Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs
There is a well-known theory to explain human needs. in psychology, management, sociology, and anthropology as well as counseling, and nursing. The Theory is called “Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs”. Maslow (1954) proposed that human beings possess two sets of needs. This five-stage model can be divided into deficiency needs and growth needs. These five levels of the hierarchy are physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. It is recommended the lower-level basic needs like food, water, and safety must be met first before higher needs can be fulfilled. However, we may be motivated by multiple needs simultaneously. The first level is mostly related to biological requirements for human survival, e.g., air, food, drink, shelter, clothing, warmth, sex, and sleep which are basic needs. The second level, safety relates to emotional security, financial security (e.g., employment, social welfare), law and order, freedom from fear, social stability, property, health, and well-being (e.g., safety against accidents and injury). People can be assumed as refugees if they have trouble with their basic needs in their primary locations.
The importance of the two first levels is emphasized and advised, however, seems that humans today have the most trouble reaching the third level. Therefore, my main focus on this page is on the third level of human needs, which I believe can cause problems in satisfying the previous two levels.
The third level of needs, love and belongingness needs refers to a human emotional need for interpersonal relationships, affiliating, connectedness, and being part of a group. Examples of belongingness needs include friendship, intimacy, trust, acceptance, receiving and giving affection, and love.
A Question
As I mentioned in the introduction of my blog, despite the many psychological counselors available on the web, I share my experiences and opinions only to raise questions that each of us must answer for ourselves.
Rate as a number between 1 and 10, how satisfied do you feel with each of these needs?
[friendship, intimacy trust, acceptance, receiving and giving affection and love]
As a parent, friend, or family member, how much do we advise our loved one to be careful in trust, friendship, and even affection and love? Yes, we indeed fear a society that is full of fake people who are not what they pretend to be. We don’t want our loved ones to be cheated, hurt, failed, or broken. We want to succeed so we should live very wisely, soberly, and alertly. Everything everywhere has a price. What is the price of success and even mental security in our social relationships?
Maybe in this race, or other words, winning over others isn’t so expensive if I don’t think about anything else and just run towards my destination. If I’m wise enough, I can win at a low price. My intelligence is a good weapon for me. I shoot everyone in my way and win. But I have to take care of my children or loved ones if they are not strong like me. I may need to carry them with me in this race. It may be difficult or stressful.
But if I care about others who are in my way, no matter how much I am smart and knowledgeable enough and have the necessary weapons, I can’t shoot others blindly and run ahead. It is very difficult to take care of people who are in a match with you, when many of them have levels of weapons, and most of them may not care about you. You want to protect yourself and your loved ones as well as succeed. It brings you a lot of stress and tripping and tripping… taking care of yourself and your loved ones is very expensive, and stress, plans, thoughts, fears, etc. may come to you too much. Nothing guarantees your success. This is not something that everyone can deal with.
IMPORTANT NOTE
There are more options that I haven’t mentioned here. For example, in a situation where you don’t even have a small number of trusted people around them like close family members and loved ones. or in circumstances where you are not equipped with sufficient knowledge and skill to win the race or champion (with or without the care of others). For those individualistic people who are so focused on their first and second needs that taking care of family and friends is not very meaningful, then what does this victory and success mean? High quality and delicious foods, variety of sexual relationships, and expensive properties? They can be unlimited and innumerable, but they certainly never meet the third level of human needs.
Now it’s time to take what we’ve done so far to reach the third level of our needs: “Belongingness and Love” needs.
?What to do
To understand what we should do, we must know
1) where are we standing now?
2) where do we intend to go (the intended destination)?
3) what are possible paths to take from where we are standing?
4) What equipment (abilities, attributes, protective weapons, etc.) may we have?
Each of us has our own path. We must decide to find it.