Maslow's hierarchy of needs and its relationship with psychological health and materialism

1998 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 15-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun Saunders ◽  
Don Munro ◽  
Miles Bore

AbstractMaslow's (1954) theory of a hierarchy of human needs has generated little research, perhaps because of the lack of specific, concrete operationalisation of concepts such as ‘psychological well-being’ and basic need satisfaction. The Need Satisfaction Inventory (NSI: Lester, 1990) was developed to measure basic need satisfaction and 157 undergraduate subjects completed both it and the Beck Depression (BDI) and Anxiety Inventories (BAI), as well as Spielberger's (1986) Anger-Expression questionnaire (AX). The latter three questionnaires represent an operationalisation of Spielberger, Ritterband, Sydeman, Reheiserdc Unger's (1995) notion that emotions act as indicators of psychological well-being. The hypothesis that scores on the NSI would be significantly correlated with the BDI, BAI, and AX was supported. Ss also completed the Richins and Dawson (1992) materialism index, and it was hypothesised that if hoarding material goods does in fact represent compensatory neurotic behaviour, then materialism would also be negatively correlated with the NSI. The hypothesis was confirmed, providing further evidence for Maslow's (1970) theory that basic need satisfaction is associated with psychological health. However, in the absence of norms for the NSI, there was no conclusive evidence to suggest that basic needs reside in a consistent, and strict global hierarchy.

Author(s):  
Diego Gómez-Baya ◽  
Ana Lucia-Casademunt ◽  
José Salinas-Pérez

Background: The aim was to examine the mediating role of basic psychological needs and job satisfaction in the relationship between the gender effect on health problems and psychological well-being for health professionals in Europe in 2015. Methods: Two multiple partial mediation analyses were conducted in order to test the partial mediation of both basic needs and job satisfaction, with gender as the independent variable and health problems or well-being, respectively, as the dependent variables, with a sample of health professionals. Results: Women reported lower psychological well-being and more health problems than men. The total effect of gender on both well-being and health problems was found to be significant. Regarding multiple mediation analyses: (a) the effect of gender on well-being was fully mediated by global basic need satisfaction and job satisfaction, such that gender did not present a significant direct effect and (b) the effect of gender on health problems was partially mediated by global basic need satisfaction and job satisfaction, such that the direct effect remained significant. Conclusions: The fulfillment of basic needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, as postulated within self-determination theory, was hypothesized to play a mediating role in the relationship between gender and well-being. Since significant gender differences in basic need satisfaction were observed, such a mediator should be controlled in order to achieve a significant relationship between gender and well-being when basic needs comes into play. The current study adds to the research emphasizing the need for satisfaction as a promising mechanism underlying for female health professionals’ well-being.


2009 ◽  
pp. 92-109
Author(s):  
Mario Rosentau

Inimvajadus seletatavana on empiirilis-teoreetiline mõiste, mille kaudu on sõnastatavad mitmed humanoloogilised normtasemeseadused. Vajadus seletajana on teatavate otsuste õigustaja. Artiklis visandatakse vajaduse teoreetiline mudel, mis kirjeldaks kindlat hulka praktiliselt paratamatuid inimelu fenomene, mida nimetatakse vajadusteks, seletaks vajaduste ilmnemist ja õigustaks vajaduste rahuldamisele ehk kahju vältimisele suunatud tegevust. Mudeli tarvilikud tingimused on vajaduse subjekt - inimisik või inimgrupp; vajaduse objekt ehk otstarve, mis rahuldab vajaduse ja kõrvaldab vajaduspinge; potentsiaalne kahju, mis vältimatult sünnib vajadushüve puudusest; vajaduse vältimatuse tingimused - kindlad sõltuvusseosed inimkeha ja inimvaimu ning materiaalse ja kultuurilise elukeskkonna vahel; vajaduse pingetegur - sõltuvusseostest tulenev sund tegutseda vajaduse rahuldamise sihil. Inimvajadused on liigitatavad kahte kategooriasse ja mitmesse tüüpi. Vahetud vajadused on organismi füsioloogilised ja psüühilised vajadused ning organismi ja isiksuse keskkonna- ja elutingimusvajadused. Vahendlikud ehk funktsionaalsed olukorrakohased vajadused on tarbed vahendite järele, vältimaks või vähendamaks tõsist sattumuslikku kahju (nt kirurgia, ravimid); tarbed vahendite järele, rahuldamaks vahetuid vajadusi (nt toiduainete tööstus); tarbed vahetuid vajadusi rahuldava koostöö ja ressursiallikate järele; lõpuks tarbed innovaatiliste vahendite järele, millega tagada normtasemele vastavat eluviisi (nt elatusraha, osasaamist kultuuripärandist). Sellisena väljendab vajadus teatavat elutähtsat tingimust, mille kestev puudus tekitab vältimatult inimisikule tõsist kahju ja mille potentsiaalne või lühiajaline puudus avaldab inimesele praktiliselt paratamatut motiveerivat survet. Mis tahes vajaduse rahuldamise tõeliseks aluseks on isiksuse tõsise kahjustumise vältimine.Human need is an empirical-theoretical concept allowing formulation of humanological normic-level laws. The author proposes a theoretical model, which is able to describe a certain set of practically necessary phenomena of human life, to explain the appearance of these phenomena, and to justify decisions aiming at need-satisfaction, i.e. avoidance of serious harm. The necessary conditions of the model are a subject of the need (personal or collective), an object of the need (an appropriate operational function (purpose)), the potential harm of an unsatisfied need, nomological and humanological conditions of unavoidability of need, and the tension-factors of the need. There are two categories and several types of human needs. The immediate needs are the physiological and psychological functionality of an organism and the immediate life-conditions of an organism and personality. The intermediate, i.e. functional and circumstantial, needs are for the innovative means of direct harm avoidance and remedy, for the innovative means of the basic need-satisfaction, for the cooperation and for the sources (resources) of the basic need-satisfaction, and for the innovative providers of normal (normic-level) life-conditions. Therefore, the need is a vitally important condition, ongoing shortage of which inevitably and seriously harms a person, but a potential or a short-term shortage of which motivates him or her to practically necessary action. The genuine ground of need-satisfaction is the avoidance of causing serious harm to the human personality.


2021 ◽  
pp. 102831532110527
Author(s):  
Wilbert Law ◽  
Shuang Liu

With an increasing number of students pursuing their tertiary studies overseas, ways to improve their adaptation into a new environment become of the utmost importance. By applying self-determination theory, the current research investigated the extent that a basic psychological need intervention can increase need-satisfying experiences and promote the adjustment of Mainland Chinese international students to college. In total, 55 participants were randomly assigned to an intervention or control condition. They completed questionnaires on basic need satisfaction and college adjustment before the start of the study, right after the completion of the intervention, and after a 5-week follow-up. Participants who received the intervention had significantly higher need satisfaction and adjustment to college than those in the control condition. The intervention effect was maintained after a 5-week delay. In addition, the results showed that the increases in psychological need satisfaction after the intervention predicted higher levels of students’ adjustment to college. Theoretical implications for the universality of basic need satisfaction to students’ well-being and practical implications for international education are discussed.


2012 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amelia E. Talley ◽  
Lucie Kocum ◽  
Rebecca J. Schlegel ◽  
Lisa Molix ◽  
B. Ann Bettencourt

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