Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: A Guide to Its Five

Levels Simplified hierarchy of needs

Raveling Money October 09, 2021

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs:

A Guide to Its Five Levels Simplified hierarchy of needs

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlM2LhoU7-Q

Abraham Maslow, an American psychologist, proposed a hierarchy of psychological

requirements to explain human decision-making in a 1943 paper titled "A Theory of Human
Motivation." Maslow suggested that five fundamental needs constitute the basis for human
behavioural motivation in his original article and later 1954 book, Motivation and
Personality.

So What Is Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs?

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a motivation theory that claims that an individual's conduct
is dictated by five categories of human needs. Physiological requirements, safety needs,
love and belonging needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs are some of these
needs.

The 5 Levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Maslow's theory describes a pyramid-shaped hierarchy of requirements, with fundamental

needs at the bottom and more high-level, intangible needs at the top. When a person's
fundamental needs have been met, he or she can move on to addressing higher-level
requirements.
Physiological needs:

The physiological needs are at the bottom of the hierarchy. These requirements are
biologically necessary for human survival. Food and water, enough rest, clothes and
shelter, general health, and reproduction are among the most fundamental human survival
needs. These basic physiological requirements, according to Maslow, must be met before
people may progress to the next level of satisfaction.

Safety needs:

The desire for safety is next on the hierarchy of needs. Protection from violence and theft,
mental stability and well-being, health security, and financial security are all important
aspects of personal safety. In the absence of physical safety (as a result of war, natural
disasters, family violence, childhood abuse, etc.) these safety needs manifest themselves
in ways such as a preference for job security, grievance procedures to protect the
individual from unilateral authority, savings accounts, insurance policies, disability
accommodations, and so on.

Love and belonging needs:

The social wants, which are on the third level of Maslow's hierarchy, are the last of the so-
called lower needs, and they relate to human contact. Friendships and family bonds—both
biological and chosen family (parents, siblings, children)—are among these requirements
(spouses and partners). In order to achieve a sense of heightened kinship, physical and
emotional closeness, ranging from sexual connections to intimate emotional attachments,
is necessary. Membership in social groupings, from belonging to a team of employees to
establishing an identity in a union, club, or group of hobbyists, also contributes to
satisfying this requirement.

Esteem needs:

The higher demands, starting with esteem, are ego-driven needs. Self-respect (the idea
that you are worthwhile and deserving of dignity) and self-esteem are the fundamental
components of esteem (confidence in your potential for personal growth and
accomplishments). Maslow distinguishes two forms of self-esteem: esteem based on
respect and acknowledgement from others, and esteem based on your own self-
assessment. This second form of self-esteem gives rise to self-assurance and
independence.

Self-actualization needs:

Self-actualization refers to reaching your full potential as a human. Self-actualization

needs, also known as self-fulfillment wants, are at the top of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
Education, skill development (the refinement of skills in fields such as music, athletics,
design, cuisine, and gardening), caring for others, and larger objectives such as learning a
new language, travelling to new locations, and winning prizes are all examples of self-
actualization requirements.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs' higher-order (self-esteem and self-actualization) and lower-

order (physiological, safety, and love) needs classification is not universal and may differ
across cultures due to individual differences and the availability of resources in the region
or geopolitical entity/country.

Limitations of Maslow's Theory of 'Hierarchy of Needs'

The main difficulty with Maslow's hierarchy-of-needs theory is that it cannot be practically
validated since there is no precise technique for measuring how satisfied one level of need
must be before the next higher level of need becomes functional.

Maslow only considered a subset of the human population. The "hierarchy of needs"
theory's manifestations, such as "self-esteem" and "security," have widely different
classifications in cultures throughout the world. As a result, it is difficult for researchers to
quantify or generalise these demands across all human populations.

• The approach is too simplistic: the same product or service may meet many
demands at the same time.
• The idea lacks empirical support for the ranking of demands.
• The idea is excessively culture-bound, which means it lacks cross-cultural validity,
and the hierarchy's expectations may be confined to Western societies.
• Despite the fact that Maslow's hierarchy makes obvious answer, there is just a little
quantity of data to completely establish its hierarchical phase.
• For example, the concept of self-actualization suffers from unclear classifications
and a lack of proof other than oral.
• The approach does not take into account the possibility of cultural variations,
instead assuming that the same needs apply equally to all human civilizations.
• Despite failing to account for the possibility of individual variations, the model
implies that the same demands in the same sequence apply equally from one
person to another, regardless of nature.

Despite the fact that Maslow's hierarchy lacks scientific support, it is well-known and is the
very first theory of motivation.