Maslow's Pyramid of Needs
What increases our sense of well-being? Is having our physical needs met sufficient to live the good life? These are questions with a long pedigree, but in the modern world we usually turn to Abraham Maslow and his “hierarchy of needs” for an answer.
Famously shaped like a pyramid, the “hierarchy” lays out the needs an individual has and displays the way they build on one another. At the bottom of that pyramid are the physiological needs, e.g. food and shelter. As one goes higher up the pyramid the needs become more psychological and focused on personal development, eventually reaching “self-actualization.” Although this theory has become foundational in psychology, critics have long claimed that there is very little data to back up Maslow’s hierarchy.
In fact, in 2010 a group of evolutionary psychologists published a new version of the Hierarchy of Needs that didn’t even include “self-actualization.” It was replaced with things like “mate acquisition” and - at the top of the pyramid - “parenting.” (Apparently those of us who don't want children have nothing to live for.)
ResponderEliminarWell there’s new data – and it strongly suggests that not only should self-actualization be put back on the top of the pyramid, purely psychological needs should be given even greater emphasis than Maslow originally suggested.
by Jennifer Rogers
ResponderEliminar