abraham maslow's hierarchy of needs abraham maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory of motivation which states that human decision-making is undergirded by a hierarchy of psychological needs in other words for maslow human actions are motivated in order to attain certain ends in fact at the core of maslow's hierarchy of needs is the question what motivates human behaviour as a way of addressing this question maslow contends that human needs can be organized into a hierarchy this hierarchy ranges from more concrete needs such as food and water to abstract concepts such as self-fulfillment according to maslow when a lower need is met the next need on the hierarchy becomes our focus of attention according to maslow there are five categories of human needs that dictate an individual's behavior these needs are physiological needs safety needs love and belonging needs esteem needs and self-actualization needs in what follows i will briefly discuss each need on physiological needs these needs refer to basic physical needs like drinking when thirsty or eating when hungry according to maslow some of these needs involve our efforts to meet the body's need for homeostasis that is maintaining consistent levels in different bodily systems for example maintaining a body temperature of 98.6 degrees maslow considered physiological needs to be the most essential of our needs if someone is lacking in more than one need they are likely to try to meet these physiological needs first for example if someone is extremely hungry it's hard to focus on anything else besides food another example of a physiological need would be the need for adequate sleep on safety needs once people's physiological requirements are met the next need that arises is a safe environment our safety needs are apparent even early in childhood as children have a need for safe and predictable environments and typically react with fear or anxiety when these are not met maslow pointed out that in adults living in developed nations safety needs are more apparent in emergency situations for example war and disasters but this need can also explain why we tend to prefer the familiar or why we do things like purchase insurance and contribute to a savings account on love and belonging needs according to maslow the next need in the hierarchy involves feeling loved and accepted this need includes both romantic relationships as well as ties to friends and family members it also includes our need to feel that we belong to a social group importantly this need encompasses both feeling loved and feeling love towards others since maslow's time researchers have continued to explore how love and belonging needs impact well-being for example having social connections is related to better physical health and conversely feeling isolated that is having unmet belonging needs has negative consequences for health and well-being on esteem needs our esteem needs involve the desire to feel good about ourselves according to maslow esteem needs include two components the first involves feeling self-confidence and feeling good about oneself the second component involves feeling valued by others that is feeling that our achievements and contributions have been recognized by other people when people's esteemed needs are met they feel confident and see their contributions and achievements as valuable and important however when their esteemed needs are not met they may experience what psychologist alfred adler called feelings of inferiority on self-actualization needs self-actualization refers to feeling fulfilled or feeling that we are living up to our potential one unique feature of self-actualization is that it looks different for everyone for one person self-actualization might involve helping others for another person it might involve achievements in an artistic or creative field essentially self-actualization means feeling that we are doing what we believe we are meant to do according to maslow achieving self-actualization is relatively rare and his examples of famous self-actualized individuals include abraham lincoln albert einstein and mother teresa now how do individuals progress through the hierarchy of needs maslow postulated that there were several prerequisites to meeting these needs for example having freedom of speech and freedom of expression or living in a just and fair society aren't specifically mentioned within the hierarchy of needs but maslow believed that having these things makes it easier for people to achieve their needs in addition to these needs maslow also believed that we have a need to learn new information and to better understand the world around us this is because learning more about our environment helps us meet our other needs for example learning more about the world can help us feel safer and developing a better understanding of a topic one is passionate about can contribute to self-actualization however maslow also believed that this call to understand the world around us is an innate need as well although maslow presented his needs in a hierarchy he also acknowledged that meeting each need is not an all-or-nothing phenomenon consequently people don't need to completely satisfy one need in order for the next need in the hierarchy to emerge maslow suggests that at any given time most people tend to have each of their needs partly met and that needs lower on the hierarchy are typically the ones that people have made the most progress towards additionally maslow pointed out that one behavior might meet two or more needs for example sharing a meal with someone meets the physiological need for food but it might also meet the need of belonging similarly working as a paid caregiver would provide someone with income which allows them to pay for food and shelter but can also provide them a sense of social connection and fulfillment some criticisms of maslow's hierarchy of needs as is well known maslow's theory has become wildly popular both in and out of psychology the fields of education and business have been particularly influenced by the theory while popular maslow's theory of motivation has not been without criticism chief among these are the ideas that first needs don't follow a certain hierarchy and second the theory is difficult to test to the first while some research showed some support for maslow's theories most research has not been able to substantiate the idea of a needs hierarchy mahmood wobber and lawrence bridwell reported that there was little evidence for maslow's ranking of these needs and even less evidence that these needs are in a hierarchical order second and last other criticisms of maslow's theory note that his definition of self-actualization is difficult to test scientifically his research on self-actualization was also based on a very limited sample of individuals including people he knew as well as biographies of famous individuals that maslow believed to be self-actualized