Safety Needs

A step up from Physiological Needs, Safety Needs are more about stability and security. One way to look at it is this: physiological needs are recurring episodic needs that arise in moments of desperation or imminent threat. This is why they may override other needs. Safety needs, on the other hand, are chronic in nature, not only arising when the danger is imminent. If the threat of starvation if you don’t find something to eat soon is a physiological motivation, a safety motivation would be if you have something to eat now, but are unsure if you have enough to make it through tomorrow.

With this in mind, we can see how a family living paycheck to paycheck would have motivations driven largely by safety needs.

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references

1. 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].
2. 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].
3. `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.
4. Mcleod, S. A. (2020, March 20). Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Simply Psychology. [https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html].