Maslow's Pyramid and its classification of human needs

When we talk about human needs, it is clear that there are some of them that we all share and others that are different from us. These needs motivate us and lead us to act in certain ways and can be organized hierarchically, as we see represented in Maslow's pyramid.

This famous theory of the humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow organizes human needs according to their importance for our well-being. It is the preferred tool of people dedicated to marketing because, among other things, it justifies the way we consume. We will tell you everything below.

• Related article: "Temperaments of the human being: the 4 types and their characteristics”

What is Maslow's Pyramid

Behind every act we perform there is a human need that motivates it, but not all those needs are the same or have the same relevance for us. In fact, as we are satisfying our most basic and human needs, we are creating new needs higher than the previous ones.

At least that is how the Pyramid of Maslow exposes it, which is named after him after who established it, the humanist psychologist Abraham Maslow. It was theorized in 1943 and is still one of the most widely used tools in psychology, sociology, and marketing today.

Abraham Maslow was a very different psychologist from his time, as most of them focused on studying problem behaviors and learning passive (school of psychoanalysis or behaviorism), while Maslow focused on studying and learning what makes people happy and what definitive, improves our self-fulfillment and well-beingr.

In this sense, Maslow, as a good humanist, considered that all people have an innate power that directs us to be what we want to be and to fulfill ourselves personally. In addition, we are fully capable of achieving our objectives, as long as we are in an environment conducive to it.

Hierarchy of human needs

These objectives, which we can also call human needs to satisfy, we are fulfilling in our path to self-realization, and they change as we satisfy the most basic needs and increase their complexity as we climb the Maslow pyramid.

This hierarchy of human needs formulated by Maslow and embodied in the form of a pyramid begins by putting at the base the most basic human needs. Its complexity increases in 5 types of needs as it approaches the point, where we find self-realization. These are the 5 needs of Maslow's pyramid:

1. Physiological needs

They are found at the base of Maslow's pyramid and are the first and most basic of human needs, as they are related to survival and are innate biological needs of any person. We talk about breathing, sleeping, feeding, drinking water, disposing, having a suitable body temperature, avoiding pain and sex.

There is no way to get to formulate other types of needs if we have not managed to satisfy our physiological needs to survive.

2. Safety and security needs

Once we have managed to meet our physiological human needs, we give way to a second type of needs and We climb a position in Maslow's pyramid, in which we find those related to safety and protection.

In this stratum we need to ensure our personal safety and what guarantees it; This translates into stability, order, physical and health security, job security to have income and resources, family, moral and private property security.

3. Affiliation and affection needs

Now that we have achieved a roof, good health, income and resources, we can contemplate another type of needs that are related to our affective side. This means affection, the sense of belonging to a social group and love.

As humans we seek to relate, belong to a group, a family and a community. This is why at this stage of Maslow's pyramid we find everything that generates ties affective such as friendship, partner, familiarity and those groups with which we relate.

4. Recognition and esteem needs

The next rung of Maslow's pyramid and the hierarchy of human needs is focused on all that that forms our self-esteem and has to do with the recognition by others and our own recognition.

In other words, are the needs to feel good from our self-image and of those aspects of ourselves that we see according to the way in which others treat us.

• Related article: "The 4 types of self-esteem: definition and characteristics”

Maslow divides these types of needs into two groups: Low esteem and recognition, which has to do with respect, status, dignity, attention, reputation, fame and glory; and recognition and high esteem, which has to do with the needs to respect ourselves, of our self-esteem, freedom, independence, self-confidence and achievements.

5. Self-actualization needs

The last of the human needs according to Maslow's pyramid, which we only get by having covered the previous 4, is self-actualization, also called "growth motivation" or "need to be."

Here we find self-realization, which we justify because we manage to give meaning to our life through development potential for some inner activity, which may be moral, spiritual development, helping others, or selfless acts among others. There are those who say that it is the part of the pyramid that not everyone reaches.

• Related article: "The 9 stages of life that a person goes through”

Bibliographic references

• Ardila, R. (2004). Psychology in the Future. Madrid: Pyramid. 2002.
• Myers, David G. (2005). Psychology. Mexico: Pan-American Medical.
• Triglia, Adrián; Regader, Bertrand; García-Allen, Jonathan (2016). Psychologically speaking. Paidos.