems.
- Success. This need can be satisfied only if the business begun is successfully brought to an end. It forces the individual to take the initiative and risks. However, in case of failure, the person will avoid repeating negative experiences.
- Involvement. Such people seek to establish friendships with everyone and try to avoid conflicts.
Meeting social needs
The main feature of social needs is that they can be satisfied only through interaction with society. The very emergence of such needs is associated with society at the current stage of cultural and historical development. Activity is the main source of satisfying the social needs of the individual. Changing the content of social activities contributes to the development of social needs. The more diverse and complex social activity, the more perfect the system of individual needs becomes.
Relevance
The influence of social needs should be considered from two sides: from the point of view of the individual and from the point of view of society as a whole.
Satisfying social needs helps a person to feel full, necessary, increases self-esteem and self-confidence. The most important social needs are communication, love, friendship. They play a paramount role in the formation of the individual as a person.
From the point of view of society, they are the engine of development of all spheres of life. A scientist, desiring recognition (satisfying needs “for himself”) invents a method for treating a serious illness that saves many lives and contributes to the development of science. The artist who dreams of becoming famous, in the process of satisfying his social needs, contributes to culture. There are many similar examples, and all of them will confirm that satisfying the needs of an individual is as important for society as it is for man himself.
Man is a social being and cannot harmoniously develop outside of him. The main social needs of the individual include: the need for communication, friendship, love, self-realization, recognition, power. The diversity of social activities contributes to the development of the system of needs of the individual. Failure to meet social needs causes apathy and aggression. Social needs not only contribute to the improvement of the individual as a person, but also are the engine of development of society as a whole.