up: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - Basic Overview
Physiological Needs
Physiological needs can be defined as the basic “survival” needs we have. This is a motivator that is activated when we are deficient in the most basic needs required for life. It is at the bottom of the pyramid, and according to Maslow, could override all other needs:
It is then fair to characterize the whole organism by saying simply that it is hungry, for consciousness is almost completely preempted by hunger.
from A theory of human motivation, Maslow, 1943
One of the issues with the “hierarchal” basis of Maslow theory1 is that we can clearly see how even people who struggle to meet these physiological needs can still be motivated by needs higher on the pyramid, such as Belongingness & love2
Next: Safety Needs
footnotes
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Which Maslow himself cautioned not to take as a rigid guide, saying there could be some flexibility in the order and reiterating that point several times over in future work ↩
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From Mcleod: “Through examining cultures in which large numbers of people live in poverty (such as India), it is clear that people are still capable of higher order needs such as love and belongingness.” ↩
references
- Koltko-Rivera, Mark E. `Rediscovering the Later Version of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: Self-Transcendence and Opportunities for Theory, Research, and Unification.` Review of General Psychology, vol. 10, no. 4, 1 Dec. 2006, pp. 302–317., doi:10.1037/1089-2680.10.4.302. [https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow(2).pdf].
- Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370–396. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0054346. [https://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Maslow/motivation.htm].
- `Hierarchy of Needs of Abraham Maslow.` A First Look at Communication Theory, by Emory A. Griffin et al., Mcgraw-Hill Education, 2019, pp. 124–133. http://www.afirstlook.com/docs/hierarchy.pdf.
- Mcleod, S. A. (2020, March 20). Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Simply Psychology. [https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html].