Human needs as a source of his activity

08.04.2015

Snezhana Ivanova

The very needs of a person are the basis for the formation of a motive, which in psychology is considered as the “engine” of a personality ...

Man, like any living being, is programmed by nature to survive, and for this he needs certain conditions and means. If at some point in time these conditions and means are absent, then a state of need arises, which causes the appearance of a selective response of the human body. This selectivity ensures the occurrence of a response to stimuli (or factors) that are currently the most important for normal life, survival and further development. The experience by the subject of such a state of need in psychology is called a need.

So, the manifestation of a person's activity, and, accordingly, his life activity and purposeful activity, directly depends on the presence of a certain need (or need), which requires satisfaction. But only a certain system of human needs will determine the purposefulness of his activities, as well as contribute to the development of his personality. The very needs of a person are the basis for the formation of a motive, which in psychology is considered as a kind of “engine” of a personality. and human activity directly depends on organic and cultural needs, and they, in turn, give rise to, which directs the attention of the individual and its activity to various objects and objects of the world with the aim of their knowledge and subsequent mastery.

Human needs: definition and features

Needs, which are the main source of personality activity, are understood as a special internal (subjective) feeling of a person's need, which determines his dependence on certain conditions and means of existence. The activity itself, aimed at satisfying human needs and regulated by a conscious goal, is called activity. The sources of personality activity as an internal motivating force aimed at satisfying various needs are:

• organic and material needs (food, clothing, protection, etc.);
• spiritual and cultural(cognitive, aesthetic, social).

Human needs are reflected in the most persistent and vital dependencies of the organism and the environment, and the system of human needs is formed under the influence of the following factors: the social conditions of people's lives, the level of development of production and scientific and technological progress. In psychology, needs are studied in three aspects: as an object, as a state, and as a property (a more detailed description of these values ​​is presented in the table).

The Importance of Needs in Psychology

In psychology, the problem of needs has been considered by many scientists, so today there are quite a lot of different theories that understand needs as needs, as well as the state, and the process of satisfaction. For example, K. K. Platonov I saw in needs, first of all, a need (more precisely, a mental phenomenon of reflecting the needs of an organism or personality), and D. A. Leontiev considered needs through the prism of activity in which it finds its realization (satisfaction). Famous psychologist of the last century Kurt Lewin Under the needs, first of all, he understood the dynamic state that occurs in a person at the moment he performs some action or intention.

Analysis different approaches and theories in the study of this problem allows us to say that in psychology the need was considered in the following aspects:

• as a need (L.I. Bozhovich, V.I. Kovalev, S.L. Rubinshtein);
• as an object of satisfaction of need (A.N. Leontiev);
• as a necessity (B.I. Dodonov, V.A. Vasilenko);
• as the absence of good (V.S. Magun);
• as an attitude (D.A. Leontiev, M.S. Kagan);
• as a violation of stability (D.A. McClelland, V.L. Ossovsky);
• as a state (K. Levin);
• as a systemic reaction of the personality (E.P. Ilyin).

Human needs in psychology are understood as dynamically active states of the personality, which form the basis of its motivational sphere. And since in the process of human activity there is not only the development of personality, but also changes environment, needs play the role of the driving force of its development, and here their subject content is of particular importance, namely the volume of the material and spiritual culture of mankind, which affects the formation of human needs and their satisfaction.

In order to understand the essence of needs as a driving force, it is necessary to take into account a number of important points highlighted E.P. Ilyin. They are as follows:

• the needs of the human body must be separated from the needs of the individual (at the same time, the need, that is, the need of the body, may be unconscious or conscious, but the need of the individual is always conscious);
• a need is always associated with a need, by which it is necessary to understand not a deficit in something, but a desire or a need;
• from personal needs it is impossible to exclude the state of need, which is a signal for choosing a means of satisfying needs;
• the emergence of a need is a mechanism that includes human activity aimed at finding a goal and achieving it as a need to satisfy the need that has arisen.

Needs are passive-active in nature, that is, on the one hand, they are due to the biological nature of a person and the lack of certain conditions, as well as his means of subsistence, and on the other hand, they determine the activity of the subject to overcome the deficit that has arisen. An essential aspect of human needs is their social and personal nature, which finds its manifestation in motives, motivation and, accordingly, in the entire orientation of the individual. Regardless of the type of need and its focus, they all have the following features:

• have their object and are the awareness of need;
• the content of needs depends primarily on the conditions and methods of their satisfaction;
• they are able to reproduce.

In the needs that form human behavior and activity, as well as in the production motives, interests, aspirations, desires, inclinations and value orientations from them, the basis of the individual's behavior lies.

Types of human needs

Any human need initially represents the organic interweaving of biological, physiological and psychological processes, which determines the presence of many types of needs, which are characterized by strength, frequency of occurrence and ways to satisfy them.

Most often in psychology, the following types of human needs are distinguished:

• isolated according to origin natural(or organic) and cultural needs;
• distinguished by direction material needs and spiritual;
• depending on which area they belong to (fields of activity), they distinguish the needs for communication, work, rest and knowledge (or educational needs);
• according to the object, needs can be biological, material and spiritual (they also distinguish human social needs;
• by their origin, needs can be endogenous(there are waters due to internal factors) and exogenous (caused by external stimuli).

Basic, fundamental (or primary) and secondary needs are also found in the psychological literature.

The greatest attention in psychology is paid to three main types of needs - material, spiritual and social (or public needs), which are described in the table below.

Basic types of human needs

material needs of a person are primary, since they are the basis of his life. Indeed, in order for a person to live, he needs food, clothing and housing, and these needs were formed in the process of phylogenesis. spiritual needs(or ideal) are purely human, as they primarily reflect the level of development of the individual. These include aesthetic, ethical and learning needs.

It should be noted that both organic and spiritual needs are characterized by dynamism and interact with each other, therefore, for the formation and development of spiritual needs, it is necessary to satisfy the material ones (for example, if a person does not satisfy the need for food, then he will experience fatigue, lethargy, apathy and drowsiness, that cannot contribute to the emergence of a cognitive need).

Separately, one should consider public needs(or social), which are formed and developed under the influence of society and are a reflection of the social nature of man. Satisfaction of this need is necessary for absolutely every person as a social being and, accordingly, as a person.

Classification of needs

Since the moment psychology became a separate branch of knowledge, many scientists have made a large number of attempts to classify needs. All these classifications are very diverse and basically reflect only one side of the problem. That is why, to date, a unified system of human needs that would meet all the requirements and interests of researchers from various psychological schools and trends has not yet been presented to the scientific community.

• natural desires of a person and necessary (it is impossible to live without them);
• natural desires, but not necessary (if there is no way to satisfy them, then this will not lead to the inevitable death of a person);
• desires that are neither necessary nor natural (for example, the desire for fame).

Informational author P.V. Simonov needs were divided into biological, social and ideal, which in turn can be the needs of need (or preservation) and growth (or development). According to P. Simonov, social needs of a person and ideal ones are divided into needs “for oneself” and “for others”.

Quite interesting is the classification of needs proposed by Erich Fromm. A well-known psychoanalyst identified the following specific social needs of a person:

• a person's need for connections (belonging to a group);
• need for self-affirmation (sense of importance);
• the need for affection (the need for warm and reciprocal feelings);
• the need for self-awareness (one's own individuality);
• the need for a system of orientation and objects of worship (belonging to a culture, nation, class, religion, etc.).

But the most popular among all existing classifications was the unique system of human needs of the American psychologist Abraham Maslow (better known as the hierarchy of needs or the pyramid of needs). The representative of the humanistic direction in psychology based his classification on the principle of grouping needs by similarity in a hierarchical sequence - from lower needs to higher ones. A. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is presented in the form of a table for ease of perception.

Hierarchy of needs according to A. Maslow

Main groups	Needs	Description
Additional psychological needs	in self-actualization (self-realization)	maximum realization of all the potentials of a person, his abilities and personality development
	aesthetic	the need for harmony and beauty
	cognitive	the desire to learn and know the surrounding reality
Basic psychological needs	in respect, self respect and appreciation	the need for success, approval, recognition of authority, competence, etc.
	in love and belonging	the need to be in a community, society, to be accepted and recognized
	in safety	the need for protection, stability and security
Physiological Needs	physiological or organic	needs for food, oxygen, drink, sleep, sex drive, etc.

Having proposed their classification of needs, A. Maslow clarified that a person cannot have higher needs (cognitive, aesthetic and the need for self-development), if he has not satisfied the basic (organic) needs.

Formation of human needs

The development of human needs can be analyzed in the context of the socio-historical development of mankind and from the standpoint of ontogenesis. But it should be noted that both in the first and in the second case, material needs will be the initial ones. This is due to the fact that they are the main source of activity of any individual, pushing him to maximum interaction with the environment (both natural and social)

On the basis of material needs, the spiritual needs of a person developed and transformed, for example, the need for knowledge was based on satisfying the needs for food, clothing and housing. As for aesthetic needs, they were also formed due to the development and improvement of the production process and various means life, which were necessary to provide more comfortable conditions for human life. Thus, the formation of human needs was determined by socio-historical development, during which all human needs developed and differentiated.

As for the development of needs during life path of a person (that is, in ontogenesis), then everything here also begins with the satisfaction of natural (organic) needs, which ensure the establishment of relationships between the child and adults. In the process of satisfying basic needs, children develop needs for communication and cognition, on the basis of which other social needs also appear. An important influence on the development and formation of needs in childhood is provided by the process of education, through which the correction and replacement of destructive needs is carried out.

Development and formation of human needs according to A.G. Kovalev must obey the following rules:

• needs arise and are strengthened through the practice and systematic consumption (that is, habit formation);
• the development of needs is possible in conditions of expanded reproduction in the presence of various means and ways of satisfying it (the emergence of needs in the process of activity);
• the formation of needs occurs more comfortably if the activity necessary for this does not exhaust the child (lightness, simplicity and a positive emotional mood);
• the development of needs is significantly influenced by the transition from reproductive to creative activity;
• the need will be strengthened if the child sees its significance, both personally and socially (assessment and encouragement).

In addressing the question of the formation of human needs, it is necessary to return to the hierarchy of needs of A. Maslow, who argued that all human needs are given to him in a hierarchical organization at certain levels. Thus, from the moment of his birth, in the process of his growing up and personality development, each person will consistently manifest seven classes (of course, this is ideal) of needs, ranging from the most primitive (physiological) needs and ending with the need for self-actualization (the desire for maximum realization the personality of all its potentialities, the most complete life), and some aspects of this need begin to manifest themselves not earlier than adolescence.

According to A. Maslow, a person's life at a higher level of needs provides him with the greatest biological efficiency and, accordingly, a longer life, better health, better sleep and appetite. In this way, purpose of satisfying needs basic - the desire for the emergence of higher needs in a person (in knowledge, in self-development and self-actualization).

The main ways and means of meeting needs

Satisfaction of human needs is an important condition not only for its comfortable existence, but also for its survival, because if organic needs are not satisfied, a person will die in a biological sense, and if spiritual needs are not satisfied, then a person dies as social education. People, satisfying different needs, learn in different ways and learn different means to achieve this goal. Therefore, depending on the environment, conditions and the individual himself, the goal of satisfying needs and the ways to achieve it will differ.

In psychology, the most popular ways and means of satisfying needs are:

• in the mechanism of formation of individual ways for a person to meet their needs(in the process of learning, formation various connections between stimuli and subsequent analogy);
• in the process of individualization of ways and means of satisfying basic needs, which act as mechanisms for the development and formation of new needs (the very ways to satisfy needs can turn into themselves, that is, new needs appear);
• in concretizing the ways and means of meeting the needs(there is a consolidation of one method or several, with the help of which the satisfaction of human needs occurs);
• in the process of mentalization of needs(awareness of the content or some aspects of the need);
• in the socialization of ways and means of satisfying needs(they are subordinated to the values ​​of culture and the norms of society).

So, at the heart of any activity and activity of a person there is always some kind of need, which finds its manifestation in motives, and it is the needs that are the motivating force that pushes a person to movement and development.

The needs of a person necessary for his life activity are water, air, nutrition and protection from environmental hazards. These needs are called basic because they are necessary for the body.

Basic needs differ from others in that their deficiency causes a clear adverse outcome - dysfunction or death. In other words, this is what is necessary for safe and healthy life(e.g. food, water, shelter).

In contact with

In addition to this, people have needs social character: communication in a family or group. Needs can be psychological or subjective, such as the need for self-esteem and respect.

Needs are a need experienced and perceived by a person. When this need is supported by purchasing power, it can become an economic demand.

Types and description of needs

As it is written in the 6th grade social studies textbook, needs are divided into biological, necessary for anyone to live, and spiritual, which are necessary for understanding the world around us, gaining knowledge and skills, achieving harmony and beauty.

For most psychologists, a need is a psychological function that prompts action, giving purpose and direction to behavior. It is an experienced and perceived need or need.

Basic needs and human development (driven by the human condition) are few, finite, and classified as distinct from the conventional notion of ordinary economic “desires,” which are endless and insatiable.

They are also constant in all human cultures, and over historical periods of time can be understood as a system, that is, they are interconnected and interactive. There is no hierarchy of needs in this system (beyond the basic need for existence or survival), since simultaneity, complementarity, and trade-offs are features of the satisfaction process.

Needs and wants are the subject of interest and form a common substratum for sections:

• philosophy;
• biology;
• psychology;
• social sciences;
• economy;
• marketing and politics.

The well-known academic model of needs was proposed by the psychologist Abraham Maslow in 1943. His theory suggests that humans have a hierarchy of psychological desires that range from basic physiological or lower needs such as food, water and security to higher ones such as self-fulfillment. People tend to spend most of their resources (time, energy and finances) trying to satisfy basic needs before higher level desires.

Maslow's approach is a generalized model for understanding motivation in a wide variety of contexts, but can be adapted to specific contexts. One difficulty with his theory is that concepts of "needs" can change radically among different cultures or between different parts of the same society.

The second notion of necessity is presented in the work of the professor of political economy Yana Gou, which published information on human needs in the context of social assistance provided by the welfare state. Together with Professor of Medical Ethics Len Doyle, he also published The Theory of Human Need.

Their view goes beyond the emphasis on psychology, it can be said that the needs of the individual represent a "cost" in society. One who cannot meet his needs will function poorly in society.

According to Gou and Doyle, everyone has an objective interest in preventing serious harm that prevents him from striving to achieve his vision of what is good. This drive requires the ability to participate in a social setting.

In particular, each individual must have physical health and personal autonomy. The latter includes the ability to make informed choices about what to do and how to implement it. This requires mental health, cognitive skills and the ability to participate in society and make collective decisions.

Needs Satisfaction Issues

Researchers identify twelve broad categories of "intermediate needs" that define how needs for physical health and personal autonomy are met:

• adequate food and water;
• adequate housing;
• safe working environment;
• clothes;
• safe physical environment;
• appropriate medical care;
• childhood safety;
• meaningful primary relationships with others;
• physical security;
• economic security;
• safe birth control and childbearing;
• appropriate basic and intercultural education.

How satisfaction details are determined

Psychologists point to the rational identification of need using modern scientific knowledge, consideration of the actual experience of people in their daily lives and democratic decision making. Satisfaction of human needs cannot be imposed "from above".

Individuals with greater intrinsic assets (such as education, mental health, physical strength, etc.) are better able to meet their wants and needs.

Other types

In their works Karl Marx defined people as "needy beings" who experienced suffering in the process of learning and working to meet their needs, which were both physical and moral, emotional and intellectual necessities.

According to Marx, the development of people is characterized by the process of satisfying their needs, they develop new desires, implying that in some way they create and remake their own nature. If people satisfy their need for food through crop and animal husbandry, then a higher level of social self-knowledge is required to satisfy spiritual thirst.

People differ from other animals because their life activity, work is dictated by the satisfaction of needs. They are universal natural beings capable of turning all nature into the object of their needs and their activities.

Conditions for people like social creatures, are given by labor, but not only by work, since it is impossible to live without relationships with others. Work is social activities because people work with each other. Humans are also free beings, capable of achieving objective possibilities during their lives, generated by social evolution based on their conscious decisions.

Freedom should be understood both negatively (the freedom to decide and establish relationships) and positive sense(domination over natural forces and the development of human creativity of the basic human forces).

Summing up, it should be noted that the main interrelated features of people are as follows:

• people are conscious beings;
• people are social beings.

Humans tend to be universal, which manifests itself in the three previous traits and makes them natural-historical, universal conscious entities.

Rosenberg's Necessity Model

Model Marshall Rosenberg"Compassionate Communication", known as "Hate Communication", defines the difference between universal needs (what sustains and motivates human life) and specific strategies used to satisfy one's needs. Feelings are perceived neither as good nor bad, neither right nor wrong, but as indicators of whether human needs are being met or not. Essential needs are highlighted.

People also talk about the needs of the community or organization. These may include demand for a particular type of business, for a particular government program or organization, or for people with special skills. This example presents the logical problem of reification.

The states and needs of people that arise when they need something underlie their motives. That is, it is the needs that are the source of activity of each individual. Man is a desiring being, therefore, in reality, it is unlikely that his needs will be fully satisfied. The nature of human needs is such that as soon as one need is satisfied, the next one comes first.

Maslow's pyramid of needs

Abraham Maslow's concept of needs is perhaps the most famous of all. The psychologist not only classified the needs of people, but also made an interesting assumption. Maslow noticed that each person has an individual hierarchy of needs. That is, there are basic human needs - they are also called basic, and additional.

According to the concept of a psychologist, absolutely all people on earth experience needs at all levels. Moreover, there is the following law: basic human needs are dominant. However, high-level needs can also remind of themselves and become motivators of behavior, but this happens only when the basic ones are satisfied.

The basic needs of people are those aimed at survival. At the base of Maslow's pyramid are the basic needs. Human biological needs are the most important. Next comes the need for security. Satisfying human needs for security ensures survival, as well as a sense of the constancy of living conditions.

A person feels the needs of a higher level only when he has done everything to ensure his physical well-being. The social needs of a person lie in the fact that he feels the need to unite with other people, in love and recognition. Once this need has been met, the following come to the fore. The spiritual needs of a person are self-respect, protection from loneliness, and feeling worthy of respect.

Further, at the very top of the pyramid of needs is the need to reveal one's potential, to fulfill oneself. Maslow explained such a human need for activity as a desire to become what he originally is.

Maslow assumed that this need is innate and, most importantly, common to each individual. However, at the same time, it is obvious that people are strikingly different from each other in terms of their motivation. For various reasons, not everyone manages to reach the pinnacle of necessity. Throughout life, people's needs can vary between physical and social, so they are not always aware of the needs, for example, in self-realization, because they are extremely busy satisfying lower desires.

The needs of man and society are divided into natural and unnatural. In addition, they are constantly expanding. The development of human needs occurs due to the development of society.

Thus, we can conclude that the higher the needs a person satisfies, the brighter his individuality is manifested.

Are hierarchy violations possible?

Examples of violation of the hierarchy in the satisfaction of needs are known to everyone. Probably, if the spiritual needs of a person were experienced only by those who are full and healthy, then the very concept of such needs would have sunk into oblivion long ago. Therefore, the organization of needs is replete with exceptions.

Needs Satisfaction

An extremely important fact is that the satisfaction of need can never occur on the principle of "all or nothing." After all, if this were the case, then the physiological needs would be saturated once and for life, and then the transition to the social needs of a person would follow without the possibility of a return. There is no need to prove otherwise.

Biological human needs

The bottom level of Maslow's pyramid is those needs that ensure human survival. Of course, they are the most urgent and have the most powerful motivating force. In order for the individual to feel the needs higher levels, biological needs must be satisfied at least minimally.

Needs for security and protection

This level of vital or vital needs is the need for security and protection. We can safely say that if physiological needs are closely related to the survival of the organism, then the need for security ensures its long life.

Needs for love and belonging

This is the next level of Maslow's pyramid. The need for love is closely related to the desire of the individual to avoid loneliness and be accepted into human society. When the needs at the previous two levels are satisfied, motives of this kind take a dominant position.

Almost everything in our behavior is determined by the need for love. It is important for any person to be included in a relationship, whether it be a family, a work team or something else. The baby needs love, and nothing less than the satisfaction of physical needs and the need for security.

The need for love is especially evident in the adolescent period of human development. At this time, it is the motives that grow out of this need that become leading.

Psychologists often say that typical behavioral traits appear during adolescence. For example, the main activity of a teenager is communication with peers. Also characteristic is the search for an authoritative adult - a teacher and mentor. All teenagers subconsciously strive to be different from everyone else - to stand out from the general crowd. From here comes the desire to follow fashion trends or belong to any subculture.

Need for love and acceptance in adulthood

As a person ages, love needs begin to focus on more selective and deeper relationships. Now needs push people to create families. In addition, it is not the quantity of friendships that becomes more important, but their quality and depth. It is easy to see that adults have far fewer friends than adolescents, but these friendships are necessary for the mental well-being of the individual.

Despite the large number of diverse means of communication, people in modern society are very fragmented. To date, a person does not feel part of the community, perhaps - part of a family that has three generations, but many do not even have this. In addition, children who have experienced a lack of intimacy experience fear of it later in life. On the one hand, they neurotically avoid close relationships, as they are afraid of losing themselves as a person, and on the other hand, they really need them.

Maslow identified two main types of relationships. They are not necessarily marital, but may well be friendly, between children and parents, and so on. What are the two types of love identified by Maslow?

Scarce love

This kind of love is aimed at the desire to make up for the lack of something vital. Scarce love has a definite source - it is unmet needs. The person may lack self-respect, protection, or acceptance. This kind of love is a feeling born of selfishness. It is motivated by the desire of the individual to fill his inner world. A person is not able to give anything, he only takes.

Alas, in most cases, the basis of long-term relationships, including marital ones, is precisely scarce love. The parties to such a union can live together all their lives, but much in their relationship is determined by the inner hunger of one of the participants in the couple.

Scarce love is a source of dependence, fear of losing, jealousy and constant attempts to pull the blanket over yourself, suppressing and subjugating a partner in order to tie him closer to himself.

existential love

This feeling is based on the recognition of the unconditional value of a loved one, but not for any qualities or special merits, but simply for what he is. Of course, existential love is also designed to satisfy human needs for acceptance, but its striking difference is that it does not have an element of possessiveness. The desire to take away from your neighbor what you need yourself is also not observed.

The person who is able to experience existential love does not seek to remake a partner or somehow change him, but encourages everything in him. best qualities and supports the desire to grow and develop spiritually.

Maslow himself described this kind of love as a healthy relationship between people based on mutual trust, respect and admiration.

Self Esteem Needs

Despite the fact that this level of needs is designated as the need for self-esteem, Maslow divided it into two types: self-esteem and respect from other people. Although they are closely related to each other, it is often extremely difficult to separate them.

A person's need for self-respect is that he must know that he is capable of much. For example, that he will successfully cope with the tasks and requirements assigned to him, and that he feels like a full-fledged person.

If this type of need is not satisfied, then there is a feeling of weakness, dependence and inferiority. Moreover, the stronger such experiences, the less effective human activity becomes.

It should be noted that self-respect is healthy only when it is based on respect from other people, and not status in society, flattery, and so on. Only in this case, the satisfaction of such a need will contribute to psychological stability.

Interestingly, the need for self-respect in different periods life manifests itself in different ways. Psychologists have noticed that young people who are just starting to create a family and look for their professional niche need respect from the outside more than others.

Needs of self-actualization

The highest level in the pyramid of needs is the need for self-actualization. Abraham Maslow defined this need as the desire of a person to become what he can become. For example, musicians write music, poets compose poetry, artists draw. Why? Because they want to be themselves in this world. They need to follow their nature.

For whom is self-actualization important?

It should be noted that not only those who have some kind of talent need self-actualization. Everyone, without exception, has his own personal or creative potential. Each person has his own calling. The need for self-actualization is to find your life's work. The forms and possible ways of self-actualization are very diverse, and it is at this spiritual level of needs that the motives and behavior of people are most unique and individual.

Psychologists say that the desire to maximize self-realization is inherent in every person. However, the people Maslow called self-actualizing are very few. No more than 1% of the population. Why do those incentives that should encourage a person to activity not always work?

Maslow in his works indicated the following three reasons for such unfavorable behavior.

Firstly, a person's ignorance of his capabilities, as well as a misunderstanding of the benefits of self-improvement. In addition, there are common doubts about own forces or fear of failure.

Secondly, the pressure of prejudice - cultural or social. That is, a person's abilities can go against the stereotypes that society imposes. For example, stereotypes of femininity and masculinity can prevent a young man from becoming a talented makeup artist or dancer, and a girl from achieving success, for example, in military affairs.

Third, the need for self-actualization can run counter to the need for security. For example, if self-realization requires a person to take risky or dangerous actions or actions that do not guarantee success.

A person has nine basic needs. Every person has these needs, even if a person does not feel them in himself.

The first four needs are survival needs:

1.warm,

2.protection,

3.food,

4.safety.

Satisfying these basic needs returns us to a state of comfort and tranquility.

Five more needs:

5. in stimuli and strokes;

6. love, creating a circle of close people, affection and belonging to a certain social group;

7. self-actualization (implementation of one's abilities and talents, creative potentials, embodiment of "oneself");

8. respect and recognition in a significant community through self-realization, which both gives pleasure to the person himself and benefits other people;

9. in spiritual development.

The problem of unmet needs is related to the fact that many people in childhood lived in families where their rights were suppressed. Where they were forbidden (in various ways) to demand everything they needed for themselves. Where parents did not know how to teach the child at the same time discipline, correct (protecting from dangers and destructive behavior in relation to one’s body, one’s future, other people and the world around) self-restraint and satisfaction of one’s needs (including the assertion of one’s rights). Correct restrictions were perceived by the child as a prohibition to express themselves in general (including asking, talking about needs).
In addition, each of us coexist different in character and life position ego states. The behavior and tendencies of some ego states may conflict with the behavior and tendencies of other ego states. So, in some ego states we are hurting ourselves, while in others we are afraid for our health and future. Moreover, those ego-states that have bad habits desperately resist the realization by a person (the executive part of the personality) of their needs. Because it will lead to new rules and this ego state will have to submit to a new discipline. This resistance has many tricks. For example, some people philosophize that all their habits, even harmful ones, are their individuality, that these habits are needed for some reason, and if a person gives up on them, he will “lose” himself.
In this case, we need an independent decision - a decision from the Adult ego state.

To begin with, a person needs to decide that he has these nine needs.

Then make a plan to meet each need. The second adult decision about needs should be what the person will do to meet each need. And execute this decision regardless of the internal state.

1. The need for heat. This is the need for bodily thermal comfort. Many adults, oddly enough, do not know how to dress for the weather. I often see people cowering from the cold, walking down the street quickly, tensely, trying to get into the room as soon as possible. Or, on the contrary, they sweat and get wet, so that they smell unpleasant. At the same time, they are uncomfortable. They make themselves unpleasant to others, thereby realizing the unconscious scenario setting "Don't be close." Such people need to realize and learn how to properly satisfy the need for warmth. Those. dress yourself in such a way that you do not lose comfort.

2. The need for protection. This need is met by parents during childhood. For adults, this need is met by laws (constitution, civil code, labor code, housing code, etc.) and the state (district, police, court, municipal authorities, health authorities, etc.). To meet this need, an adult must study the laws, learn about the existence and functions of state bodies. So, to know exactly where and on what issue to apply. It is not normal for an adult to demand protection from another person, for example, from a husband, parents, etc. We can ask for help loved one in a particular situation, but should not “hang” parental functions and expectations on loved ones.

3. The need for food. To satisfy this need, it is not enough just to eat the way you were taught in childhood. You need to get information about the body's needs for certain substances, explore the characteristics of your body, develop rules for yourself healthy eating and follow these rules.

4. The need for security. Parents and the child's own instinct for self-preservation are responsible for satisfying this need in childhood. An adult needs to reconsider his lifestyle and habits (the habit of crossing the road, driving a car, using sharp objects, electrical appliances, etc.). If there are habits that can potentially lead to danger, damage, loss of health, you need to abandon them and learn to do the same things differently.

5. The need for stimuli and strokes. To maintain your neopsyche (Adult ego state), i.e. ability to voluntary efforts and awareness, in the "working" state, a person needs to constantly train it. The training of the neopsyche occurs by stimulating perception. Stimulation of perception occurs when a person interacts with the world around him with the help of the senses. In total, a person has five sense organs: eyes (organ of vision), ears (organ of hearing), nose (organ of smell), skin (organ of touch), tongue (organ of taste). Stimuli are vital for a person, otherwise his neopsyche degrades.

Here is a quote from Eric Berne about the need to stimulate the neopsychic.
"….Ability human psyche maintaining consistent ego states seems to depend on the changing flow of sensory stimuli. This observation is the psychobiological basis of social psychiatry. Stated in structural terms, it is that sensory stimuli are necessary to ensure the integrity of the neopsyche and the archaeopsyche. If the flow is blocked or becomes monotonous, it is seen that the neopsyche is gradually disorganized (“human thinking is deteriorating”); this exposes the underlying archeopsychic activity ("he shows childish emotional reactions"); eventually the archeopsychic functioning also becomes disorganized (“he suffers from hallucinations”). This is a description of a sensory deprivation experiment.
It can be shown that cathexis exhaustion occurs in the neopsychic in the case of stimulus social and structural deprivation by comparing patients in good and bad public hospitals. In essence, it has been proven that the result of such deprivation is archaic suggestibility, which makes it the strongest weapon in the hands of cruel leaders in the fight against irreconcilable personalities .... "

A person receives the most “high-quality” stimuli for neopsychic training in the process of communication. None computer game(and people play in them just to get incentives) cannot be compared in this sense with communication. Communication is the most effective simulator for the neopsychic. Therefore, people who do not have personality disorders, feel the thirst for stimuli as a thirst for communication. In isolation, people experience anxiety and calm down when they receive a “guarantee” of communication. The guarantee of communication is recognition of us by other people, attention to us from other people. The unit of attention, recognition is stroking.
Summary. The need for incentives is a vital need. It's called stimulus craving. People who do not have personality disorders feel the craving for stimuli as a craving for strokes.

You can read more about this need in the books:
1. Stuart J., Joynes W. Modern Transactional Analysis. per. from English. SPb., 1996, chapter "Thirst for Stimulus".
2. Berne Eric Transactional Analysis and Psychotherapy. Translation from English, St. Petersburg, publishing house<Братство>, 1992, chapter VIII SOCIAL RELATIONS, section 1. Theory of social contacts.

I am currently working on a continuation of the article.

Sincerely, Irina Letova.

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The term "physiological need" has been heard by many. But explaining what it is is not for everyone. The article will help to better understand what is meant by this seemingly simple concept, how the needs of an adult and a child differ, and also how to prevent the need from becoming an addiction.

What are physiological needs

The physiological needs of a person are the most important engine of behavior of both an individual and entire nations. From history, we know how, fleeing from famine, on barren lands, tribes went to war against their neighbors, recapturing their fields and livestock. The thirst of those lost in the desert could push them to kill, if another person would have eaten between them and the water. Therefore, no one will argue about the importance of these human needs. However, not only them, fortunately, a person lives. Otherwise, absolutely nothing would distinguish us from animals living by instincts. What, besides food and water, does a person need? See below.

What needs does a person have besides physiological? Maslow's pyramid

This concept is interpreted in many branches of science in different ways. The famous American psychologist A. Maslow even created the so-called "pyramid of needs". This is a kind of model of human motivation. This pyramid has gained immense popularity, it was literally taken brick by brick by marketers, psychologists and psychiatrists, creators of advertising and management luminaries. However, the professor himself never used it to explain his theories. He considered the physiological needs of a person to be the leading ones, only if they were pathologically dissatisfied. Simply put, food becomes the main thing for a person with its (possibly long) absence. If the individual is full, then that need gives way to higher and more valuable ones.

At the heart of the scheme, we see the physiological needs of a person, such as hunger and thirst, as well as key sexual instincts (or libidinal, as the great Freud called them).

Second is safety. The concept is somewhat vague, it includes the well-known concept of comfort, coziness, stability of the habitat (at home), protection from external factors and possible enemies. And only in third place are social needs, that is, a person will think about their satisfaction after saturation and staying in comfort. That is, the physiological need is the key. After the social (communication, care, common affairs), at the fourth level of the scheme, the so-called “prestigious”, or the need for prestige, that is, respect and self-respect (are these concepts related or not, we will leave to psychologists to understand). The crown of the pyramid is spiritual needs.

Why is it important to satisfy physiological needs?

Satisfaction of needs according to Maslow goes from the bottom up. That is, only with the most complete satisfaction of the lower level is it possible to move to the highest. The spiritual and social development of a person is important, but in the power of hunger, he simply will not be up to them. These schemes were used by tyrants and commanders in ancient powers even before our era. Hungry people are easier to manage than full people. The unsatisfied physiological needs of the human body made it impossible for him to think, and even more so to strive for freedom or independence. Fortunately, tyranny and the slave system have almost been eradicated today, but marketers and creators (creators of advertising) have taken possession of the truly magical secret pyramid. They build their texts, appealing to the lower instincts of man.

Physiological needs of the child

Why are we given physiological needs? The answer is simple - to survive. Without these needs, we simply could not survive and live. Man is already born with these needs. This can be seen especially clearly in newborns. A baby's meal is usually triggered by a demanding loud cry. And this is understandable, the child cannot say or demand the necessary in a different way. The key needs of the baby are food, motherly warmth (which replaces several needs of our pyramid at once: safety and social contact), good sleep and normal well-being. When these needs of the child are met, we will get a calm, smiling child who wants to play and see something interesting; when dissatisfied - continuously screaming and crying lump, resembling a wounded animal.

Physiological needs of an adult

The needs of an adult repeat the needs of a child in everything, only one more especially important instinct is added to them - reproduction (sexual, libidinal). This “basic instinct”, if not satisfied, can turn a person into a real aggressor. With an adequate hormonal background, of course. Now, due to pollution, poor nutrition and other factors, this need is muted for many. However, there are people for whom it exceeds other needs, which pushes them to crime. Fortunately, there are few such people, and they most likely have a history of psychiatric pathologies.

As for healthy people, where this physiological need is in its proper place, it is worth saying that it is wrong to both underestimate its importance and exaggerate it. The latter is characteristic of cinema and pop "pop" stars, appealing with their appearance and creativity to this ancient instinct. A healthy, adequate attitude is very important here. Intimate relationships are important to a person, but that doesn't mean you should indulge in them whenever possible. The ideal option is marriage or a stable relationship with a loved one.

Food. How to prevent a need from becoming an addiction

Hunger and thirst, as we said above, was even the cause of wars and the nomadic life of our ancient ancestors. Fortunately, in civilized countries, the concept of hunger is only known from the history books. In popular culture, the other extreme is promoted - constant weight loss, appetite suppressant pills, health fasting have become fashionable and in demand. But people who follow the lead of advertising are often unaware of the fact that fighting against the cornerstones laid down by nature is fraught with consequences for both physical and psychological health. Against the background of the mass pursuit of an ideal body, more and more clinical cases of bulimia (a mental or physiological disorder characterized by a constant desire to eat) and anorexia (refusal of food due to psychological personality disorders) are emerging. It is worth remembering that the unmet need of the body can become addiction and mania.

Healthy sleep as the most important of the needs

Sleep is on a par with the needs for food and water, satisfaction of the sexual instinct and breathing. However, many downplay its importance, which is done in vain. The example of Napoleon, who slept for several hours a day, will fade if we recall the unstable psyche and panic attacks of this historical character. Do you want to experience these “joys” for yourself? Hardly. Lack and lack of sleep deprive psychological comfort, lower the pain threshold (make us more sensitive to pain), and negatively affect performance. The unsatisfied physiological need for sleep can even lead to visual and auditory hallucinations. Moreover, a sleep-deprived person working with mechanisms or vehicles can be deadly for those around him during the microsleep phase (a phenomenon when a person’s brain that has not known rest and sleep for a long time “turns off” for a fraction of a second).

Finally

Physiological needs, among which the need for food and water, healthy sleep, intimate instincts, are undoubtedly important for a person. Only by satisfying these basic needs, he will be able to move on to higher, spiritual goals. You do not need to indulge your excessive addictions, for example, in food, but it is also unreasonable to fight against the instincts inherent in nature. You won't get out of this fight without losses. The secret is happy life in harmony and the golden mean.