Gooding morning, everybody. Today's lecture is about Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs. This
seems like a psychological topic. Actually, it is something psychological. Abraham Maslow is a
psychologist, and he's especially known for his theory of human needs.
OK, first of all, what is a need? Here, we can simply define it as a personal requirement. Maslow
believed that humans are "wanting" beings who seek to fulfill a variety of needs. According to his
theory, these needs can be arranged in an orderr according to their importance. It is this order
that has become known as Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
In this hierarchy of needs, at the most basic level are physiological needs. Fundamentally, humans
are just one species of animal. We need to keep ourselves alive. Physiological needs are what we
require for survival. These needs include food and water, shelter, and sleep. At this level, for us
humans, Maslow also includes the need for clothing. How are these needs usually satisfied? It is
mainly through adequate wages.
Then, what is the next level of needs? At the level are safety needs, the things we require for
physical and emotional security. Physical security is easy to understand. Everybody needs to keep
his body safe from injury, illness, etc. Then, what is emotional security? Well, that's maybe the
point in this hierarchy of needs where humans begin to differ from other animals. We are thinking
animals. We have worries. What if I lost my job? What if I were struck down by a sever disease?
Besides physical security, we need to think we are safe from misfortunes both now and in the
foreseeable future. How can these needs be met then? According to Maslow, safety needs may be
satisfied through job security, health insurance, pension plans, and safe working conditions.
After this stage come the levels of needs that are particular to human beings. The immediately
following levels are the social needs. Under this category, Maslow puts our requirements for love
and affection and a sense of belonging. We need to be loved. We need to belong to a group, not just
the family, in which we can share with others a common interest. In Maslow's view, these needs can
be satisfied through the work environment and some informal organizations. Certainly, we also need
social relationships beyond the workplace, for example, with family and friends.
Next, the level of esteem needs. What are esteem needs then? They include both the need of
self-esteem and the need of esteem of others. Self-esteem is a sense of our own achievements and
worth. We need to believe that we are successful, we are no worse, if no better, than others. The
esteem of others is the respect and recognition we gain from other people, either through work or
our activities in other social groups. The ways to satisfy esteem needs include personal
achievements, promotion to more responsible jobs, various honors and awards, and other forms of
recognition.
What follows is the top level of this hierarchy of needs. These are the self-realization needs. In
other words, they are the needs to grow and develop as people, the needs to become all that we
are capable of being. They are the most difficult needs to satisfy. Whether one can achieve this
level or not perhaps determines whether one can be a great man or just an ordinary man. Of
course, it depends on different people. The means of satisfying them tend to vary greatly with the
individual. For some people, learning a new skill, starting a new career after retirement could
quite well satisfy their self-realization needs. Well for other people, it could be becoming "the
best there is" in certain areas; it could be becoming the President of the IBM. Anyway, being
"great" or ordinary is what others think, while self-realization is largely individual.
Maslow suggested that people work to satisfy their physiological needs first, then their safety
needs, and so on up the "needs ladder." In general, they are motivated by the needs ar the lowest
level that remain unsatisfied. However, needs at one level do not have to be completely satisfied
before needs are satisfied, that person will be motivated primarily by social needs. But any
physiological and safety needs that remian unsatisfied will keep playing an important role.
OK, that's the general picture of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Just to sum up, I've briefly
introduced to you Maslow's theory. Maslow thinks there are five kinds of human needs, with each
one being more important than the preceding one. I hope that you've found his ideas interesting.