The Truth of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is quite possibly the most brilliant theory on human behavior ever.  The human mind and brain are complex and have parallel processes running at the same time, so many different motivations from different levels of Maslow's pyramid usually occur at the same time. Maslow was clear about speaking of these levels and their satisfaction in terms such as "relative" and "general" and "primarily", and says that the human organism is "dominated" by a certain need.  The dominant need is the highest (most complex) level of need that has not been met yet.

Here is summary of the different layers of needs: from most basic to most complex
1.  Physiological Needs: Food, Shelter, Air, Sleep
Without these, we can't live...let alone think about happiness.

2. Safety needs-security for self and family
Without these, we can't live without fear...let alone think about happiness.

3. Love and belonging from friends, family, lover(s)
This is generally enough for most people who are reasonably happy.  Many Americans are at this step.  This has to do

4. Esteem needs, such as respect from others, confidence, self-esteem
This gets a little harder for people to attain.  Many Americans are at this step as well. 

5. Self-actualization
This is very ill-defined.  Examples of this need is the want for people to be satisfied with their own morality, creativity, and somehow realizing that a person has reached their full potential.  This need is satisfied by the inner confirmation that a particular person has reached his/her maximum potential.

Maslow's theory states that once we have one need met, we move on to the next need and try to eventually have all five levels of needs achieved.  This helps explain why ga-gillionaire casino magnate, Sheldon Adelson donated $20 million dollars and has plans to potentially spend $80 more million to defeat Barack Obama.  Adelson says he is doing so because he's anti-tax.  However, he candidly admits that he doesn't particularly care if his own taxes do not go down, but is mainly concerned about the level of taxation imposed on others.  Applying Maslow's hierarchy to Adelson, we can see that he has the first three levels.  He is donating so much money, either to get esteem from others or to realize his full potential by trying to heavily influence the presidential election.

One troubling aspect of this theory is that absolute happiness can only be guaranteed by accomplishing all 5 levels, like the Buddists' version of enlightenment.  However, this is often impossible, especially since the more complex levels are difficult to define, difficult to maintain, and difficult to accomplish. For example, some people's self-esteem depends on dominance over others or some sort of superiority over others.  Very few people can actually have this superiority in reality.  Examples of this is the American traditions of consumerism and "keeping up with the Jones".

This can also explain how some people, who seemingly have it all, are somewhat unhappy.  For example, why did successful country singer, husband of Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban ever do cocaine?  The answer is that even though he likely has his physical, safety, social, and esteem needs met, he doesn't have his self-actualization needs met.   An alternative theory is that his esteem was damaged from being with a more famous/richer lover, even though he is male in the relationship.  In another example, look at the litany of plastic surgery for Heidi Montag.  I've recently watched the first season of "The Hills" and per-surgery Heidi was definitely a ten in my opinion.  Yet, for some reason, perhaps self-esteem issues, Heidi felt the urge to get a lot of plastic surgery.

Another way to think about Maslow's hierarchy of needs is by thinking of the first 3 levels are needs that can easily be satisfied from external sources.  It is usually more obvious to a person when he or she has accomplished the first 3 levels of needs.  However, the most complex 2 levels are based upon self-perception.   Because humans are creatures of high levels of insecurity, needs that must be satisfied by our own self-perception are often difficult to obtain.  We are generally very bad at suppressing our insecurities and at introspection.  The fifth step is especially difficult.  Because of people's deficiency at introspection, it is often a great challenge for someone to even know what his or her full potential is, let alone realizing it.

I personally think that this hierarchy of needs explains a lot about human behavior.  Most importantly, it shows how so many people who seem to have it all in live are somehow unhappy and how humans seem to be constantly striving for higher levels of fulfillment.