Are the following statements about human needs true?

Content

• 1 Manifestations
• 2 Appearance
• 3 Relationship with other concepts
• 4 Features of human needs 4.1 Objectification

Manifestations

Needs manifest themselves in the form of emotionally charged desires, drives, and aspirations, and their satisfaction in the form of evaluative emotions. Needs are found in the motives that motivate a person to act. Nurturing needs is one of the central tasks of personality formation.

A striking example is thirst - an acute feeling of need for water that occurs when the animal’s body is depleted of it or when the normal concentration of mineral and organic substances in the blood exceeds. The physiological mechanism of this feeling is the effect of increased general and osmotic pressure, a change in the concentration of sodium ions, the drinking center in the brain is excited, causing neurohumoral reactions of conserving water in the body, and the search for water by the individual [1].

A social group is...

A group is an association of individuals interacting with each other. It is formed from people whose unifying factor is a common goal and type of activity. For example, self-help groups include people who need outside support - material, physical, psychological. They unite graduates of orphanages, single mothers, disabled people and others.

There are professional associations based on interests: lovers of handicrafts, art, sports, travel, floriculture (circles, clubs, sections). Often events are organized in society - holidays, exhibitions, lectures.

In social groups there is intense communication and exchange of experiences. Its members find satisfaction in their needs in participation in socially useful activities, in recognition, in useful leisure, and in finding like-minded people and friends.

Appearance

As some needs are satisfied, a person develops other needs, which suggests that needs are limitless. Needs are associated with a person’s feeling of dissatisfaction when a person lacks what is required. The presence of a need is accompanied by emotions: first, as the need intensifies, negative, and then, if it is satisfied, positive. Needs determine the selectivity of perception of the world, fixing a person’s attention primarily on those objects that can satisfy his needs. Throughout life, a person's needs change and increase.

The presence of unsatisfied needs in a person is associated with tension and discomfort, a discrepancy between the internal (desired) and external (real) [2], which are the stimulants and motivation of human activity. The presence of unmet vital needs can lead to death. A need can be understood as a certain hypothetical variable, which, depending on the circumstances, manifests itself either as a motive or as a trait. In the latter case, the needs are stable and become qualities of a person’s character.

Why do social groups arise?

Throughout his life, a person is a member of many social groups. He ends up in some involuntarily (family, school class, production team), while in others he enters consciously. Why? If his personal needs and interests coincide with those of other people, then this brings him closer to them, and mutual interest in communication and pastime is formed. Individual needs become the needs of a social group:

• the need for collective communication and informal contacts;
• in cooperation for the benefit of society;
• in mutual understanding, support, assistance, recognition;
• in organizing collective leisure;
• in the exchange of life and professional experience;
• in self-affirmation and self-realization of each individual, in public recognition of the significance of the activities of the entire group.

In friendly groups, not only business, but also emotional attachments and a sense of security are sure to develop. Common goals and objectives stimulate a creative search for methods to solve them.

Connection with other concepts

There is an opinion that this concept, which describes the internal relationship of a subject to other subjects or objects and explains the behavior of living beings, is unnecessary, since the behavior of living beings can be described without using it [3].

Desire (specific need)

- a need that has taken a specific form in accordance with [1]:

• with the cultural level and personality of the individual
• with historical, geographic and other factors of the country or region

Innate drive, primary drive

(a person has from birth) - pain, thirst, hunger, orientation and other stimuli associated with physiological states within the body[1].

The means of satisfying human needs are goods[4].

The degree of satisfaction of certain human needs is well-being

[5].

The set of actions aimed at optimally satisfying the spiritual and material needs of a person constitutes life support

[1].

Everyday life serves to satisfy material needs for food, clothing, housing, and health.

(as a set of connections and relationships)[6].

The primary emotional manifestation of human needs is attraction

[7].

The social process of reduction and/or deprivation of opportunities to satisfy the basic life needs of individuals or groups is deprivation

[8].

Physical activity is also a necessary condition for maintaining a person’s normal functional state[9].

Need

- a state inherent in living organisms, expressing their dependence on the objective conditions of existence and development, which acts as a source of various forms of their activity.

Requirements of plant life forms

minimal - for life and the construction of their bodies, in most cases, they need light, water and a mineral substrate.

Animal needs

more complex. However, in most cases, the biological basis of animal needs can be reduced to the basic instincts of living matter - nutrition, sleep, reproduction, fear (or other feelings that replace it in its absence).

Human needs

represent the most ambiguous category of research and are determined, in addition to the first signaling system common to animals, by the presence of a complex mental organization represented by the second signaling system - thinking and speech.

Concept and types of needs

Social are the needs for a sense of self as an individual, belonging to a group of people, the need for communication and free exchange of information at any time.

Types of social needs:

• “life for oneself” – power, self-esteem, self-emphasis;
• “for others” – love, friendship, altruism;
• “life with society” – independence, rights, justice, etc.

Satisfying these needs is extremely important for almost all of us. Otherwise, a person may feel flawed, not like everyone else. I have many examples from life when individuals rejected by a group of people received moral trauma, as a result of which they were no longer able to lead their usual way of life.

By carefully re-reading the types of social needs, we can find that each of us has them. And that's quite normal. Each of us wants to stand out and realize ourselves professionally. He longs to be an altruist or to meet altruists (people who do good deeds without reward), wants peace on Earth. This is logical, because we were all brought up by the same society.

Features of human needs

Since the process of satisfying needs acts as a purposeful activity, needs are a source of individual activity. Realizing the goal subjectively as a need, a person is convinced that satisfying the latter is possible only through achieving the goal. This allows him to correlate his subjective ideas about the need with its objective content, looking for means of mastering the goal as an object.

It is characteristic of man that even those needs that are associated with the tasks of his physical existence are different from the similar needs of animals. Because of this, they are capable of significantly changing depending on the social forms of his life. The development of human needs is realized through the socially determined development of their objects.

Subjectively, needs are represented in the form of emotionally charged desires, drives, and aspirations, and their satisfaction is represented in the form of evaluative emotions. Needs are found in motives, drives, desires, etc. that motivate a person to activity and become a form of manifestation of needs. If in need activity is essentially dependent on its objective-social content, then in motives this dependence manifests itself as the subject’s own activity. Therefore, the system of motives revealed in a person’s behavior is richer in characteristics and more mobile than the need that constitutes its essence. Nurturing needs is one of the central tasks of personality formation.

As a person satisfies some needs, other needs arise, which allows economists to argue that, in general, needs are unlimited.

Needs are associated with a person’s feeling of dissatisfaction, which is caused by a shortage of what is required.

The presence of a need is accompanied by emotions: first, as the need intensifies, negative, and then, if it is satisfied, positive.

Needs determine the selectivity of perception of the world, fixing a person’s attention primarily on those objects that have the ability to satisfy needs. At the physiological level, needs are expressed as stable foci of excitation of the corresponding nerve centers, defined by Academician A. A. Ukhtomsky as dominants. Under appropriate conditions, strong dominants can suppress the functioning of other nerve centers. For example, the phenomenon of dominance itself was discovered during a study of a dog’s motor reflexes to certain stimuli. At some point in time, the animal stopped responding to stimuli and after a few seconds she had an act of defecation. After this, the reflexes were restored. Dominants are lower, corresponding to the lower levels of the hierarchy of needs, and higher. Higher dominants are characterized by a long-term process of their formation.

The number of needs increases in the process of phylogenesis and ontogenesis. Thus, the number of needs increases in the evolutionary series: plants - primitive animals - highly developed animals - humans, as well as in the ontogenetic series: newborn - infant - preschooler - schoolchild - adult.

Various scientists have explained the essence of human needs in different ways:

Objectification

When considering the connection between needs and activity, it is necessary to immediately distinguish two stages in the life of each need: the period before the first meeting with an object that satisfies the need, and the period after this meeting.

At the first stage, the need, as a rule, is not revealed to the subject: he may experience a state of some kind of tension, dissatisfaction, but not know what caused it. On the behavioral side, the state of need is expressed in anxiety, searching, and sorting through various objects. During the search, a need usually meets its object, which ends the first stage of the need’s life. The process of “recognition” by a need of its object is called the objectification of the need. By the very act of objectification, the need is transformed - it becomes a definite need for a given object. In its elemental forms, this phenomenon is known as imprinting.

Objectification is a very important event: in this act a motive is born. Motive is defined as an object of need. We can say that through objectification the need receives its concretization. Therefore, the motive is also defined as an objectified need. Following the objectification of activity and the emergence of a motive, the type of behavior changes sharply - it acquires a direction that depends on the motive.

In the process of objectification, important features of needs are revealed:

1. initially a very wide range of items that can satisfy a given need;
2. quick fixation of a need on the first item that satisfies it

Classifications of human needs

There are many classifications of needs. There are needs[1]:

• by area of ​​activity: labor needs
• knowledge
• communication
• recreation

By area

Needs are divided according to the nature of the activity (defensive, nutritional, sexual, cognitive, communicative, gaming).

Separation in connection with those goals that are achieved as the need is satisfied

• biological,
• labor,
• knowledge,
• communication,
• recreation;

American psychologist W. Mac Dougall believed that the basis of certain human needs are certain instincts, which manifest themselves through corresponding sensations and motivate a person to certain activities.

The psychological concept of laziness is a manifestation of the need (instinct) to save energy[10].

Guildford's list of motivational factors

1. factors corresponding to organic needs: hunger,
2. general activity;

According to B.I. Dodonov’s approach to the classification of emotions, we can talk about the following types of needs [11]:

1. active (need for accumulation, acquisition),
2. altruistic (the need to perform selfless actions),
3. hedonic (need for comfort, serenity),
4. gloric (the need to recognize one’s own importance),
5. Gnostic (need for knowledge),
6. communicative (need for communication),
7. practical (need for effectiveness of effort),
8. fearful (need for competition),
9. romantic (need for the unusual, unknown),
10. aesthetic (need for beauty).

According to H. Murray, needs are divided primarily into primary needs and secondary needs. There are also differences between explicit and latent needs; These forms of existence of needs are determined by the ways of satisfying them. In terms of functions and forms of manifestation, introverted needs and extroverted needs differ. Needs can be expressed at the action or verbal level; they can be egocentric or sociocentric, and the general list of needs is:

1. dominance - the desire to control, influence, direct, convince, hinder, limit;
2. aggression - the desire to shame, condemn, mock, humiliate in word or deed;
3. search for friendships - desire for friendship, love; good will, sympathy for others; suffering in the absence of friendly relations; the desire to bring people together and remove obstacles;
4. rejection of others - the desire to reject attempts at rapprochement;
5. autonomy - the desire to free yourself from all restrictions: from guardianship, regime, order, etc.;
6. passive obedience - submission to force, acceptance of fate, intrapunitivity, recognition of one's own inferiority;
7. need for respect and support;
8. the need for achievement is the desire to overcome something, surpass others, do something better, reach the highest level in some activity, be consistent and purposeful;
9. the need to be the center of attention;
10. the need for play - preference for play over any serious activity, desire for entertainment, love of witticisms; sometimes combined with carelessness, irresponsibility;
11. egoism (narcissism) - the desire to put one’s own interests above all else, self-satisfaction, auto-eroticism, painful sensitivity to humiliation, shyness; a tendency towards subjectivity when perceiving the outside world; often merges with the need for aggression or rejection;
12. sociality (sociophilia) - oblivion of one's own interests in the name of the group, altruistic orientation, nobility, compliance, concern for others;
13. the need to search for a patron - expectation of advice, help; helplessness, seeking consolation, gentle treatment;
14. need for assistance;
15. the need to avoid punishment - restraining one’s own impulses in order to avoid punishment or condemnation; the need to take into account public opinion;
16. the need for self-defense - difficulties in admitting one’s own mistakes, the desire to justify oneself by citing circumstances, to defend one’s rights; refusal to analyze your mistakes;
17. the need to overcome defeat, failure - differs from the need to achieve with an emphasis on independence in actions;
18. need to avoid danger;
19. the need for order - the desire for neatness, orderliness, accuracy, beauty;
20. the need for judgment - the desire to pose general questions or answer them; a penchant for abstract formulas, generalizations, a passion for “eternal questions,” etc.[12].

By object

Separation in connection with the object to which the need is directed.

• biological (food, water, air, climatic conditions, etc.),
• material (housing, clothing, vehicles, tools of production, etc.),
• social (communication, social activities, public recognition, etc.),
• spiritual (knowledge, creative activity, creation of beauty, scientific discoveries, etc.),
• ethical,
• aesthetic,
• other;

By functional role

• dominant/minor,
• central/peripheral,
• stable/situational;

By origin

There is a division into two large groups - natural and cultural

. The first of them are programmed at the genetic level, and the second are formed in the process of social life.

By analogy with conditioned and unconditioned reflexes, needs are also divided into:

• congenital;
• simple purchased;
• complex acquired.

Simple acquired needs are understood to be needs formed on the basis of an individual’s own empirical experience (for example, the need of a workaholic for a favorite job), while complex needs are understood to be based on one’s own conclusions and ideas of non-empirical origin (for example, a religious person’s need for confession, based on an externally instilled idea of positive consequences of the ritual, but not on the empirical feeling of guilt and humiliation when performing it).

By subject of needs

• individual,
• group,
• collective,
• public.

Hierarchy of needs

Maslow's pyramid of needs
Human needs form a hierarchical system, where each need has its own level of significance. As they are satisfied, they give way to other needs.

Classification by level of complexity divides needs into biological, social and spiritual.

• Biological ones
  include a person’s desire to maintain his existence (the need for food, clothing, sleep, safety, sexual satisfaction, saving energy, etc.).
• Social
  include a person’s need for communication, popularity, dominance over other people, belonging to a certain group, leadership and recognition.
• spiritual
  needs are the need to know the world around him and himself, the desire for self-improvement and self-realization, to know the meaning of one’s existence.

Typically, a person simultaneously has more than ten unfulfilled needs at the same time, and his subconscious mind ranks them in order of importance, forming a rather complex hierarchical structure known as Maslow’s Pyramid of Needs. A. Maslow divided needs according to the sequence of their satisfaction, when needs of the highest level appear after the needs of the lower level are satisfied.

• Biological (physiological) needs are determined by the need to maintain life. For normal metabolism, a person needs food, suitable living conditions and the opportunity to rest and sleep. These needs are called vital, since their satisfaction is essential for life.
• The fulfillment of the physiological and psychological need for security and confidence in the future allows one to maintain homeostasis over a long period of time. Sex is necessary for procreation. (The physiological and psychological needs can also include the need for information, since in the absence of nerve signals, nervous tissue degrades, and the psyche of people becomes upset under conditions of sensory deprivation.)
• The need for communication, love and support from others is a psychological and social need, the implementation of which allows people to act in groups (see affiliation).
• The need for recognition and self-affirmation is a social need, the implementation of which allows one to determine one’s place in society.
• The need for self-expression is a creative, constructive need; thanks to its implementation, people create objects of art.

The simplest types of needs are vital needs, which are programmed in the long process of existence, development, evolution (food, drink, air, sleep, sexual desire). Freudianism reduces the needs of high levels to low vital ones.

The need for security is also associated with the need for stability in the existence of the current order of things - confidence in the future, the feeling that nothing threatens you, and old age will be secure.

By type of behavior

F.N. Ilyasov, within the framework of the ethological approach, identifies the main types of behavior (needs) that describe the life activity of higher animals and humans. There are only six of them: 1) food, 2) sexual (sexual-reproductive), 3) status (collective, social), 4) territorial, 5) comfortable, 6) juvenile (play). Within the framework of the ethological approach (that is, giving the “lowest” level of description), it is acceptable to believe that the above six needs are capable of comprehensively describing the functioning of such a complex system as a person. The problem of the hierarchy of needs within the framework of this approach is solved through the problem of the typology of individuals according to the ranking of dominant needs. Even everyday experience tells us that there are subjects with dominance of various types of behavior - sexual, food, status, etc. It is possible to construct a typology based on ranking the importance of needs from the point of view of the subject. This question, of course, requires empirical substantiation, however, it is possible that 2-3 dominant needs can sufficiently fully reflect behavior.

Maslow's pyramid of needs

Maslow once composed, which has been more than relevant for many years. It is built in ascending order from the following points:

• – food, clothing;
• need for security - housing, material goods;
• social needs - friendship, belonging to like-minded people;
• own importance – self-esteem and assessment of others;
• own relevance – harmony, self-realization, happiness.

As we can see, social needs are in the middle of the pyramid. The main ones are physiological, since on an empty stomach and without shelter over your head, there can be no talk of any desire for self-realization. But when these needs are satisfied, then a person has a strong desire to satisfy social ones. Their satisfaction directly affects the harmony of the individual, the degree of its realization and emotional background throughout all years of life.

For a formed personality, social needs are more significant and essential than physiological ones. For example, almost each of us has seen how a student takes up his studies instead of sleeping. Or when a mother, who herself did not rest, did not get enough sleep and forgot to eat, does not leave the cradle of her child. Often a man who wants to please his chosen one endures pain or other inconveniences.

Friendship, love, family are the initial social needs that most of us try to satisfy first. It is important for us to spend time in the company of other people, to have an active social position, and to play a certain role in the team.

Personality will never be formed outside of society. Common interests and the same attitude towards important things (truth, respect, care, etc.) form close interpersonal ties. Within the framework of which the social formation of the individual occurs.

Philosophy

Dialectical materialism

Even the philosophers of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome achieved significant success in understanding human needs. Ancient thinkers recognized needs as the main driving forces of human activity. Democritus, for example, considered need as the main driving force that made the human mind sophisticated and made it possible to acquire language, speech, and the habit of work. Without needs, a person would not be able to come out of a wild state. According to Heraclitus, needs are determined by living conditions. He distinguished that every desire must be reasonable. Moderation in satisfying needs contributes to the development and improvement of a person’s intellectual abilities. Plato divided the needs into primary, forming the “lower soul,” which is like a herd, and secondary, forming the “reasonable, noble” soul, the purpose of which is to lead the first. French materialists of the late 17th century attached great importance to needs as the main sources of human activity. P. Holbach wrote that needs are the driving factor of our passions, will, and mental activity. A person’s needs are continuous, and this circumstance serves as a source of his constant activity. N. G. Chernyshevsky assigned a major role to the needs in understanding human activity. He associated the development of human cognitive abilities with the development of needs. K. Marx emphasizes that “man differs from all other animals in the limitlessness of his needs and their ability to expand.” As an independent scientific problem, the question of needs began to be considered in philosophy, sociology, economics, and psychology in the first quarter of the 20th century. In general, need can be defined as a need, a need for something. It should be emphasized that quite a large number of scientists “consider need as a state of tension.” In life, you can observe how the very appearance of need changes a person’s condition. This (need) state forces him to look for the cause of discomfort, to find out what the person lacks. Thus, need motivates a person to action, to activity, to activity. Currently, there are many different points of view on the essence of need. Most scientists only agree that almost everyone recognizes need as the main driving force of human activity. However, there is neither complete unanimity nor unambiguity in the interpretation of this concept.

Relaxation

Work is important, but social needs also include the need for rest. Moreover, there are reasons for this, both spiritual and physiological.

So, the vital activity of the body is determined by metabolism. And its intensity depends on the level of human activity. Hard work entails great nervous and energy costs. To restore resources and get rid of fatigue, you need to rest.

But! It's important to do it right. Passive rest is sleep. A person sleeps, wakes up, goes to work, returns, sleeps again. The consequence is routine, oppression, lack of desire to do anything, since everything is the same. You need to rest so that spending time brings emotions. Life is made for pleasure! A person must reward and please himself. Then he will have a desire to carry out his activities, achieve new heights and improve his social status.

Notes

1. ↑ 123456
   Need // glossary.ru
2. according to Helvetius
3. • Hynd R.
     (English) Animal behavior. - M.: Mir, 1975. - paragraph 8.1

   Berridge Kent C.
   Motivation concepts in behavioral neuroscience. Physiology & Behavior 81 (2004) 179–209.

4. Benefits
5. Welfare
6. Life
7. Attraction
8. Deprivation
9. Human physiology. / Ed. V. M. Pokrovsky, G. F. Korotko. - M.: Medicine, 2007. - (Series: Educational literature for students of medical universities) - ISBN 5-225-04729-7
10. Vorobyova V.V., Yakimanskaya I.S.
    Psychology of laziness: problem statement.
11. V. I. Ginetsinsky.
    Propaedeutic course of general psychology (Tutorial). - St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg State University Publishing House, 1997. - ISBN 5-288-01848-0
12. A. Sleptsova.
    Psychodiagnostics of personnel. — ISBN 5-222-16897-2

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