Maslow's Hierarchy

What is Happiness?

What is happiness, or what makes people feel that their life is fulfilled and happy? It's a question that has been asked by scientists and philosophers for as long as we can remember. Many great minds have tried to answer it. Some attempted to answer the question by looking at troubled people and what would make them happy.

Abraham Maslow, an American psychologist, took a different approach. He tried to answer this question by looking at the happiest and most remarkable people at the time and then analysing what motivated them to get there.

He rationalised that everybody has an innate desire to live a fulfilled and happy life and that our actions daily are steps towards reaching this aim. So the question is, what motivates us to do these actions?

Maslow suggested that motivation can be broken up into different levels. Our first and foremost motivations are for our basic needs like food, water, and shelter. Once we have fulfilled those needs, we desire to fulfil more advanced needs such as social, love and esteem. And when these are met, we then strive to grow and develop as a person and find our individual potential in life. This may be an artist who lives his passion for painting or an engineer who builds things he dreams about.

Maslow drew this concept as a pyramid with five levels, in what is known as "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs". It was published in his 1943 paper, "A Theory of Human Motivation" and later refined for his subsequent book "Motivation and Personality".

In the pyramid, each of the 5 levels represents a human need and builds on the previous needs. The lowest levels comprise the most basic needs, while complex needs are at the top of the pyramid.

To better understand this, let's look at these needs in more detail by picturing a person who starts with nothing.

Physiological Need

Our first need is to survive. These physiological needs include the air to breathe, food to eat, water to drink and sleep. When they aren't fulfilled, it will be the main thing we are preoccupied with. For example, if we are starving, it's hard to focus on anything else besides food. Other basic needs might be clothes and shelter to keep warm.

Safety Need

Once our most basic survival needs are consistently met, safety becomes our next primary aim. In the old times, this would be a shelter to protect against the weather and predators from eating us. In modern life, we might not have the same danger of being eaten by animals. However, we might still live in an unsafe environment or face violent conditions and have the need to move to somewhere safer.

The "safety needs" extends further than just physical safety. They also can include job security and savings in our bank account.

We might also feel unprotected from illness and injury unless we have health insurance or health care. Whilst we don't necessarily need them, we can feel more confident and happy knowing that we can face minor bumps in life.

Love & Belonging Need

Once we are satisfied and feel safe, we can have time to think about what we want next in life. At this stage, we move on to the need for love and belonging at this stage. Humans are social creatures that crave human relationships, love and belonging. Without it, we can feel lonely, anxious and depressed. And with it, we can better cope with difficult times. While it's essential for personal relationships with close family and friends, we also need it from social groups, community groups, churches and religious organisations. We need to accept and be accepted. Numerous studies have shown that the happiest people are generally involved with communities.

Esteem Need

Once we have the love and belongingness from families, friends and communities, we might feel the need to be seen for our talents and capabilities. We do this by dedicating ourselves to our hobbies or profession and excelling.

According to Maslow, there are two versions of esteem: the "lower" and "higher". The lower version of esteem involves other people's opinions of us. The need to gain their respect, attention, and admiration. The higher version of esteem is more focused on our internal opinion of ourselves, which includes cultivating self-respect, self-mastery, self-confidence, independence, and a general sense of gratitude and appreciation for ourselves.

Self-actualisation Need

The last ladder of the pyramid is when we focus on personal growth, achievement and happiness. Unlike the other needs, this need looks different for everyone. One person might find their potential in music or arts, whilst another might be an engineer who builds the things he dreams about. or an actor who loves to perform. Self-actualisation is past any material needs. It also means contributing to society or the greater good. And it isn't a permanent state but rather an ongoing need for personal growth and discovery.

Deficiency Needs versus Growth Needs

We can separate the Hierarchy into two types of needs: deficiency needs and growth needs.

Physiological, security, social, and esteem needs are deficiency needs. These are needs where the motivation to fulfil them becomes stronger the longer they are denied. And when they aren't met, we have some unpleasant feelings or consequences. For example, without food, we will feel hungry. Without safety, there's a sense of danger and worry. When we don't have love, we might feel lonely. But once they are met, our motivation for them decreases.

Growth needs are the opposite. They aren't from what we lack but the desire to become better and grow as a person. The motivation for it grows even when the need has been met.

Applying to one's life

Maslow points out that the Hierarchy is a general idea. Not all levels need to be filled entirely before pursuing the following levels. But it does give us a guideline on how to have a balanced life.

We might sacrifice our essential health and safety if we focus too much on the top. It can also stress us, as we constantly worry about how to put food on the table or pay the rent.

If we put too much on the bottom, we perhaps aren't reaching our full potential or aren't contributing to the greater good. The final result is that we might never feel content with life.

Workplace and Society

Through Maslow's Pyramid and the understanding of what motivates people, we can use this to help us build a healthy workplace, organisation and society.

In the workplace, knowing that safety is one of the basic needs, we can ensure that employees receive adequate income and have safe and reliable jobs. The next level of happiness comes from the desire to be part of a larger group and feel a sense of belonging. It's essential then to build a positive relationship between the company and employees. Creating an environment where people can feel like they are a part of a team, build friendships and form professional associations are all essential factors for a happy job.

According to Maslow's Pyramid, the need for esteem naturally follows. By focusing on ensuring there are work and learning opportunities available and a good place for people to do their work, people will naturally strive to excel and be recognised and valued. At this stage, we should praise people for their excellent work as it can become a more significant motivator than more financial compensation.

Some people might even strive to reach self-actualisation within the company and aspire to be a manager or leader to help others grow.

Now there are many factors in life, and an employee might just be happy meeting their basic physiologic and safety needs at work. And have no desire for social or esteem needs due to their personal situation or just their personality. Or they might come to work purely for their social needs.

So it's essential to get to know employees individually and understand what motivates or makes them happy.

Criticism

Now while the popular Hierarchy gives us a clean and logical diagram of human motivation, Humans are very complex beings, and not everyone will fit into it. Also, Maslow's analysis was based on what he saw as "successful" people. Still, success is subjective, and others might disagree with them being the definition of "successful".

Society

However, I strongly feel that Maslow's pyramid gives us a good guideline for a society where people feel happier and fulfil in life. This is because people are capable of and have the desire to reach self-actualisation. But unfortunately, the progress is sometimes disrupted because they cannot meet the lower-level needs. These may be because of losing their job, going through divorces, living in an unsafe family environment, falling sick or just from general life experiences.

But if we can support those lacking in the basic needs through community or government-level support, people would naturally want to grow and contribute to a better society.