Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs: the Basics

As we discussed in our last article, Rat Park was an important study performed in the 70's, that seems to suggest that our external environment is just as important as our own mental attitude and behaviors, when it came to determining our own attitudes and behaviors.

To take it a step further, Maslow's Hierarchy posits that our ability to self-actualize, or become the person we want to be, is mostly determined by a variety of factors within a persons experience.

Theorized by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper titled "The Theory of Human Motivation", Maslow's Hierarchy is a "classification system intended to reflect universal needs of society at its base, then proceeding to more acquired emotions".

This hierarchy is split into two different categories, known as deficiency needs and growth needs; one dealing with individualism and the other with the prioritization of needs, this classification system is also an assessment tool in a variety of educational, healthcare and social work sectors.

While we always recommend reading the wikipedia article for the full breakdown of some of these theories, the main reason we wanted to turn our readers on to this theory is to get us thinking about how our environment, and some things we may not even consider as part of our environment, affect our mood and behaviors.

From simple things like Physiological needs (air, water, food, heat, clothes, shelter) and safety needs (health, personal security, emotional security, financial security), to more complex social needs, such as love and belonging (family, friendship, intimacy, trust), once we begin to analyze the different things that affect our body and minds ability to maintain homeostasis and not be in a fight-or-flight state, is actually very complex and involved.

One could observe that since many of the needs that we've discussed so far have been commodified behind paywalls (everything costs money), and that unless you arrive into this world with ample resources, your experience from day 1 is going to be considerably harder than an individual who can afford these costs and then some.

Interestingly, we haven't even begun to discuss the higher level, individualistic-type needs that some argue we must have to achieve self actualization: becoming who we want to be while functioning within and ascending above the current society one is born into.

When 60% of the society lives paycheck to paycheck until they die, you could also argue that 60% society never gets to actualize who they want to be, much less transcend it.

Either way, the point of this article isn't to be depressing, but allow you to begin taking stock of the things in your life you either do or don't have, and determining how to get what you need in order to become who you want to be.