Human needs, A. Maslow's pyramid of needs

A. Maslow's pyramid of needs

Without something a person cannot survive at all, without something life will be uncomfortable, and without something you can do without, but you still really want to have it. This suggests that needs have their own hierarchy . In the 20th century, psychologist Abraham Maslow drew attention to this pattern and structured all human needs in the form of a pyramid. It is called “A. Maslow’s Pyramid of Needs.”

Let's look at the pyramid in order, starting from the base and rising to the top.

• Physiological (biological, material) needs. This group includes: the need for food, water, air. The need for treatment and recovery when a person is sick. And, in a word, all those biological needs that other mammals have. The need for safety (existential needs). This means that a person needs a warm and safe place where nothing threatens his life: neither harsh weather, nor predators, nor enemies.

• Social needs. Everyone, to a greater or lesser extent, needs communication, friendship, love, support. From parents, peers, older and younger brothers or sisters, and so on.

• Prestigious needs. In other words, it is the need for respect, recognition and achievement. For example, winning a contest or competition, performing on stage, or receiving praise for your creativity.

• The need for self-actualization (self-expression). This is a person’s need to realize his talents and capabilities. The need to do necessary and useful things, to share one’s creativity.

Traditional classification

In psychology, it is customary to distinguish four main types of needs: biological, material, social and spiritual.

Biological needs

This group of needs is associated with the human body and its physical condition. Without their satisfaction, the body may die. They are given to us from birth and do not depend on origin, race, gender. These include the needs for breathing, water, food, sleep, and reproduction.

Scientists have found out how long a person can live without satisfying their physiological needs. According to their calculations, you can survive without water for about 10 days, without food - no more than 60, without air - about 5 minutes. These numbers may differ depending on the individual characteristics of each person’s body.

Material needs

When deciding what needs a person has, the opinions of researchers regarding material needs differed. Some scientists consider them a separate group, others include them in biological ones.

This type includes satisfying the need for comfort, clothing, and housing.

Social needs

It is believed that a person needs communication, participation, and self-affirmation in a team no less than food and sleep. Social needs push people to find friends, start a family, and raise children. These include work activity, self-realization, and the desire for career growth.

Rice. 1. Company of friends.

Spiritual Needs

The list of human needs includes spiritual ones associated with the characteristics of the inner world. They are not inherent in us by nature, but arise in the process of life. This concept has other names: ideal, cognitive, cultural needs. Examples could be:

• gaining new knowledge;
• search for the meaning of life;
• formation of moral values ​​and principles;
• creative self-realization;
• creating beauty.

Rice.
2. In an art gallery. All needs are closely interconnected. Moreover, they are endless; it is impossible to satisfy all people’s needs. Some predominate in humans to a greater extent than others: for some, social well-being is important, for others, the opportunity to create.

Needs can rise and expand

As we see, at the base of the pyramid of needs are those needs without which a person cannot survive. And at the very top is the need for self-expression, which not even every person experiences and not at every moment of time.

This is one of the key ideas of the pyramid of needs: a person is most often inclined to “elevate” needs . That is, when lower needs are satisfied, a person develops needs at the next level. Then the next one, and so on.

For example, a hungry and cold person needs food and warmth and cannot enjoy beautiful music or deep literature. However, when he eats and warms up, he will have a desire to both listen to music and read a book.

Now consider the concept of “expansion” of needs. This means that people have more and more different ways to satisfy the same needs.

For example, once a person was content with a very limited set of food products: caught fish and game, collected fruits. And now we not only bring products from all over the world for a varied diet, but also prepare the most delicious dishes from them.

Gerashchenko I.G. Philosophy of rational needs

UDC 330.163

PHILOSOPHY OF RATIONAL NEEDS

Gerashchenko I.G.

The philosophy of rational (reasonable) needs is considered in historical, methodological and educational aspects. The problem of needs is analyzed from a philosophical and economic point of view. An attempt has been made to approach rational human needs in a systematic way. For this purpose, the philosophical concept of “measure” is used. The effectiveness of various philosophical and economic approaches to the problem of needs is revealed.

Key words: philosophy of needs, rational needs, philosophy of economics, measure, “golden mean”, conspicuous consumption, rational consumption.

PHILOSOPHY OF RATIONAL NEEDS

Gerashchenko IG

The article considers philosophy of rational (sensible) needs in historical, methodological and educational aspects. It analyzes the problem of needs from the philosophical and economic point of view. The author has a shot at a systematic approach to human rational needs. For this purpose, the philosophical concept of measure is used. The article shows the effectiveness of the use of various philosophical and economic approaches to the problem of needs.

Keywords: philosophy of needs, rational needs philosophy of economics, measure, “sweet spot”, demonstrative consumption, rational consumption.

The philosophy of rational (reasonable) needs has a long history. From the moment of the emergence of humanity until today, it has been forced to solve the problem of economically spending its available funds. Throughout history, a variety of versions of the philosophy of reasonable needs have arisen, but they all had something in common: a rational approach to available consumer goods. This problem is very relevant at the present time, when the standard of living of people in many regions of the world is declining, there is a constant struggle for natural resources and the redistribution of spheres of influence, the unpredictability of the future is increasing, economic uncertainty is increasing, and the protection of people from the state and big business is decreasing. Environmental and demographic problems require a rational approach to the needs of all humanity [4, p. 4].

Already in primitive society, the original version of the concept of reasonable needs appeared. A paradoxical situation arises here: the concept of reasonable needs is already being formed, but people do not yet have reason. It follows from this that the economic life of society can stimulate the development of the mind, or it can hinder this process. We are seeing something similar today, when the desire for maximum consumption sharply reduces the intellectual level of consumers. Reason as the highest manifestation of human individuality is reduced in this case to a rational-grasping set of skills of the “stimulus-response” type.

Primitive society was characterized by a naive and reasonable approach to satisfying its own needs. The primitive economy did not provide opportunities to fully consume, which led to the original version of “fair distribution.” The absence of a state, money and a legal system allowed primitive society to create the only option for equivalent exchange in human history. Subsistence farming contributed to the formation of a “natural man” living in relative harmony with nature. This was the deep pedagogical meaning of natural exchange, since economic life itself nurtured the reasonable needs of man and his spiritual qualities.

Slavery developed its own concept of rational needs. Ancient Greece is especially indicative in this regard. The most important concept in the culture of antiquity was the “measure” or “golden mean”. The most outstanding thinkers tried to solve the problem of harmonious human existence. The measure represented the unity of qualitative and quantitative characteristics, when quality set a limit to endless quantitative increment. Applied to economics, this meant that the quality of life should be determined by a limited number of needs. There is a well-known dispute between Solon and Aristotle over wealth. Solon argued that the human thirst for wealth knows no bounds. Aristotle objected to him and argued that true wealth is things that are necessary to support life and are reliably preserved under the control of the community [7, p. 136]. As K. Polanyi showed, Aristotle witnessed the period of transition from a natural economy to elements of a market economy, which led to the transformation of people’s needs. However, Aristotle himself was a supporter of moderation in everything and an opponent of hedonism.

Religion has made a great contribution to the formation of reasonable consumption. Even at the level of polytheism, religion contributed to the education of spiritual needs, albeit in a distorted form. In ancient society, the material and spiritual needs of man were still in a syncretic state, i.e. There was not just a close connection between them, but interpenetration. Spiritual life was directly included in material production, and the merit of religion was that the spiritual needs of people gradually began to be separated from economic ones. World religions played a particularly large role in this process, since they had a pronounced intellectual content and a form of expression accessible to most people. Within the framework of each world religion, an original economic doctrine was formed, which, along with its own religious content, needed propaganda. Religious teachers (prophets, apostles, Buddhas, etc.) took on this task and were engaged in educating not children, but mature adults. One of the tasks of such education was the formation of religious needs. As a result of this, all world religions have developed their own concepts of reasonable economic needs.

The most important reason for the emergence of Buddhism was the problem of the physical survival of millions of Hindus in conditions of extremely low labor productivity and mass unemployment. All the main commandments of the Buddha were concentrated not only around overcoming the fear of death and suffering, but were also aimed at the spiritual self-improvement of a person with the aim of isolating him from the outside world. Achieving nirvana presupposed maximum limitation of material needs and mastery of complex spiritual practices. Thus, the ancient Indian economy, in the person of an individual Buddhist, lost a producer who, in principle, it did not need, but it also lost a consumer. Thus, the problem of regulating labor resources was solved in a unique way. One can, of course, argue about how reasonable the needs of a Buddhist are, but if we take into account the economic situation of that time, then the considered strategy can be considered quite effective. This is also evidenced by the thousand-year history of the existence of Buddhism.

Currently, Buddhist economics is considered as a completely independent direction in the organization of production and consumption, opposed to the Western market [8, p. 74]. The mixed economy of Buddhism is an original version of combining the age-old traditions of the caste organization of society with elements of the market. In this case, small enterprises play a decisive role, where the human factor is of great importance. The basic principles of Buddhist economics are: minimizing suffering, non-violence, genuine help and generosity, and simplifying desires. These principles suit the majority of the population and lead to high stability of society.

In the Christian tradition, the concept of reasonable needs has acquired a slightly different meaning. At the dawn of Christianity, the problem of survival of the humiliated and insulted was also solved. But here it was not individual spiritual practices that came first, but collective confrontation with difficulties in the Christian community. Joint meals with simple and healthy food and religious conversations were widely practiced. In Christianity, as in Buddhism, there is the concept of posthumous reward to a person for his way of life. This concept also contributed to the formation of reasonable needs and the economical use of available material resources. Naturally, religious teaching came first here too.

The formation of three branches of Christianity (Catholicism, Protestantism and Orthodoxy) led to fundamental differences in solving the problem of reasonable needs. The Catholic Church throughout the Middle Ages evolved in the direction of moving away from reasonable needs under feudalism. The economic meaning of the theory of dual truth was, ultimately, that the Church has the right to get rich by any means, since it brings the Divine word to people. To this day, the justification for this state of affairs is considered to be the assertion of the need for economic support for the organization that sets as its goal ideological propaganda. The apotheosis of the trading activities of the Catholic Church was the sale of indulgences. It turned out that reasonable needs can be bought and sold. This ultimately led to a deep crisis in Catholicism and the emergence of Protestantism.

The role of the Protestant religion in shaping the spirit of capitalism has been known for a long time [2]. But, at the same time, they often forget about the importance of reasonable needs in the process of primitive capitalist accumulation. If we proceed from the ideology of Protestantism, then theft, robbery, violence and deception cannot be the main methods of such accumulation. It is based on systematic work, economy and a rational approach to the distribution of resources. The work ethic of Protestantism is based on the following principles: prohibition of deceitful ways of getting rich, honest treatment of customers, high quality of goods and services, humane management of subordinates, prohibition of delays in wages, reasonable limitation of the working day and week.

A number of ideas of Protestantism were embodied in the Russian Old Believers. Many large Russian merchants were supporters of this faith. However, in general, Orthodoxy differed significantly from Protestantism, developing its own concept of reasonable needs. Orthodoxy has always supported the state, which has never been distinguished by the modesty of its requests. In the well-known economic-religious dispute between “acquisitive” and “non-acquisitive”, it was the “acquisitive” that won, which is not accidental. The Russian Orthodox Church, like the Catholic Church, was a supporter of a strong, centralized and rich church organization. However, unlike the state, reasonable needs associated with physical labor, natural exchange, a contemplative life position and spiritual improvement in religious faith were welcomed here.

The next concept of reasonable needs is related to Marxism. The ideological version of this concept was implemented under Soviet rule. The distributive economy largely allowed people to shape their needs. The slogans “from each according to his ability, to each according to his work” and “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need” actually complemented each other. Human needs are historical in nature and vary greatly from one era to another. Under socialism, the concept of “basic needs” was introduced, related to the primary satisfaction of human desires: the need for food, clothing, shelter, security. “Reasonable needs,” as convincingly shown by A.A. Zinoviev, depended on the social position of the individual [6, p. 110]. A simple worker is one thing, a representative of the highest party nomenklatura is quite another. The quality of life corresponded to the social status of the individual, and people's reasonable needs were different. This was often perceived as an unfair stratification of society, but this approach made it possible to overcome the evils of egalitarian communism.

Already in the socialist economy, quality standards were widely used. This in itself is not a disadvantage, since in a modern market economy we have arrived at the same thing. But under the conditions of planned farming, life was quite simple, which made it possible to reduce transaction costs. Thus, reasonable needs for such interpretation turned out to be economically beneficial for the state and society as a whole. The powerful ideological influence had a corresponding educational meaning. Varied market consumption was seen as consumerism, contrary to the moral code of the builder of communism. But it also contained a rational grain, as in all world religions, associated with the conscious limitation of one’s own needs. Despite its atheism, Marxist ideology took a lot from Christianity.

A peculiar concept of reasonable needs was developed in the cooperative movement, which existed under both capitalism and socialism. In fact, an attempt was made here to create an alternative to both a market and a planned economy. Cooperative ownership differs from both private and state ownership. This leaves its mark on relationships between people. Collective farming, where everyone is an owner, humanizes work, and democratic management improves the psychological climate in the organization. To this day, the cooperative movement in Russia covers millions of people. Even if we take one direction - dacha cooperatives, the specificity of economic needs is immediately visible. The low level of productivity is combined with the nature of labor. The rational organization of a household is not related to profit maximization, since the dacha cooperative is multifunctional. Here the harmonization of the various material and spiritual needs of people comes first. In addition, a purely economic problem - the food problem - is being solved.

Cooperative enterprises are, as a rule, small in size, and this is no coincidence. At such an enterprise, trusting interpersonal relationships are established, capital is shared, and joint management is subject to the democratic principle of “one share - one vote.” As E.F. rightly noted. Schumacher, small businesses are great because people matter. However, a cooperative is not the same as a small business, which is largely family-owned. A cooperative can unite different people who are similar in their worldview. What comes first here is the attitude towards needs, which presupposes their reasonable limitation. Relatively low labor productivity allows you to enjoy work and communication.

The situation is much more complicated with the reasonable needs of a large business that is associated with competition in the international market. There is already a struggle to increase labor productivity and maximize profits. Work ceases to bring joy, because a person feels like a simple cog in a large mechanism. High competition in the team leads to formalization of relationships and alienation. The only incentive is high salary and income. Rest and satisfaction of needs are transferred to free time. However, here too, a company employee is obliged to take care of increasing his competitiveness, spending part of his free time on professional self-improvement. This is not done out of selfless motives, but with the sole purpose of not losing your job. The remaining leisure time is used to satisfy needs that are difficult to keep within reasonable limits.

The size of an enterprise in a market economy significantly influences the formation of people's needs. This applies not only to international corporations, but also to educational institutions. The ongoing policy of consolidation of schools, colleges and universities, on the one hand, helps to reduce costs, but on the other, does not always lead to an increase in the quality of education. In a university organized like a large commercial company, it is extremely difficult to implement constitutional pedagogical principles: the humanistic nature of education, the priority of universal human values, free development of the individual, respect for human rights and freedoms, accessibility of education, etc. In a mega-pedagogical organization, formalism and alienation are more pronounced in systems “teacher-student”, “teacher-teacher”, “student-student”, since learning is put on stream. In addition, in such educational institutions the level of competition and standardization is excessive [5, p. 6-7].

In modern society, the division of people into “market people” and “non-market people” remains. Even if we take the countries of classical capitalism, then most people there do not set themselves the goal of maximizing profits. Having reached a relatively high level of income, European and American citizens prefer to relax. And only a small percentage of market people continue to earn money indefinitely. Due to the lack of free time, their needs may even be “reasonable”. History knows examples of billionaires who have driven used cars all their lives. At the same time, the environment of the “marketers” gave rise to the so-called leisure class, which is characterized by the following features: monetary competition, demonstrative idleness, conspicuous consumption, monetary standard of living, monetary canons of taste, clothing as an expression of monetary culture, prestigious higher education as an indicator of monetary status [ 3]. Naturally, such consumption does not fit into the concept of reasonable needs.

The “economic man” in a market economy, according to his original definitions, strives to maximize his income and minimize his own costs. This already contains an internal contradiction, which indicates the presence of dialectical problems in economics itself. Maximizing income is a path to infinity, and minimizing costs is striving for zero, and both processes are in opposite directions. This ideal model clearly demonstrates the inefficiency of meeting needs in a limitless market. Indeed, income maximization involves an endless pursuit of enrichment, which requires an infinite investment of time. Free time is lost, during which a person can consume. Economists sometimes argue that there is no such thing as “economic man” in reality. But it is not so. The ideal model of a market subject, of course, does not exist in reality. However, there are people who strive for this ideal.

A reasonable solution would be to establish a correspondence between income and costs, which is what happens in reality. Economic reality itself forces subjects of market interaction to limit their own needs. This is especially noticeable during periods of economic crisis and recovery. When the market revives, a consumer boom immediately begins. During the crisis, there is a decrease in consumer activity. In both cases, consumers behave unreasonably: first they artificially inflate their needs, and then lower them. A smart approach would be to keep your own needs roughly the same, saving during periods of economic growth and using them during recessions. Obtaining loans also does not fit into the concept of reasonable needs. It is better to temporarily lower your desires and use your own savings resources than to fall into debt bondage and live in a situation of constant psychological stress.

The reasonable needs of an “economic man” could be described as the “golden mean” between his income and costs. The concept of “economic equilibrium” precisely presupposes the establishment of a measure between supply and demand when goods are sold at an equilibrium price. In this situation, we can talk about compliance with reasonable needs in relation to society as a whole. However, the concept of “economic equilibrium” is an idealization and is not applicable in the long term. Reasonable needs are associated with the intelligence of a particular person and can be realized throughout his life. It can be assumed that the “economic man” does not always behave rationally, as representatives of economics claim. Profit maximization, as an ideal of entrepreneurial behavior, is as irrational as the desire to satisfy all existing needs. In practice, specific economic entities differ significantly from the “economic person”, both in terms of making a profit and in the ways of satisfying their own needs.

Sometimes the concept of reasonable needs is accused of being unscientific, since quantitative research methods are supposedly inapplicable to it. In this regard, it would be interesting to see how this concept is viewed from the perspective of the labor theory of value and from the point of view of the theory of marginal utility. The labor theory of value, which is not currently very popular among economists, nevertheless makes it possible to quite logically and consistently substantiate the need for the reasonable needs of modern man. Abstract labor, measured in minutes and hours, forms the substance of concrete labor used in various types of socially useful activities. If an entrepreneur strives to maximize profits, then he maximizes his own labor costs, engaging in self-exploitation. Let's say it's his own choice. However, he is deprived of free time to satisfy his needs, or rather, he satisfies one need - more and more money. A situation of reductionism arises: reducing many needs to just one. A necessary consequence of this is the alienation of the “economic man” from various spheres of activity: cultural, social, scientific.

Most people who do not set as their goal the maximization of profits are actually engaged in saving their own labor: they do not overexert themselves at work, fill their working time with small joys, think about extraneous topics, dream, etc. Low wages are compensated by low labor productivity. Such workers strive to convert a significant part of their working time into free time, and this can be quantified in the form of minutes and hours. The famous statement of K. Marx that the wealth of society should be determined not by working time, but by free time, is filled with new content in the conditions of a post-industrial society. Modern information technologies make it possible to satisfy, relatively inexpensively, needs that our ancestors could not dream of. Therefore, now there is an increasing mass demand for free time. This applies not only to developing economies, but also to developed countries, where many people are quite happy with life on unemployment benefits.

The theory of marginal utility also tries in its own way to solve the problem of reasonable (rational) needs. The subjective approach makes this decision more relative. If the value of a good is determined by its marginal utility for an economic entity, then it becomes possible to establish rational boundaries for consumption. There is a need to solve the problem of reasonable consumption in conditions of limited resources. E. Boehm-Bawerk identifies the following groups of needs according to their importance for a person: 1) needs, the dissatisfaction of which leads to death; 2) needs, the dissatisfaction of which has a very harmful effect on our health, honor and happiness; 3) needs, the dissatisfaction of which causes us short-term suffering and deprivation; 4) needs associated with minor pleasures [1, p. 270].

Here, the first two groups of needs are basic, and the other two can be either reasonable or unreasonable. In addition, the abstract-subjective approach in marginalism can lead to the fact that even basic needs turn out to be unreasonable. For example, smoking or drinking alcohol has a harmful effect on people’s health, therefore, it is harmful to satisfy these needs in the first place and in general. However, marginal utility theory attempts to solve the important problem of rationally satisfying needs given a limited set of resources. The theorists of marginalism were not supporters of “dimensionless” consumption, trying in their own way to solve the problem of rational satisfaction of subjective desires in society.

The neoclassical approach to needs continues the line of marginalism. This direction in economic theory positions itself as purely rationalistic, based on the methodology of postpositivism. The liberal economic approach in neoclassicism is also reflected in the concept of rational needs. A specific buyer is given all the rights of what and how to consume. However, the massive educational impact of modern advertising and consumer ideology largely negates freedom of choice. A market economy develops effectively only in conditions of increased demand, so the population is oriented toward maximum consumption, explaining this by the needs of the economy. A paradoxical situation arises: the rationality of “economic man” directly depends not only on maximizing profits, but also on maximizing one’s own consumption. This ignores the concept of measure.

More interesting is the position of institutionalism, where the problem of rational needs is considered systematically. People's needs do not arise on their own; they are influenced by a large number of different institutions (from family to advertising). The formation of reasonable needs is a long and complex process, which is often directly influenced by social institutions such as the state, business, family, church, school, etc. People's needs are not determined by reason alone, but also by traditions, faith, stereotypes, etc. Therefore, the concept of “economic man” from the point of view of institutionalists is not very effective in solving the problem of reasonable needs. The role of education in the formation of these needs is very important.

Education in the information society poses significant challenges. It is quite difficult to trace the economic impact of different types of training. The Internet can have a greater educational impact than family and school. But the media promotes a certain economic ideology that corresponds to the interests of the modern market. And in the market, as you know, you need to buy. That is why, even among university students, the percentage of students who are sympathetic to reasonable needs is very small. To the teacher’s question, “Is having an airliner for individual flights a reasonable need to strive for?” many students answer in the affirmative. With age, consumption priorities gradually change, as the educational process continues throughout a person’s life. Alexander the Great never understood his teacher Aristotle, but the concept of measure in everything, the “golden mean,” and reasonable needs has existed for thousands of years.

Bibliography:

1. Boehm-Bawerk E. Fundamentals of the theory of the value of economic goods // Austrian school in political economy: K. Menger, E. Boehm-Bawerk, F. Wieser. M.: Economics, 1992. pp. 243-426.

2. Weber M. Selected works. M.: Progress, 1990. 808 p.

3. Veblen T. Theory of the leisure class. M.: Librocom, 2021. 368 p.

4. Gerashchenko I.G. The principle of economic uncertainty in modern education // Economics of Education. 2021. No. 3. P. 4-12.

5. Gerashchenko I.G., Gerashchenko N.V. Philosophy and sociology of postmodern education // Sociology of Education. 2021. No. 5. P. 5-12.

6. Zinoviev A.A. Communism as a reality. M.: Tsentrpoligraf, 1994. 495 p.

7. Polanyi K. Selected works. M.: Territory of the Future, 2010. 196 p.

8. Schumacher E.F. Small is beautiful. An economy where people matter. M.: Publishing house. House of the Higher School of Economics, 2012. 352 p.

About the author:

Gerashchenko Igor Germanovich – Doctor of Philosophy, Professor of the Department of Humanitarian and Legal Disciplines of the Volgograd Cooperative Institute (branch) of the Russian University of Cooperation (Volgograd, Russia).

Data about the author:

Gerashchenko Igor Germanovich – Doctor of Philosophical Sciences, Professor of Humanities and Legal Disciplines Department, Volgograd Cooperative Institute (branch office) of the Russian University of Cooperation (Volgograd, Russia).

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Genuine (reasonable) and imaginary (unreasonable) needs

Needs can be real or imaginary . Satisfaction of genuine (reasonable) needs brings joy and pleasure to both the person himself and those around him. These are all the examples that we looked at above.

Imaginary (unreasonable) needs can harm someone. For example, if a person wants to say something offensive to another person, this is an imaginary, unreasonable need. Another striking example of imaginary needs is bad habits. When a person smokes or drinks alcohol, it destroys him.

Imaginary (unreasonable) needs do not need to be satisfied. On the contrary, you should avoid them and minimize their impact on your life.

What are needs

The key word in defining the concept of need is “need”.

Need

- this is the need for certain things, objects of the material world, objects, people, social indicators, in the absence of which a person feels uncomfortable.

Taking into account this definition, neediness, in order to become a need, must meet the following criteria:

• A lack of need causes a feeling of dissatisfaction. A need is something desired, a good.
• Accompanying with emotions: from negative at the first stage to joyful after the need is fulfilled. When we really want something, we get nervous and anxious; when we get what we want, we relax.
• Fixation on the subject of need. Consciousness snatches from reality those things that can satisfy us. For example, if we are hungry, we will focus on the food and the smell of food.

The system of needs is also formed according to special rules:

1. Need is common to all living beings on the planet. But the more developed the species, the higher the level of needs. The tree has enough nutrients from the soil, sunlight, and rain watering. Man, as a highly developed animal, needs much more.
2. The older the person, the more extensive the list of what is required. A baby can do without things that an adult needs.
3. Needs are a strictly hierarchical structure, some are primary, others are secondary.

People's actions are dictated by the presence of a certain need, which is the main motivator of activity. Motivation to get what you want moves a person forward and forces him to act. Everything that has been created by people throughout the history of mankind in politics, economics, art, science is the result of activities to satisfy needs.

The inability to fulfill needs can lead to dependence on their importance for the individual and to the following various consequences:

• Physical death of a person
  . If the need for food, sleep, water, air, safety, etc. is not satisfied.
• Frustration
  is a long-term experience associated with a nervous disorder and can lead to serious psychological problems. An example is the lack of recognition of a person’s merits by society.
• Sublimation
  - the transition of the energy of dissatisfaction into creation, creativity. For example, the absence of sex is replaced by heavy sports activities.

Thus, needs should be listened to and efforts should be made to realize them.

Can there be too many needs?

But even reasonable needs can sometimes cause harm: if you get stuck on one of them for a long time and don’t know how to stop.

This question is colorfully illustrated in the fairy tale by A.S. Pushkin's "Golden Fish", where the old woman at first asked only for a new trough, but gradually her demands and needs grew until she wanted to become the mistress of the sea, which led her to the loss of everything she had received and complete disappointment.

Also on this topic, we recommend re-watching the cartoon “The Golden Antelope” about the Sultan, greedy for gold, with whom his too great needs also played a cruel joke, and he received a good life lesson.

Definition of the concept

Need is the need for certain things, material objects, spiritual components, and communication with people. In the absence of these components, a person feels uncomfortable.

A need can turn into a need only if it has certain signs:

• its deficiency causes a feeling of dissatisfaction;
• negative emotions are replaced by positive ones;
• consciousness is fixed on the object of need.

If a person does not have the desired item, then he suffers from negative emotions. When he gets what he needs, his mood improves. Depending on the needs of the body, attention will be fixed on this particular object. For example, if you feel hungry, then all your thoughts will be only about food.

Needs are inherent in all living beings on the planet. But the more developed it is, the more it needs. And also their number depends on age. A baby needs much fewer things than an old man. Necessity forces people to act. Everything they created in their lives was dictated by her.

Features of formation

Different types of needs are not formed in the same way. Physiological needs are innate, they are transmitted to a person from his mother and father. Without their satisfaction, the body may die; people have to live with them until death. These needs cannot be imposed by force or prohibited.

Primary spiritual needs are also born with people. In the life of every person there is love, harmony, relationships with others. For the normal development of mental health, a person must self-actualize. Without satisfying these needs, the body will not die, but will be stuck in frustration for a long time.

All basic needs are fully formed by the end of adolescence. They can develop further, but only through changing their content or methods of achievement.

A person cannot exist without contacts with the outside world. But first of all, he cares about satisfying his basic and secondary needs. Without this, he will not be able to develop normally physically and psychologically.

Scientists' theories

Any report on the topic of human needs should talk about the scientists who studied them. Some foreign psychologists not only classified needs, but also offered a specific list of them. Basic examples:

• G. Murray - achievements, aggression, independence, sexual satisfaction, art, respect, self-knowledge;
• E. Fromm - significance, self-affirmation, communication, self-identification;
• A. Perron - hedonism, communication, competition, mutual assistance.

Some psychologists have also identified an independent group - neurotic needs. If a person could not satisfy them, then he developed mental illness. These needs include the need for support, social recognition, and interpersonal justice.

The most famous theory is Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs. He compiled his own table or pyramid, in which he outlined the needs in ascending order. Physiological needs come first, then the need for safety, communication and respect, creative fulfillment, and only then aesthetics and spirituality.