The states and needs of people that arise when they need something underlie their motives. That is, it is the needs that are the source of activity of each individual. Man is a desiring creature, so in reality it is unlikely that his needs will be fully satisfied. The nature of human needs is such that as soon as one need is satisfied, the next one comes first.

Maslow's pyramid of needs

Abraham Maslow's concept of needs is perhaps the most famous of all. The psychologist not only classified people's needs, but also made an interesting assumption. Maslow noted that each person has an individual hierarchy of needs. That is, there are basic human needs - they are also called basic, and additional.

According to the concept of a psychologist, absolutely all people on earth experience needs at all levels. Moreover, there is the following law: basic human needs are dominant. However, high-level needs can also remind you of themselves and become motivators of behavior, but this happens only when the basic ones are satisfied.

The basic needs of people are those aimed at survival. At the base of Maslow's pyramid are the basic needs. Human biological needs are the most important. Next comes the need for security. Satisfying a person's needs for security ensures survival, as well as a sense of permanence in living conditions.

A person feels needs of a higher level only when he has done everything to ensure his physical well-being. The social needs of a person are that he feels the need to unite with other people, to love and recognition. After satisfying this need, the following come to the fore. Human spiritual needs include self-esteem, protection from loneliness, and feeling worthy of respect.

Further, at the very top of the pyramid of needs is the need to reveal one’s potential, to self-actualize. Maslow explained this human need for activity as the desire to become who he originally was.

Maslow assumed that this need is innate and, most importantly, common to every individual. However, at the same time, it is obvious that people differ dramatically from each other in their motivation. For various reasons, not everyone manages to reach the pinnacle of necessity. Throughout life, people's needs can vary between physical and social, so they are not always aware of needs, for example, for self-actualization, because they are extremely busy satisfying lower desires.

The needs of man and society are divided into natural and unnatural. In addition, they are constantly expanding. The development of human needs occurs through the development of society.

Thus, we can conclude that the higher the needs a person satisfies, the more clearly his individuality manifests itself.

Are hierarchy violations possible?

Examples of violation of hierarchy in satisfying needs are known to everyone. Probably, if only those who are well-fed and healthy experienced human spiritual needs, then the very concept of such needs would have long since sunk into oblivion. Therefore, the organization of needs is replete with exceptions.

Satisfying needs

The extremely important fact is that satisfying a need can never be an all-or-nothing process. After all, if this were so, then physiological needs would be satisfied once and for life, and then a transition to the social needs of a person would follow without the possibility of return. There is no need to prove otherwise.

Biological needs of man

The bottom level of Maslow's pyramid is those needs that ensure human survival. Of course, they are the most urgent and have the most powerful motivating force. In order for an individual to feel the needs of higher levels, biological needs must be satisfied at least minimally.

Safety and protection needs

This level of vital or vital needs is the need for safety and protection. We can safely say that if physiological needs are closely related to the survival of the organism, then the need for safety ensures its long life.

Needs for love and belonging

This is the next level of Maslow's pyramid. The need for love is closely related to the individual’s desire to avoid loneliness and be accepted into human society. When the needs at the previous two levels are satisfied, motives of this kind occupy a dominant position.

Almost everything in our behavior is determined by the need for love. It is important for any person to be included in relationships, be it family, work team or something else. The baby needs love, and no less than the satisfaction of physical needs and the need for security.

The need for love is especially pronounced during the teenage period of human development. At this time, it is the motives that grow out of this need that become leading.

Psychologists often say that typical behavior patterns appear during adolescence. For example, the main activity of a teenager is communication with peers. Also typical is the search for an authoritative adult - a teacher and mentor. All teenagers subconsciously strive to be different - to stand out from the crowd. This gives rise to the desire to follow fashion trends or belong to a subculture.

The need for love and acceptance in adulthood

As a person matures, love needs begin to focus on more selective and more deep relationships. Now needs are pushing people to start families. In addition, it is not the quantity of friendships that becomes more important, but their quality and depth. It is easy to notice that adults have far fewer friends than teenagers, but these friendships are necessary for the mental well-being of the individual.

Despite the large number of different means of communication, people in modern society very scattered. Today, a person does not feel part of a community, except perhaps as part of a family that has three generations, but many lack even that. In addition, children who experienced a lack of intimacy experience fear of it in later life. On the one hand, they neurotically avoid close relationships, because they are afraid of losing themselves as individuals, and on the other hand, they really need them.

Maslow identified two main types of relationships. They are not necessarily marital, but may well be friendly, between children and parents, and so on. What are the two types of love identified by Maslow?

Scarce love

This type of love is aimed at the desire to make up for the lack of something vital. Scarce love has a specific source - unmet needs. The person may lack self-esteem, protection, or acceptance. This type of love is a feeling born of selfishness. It is motivated by the individual’s desire to fill his inner world. A person is not able to give anything, he only takes.

Alas, in most cases, the basis of long-term relationships, including marital ones, is precisely scarce love. The parties to such a union can live together all their lives, but much in their relationship is determined by the internal hunger of one of the participants in the couple.

Deficient love is the source of dependence, fear of losing, jealousy and constant attempts to pull the blanket over oneself, suppressing and subjugating the partner in order to tie him more closely to oneself.

Being love

This feeling is based on recognition of the unconditional value of a loved one, but not for any qualities or special merits, but simply for the fact that he exists. Of course, existential love is also designed to satisfy human needs for acceptance, but its striking difference is that there is no element of possessiveness in it. There is also no desire to take away from your neighbor what you yourself need.

The person who is able to experience existential love does not seek to remake his partner or somehow change him, but encourages everything in him best qualities and supports the desire to grow and develop spiritually.

Maslow himself described this type of love as a healthy relationship between people that is based on mutual trust, respect and admiration.

Self-esteem needs

Despite the fact that this level of needs is designated as the need for self-esteem, Maslow divided it into two types: self-esteem and respect from other people. Although they are closely related to each other, it is often extremely difficult to separate them.

A person's need for self-esteem is that he must know that he is capable of much. For example, that he can successfully cope with the tasks and requirements assigned to him, and that he feels like a full-fledged person.

If this type of need is not satisfied, then a feeling of weakness, dependence and inferiority appears. Moreover, the stronger such experiences are, the less effective human activity becomes.

It should be noted that self-respect is healthy only when it is based on respect from other people, and not status in society, flattery, etc. Only in this case will satisfaction of such a need contribute to psychological stability.

It is interesting that the need for self-esteem manifests itself differently at different periods of life. Psychologists have noticed that young people who are just starting to start a family and look for their professional niche need respect from others more than others.

Self-actualization needs

The highest level in the pyramid of needs is the need for self-actualization. Abraham Maslow defined this need as a person's desire to become what he can become. For example, musicians write music, poets write poetry, artists paint. Why? Because they want to be themselves in this world. They need to follow their nature.

For whom is self-actualization important?

It should be noted that not only those who have any talent need self-actualization. Every person without exception has their own personal or creative potential. Each person has his own calling. The need for self-actualization is to find your life's work. Shapes and possible ways self-actualizations are very diverse, and it is at this spiritual level of needs that people’s motives and behavior are most unique and individual.

Psychologists say that the desire to achieve maximum self-realization is inherent in every person. However, there are very few people whom Maslow called self-actualizers. No more than 1% of the population. Why do those incentives that should encourage a person to act do not always work?

Maslow in his works indicated the following three reasons for such unfavorable behavior.

Firstly, a person’s ignorance of his capabilities, as well as a lack of understanding of the benefits of self-improvement. In addition, there are ordinary doubts in one’s own abilities or fear of failure.

Secondly, the pressure of prejudice - cultural or social. That is, a person’s abilities may run counter to the stereotypes that society imposes. For example, stereotypes of femininity and masculinity can prevent a boy from becoming a talented makeup artist or dancer, or a girl from achieving success, for example, in military affairs.

Third, the need for self-actualization may conflict with the need for security. For example, if self-realization requires a person to take risky or dangerous actions or actions that do not guarantee success.

For the normal existence of a person on earth, he needs to satisfy his needs. All living beings on the planet have needs, but most of all, the intelligent individual has them.

Types of human needs

organic. These needs are associated with human development and self-preservation. Organic needs include many needs: food, water, oxygen, optimal temperature environment, procreation, sexual desires, security of existence. These needs are also present in animals. Unlike our smaller brothers, a person needs, for example, hygiene, culinary processing of food and other specific conditions;

material needs are based on satisfying them with products created by people. These include: clothing, housing, transport, Appliances, tools, as well as everything that is necessary for work, leisure, everyday life, and cultural knowledge. In other words, a person needs the goods of life;

social. This type is associated with the need for communication, position in society, a certain position in life, gaining respect and authority. A person cannot exist on his own, so he needs communication with other people. arose since the development of human society. Thanks to such needs, life becomes the safest;

creative types of needs represent satisfaction in various artistic, scientific, technical. People are very different. There are those who cannot live without creativity. They even agree to give up something else, but cannot exist without it. Such a person is a high personality. Freedom to engage in creativity is paramount to them;

moral self-improvement and psychological development - These are the types in which he ensures his growth in the cultural and psychological direction. In this case, a person strives to become deeply moral and morally responsible. Such needs contribute to people's involvement in religion. Moral self-improvement and psychological development become the dominant needs for people who have reached a high level of personal development.

IN modern world very popular among psychologists. Its presence speaks of the highest level of human psychological development. Human needs and their types can change over time. There are desires that need to be suppressed. It's about about the pathology of psychological development, when a person has negative needs. These include painful conditions in which a person has a desire to cause pain to another, both physical and moral.

Considering the types of needs, we can say that there are those without which a person cannot live on earth. But there are also those that you can do without. Psychology is a subtle science. Each individual requires a special approach. The question is, why do some people have particularly pronounced needs, while others have others? Some people like to work, others don’t, why? The answer must be sought in family genetics or lifestyle.

Species can also be divided into biological, social, and ideal. There is a wide variety of classifications of needs. The need for prestige and recognition in society has emerged. In conclusion, we can say that install full list human needs is impossible. The hierarchy of needs is individual. Satisfying needs basic level implies the formation of the rest.

This article fully meets the needs of all those who are confused in life, who have Lately the thought “I don’t know what I want from life” arose.

All our desires are rooted in 7 human needs. I divided them into 2 large categories: physical and psychological.

And if you dig deeper into these needs, you can really find out what you need from life. Everything, absolutely everything that you have ever wanted or may want, falls under one of the human needs outlined below.

These 7 human needs underlie all our feelings, thoughts and actions and explain all behavior, ours or others. They summarize our entire complex and sometimes inexplicable psychology.

So, it’s high time to get to know yourself:

Human physical needs

We live guided by the main instinct - the instinct of self-preservation. The more life-threatening the situation we find ourselves in, the more discomfort it will cause us. So, as far as our physiological needs are concerned, nature has set priorities for us.

Lack of oxygen will kill a person in seconds, which is why we want to breathe more than anything. Extreme cold can destroy us within hours. Thirst will take a little longer. A little more “nicer” on this list of human needs would be hunger...

Physical comfort is so hardwired into human needs that even when all our basic needs are met, we will still try to improve them. People will “by inertia” move to b O larger homes, even when there is no need for it. We will eat long before the onset of famine, and some of us still spend 4 hours a day on polluted highways, returning from work to the dacha, thinking that this is better for their body - the air is cleaner in the dacha...

Conclusion: Knowing how hypertrophied comfort is in our understanding, you can stop improving what is already good (the comfort of your life) and pay attention to other needs that are still absolutely not satisfied.

You will be able to understand why the quality of your life does not improve with the addition of comfort - comfort is already enough, you must pay attention to other human needs that you have completely neglected.

Psychological needs of a person

We will live at the same time. One of them is real, small, physical. The other is lived in our consciousness, in our thoughts – psychological. It is much larger in size real life. All fears, dreams, desires and experiences are basically invented by us, massaged by our brain out of duty and large quantities and do not exist at all in the real world.

Human psychological needs require more attention in the modern world, since physiological ones are already easily satisfied, thanks to the achievements of mankind and the increased standard of living.

Stability is a basic psychological need of a person. It can be summarized in a simple sentence: the belief that things will not get worse. Unlike the previous point, stability is a psychological concept based on our thoughts, and not on objective reality. Stability is the mirror image of physical comfort in our minds, the belief that our main need, physical comfort, will continue.

3. Novelty

Novelty is a constant human need, which, if not satisfied, causes us serious discomfort in the form of boredom. We love to study, watch different movies, travel to new places, experience new sensations and even get nervous when the dishes on our plate are repeated throughout the day! Novelty is one of the strongest human needs, which increases in importance immediately after stability is achieved and begins to conflict with it.

In search of stability, people get married and find permanence. But after it comes the need for novelty and their future together is no longer so predictable. We often don't know what we want, not because of stupidity, but because our needs contradict each other. And at different periods of time, our desires change, balancing between stability and novelty. This should be accepted as a normal phenomenon, and not ask yourself the question: “What’s wrong with me?”

By the way, the older we get, the more we learn about this world, which means the less new things surround us, and over the years, boredom can become a serious problem. Adults, instead of self-knowledge that has increased with experience, due to boredom, begin to “search for themselves” more and more, while in fact they are not looking for themselves, but for novelty, which is rapidly disappearing from their lives with each new sensation they experience.

4. Significance

The human need that is perhaps the most insatiable is our significance, importance. We are ready to forgive the person who accidentally gave us a bruise and at the same time apologized, but we can grab the throat of someone who thought bad things about us. Deep in our minds we think that the ratio of us to all humanity is not 1:5,000,000,000 (billions), but 1:1. Me and the world.

At the same time, we must understand that our significance performs a most important function in human evolution. The psychological need to be significant poses for us high standard and we strive to be better. We come up with an image for ourselves and bend over backwards to live up to it. We try to gain the respect of others and are willing to pay a high price for it. We are ready to work and study 12 hours a day, just to be better than others or to surpass ourselves yesterday.

Since childhood, we dream of becoming firefighters, astronauts or surgeons because we think that what we will do will make us significant. We believe that our dream profession will make us important in the eyes of other people.

Remember yourself as a child. For me, when I was 5 years old, a fireman in a helmet and boots looked more significant than the president of the country.

Today's human evolution, about which I will no doubt write separate posts, owes much to the human need for significance.

5. Communication

The human need for communication explains the huge number of languages ​​that have formed on the planet. If you analyze your life, you will notice that the best feelings in your life are associated with other people. We can't do it alone. We fear imprisonment not so much because it will restrict our freedom of movement, but because we will be torn out of our usual social circle. Communication is a human need that can either conflict with all other needs or help satisfy them if it happens with the right people. That is why our happiest moments and greatest misfortunes are connected with other people - communication with them is intertwined with several basic human needs.

6. Height

If you combine the two human needs of significance and novelty, you get growth. Personal growth, bank account growth, improvements. This need is so strong in us that it exists separately from the rest. We want to develop, we think about how to change ourselves and we cannot even stop at 1-2 glasses during the celebration, because the feeling of intoxication is growing. There's never enough for us. We need to improve everything. Improving oneself is a separate need that exists in each of us.

7. Desire to help others

The last human need is the desire to help others. I put it last because it is least associated with the instinct of self-preservation and therefore works weaker than the others. In addition, we cannot give to another what we ourselves do not have.

People make money first and then engage in philanthropy.

The desire to help people comes last on the list of human needs, but this does not mean that we have to live to old age to engage in philanthropy. Helping others develops many other qualities that are beneficial for success and manifests itself in our behavior to varying degrees from an early age.

To summarize, it is necessary to recall that all our desires are rooted in the 7 human needs mentioned above. And if the thought “I don’t know what I want” still bothers you, then you need

1. break down the needs mentioned above down to the smallest detail
2. detect multiple conflicts between them and
3. set your priorities.

It's not as difficult as it seems if you do it methodically and spend some time on it. You are simpler than you think.

/ Needs

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Human needs

17.1 Concept of needs

Need- there is a state of need for certain living conditions, activities, material objects, people or certain social factors, without which a given individual experiences a state of discomfort.

The evolution of living beings cannot be explained only by adaptation to their environment. Activity is always more promising than defense. Needs are the source of activity of living beings. These are genetic programs aimed at mastering the environment. The more needs a living organism has, the more active it is, the greater its expansion, the higher its competitiveness in the struggle for existence. Of all the living organisms living on Earth, humans have the most needs. Some people devote all their strength to their careers, others selflessly engage in science, and still others spend their lives in a philosophical search for the meaning of life.

Features of the needs:

1. Needs are always related to a person’s availability feelings of dissatisfaction, which is caused by a shortage of what is required.

2. Needs determine selectivity of perception of the world, fixing a person’s attention on those objects that can satisfy this need (“A hungry godfather has only bread on his mind,” “Whoever hurts, talks about it.”)

3. The presence of need is accompanied emotions: first, as the need intensifies, negative, and then, if it is satisfied, positive.

4. Number of needs increases in the process of phylogenesis and ontogenesis. Thus, the number of needs increases in the evolutionary series: plants - primitive animals - highly developed animals - humans, as well as in the ontogenetic series: newborn - infant - preschooler - schoolchild - adult.

5. Human needs form hierarchical system, where each need has its own level of significance. As they are satisfied, they give way to other needs.

As any need is realized and realized, at the same time there is a natural change in motivation caused by this need. Options for changing motivation in the process of realizing a need are shown in Fig. 17.1:

The dashed lines show the evolution of motivation when it is impossible to satisfy the need.

17.2 Classification of needs

There are many classifications of needs. The first classification divides all needs by origin into two large groups- natural and cultural (Fig. 17.2). The first of them are programmed at the genetic level, and the second are formed in the process of social life.

The second classification (by level of complexity) divides needs into biological, social and spiritual.

Biological ones include a person’s desire to maintain his existence (the need for food, clothing, sleep, safety, saving energy, etc.).

Social needs include a person’s need for communication, for popularity, for dominance over other people, for belonging to a certain group, for leadership and recognition.

Human spiritual needs are the need to know the world and oneself, the desire for self-improvement and self-realization, in knowing the meaning of one’s existence.

Usually a person simultaneously has more than ten unfulfilled needs at the same time, and his subconscious mind ranks them in order of importance, forming a rather complex hierarchical structure known as Abraham Maslow’s pyramid. According to the idea of ​​this American psychologist, its lower level consists of physiological needs, then comes the need for security (by realizing which a person seeks to avoid emotions of fear), higher is the need for love, then the need for respect and recognition, and at the very top of the pyramid is the individual’s desire for self-actualization. However, these needs far from exhaust the set of actual human needs. No less important are the needs for knowledge, freedom and beauty. Therefore, it makes sense to supplement A. Maslow’s concept with several more needs (Fig. 17.3). The content of the needs of each level is described in more detail in Table. 17.3.

Table 17.3 Contents of the levels of the pyramid of needs