In my first article, I briefly touched on the topic of wellness and ultimately increasing one’s well-being with one important factor being the foundational and incremental improvement of one’s well-being. If you’ve ever taken a Psychology 101 class or spent much time on the internet, you’re bound to have heard a bit about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, and therefore the idea of foundationally and incrementally meeting base needs in order to achieve increased levels of well-being might seem familiar.
While there are plenty of valid criticisms that have been posed against this framework—causing corresponding updates to both theory and practice alike—there are some areas where the humanistic school of thought gets it right, and today we will be discussing these points as well as taking a look at how they impact how we think of wellness and our well-being today.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Humanistic Psychology
In order to understand Maslow or Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, it is important to first consider the climate of thought at the time in which he practiced. During the 1930s and 1940s, the two foremost schools of thought within psychology were behaviorism and psychoanalysis. Maslow—as well as a group of his contemporaries—felt that the former was too reductionist in its approach to human behavior, eliminating too many important and potentially correlated factors by distilling human behavior into disparate elements (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2022; Celestine, 2023). Furthermore, the latter was deemed too deterministic by this cohort, and so humanistic psychology was born (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2022; Celestine, 2023).
Humanistic psychology strives to find a balance between quantifiable measurement and consideration for all the immeasurable phenomenon and minutia that makes us human, and though he did not know it at the time—for better or worse—Maslow would forever shape this area of psychology through the inclusion of his Hierarchy of Needs contained in the publication A Theory of Human Motivation (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2022; Celestine, 2023).
“It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.” – Robert F. Kennedy on the GNP measurement
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: A Theory Defined
Mcleod, 2020
Many readers will likely recognize this pyramid—or hierarchy—upon seeing it. Comprised of five levels of “higher” and “lower” needs, the hierarchy from foundation to top is as follows (Celestine, 2023; Wahome, 2022):
- Physiological (e.g., air, food, drink, shelter, etc.)
- Safety (e.g., a safe/secure environment, order, predictability, stability, etc.)
- Love and belonging (e.g., a feeling of belonging/acceptance within a social group, feeling loved, feelings of love towards others, etc.)
- Esteem (e.g., feeling confident about oneself, feeling respected, feeling valued, etc.)
- Self-actualization (e.g., realizing one’s full potential, self-fulfillment, self-development, etc.)
The theory itself postulates that these needs are arranged as such to indicate the importance of meeting lower-level needs and that lower-level needs must be addressed in order for the mind to move on to the next until self-actualization is reached (Celestine, 2023; Wahome, 2022). Additionally, it is important to state that in this earliest form, Maslow intended that physiological, safety, and love and belonging needs were all lower or base-level needs, with esteem and self-actualization representing the harder to obtain or most complex higher levels (Wahome, 2022).
Mcleod, 2020
Another way we—and eventually Maslow in his continued refinement of the theory—have come to interpret this is by dividing the hierarchy into two types of needs: deficiency needs, and growth needs (Mcleod, 2020; Wahome, 2022). Deficiency needs are those without which we become increasingly motivated when they are unmet—such as through hunger or thirst—and arise due to deprivation (Wahome, 2022). Growth needs, however, do not arise due to deprivation, but rather out of a desire for growth as a person (Wahome, 2022).
This newer imagining of the theory not only reflects Maslow’s initial intent that the movement between levels is understood to be less unidirectional and rigid—i.e., one can mostly address a previous level to move on to the next and may cycle between levels—but it also reflects Maslow’s own refined understanding of human needs as he later stated that order of needs may be flexible based on external circumstances or individual differences and that most behavior is, in fact, multi-motivated (Wahome, 2022).
Mcleod, 2020
In his final expanded version of the hierarchy, Maslow included the following three additional needs in spots 5, 6, and 8 respectively (Wahome, 2022):
- Cognitive
- Aesthetic
- Transcendence
These less concrete needs were meant to encompass and explain the desire humans possess to be mentally stimulated or challenged, seek out that which is aesthetically pleasing, and pursuit of furthering a cause beyond the self (Celestine, 2023; Wahome, 2022).
The Wellness/Well-being Wheel
The Wellness or Well-being Wheel is another widely adopted theory within positive psychology that states an individual’s well-being is influenced not only by the wellness of the individual but also that of the communities to which they belong (The University of New Hampshire, 2023). Moreover, as shown in the image below, this wheel is comprised of the following eight wellness components (The University of New Hampshire, 2023; Yale School of Medicine, 2023):
- Intellectual
- Emotional
- Occupational
- Environmental
- Financial
- Spiritual
- Physical
- Social
Yale School of Medicine, 2023
In general, this understanding of well-being and wellness incorporates and considers a rather comprehensive range of factors, however, you will notice that “needs” as we have discussed appear to be absent (The University of New Hampshire, 2023). The reasoning for this seeming omission is due to these needs—in various forms—being represented by their distinct areas of wellness or encompassed by the “health” arm that often accompanies wellness when discussing a broader philosophy of “health and wellness” (The University of New Hampshire, 2023).
Needs vs Wellness: So Who Was Right?
During the height of the lockdown period of the pandemic, many individuals could not adequately meet foundational needs as employment and financial stability were impacted or at risk—this was to say nothing of the impact to more complex wellness or needs-based areas within everyone’s lives (Šakan et al., 2020). It became clear during this time just how intricate the linkage between well-being and needs is and how in meeting one we are ultimately supporting the other (Rivers, 2018; Šakan et al., 2020; Vyhlidal, 2021). Furthermore, it is important to consider activities and practices falling under the umbrella of wellness as important to both health and our larger framework of needs as these often go hand in hand with many aspects of how we navigate the world and the resulting behavioral responses they generate (Šakan et al., 2020).
In general, so many of our institutions seek to differentiate between needs-based theory and that which focuses on wellness and/or well-being, however, particularly within the global lockdown period of the pandemic it has been shown that this is not a realistic view to adopt and often can lead to decisions which may have adverse effects (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020; Perkbox, 2020; WellRight, 2022). For example, given the continued isolation and potential for a blurring between work life and home life, it is crucial for businesses and schools to consider the well-being—and therefore needs—of their workforce or students. While many companies have invested in wellness, this remote or hybrid model will require a major paradigm shift in the population at large as it not only will impact how remote workers operate, but it could also impact insurance policies, school workings, business policies at large, and medical care and coverage to name a few (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020; Perkbox, 2020; WellRight, 2022).
References
Celestine, N. (2023, February 6). Abraham Maslow, his theory & contribution to psychology. PositivePsychology.com. https://positivepsychology.com/abraham-maslow/
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020, February 29). Engaging remote employees in their health and workplace wellness programs. https://www.cdc.gov/workplacehealthpromotion/initiatives/resource-center/case-studies/engaging-remote-employees
Encyclopedia Britannica. (2022, December 16). Humanistic psychology. https://www.britannica.com/science/humanistic-psychology
Mcleod, S. (2020, December 29). Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow
Perkbox. (2020, November 2). How to support the wellbeing of your remote employees. https://www.perkbox.com/uk/resources/blog/support-wellbeing-of-remote-employees
Rivers, R. (2018, January 3). Wellbeing is not just the satisfaction of needs. Wellbeing and Control. https://wellbeingandcontrol.com/?p=215
Šakan, D., Žuljević, D., & Rokvić, N. (2020). The role of basic psychological needs in well-being during the COVID-19 outbreak: A self-determination theory perspective. Frontiers in Public Health, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.583181
The University of New Hampshire. (2023, February 10). The well-being wheel. https://www.unh.edu/health/wellbeing-wheel
Vyhlidal, T. (2021, August). The domino effect of needs and wellness. The Wellbeing Partners. https://thewellbeingpartners.org/the-domino-effect-of-needs-and-wellness/
Wahome, C. (2022, April 27). Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: What is it? WebMD. https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/what-is-maslow-hierarchy-of-needs
WellRight. (2022, September 19). Employee wellness and the future of remote work/the hybrid workplace. https://www.wellright.com/blog/employee-wellness-future-remote-work-hybrid-workplace
Yale School of Medicine. (2023). Resident wellness program. Yale School of Medicine. https://medicine.yale.edu/urology/education/residents/wellness/