We are accustomed to represent the hierarchy of human needs in the form of a pyramid, which was named after the American psychologist Abraham Maslow. But modern experts no longer consider it undeniable. What does the improved shape of the pyramid look like?
According to Maslow’s theory, a person cannot experience high-level needs until they satisfy simpler ones. This hierarchy of needs is reflected in the image of the pyramid — whether Maslow himself or his followers invented it is still not clear, but it entered the history of psychology under his name.
At the base of the pyramid are the physiological needs (hunger, thirst, sex drive), followed by the need for security, the need for love and belonging, the need for recognition, the need for self-actualization.
According to some experts, this model, developed back in the 1940s, is now somewhat outdated and needs to be revised. A team of authors, bringing together psychologists from the University of Arizona, the University of Minnesota (USA) and the University of British Columbia at Vancouver (Canada), proposed an updated version of it, taking into account the latest achievements and discoveries of neuroscience, developmental psychology and evolutionary psychology1.
“Maslow’s pyramid was a great achievement for its time. Many of the ideas embodied in it need to be preserved, says study leader Douglas Kenrick. “However, this model lacks the basic knowledge about human nature that was later obtained through the joint efforts of biologists, psychologists, and anthropologists.”
The lower levels of the updated pyramid are in many ways similar to Maslow’s pyramid (although the wording of needs has been adjusted), but the top has undergone a reconstruction.
The three highest needs, in ascending order, are attracting a partner, keeping a partner, and raising children.
“Among all human aspirations, the most important from a biological point of view are those that contribute to the process of reproduction of our genes in offspring,” explains Douglas Kenrick. “That’s why we consider taking care of children a paramount need.”
But what about the need for self-actualization, so important to Maslow? The authors believe that it is not independent from an evolutionary point of view. Rather, it can be seen as one of the manifestations of the need to gain status, which, in turn, serves the task of attracting a partner and then procreation.
But this model should not be interpreted in a simplistic way. No one says that the inspiration of an artist or a poet is born from his conscious desire for reproductive success. The picture is much more complex.
Douglas Kenrick gives this analogy. “Migration helps birds survive and reproduce. Although at first, superficial glance, they migrate because their brain reacts to changes in the length of the day. So it is with people: we think that we are engaged in creativity only because it gives us pleasure. We are not even aware of our true, deep motives.
The authors make another significant amendment. If for Maslow the pyramid reflects upward movement, from one need to another, then according to their concept, we can simultaneously be on two adjacent levels and not only go forward, but also go back.
Imagine, for example, that during a walk we are immersed in thoughts about high things: about love or about the meaning of life, and suddenly a company of aggressive guys blocks our way. Naturally, we will immediately move to the level of a lower need — security.
Among psychologists, the new pyramid model caused an ambiguous attitude. However, to be fair, Maslow’s pyramid, which has already become a classic, has always remained the subject of discussion.
1 D. T. Kenrick et al. «Renovating the Pyramid of Needs» Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2010, vol. 5, № 3.