When we talk about human needs it is clear that there are some of them that we all share and others that are different from us. These needs motivate us and lead us to act in certain ways and can be organized hierarchically, as we see represented in Maslow's pyramid
This famous theory of humanist psychologist Abraham Maslow organizes human needs according to their importance for our well-being. It is the preferred tool of people dedicated to marketing because, among other things, it justifies the way in which we consume.We tell you everything below.
What is the Maslow Pyramid
Behind each act we perform there is a human need that motivates it, but not all these needs are the same or have the same relevance for us. In fact, as we satisfy our most basic and human needs, we create new needs that are higher than the previous ones.
At least that's how Maslow's Pyramid, named after its founder, the humanist psychologist Abraham Maslow, puts it. It was theorized in 1943 and is still one of the most used tools in psychology, sociology and marketing today.
Abraham Maslow was a psychologist very different from those of his time, since most of them focused on studying problematic behaviors and passive learning (school of psychoanalysis or behaviorism), while Maslow focused on studying and learn what makes people happy and ultimately improves our self-realization and our well-beingr.
In this sense Maslow, as a good humanist, considered that all people have an innate power that directs us to be what we want to be and fulfill ourselves personally. In addition, we are fully capable of achieving our objectives, as long as we find ourselves in an environment conducive to it.
Hierarchy of Human Needs
These objectives, which we can also call human needs to satisfy, we are fulfilling in our path towards self-realization, and they change in the extent to which we are satisfying the most basic needs and increasing their complexity as we climb Maslow's pyramid.
This hierarchy of human needs formulated by Maslow and expressed in the form of a pyramid begins by placing the most basic human needsIts complexity increases in 5 types of needs as it approaches the tip, the place where we find self-realization. These are the 5 needs of Maslow's pyramid:
one. Physiological needs
They are found at the base of Maslow's pyramid and are the first and most basic of human needs, as they are related to survival and are innate biological needsof any person. We talk about breathing, sleeping, eating, drinking water, eliminating, having a proper body temperature, avoiding pain and sex.
There is no way to formulate other types of needs if we have not been able to satisfy our physiological needs to survive.
2. Safety and security needs
Once we have managed to cover our physiological human needs, we give way to a second type of needs and climb a position in Maslow's pyramid, where we find those related to security and protection.
In this stratum we need to ensure our personal security and what guarantees it; This translates into stability, order, physical and he alth security, job security to have income and resources, family, moral and private property security.
3. Affiliation and affection needs
Now that we have achieved a roof, good he alth, income and resources, we can contemplate another type of needs that are related to our affective side . This means affection, the sense of belonging to a social group and love.
As humans we seek to relate, to belong to a group, a family and a community. That is why at this stage of Maslow's pyramid we find everything that generates affective ties such as friendship, couples, familiarity and those groups with which we relate.
4. Recognition and esteem needs
The next rung of Maslow's pyramid and the hierarchy of human needs is focused on everything that forms our self-esteem and has to do with recognition from others and our own recognition.
In other words, they are the needs to feel good based on our self-image and those aspects of ourselves that we see according to the way others treat us.
Maslow divides this type of needs into two groups: Recognition and low esteem, which has to do with respect, status, dignity, attention, reputation, fame and glory; and recognition and high esteem, which has to do with the need to respect ourselves, our self-esteem, freedom, independence, self-confidence, and achievements.
5. Self-actualization needs
The last of the human needs according to Maslow's pyramid, which we can only achieve by having covered the previous 4, is self-actualization, also called "growth motivation"or “need to be”.
Here we find self-realization, which we justify because we manage to give meaning to our lives through the potential development of some internal activity, which can be moral, spiritual development, helping others or selfless acts among others. There are those who say that it is the part of the pyramid that not everyone reaches.