The Five Levels of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

By Kendra Van Wagner, About.com

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

J. Finkelstein

Psychologist Abraham Maslow first introduced his concept of a hierarchy of needs in his 1943 paper
“A Theory of Human Motivation”1 and his subsequent book, Motivation and Personality.2 This hierarchy
suggests that people are motivated to fulfill basic needs before moving on to other needs.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is most often displayed as a pyramid, with lowest levels of the pyramid
made up of the most basic needs and more complex needs are at the top of the pyramid. Needs at the
bottom of the pyramid are basic physical requirements including the need for food, water, sleep and
warmth. Once these lower-level needs have been met, people can move on to the next level of needs,
which are for safety and security.

As people progress up the pyramid, needs become increasingly psychological and social. Soon, the need
for love, friendship and intimacy become important. Further up the pyramid, the need for personal
esteem and feelings of accomplishment become important. Like Carl Rogers, Maslow emphasized the
importance of self-actualization, which is a process of growing and developing as a person to achieve
individual potential.
Types of Needs

Maslow believed that these needs are similar to instincts and play a major role in motivating behavior.
Physiological, security, social, and esteem needs are deficiency needs (also known as D-needs),
meaning that these needs arise do to deprivation. Satisfying these lower-level needs is important in
order to avoid unpleasant feelings or consequences.

Maslow term the highest-level of the pyramid a growth need (also known as being needs or B-needs).
Growth needs do not stem from a lack of something, but rather from a desire to grow as a person.

Five Levels of the Hierarchy of Needs

There are five different levels in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs:

1. Physiological Needs
These include the most basic needs that are vital to survival, including the need for water, air, food, and
sleep. Maslow believed that these needs are the most basic and instinctive needs in the hierarchy
because all needs become secondary until these physiological needs are met.

2. Security Needs
These include needs for safety and security. Security needs are important for survival, but they are not
as demanding as the physiological needs. Examples of security needs include a desire for steady
employment, health insurance, safe neighborhoods, and shelter from the environment.

3. Social Needs
These include needs for belonging, love, and affection. Maslow considered these needs to be less basic
than physiological and security needs. Relationships such as friendships, romantic attachments and
families help fulfill this need for companionship and acceptance, as does involvement in social, community
or religious groups.

4. Esteem Needs
After the first three needs have been satisfied, esteem needs becomes increasingly important. These
include the need for things that reflect on self-esteem, personal worth, social recognition, and
accomplishment.

5. Self-actualizing Needs
This is the highest level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Self-actualizing people are self-aware,
concerned with personal growth, less concerned with the opinions of others, and interested fulfilling
their potential.
What Is Self-Actualization?

What exactly is self-actualization? Located at the peak of Maslow’s hierarchy, he described this high-
level need in the following way:

"What a man can be, he must be. This need we may call self-actualization…It refers to the desire for
self-fulfillment, namely, to the tendency for him to become actualized in what he is potentially. This
tendency might be phrased as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything
that one is capable of becoming."1
While Maslow’s theory is generally portrayed as a fairly rigid hierarchy, Maslow noted that the order
in which these needs are fulfilled does not always follow this order.1 For example, he notes that for
some individuals, the need for self-esteem is more important than the need for love. For others, the
need for creative fulfillment may supersede even the most basic needs.

Characteristics of Self-Actualized People

In addition to describing what is meant by self-actualization in his theory, Maslow also identified some
of the key characteristics of self-actualized people:

• Acceptance and Realism: Self-actualized people have realistic perceptions of

themselves, others and the world around them.
• Problem-centering: Self-actualized individuals are concerned with solving problems
outside of themselves, including helping others and finding solutions to problems in the
external world. These people are often motivated by a sense of personal responsibility
and ethics.
• Spontaneity: Self-actualized people are spontaneous in their internal thoughts and
outward behavior. While they can conform to rules and social expectations, they also
tend to be open and unconventional.
• Autonomy and Solitude: Another characteristics of self-actualized people is the need
for independence and privacy. While they enjoy the company of others, these individuals
need time to focus on developing their own individual potential.
• Continued Freshness of Appreciation: Self-actualized people tend to view the world
with a continual sense of appreciation, wonder and awe. Even simple experiences continue
to be a source of inspiration and pleasure.
• Peak Experiences: Individuals who are self-actualized often have what Maslow termed
peak experiences, or moments of intense joy, wonder, awe and ecstasy. After these
experiences, people feel inspired, strengthened, renewed or transformed.3

Criticisms of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

While some research showed some support for Maslow’s theories, most research has not been able to
substantiate the idea of a needs hierarchy. Wahba and Bridwell reported that there was little
evidence for Maslow’s ranking of these needs and even less evidence that these needs are in a
hierarchical order.4
Other criticisms of Maslow’s theory note that his definition of self-actualization is difficult to test
scientifically. His research on self-actualization was also based on a very limited sample of individuals,
including people he knew as well as biographies of famous individuals that Maslow believed to be self-
actualized, such as Albert Einstein and Eleanor Roosevelt. Regardless of these criticisms, Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs represents part of an important shift in psychology. Rather than focusing on
abnormal behavior and development, Maslow’s humanistic psychology was focused on the development
of healthy individuals.

References:

1
Maslow, A. H. (1943). A Theory of Human Motivation, Psychological Review 50, 370-96.

2
Maslow, A.H. (1943). Motivation and personality. New York: Harper.

3
Maslow, A. (1970). Motivation and personality (2nd ed.). New York: Harper & Row.

4
Wahba, M.A. & Bridwell, L.G. (1976). Maslow reconsidered: A review of research on the need hierarchy theory. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance , 15, 212–240