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Hierarchy of Needs

History
Abraham Maslow initially helped to move psychology from spinal reflex theory of Sechenov (1863) and Pavlov (1927) and also from the non-introspective thinking of behaviorism originated by Watson (1913) and amplified by Skinner (1948).
Maslow changed psychology forever by elevating psychology to a new and far deeper understanding of what it means to be human.
Instead of trying to make sense of the insanity of broken minds, he explored the sanity that made people exemplary.  For example, he explored what Albert Einstein and Eleanor Roosevelt had in common.

Maslow is a humanistic psychologist. Humanists do not believe that human beings are pushed and pulled by mechanical forces, either of stimuli and reinforcements (behaviorism) or of unconscious instinctual impulses (psychoanalysis).
Humanists focus upon potentials. They believe that humans strive for an upper level of capabilities. Humans seek the frontiers of creativity, the highest reaches of consciousness and wisdom.
This has been labeled "fully functioning person", "healthy personality", or as Maslow calls this level, "self-actualizing person."

Abraham Maslow developed a theory of personality that has influenced a number of different fields, including education. This wide influence is due in part to the high level of practicality of Maslow's theory.
This theory accurately describes many realities of personal experiences. Many people find they can understand what Maslow says. They can recognize some features of their experience or behavior which is true and identifiable but which they have never put into words.

Psychologist Abraham Maslow first introduced his concept of a hierarchy of needs in his 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation" and his subsequent book, Motivation and Personality.
They are quoted and taught so widely now that many people perceive this model as the definitive set of needs and do not look further.
This hierarchy suggests that people are motivated to fulfill basic needs before moving on to other needs.

Mostly, Maslow's hierarchy of needs is displayed as a pyramid. The lowest levels of the pyramid are made up of the most basic needs, while the more complex needs are located 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 take priority.
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.

A key aspect of the model is the hierarchical nature of the needs. The lower the needs in the hierarchy, the more fundamental they are and the more a person will tend to abandon the higher needs in order to pay attention to sufficiently meeting the lower needs. For example, when we are ill, we care little for what others think about us: all we want is to get better.

The Famous 'B' and 'D' Needs :
D Values
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 due to deprivation. Satisfying these lower-level needs is important in order to avoid unpleasant feelings or consequences.

B Values
Maslow termed the highest-level of the pyramid as growth needs (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.
In general, values reflect one's judgment and helps sort out what is important in life. Those who were self actualized tended to incorporate more B Values than those at lower levels.

The B Values include:
- Wholeness/Unity/Oneness
- Perfection/Just-so-ness
- Completion/Finality/Ending
- Justice/Fairness
- Aliveness/Full-Functioning
- Richness/Intricacy
- Simplicity/Essential/Honesty
- Beauty/Form/Richness
- Goodness/Oughtness
- Uniqueness/Idiosyncrasy/Novelty
- Effortlessness/Ease/Perfect
- Playfulness/Joy/Humor
- Truth/Reality/Beauty/Pure
- Self-Sufficiency/Independence

Five Levels of the Hierarchy of Needs
Starting from the base of a pyramid, Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs will de explained as follows :

Physiological Needs
These include the most basic needs that are vital to survival, such as the need for water, air, food, sleep and a relatively constant body temperature.
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.
They are the strongest needs because if a person were deprived of all needs, the physiological ones would come first in the person's search for satisfaction.

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.
Adults have little awareness of their security needs except in times of emergency or periods of disorganization in the social structure (such as widespread rioting). Children often display the signs of insecurity and the need to be safe.
Examples of security needs include a desire for steady employment, health insurance, safe neighborhoods and shelter from the environment.

Social Needs
These include needs for belonging, love and affection. Maslow considered these needs to be less basic than physiological and security needs.
Maslow states that people seek to overcome feelings of loneliness and alienation. This involves both giving and receiving love, affection and the sense of belonging.
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.

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.
Esteem needs also involve needs for both self-esteem and for the esteem a person gets from others. Humans have a need for a stable, firmly based, high level of self-respect, and respect from others.
When these needs are satisfied, the person feels self-confident and valuable as a person in the world. When these needs are frustrated, the person feels inferior, weak, helpless and worthless.

Self-actualizing Needs
Self Actualization was actually coined by Kurt Goldstein in 1940 and later widely used by Carl Rogers. Self actualization is defined as a basic force which drives the person forward and onwards.
Self-Actualization is described by Maslow as an ongoing process involved in a cause outside their own skin. People on this need level, work at something very precious. This is a vocation or a calling in the old priestly sense. These people are very fine, healthy, strong, sagacious (that is, very smart) and creative.

Maslow describes self-actualization as a person's need to be and do that which the person was "born to do." "A musician must make music, an artist must paint, and a poet must write."
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.

Maslow believes that the only reason that people would not move well in direction of self-actualization is because of hindrances placed in their way by society. He states that education is one of these hindrances.

He recommends ways education can switch from its usual person-stunting tactics to person-growing approaches.
+Ten points that educators should address are listed:

- We should teach people to be authentic, to be aware of their inner selves and to hear their inner-feeling voices.
- We should teach people to transcend their cultural conditioning and become world citizens.
- We should help people discover their vocation in life, their calling, fate or destiny. This is especially focused on finding the right career and the right mate.
- We should teach people that life is precious, that there is joy to be experienced in life, and if people are open to seeing the good and joyous in all kinds of situations, it makes life worth living.
- We must accept the person as he or she is and help the person learn their inner nature. From real knowledge of aptitudes and limitations we can know what to build upon, what potentials are really there.
- We must see that the person's basic needs are satisfied. This includes safety, belongingness, and esteem needs.
- We should refreshen consciousness, teaching the person to appreciate beauty and the other good things in nature and in living.
- We should teach people that controls are good, and complete abandon is bad. It takes control to improve the quality of life in all areas.
- We should teach people to transcend the trifling problems and grapple with the serious problems in life. These include the problems of injustice, of pain, suffering, and death.
- We must teach people to be good choosers. They must be given practice in making good choices.

Three more needs
Maslow later added three more needs by splitting two of the above five needs.
Between esteem and self-actualization needs was added:
- Need to know and understand, which explains the cognitive need of the academic.
- The need for aesthetic beauty, which is the emotional need of the artist.

Furthermore, Self-actualization was divided into:
- Self-actualization, which is realizing one's own potential, as above.
- Transcendence, which is helping others to achieve their potential.

Conclusion
Maslow is a path. Maslow asks us to throw ourselves into what is meaningful for us. He asks us to concentrate on it fully and let it totally absorb you. Instead of worrying about safety issues which produces fear, get in the habit of making choices that promote growth.