Maslow's Hierarchy: Revealing Why You Are Sick And Tired

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a conceptualization to help understand what drives human behavior, proposed by renowned psychologist Abraham Maslow. According to his original formulation, there are five basic needs that are related to each other in a hierarchy of potency in how they affect our behavior. He and other researchers later added more levels to the order, and it typically goes: physiological, safety, love, esteem, self-actualization, and metamotivation.

The hierarchy is often depicted in a pyramid, although Maslow himself never made the iconic diagram. At the bottom, representing the biggest portion, start the physiological needs, and at the top reside the metamotivational needs. Maslow referred to the bottom four needs—physiological, safety, belonging, and esteem—as the “deficiency needs”. If one is deprived of these, they strive to fulfill them and feel anxious and tense until they can.

The physiological needs are the base of the hierarchy. These are fundamental for survival. According to Maslow, physiological needs are part of motivation, them being the number one priority before any other needs are advanced. This means that a person who cannot satisfy their physiological needs will not be able to pursue safety, belonging, and the rest. Physiological needs include: air, water, food, heat, clothes, reproduction, shelter, and sleep.

Once the basic physiological needs are satisfied, safety takes the stead. In the absence of general safety—during war, famine, natural disasters, in a violent family—these needs manifest in preference, such as taking less investment or employment risk, buying insurance policies, and saving. If somebody does not feel safe, they will seek security before satisfying any higher need, and it’s why most value stability so much. Safety includes: health, personal, financial, and emotional security.

Subsequently, when we are physiologically sound and safe, we search for interpersonal relations and feelings of belongingness. Maslow put forth that humans have an innate need for belonging among social groups, regardless of the size of said groups. Being part of a group is crucial—sports, professional, familial, personal; clubs, co-workers, friends, religious groups, gangs, it does not matter what size or type. This need can even override the need for safety in childhood, as seen in clingy children with abusive parents. When they are not met, an individual can fall into a bout of depression, independent of other circumstances. Belonging needs include: trust, intimacy, acceptance, and receiving and giving affection and attention.

Esteem is respect for oneself and others. We have to admire ourselves in some regard to be healthy. Maslow noted two versions: the lower, satisfied by status, recognition, fame, prestige, and attention—extrinsic esteem; the higher, self-respect, confidence, strength, mastery, independence, and freedom—intrinsic esteem. Esteem comes from day-to-day experiences we have with ourselves—particularly how much we grow as individuals—and others—particularly how they act, assess themselves, and react to situations. Later versions of the hierarchy added cognitive needs under the esteem umbrella: creativity, foresight, curiosity, learning, meaning, and information. Overall, esteem needs encompass the respect and appreciation an individual has for themselves, their environment, and those around them.

Self-actualization refers to the need for self-fulfillment. That is, the fulfillment of one’s potential. Maslow describes it as a drive to accomplish everything and become everything one can be. People have strong cravings to be ideal parents, athletes, teachers, business people, or artists. The point isn’t exactly extrinsic success more than it is mastering the craft in the process. These needs include: acquiring a partner, being a parent, developing talents and abilities, pursuing goals.

Maslow later added self-transcendence to the hierarchy. These are spiritual needs. Supposedly, when these needs are met, people sense integrity and that they are on a “higher plane of existence”. Maslow says that by transcending we exit the roots of our culture and are able to look past it into different viewpoints and ideas. By this notion, people reach full contentment by giving their time to something larger than themselves—an altruistic or spiritual pursuit. Putting effort into something beyond us: significant others, human beings in general, other species, nature, and even the cosmos.

Real life implications of Maslow’s hierarchy:

• Parenting: address their physiological and safety needs, but do not forget that love, confidence, and self-expression matter much to their healthy development;

• Education: curricula could be designed to address students’ safety—bullying patterns are still common—belonging—inclusive and diverse classrooms—and self-actualization—encouraging creativity;

• Work: build a culture where your team feels secure, valued, and they have opportunity to express themselves, and they will perform their best;

• Coaching: use the hierarchy to help your clients navigate unmet needs and create plans to do so, possibly unveiling why they are unhappy when they “have everything they could want” (too common).

How you might use Maslow’s hierarchy as a mental model: (1) evaluate which needs might be unmet in your life and prioritize those above others—this could reveal why you feel anxious for “no reason”; (2) when supporting and interacting with others, tap into their motivation by helping them fulfill basic needs first; (3) build a secure environment for yourself and others—financial savings, routines, workplace, health plans—to make sure physiological and safety needs are never left unticked; (4) prioritize belonging in relationships, personal and professional, making others feel accepted; (5) recognize your self-actualization and esteem needs by learning new things and pursuing goals; (6) leverage the model in leadership, negotiation, and motivation by inspiring people on a per-needs basis.

Thought-provoking insights. “A hungry man cannot hear anything but the sound of his stomach.” This reflects how necessary meeting basic needs is before aspiring for something higher. “Security is not the meaning of life, but a condition for it.” Highlights the importance of safety as a fundamental piece of a sustainable development journey. “It takes a village to raise a child.” Community and belonging can often times outweigh everything else you can provide as a parent to your little ones. Maslow’s hierarchy is dynamic and helps you as an individual or leader create an environment better suit for motivating particular behavior. Don’t skip step one. Take the viewpoint whenever there is a lurking, unexplainable anxiety or tension in your life. A need might just be unmet.

Questions to reflect on:

1. How am I addressing my basic needs (food, water, shelter, air, warmth) in my daily life?

2. Am I addressing my safety needs (steady job, insurance, financial security) in my current environment and relationships?

3. What actions can I take to boost my self-esteem?

4. Am I doing things that result in self-actualization and personal growth?

5. How can I better balance my life to ensure every need is met?

Quotes to itch your neuron cluster:

1. "What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-actualization." - Abraham Maslow, American psychologist, the author.

2. "The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well." - Alfred Adler, Austrian medical doctor, psychotherapist.

3. "It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change." - Charles Darwin, naturalist and biologist.

Example use cases:

1. Motivating the team: companies use Maslow's hierarchy to design workplace environments that fulfill employees' needs, starting with fair wages and basic job security to fostering a sense of belonging by furnishing them with opportunities for personal growth.

2. Marketing: marketers can use the hierarchy to better grasp consumer behavior and create campaigns that appeal to different levels of needs, from basic safety (appealing loans, mortgages, insurance) to self-actualization (self-improvement courses, self-help gurus).

3. Education: teachers can apply Maslow's principles to create supportive learning environments which play into students' needs, enabling them to focus on higher-order learning while not lacking necessities.

4. Mental health: therapists use the hierarchy to assess and address clients' needs, ensuring that foundational aspects of living such as safety and belonging are met before tackling niceties like self-esteem and self-actualization.