Education: needs & wants

It takes more than food, water and shelter to keep us going. Here’s how our needs stack up

EVERYONE has needs – but what are they? To understand the concept of needs better, let’s take a look at the definition of the word. According to a dictionary of psychology a need is: SWhen you lack something that’s essential for your wellbeing or happiness.

SThe urge (desire) to get what you need. S An incentive produced by your brain because of a need that isn’t met. This influences the way you think and act so the need can be met.

WHAT’S A NEED?

In order to understand yourself you have to know what your needs are. Needs are what we believe are necessary for our survival. Your needs dominate everything, even your value system. They’re different to desires as you feel panicky when your needs aren’t fulfilled. Desires are what you’d like to have but they’re not essential for survival.

Needs and desires vary between communities and groups. For example, men’s needs are different to women’s; the same

is true for rich and poor, urbanites and rural dwellers, and older people, younger people and children. People are consumers of goods and services that provide their needs and desires.

LEVELS OF NEEDS

According to Abraham Maslow, an American psychologist whose work focused on human happiness, there are certain levels of importance in terms of which people’s needs are satisfied. These levels are called a hierarchy and are often represented in a pyramid.

The first level of Maslow’s hierarchy refers to our physical or basic needs – air to breathe, food, water and shelter. The urge to satisfy these needs dominates everything else for all people. These are things we need in order to survive; we can’t function properly if we don’t get them and might even die. Abraham Harold Maslow (1908 - 1970) was a psychologist who studied positive human qualities and the lives of exemplary people. In 1954 Maslow created the hierarchy of human needs and expressed his theories in his book, Motivation and Personality. Self-actualisation – a person’s motivation to reach his or her full potential. As shown in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, a person’s basic needs must be met before self-actualisation can be achieved.

For example, learners can’t be expected to perform well if they’re hungry or cold, or if they aren’t sure where they’re going to sleep that night or don’t have enough clean water to drink and wash.

When the first level of needs are satisfied, Maslow said, people can move on to the second level of needs in his hierarchy, safety. This includes both physical safety and financial security (the ability to look after yourself and/or your family). Again, when these needs aren’t met, people find it difficult to function – for instance, learners from crime-ridden areas sometimes have to risk their lives just to get to school, while others have a life-threatening disease that affects their security.

Financial security is also important. This includes the need to have a regular income so you can look after yourself and your family. In fact, without an income it’s difficult to satisfy any need properly.

During war, safety becomes a basic need as it’s then more important just to survive than to eat.

Third on Maslow’s hierarchy is social needs. There’s a saying that “two are better than one”. Put simply, it means people function best when not alone. Have you seen the movie Cast Away? In it, Tom Hanks’ character is stranded alone on a deserted island for five years. He has to develop remarkable mental, physical and emotional skills to survive by himself as his social needs – for family and friends, acceptance and belonging – aren’t met.

The fourth and highest level in Maslow’s hierarchy addresses humans’ need for recognition and self-actualisation. Once you have food to eat, clothes to wear, a warm bed waiting for you in a safe place and people you feel you belong with, your need for recognition in the form of status and self-esteem can be addressed.

We all want to be happy and feel we make a difference, that we’re unique and that we’re needed by society. The number of “likes” or friends we have on Facebook or Instagram can be seen as an example of recognition – these days some people see it as a sign of success if they have lots of followers on social media.

But if your basic needs (first level) and safety needs (second level) aren’t met, the rest doesn’t seem as important!

ABOVE: You might think you need that new bike but there’s a difference between needs and desires. Needs are necessary for survival whereas desires are things you’d like to have, such as toys, but that aren’t essential. ABOVE RIGHT: Basic needs include...

LEFT: Feelings of love and belonging are an important emotional need. RIGHT: In the film Cast Away, Tom Hanks’ character is stranded alone on an island for five years. His basic needs of food, water and shelter were met but he was so desperate for...

ABOVE: American psychologist Abraham Harold Maslow was born in New York in April 1908. He’s known for developing the hierarchy of needs according to which people prioritise their needs. RIGHT: Many millennials and members of Generation Z joke that this...