Needs and Desires: Their Definition
Before diving into the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and its effects it is important to understand the difference between needs and desires. A need is something essential for the continuation of human activity. For example, without sleep and food, physiological functioning is impossible. Without knowledge, a person can’t make informed decisions. The need for influence or power arises for those who must lead, manage, or control others. Without power, managerial activities can’t exist. Thus, a need is a natural measure of what is required by the body or life itself.
A desire, on the other hand, can exceed this natural measure. A person may eat more than what their body needs. They might develop an unhealthy obsession with money. Ultimately, they could spend all their time pursuing scientific discoveries while neglecting their physical health. Therefore, desires should be controlled, and one must pay attention to their true needs.
Desires can sometimes contradict needs. For instance, a person may need knowledge for a particular task. However, they might lack the desire to acquire it. This could be due to their worldview, the effort involved, or its difficulty. In this case, another need arises. It could be preserving one’s energy or adhering to one’s personal philosophy. The desire manifests relative to this need.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs categorizes various types of needs. These are based on their importance. The categories include physiological needs, safety, social needs, and self-actualization needs.
- Physiological Needs: Movement, food, sleep, water, shelter, air, warmth, clothing, health, and appearance.
- Safety: Personal safety, financial security, protection, work, and income.
- Social Needs: Recognition, respect, care, and love.
- Self-Actualization: Faith, culture, knowledge, and skills.
Physiological Needs – First Level on Maslow’s Hierarchy
At any given moment, individuals prioritize which need to satisfy. According to the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, most people are focused on fulfilling their lower-level needs. Food, shelter, sleep, and rest are central to human concerns. Satisfying basic needs is more critical than fulfilling higher-level needs such as knowledge and skills.
This is evident in the invention of agriculture and animal husbandry. Some groups secured long-term food supplies. They began to experiment and excel in cultivating crops and raising livestock. In contrast, those who continued to suffer from hunger remained hunter-gatherers. They hesitated to take risks by inventing new methods of food production. Providing a long-term food supply allowed people to explore new techniques. They discovered better ways of growing food.
Safety Needs – Second Level on Maslow’s Hierarchy
The next step in the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is safety. People form communities to collaborate on shelter, food, and production. They also ensure physical protection from hostile neighbors.
For example, a state must monitor the quantity and quality of other nations’ military forces. This helps to determine the size of its own army. Without an army, a state cannot defend itself from attacks, conquests, or looting by neighbors. Hence, an army and the need for physical security take precedence over economic and industrial development. No one will care about a nation’s economic growth if it is under immediate threat of destruction. Those who protect the state, exchange their security services for finances, food, and shelter.
Once physical and safety needs are met, advancements in science, production, and the economy occur. Methods of gathering, storing, and preserving food are improved. Granaries are built to store crops. The first dog breeds are domesticated for efficient hunting. Sheep and horses are herded. The extraction of resources such as copper, iron, gold, silver, salt, and coal also develops.
Social Needs – Third Level in Maslow’s Hierarchy
After satisfying physical and safety needs, people are motivated by social needs which, according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, are recognition, respect, care, and love. This is particularly evident in scientists. Many pursue discoveries to gain recognition and respect. They continue even if their findings lack immediate financial benefit or practical application. They are driven by the belief that their work will be appreciated in the future, leaving their name in history.
Thus, individuals who advance knowledge and science exchange their progress for social recognition and respect. People, in turn, use this progress to drive economic, industrial, technological, and military developments.
Recognition as a Motivational Stimulus
Needs according to Maslow’s hierarchy significantly impact behavioral psychology. They motivate individuals to take action and care for themselves across different areas of life. Behavior can be modified by emphasizing specific needs.
For example, recognition is a significant source of motivation for many. People compete for first place, produce innovations, and make discoveries to gain recognition. Recognition, from a behavioral psychology perspective, is a positive reinforcement that drives individuals to achieve results. People strive for success because they know they will be praised.
However, the opposite also applies. Public devaluation of one’s achievements or work creates a desire to avoid poor results or low-quality production. This process is called negative reinforcement—those who fail and receive negative feedback are more inclined to improve next time.
The Difference Between Pleasing Others and Seeking Recognition
The desire to please others differs from the desire for recognition. Pleasing others focuses on satisfying someone else’s desires, sometimes at the cost of one’s own needs. Recognition, however, focuses on personal validation and acknowledgment of one’s value. For example, if you seek acknowledgment for hard work on a project, you are on a quest for recognition. On the other hand, conceding to someone else to avoid conflict is an act of pleasing others.
To Each According to Their Needs
The principle of communism is expressed as “from each according to their ability, to each according to their need.” It is based on the idea that individuals should set aside excessive desires—such as wealth or power. They should focus instead on meeting natural needs for themselves and others.
Four requirements must be met for this principle to succeed:
- Equal distribution of collective income based on individual needs.
- Redirecting resources from fulfilling excessive desires to meeting natural needs.
- Creating a supervisory class to ensure fair resource distribution without corruption.
- Creating supervisors to watch labor class. They assess the ability of workers to perform their job. Supervisors make corrections if workers can work harder or need to work less.
The second requirement emphasizes that societies prioritizing the fulfillment of excessive desires cannot achieve equality in meeting basic needs. Only when resources are directed toward satisfying natural needs will people collectively work to improve overall well-being.
The third requirement raises the challenge of corruption. Supervisors tasked with distributing resources might misuse their power, setting aside a surplus for themselves. In this scenario, wealth shifts from the working class to the hands of exploiters.
Impossibility of Creating Perfect Communism
Achieving perfect communism is fundamentally unattainable due to inherent challenges in human behavior, economic systems, and societal structures. This is summed up by the following points:
- While natural needs are finite, human desires are often limitless. The tendency to seek power, wealth, or personal advantage can undermine collective efforts toward equality. Individuals entrusted with resource management may succumb to self-interest, prioritizing their own desires over fairness and equality.
- Determining what constitutes “need” is subjective and varies across individuals and societies. In a world of finite resources and diverse demands, achieving a perfect match is practically impossible. Balancing ability, contribution, and need remains a challenge. State-controlled economies often struggled to allocate resources effectively, leading to shortages and stagnation.
- Human motivation often relies on rewards and recognition. Removing incentives for personal achievement and replacing them with collective equality can reduce innovation, productivity, and progress. Without the opportunity to excel and benefit individually, individuals may lack the drive to contribute fully to society.
The Role of Motivation in Needs and Desires
Motivation plays a central role in shaping human behavior, particularly in the interaction between needs and desires. In psychology, motivation drives individuals to act. It stems from two primary sources: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Understanding how these forms of motivation interact with needs and desires helps explain this challenge. Achieving perfect economic and societal systems, like communism, remains difficult.
- Intrinsic Motivation:
This is driven by internal satisfaction and the fulfillment of personal goals. For example, the pursuit of knowledge, creativity, or self-improvement satisfies deeper psychological needs like self-actualization. However, intrinsic motivation can sometimes conflict with external demands, making it difficult to align individual aspirations with collective goals. - Extrinsic Motivation:
This stems from external rewards, such as money, recognition, or power. While extrinsic motivation can drive individuals to contribute to society, it can also lead to excessive desires. For instance, when recognition becomes a dominant motivator, individuals may prioritize personal gain over the collective good. This behavior creates inequality and undermines communal principles.
Balancing Needs and Desires in Modern Society
While perfect communism remains unattainable, modern societies can work toward balancing needs and desires through hybrid economic systems:
- Social Safety Nets: Programs like universal healthcare and welfare address basic needs while allowing individuals to pursue personal ambitions.
- Regulation of Excessive Desires: Policies aimed at reducing extreme inequality—such as progressive taxation—ensure resources are redistributed to meet societal needs.
- Encouraging Responsible Innovation: Incentives for technological and scientific advancements can balance individual rewards with collective benefits.
Societies can recognize the tension between needs and desires. This helps them develop systems that promote fairness, opportunity, and progress. They do so without sacrificing human motivation and innovation.
Conclusion
Needs and desires are fundamental drivers of human motivation, shaping behavior, economics, and psychology. While needs are essential for survival and growth, unchecked desires can disrupt balance and lead to inequalities. By understanding these concepts and their hierarchical role, societies can better align priorities. Individuals can also ensure progress, promote fairness, and achieve sustainable development. ever, excessive or poorly managed negative feelings can disrupt mental well-being. They can also lead to unhealthy behaviors. This document explores practical strategies for processing and managing negative emotions. It covers self-awareness and mindfulness. It also includes cognitive defusion and reframing negative thoughts. By understanding and addressing these emotions, individuals can break free from their hold and cultivate emotional resilience.