"The groundwork of all happiness is health." - Leigh Hunt

Maslow's hierarchy of needs: what’s it?

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a motivational theory in psychology that explains the five different levels of human needs. This theory, developed by Abraham Maslow, is predicated on how individuals are inspired to satisfy their needs in a hierarchical order. From bottom to top, the five needs are physiological, security, love and belonging, appreciation and self-actualization.

The hierarchy ranges from essentially the most basic to essentially the most advanced needs. The ultimate goal is to achieve the very best level of the hierarchy, which is self-realization.

The five levels of the hierarchy are explained below.

Physiological needs are essentially the most basic in Maslow's hierarchy. These are the essential things that humans need for physical survival. Examples include air, food, drink, shelter, clothing, warmth, sleep and health.

If you don't meet these needs, your body won't have the ability to operate properly. Physiological needs are considered essentially the most essential because you can not satisfy the opposite needs until your physiological needs are met. Motivation at this level relies on an individual's survival instinct.

Once you may have met your physiological needs, you wish a protected environment. Security needs are related to the necessity to feel protected and secure in your life and your surroundings. Safety needs are evident from childhood. When these needs should not met, children naturally react with fear and anxiety.

These needs also include the need for order, predictability and control. Examples of security needs include emotional security, financial security (welfare and employment), law and order, social stability, freedom from fear, health and well-being.

This is the third and final of the lower needs in Maslow's hierarchy of needs. It's in regards to the must feel a way of belonging and acceptance. It is motivated by humans' natural instinct to interact. This level of hierarchy is about romantic relationships and connections with family and friends. This also includes the necessity to feel such as you belong to a social group. Furthermore, this need includes feeling loved and feeling love towards others. Failure to satisfy these needs can result in loneliness and depression.

This is the primary of the upper needs within the hierarchy of needs. Appreciation needs are motivated by the need to feel good.

There are two categories of esteem needs: Self-esteemwhich suggests feeling confident and good, and respect, which suggests feeling valued by other people and knowing that they recognize your achievements.

When your needs for appreciation should not met, chances are you'll feel unimportant, less confident, vulnerable, and incompetent. According to Maslow, respect and status are crucial for kids and young people and are available before real self-esteem or dignity.

Self-actualization needs are the very best level of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. These needs include realizing your potential, self-actualization, self-development and peak experiences.

Self-actualization is the need to attain every part you possibly can and unlock your full potential. Different people can have different ideas about self-actualization because their desires are different from other people's.

Maslow's theory states that it's difficult to achieve the extent of self-actualization. The reason for that is that individuals deal with meeting the more pressing needs first within the needs hierarchy.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is commonly presented as a hierarchy of needs. The pyramid is organized from essentially the most basic needs at the underside to essentially the most complex at the highest.

Maslow theorized that with a view to move on to the subsequent level of needs, you essentially have to satisfy these needs. Still, you don't must satisfy a must move as much as the subsequent within the hierarchy. Maslow's theory also posits that almost all people deal with partially satisfying their needs, which leads them to advance in satisfying needs further down the hierarchy.

There are two varieties of needs on Maslow's pyramid:

Deficiency requirements: These are needs that you simply develop in consequence of deprivation. These include physiological, safety, social and esteem needs. You must meet these must avoid unpleasant results.

Growth needs: The highest level of Maslow's pyramid is categorized as growth needs. Unlike deficiency needs, self-actualization needs are motivated by the need to grow as an individual and reach your full potential.

If you apply Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs to your life, chances are you'll experience improvements in some areas. To reach the very best level of development of this theory of motivation, you should turn into self-actualized. Identifying your needs and ensuring those needs are met can increase your possibilities of success.

Maslow's five-stage pyramid was expanded to incorporate cognitive, aesthetic and transcendent needs.

The pyramid now consists of more levels. They include:

1. Physiological and biological needs – air, water, food, shelter, sex, health, sleep, etc.

2. Security needs – protection, security, financial stability, law, order, freedom, etc.

3. Love and belonging needs – friendship, trust, intimacy, acceptance, love and feeling loved, being a part of a bunch (friends, family, work colleagues).

4. Appreciation needs – Maslow divided them into two categories:

  • Self-esteem: dignity, self-actualization, mastery, independence
  • The must feel recognized, accepted and valued by others

5. Cognitive Needs – Cognitive needs arise whenever you turn into curious and have a desire to explore and gain knowledge, in addition to when you desire to understand and know more about what interests you.

6. Aesthetic needs – These include appreciation, stability, the seek for beauty, etc.

7. Self-actualization needs – This includes realizing your potential, your achievements, your self-growth and your peak experiences. You feel the need to get the perfect out of yourself.

8. Transcendence Needs – They are motivated by values ​​that transcend the private self. Examples include supernatural experiences, nature experiences, aesthetic experiences, sexual experiences, service to others, religious belief, and the pursuit of science.

Your motivation relies on a hierarchy of needs. These needs are organized right into a pyramid showing the needs that must be satisfied first before higher needs are met. Nevertheless, the order of those needs just isn't inflexible, as they may be adjusted depending on individual and other circumstances. Motivation is basically determined by a couple of basic need, which may end up in multiple needs being satisfied overall.