Unraveling a Quote

Our Needs, Wants, and Maslow's Theory of Human Motivation

[Unraveling a Quote a new format of short posts I’m trying out for the Human Reason newsletter. We’ll take apart a quote from an author on the topics of psychology, education, and moral philosophy and mine it for insights for our own life. If you find these short insights helpful, or if anything strikes you as off, please let me know in the comments.]

I’ve got a whole lot of wants and needs. I want good health, to eat delicious food, to feel safe in my day-to-day life, to feel competent at my job, etc. This list of wants and needs is endless, but it does have some priority to it, though. If I’m truly hungry and don’t know when my next meal will be, I might not care about the palatability the food. The ability to put a high value on the taste of food implies a state of food security. Likewise, young children might need to experience the predictability and security of having possessions before they see the value of sharing with others.

Maslow writes in “A Theory of Human Motivation:”

“…the appearance of one need usually rests on the prior satisfaction of another, more pre-potent need. Man is a perpetually wanting animal. Also no need or drive can be treated as if it were isolated or discrete; every drive is related to the state of satisfaction or dissatisfaction of other drives.”

Maybe our drive for control over our immediate environment needs to be sufficiently satisfied to yield the way for our drive for connection.

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