Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and well-being - (Final Draft of Final Blog Post)

By: Kendry Martinez

            In order to give a more complete and holistic view of why I favor Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, I’ll first explain what I’m looking for in a well-being theory for me to consider it adequate. Also, from here on out I’ll be referring to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs by the abbreviation - MHON.

My goal, when looking for a well-being theory, is to try and find the theory that is best able to measure the well-being of people consistently, through statuses (rich, poor, etc.), and through cultures. A lot of well-being theories focus heavily on very complex topics, which, although important, tend to not be able to answer some of the more simple, or at least seemingly simple, problems. One of these problems, and the one that I’ll be focusing on primarily, is, rich people that are sad or unhappy, and poor people that are happy. As basic as these statements are, they immediately make it apparent that being able to construct some sort of understanding of well-being is not going to be straightforward. This is the main reason I favor MHON as opposed to other theories; it’s actually capable of explaining these simple topics. 

Now that I’ve given some background information as to why MHON is the theory I ultimately ended up landing on, I’ll give an overview of the theory. MHON is primarily a theory in psychology (specifically pertaining to the psychology of motivation) which depicts human needs in a hierarchical way, resembling a pyramid. The needs at the bottom are essential for basic survival, while the needs at the higher levels are much more specialized to each specific person and therefore are harder to achieve. There are some depictions of the hierarchical pyramid that display up to eight separate parts to the pyramid (along with the addition of the deficiency and growth needs bars), such as -

however, for my purposes, this level of nuance isn’t needed. So, I’ll be using a basic five part depiction of the hierarchical pyramid; this pyramid is as follows –  

The needs lower to a particular rung on the pyramid must be met before a need higher than them can be met. Meeting the needs that are lower on the pyramid is usually easier, and quickly provide a sense of satisfaction. Meeting the needs that are higher on the pyramid is more complex, abstract, and takes longer. Here’s an example to illustrate: suppose you haven’t eaten in hours and you’re extremely hungry, the instant you get food and begin to eat, you’ll feel immediate satisfaction and be considerably more at ease. Now, suppose you’ve always wanted to be an artist, however, you put off the venture in lieu of a more secure career path. Now that you have the financial security and time to begin you’re artistic endeavors, you won’t necessarily feel amazing, or even sort of good, the moment you start your art. However, the overall act of accomplishing something you’ve always wanted to do will likely end up giving you a greater sense of satisfaction, or fulfillment, than the immediate satisfaction that the food gave you.

Now that I’ve given you all a basic understanding of MHON, I’ll present a problem/question pertaining to well-being, and I’ll demonstrate how MHON can make sense of it. I’ll use the problem I posed earlier - rich people that are sad or unhappy, and poor people that are happy - I’ll begin with poor people that are happy. Also, just as a quick note, whenever I’m referring to the poor or rich person, I mean poor and rich in the most literal sense possible; one of them has a low socio-economic status, while the other has a high socio-economic status. I’m only using this dichotomy to help illustrate a point; I’m not saying anything about any one person in specific. Now to finally begin - First, it’s important to remember that working your way up the pyramid when you’re low is easier than if you’re already very high. For instance, imagine a poor person who, due to being poor, primarily wants things like financial security, their own home, a better car or clothes etc. All of these objectives that the poor person has set for themselves are very clear, not abstract, and not overly complex. Therefore, the poor person, in a sense, has an easy and clear direction in which to take their life, and by extension, feel as if they’re working toward a clear, obvious, physical, and/or tangible objective. This will in turn make it so that the poor person feels happier with their life, because they’re working toward a goal with clear steps. Hence, whenever they get closer to their goal, it’s very obvious that they are, in fact, reaching their goal. Now, let’s dichotomize the poor person with the rich person. Due to being rich, this person doesn’t care much for material things or financial security, since, they already have these things. Already we can see a big difference - the rich person doesn’t care for material things like the poor person did. So, the only other thing that they could work toward, and by extension, help give their life meaning, would be to work toward non-material goals, or, to put it more succinctly, self-actualization. Since the rich person is only going to be working toward their own non-material goals, this means that the specific goals that they can set for themselves will be much more limited and specific, and therefore, harder to understand and satiate. Due to this, the rich person is going to have to ask themselves much more complicated questions, such as, “what do I enjoy doing just for the sake of doing it?” or, “do I feel complete/how can I feel fulfilled; am I being the best me I can be, if not, then how can I?” Now, if we use MHON, we can clearly see that the poor person may end up being happier than the rich person because they’re lower on the pyramid. Therefore, they’ll end up having an easier time in climbing up the pyramid since they have clear objectives for their life, which then aid in giving meaning and satisfaction to their life. Another thing that’ll help them, is that the lower parts of the pyramid are far easier than the higher points to climb, since, satiating them is much more straightforward and general. The rich person, by contrast, may end up being more sad, despondent, apathetic, or dissatisfied with their life because of how unclear, confusing, vague, and/or limited their goals are. Another big reason that I’ve yet to mention, is that because the rich person is primarily working toward their own self-actualization, it’s difficult for them to seek help. Even a therapist can only, at most, set them on the right track or give them a good framework of mind to work with. The rich person themselves, however, still needs to be the one that actually decides what, in specific, they want to do/work towards.

Just as a quick ending note, I want to make it very clear that, obviously, being poor is not a good or fun thing, or something to aspire to, that’s not at all what I mean. Simply, all I’m demonstrating is that because of the way that we work as people (and when viewed through MHON), being disadvantaged in life, paradoxically, is an advantage, in, and only in, the case that we’re examining how we should live/give meaning to our lives, or more broadly, what we should work toward.

If you’d like a deeper more nuanced analysis of MHON you can visit these –

https://canadacollege.edu/dreamers/docs/Maslows-Hierarchy-of-Needs.pdf

https://www.umass.edu/living/leadership-and-human-behavior-motivation-information

https://open.baypath.edu/psy321book/chapter/c23p2/