What is Maslow's hierarchy of needs and what do its five levels describe? Read its criticisms and how it applies to daily life, from living costs to migration.
There are four days left until the end of the month. The rent has been paid, but sums are being done for the gas bill and the child's school bus. In the evening, after the children are asleep, one of the videos scrolling past on the phone says: "Follow your passion, unlock your potential, actualise yourself!" As the young mother puts the phone down, a strange sense of inadequacy stays with her: "Why can't I even think about these things?" One of the most widely known psychological models for answering this question is Maslow's hierarchy of needs, put forward more than eighty years ago. In this article we look at what the model describes, the ways in which it has been criticised, and what it can explain in everyday life for someone living in Turkey today.
What Is Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs?
Abraham Maslow was one of the leading figures of the humanistic psychology movement in the mid-20th century. While the psychology of the time focused largely either on mental health problems or on behaviour that could be measured in a laboratory, Maslow was curious about what motivates healthy people and what they grow towards. In his 1943 paper on human motivation, he proposed that human needs are organised in a particular order of priority.
According to this idea, some needs are more basic than others, and when they are not met, they draw a person's attention and energy almost entirely towards themselves. For someone who is hungry, art is a far more distant subject than it is for someone who is not. As basic needs are relatively met, higher-level needs come to the fore.
Today, many textbooks draw this model as a five-tier pyramid. As an interesting detail, the pyramid image belongs not to Maslow himself but to writers who later popularised the model. This detail matters, because the pyramid shape gives the impression that needs are rigid, sequential steps. Maslow, by contrast, spoke of a more flexible, overlapping structure.
One reason the model has spread so widely is its simplicity. Even someone who has never taken an interest in psychology can, after a single glance at the pyramid, intuitively guess at which level they are struggling in their own life. That is why the model is used today in a great many fields, from education to nursing and from marketing to human resources. But this popularity has also, at times, led to the model being oversimplified.
The Levels of the Pyramid: Five Basic Needs
Physiological needs
These are the basic needs required for life to continue, such as food, water, sleep, shelter and warmth. The fact that after a sleepless week we struggle to make even the simplest decisions shows the power these needs have over our mental functioning.
Safety needs
These cover economic security, predictability and order as much as physical safety. A regular income, a safe home and knowing that tomorrow will not be very different from today belong to this level. In periods when job security is shaken or rent increases create uncertainty every year, this need is felt very vividly.
Love and belonging needs
Belonging to a family, a group of friends or a community; loving and being loved. Feelings of loneliness, exclusion and rootlessness are signs that this need is not being met.
Esteem needs
Both self-respect and the appreciation and recognition received from others. Having your efforts noticed, feeling competent and having a say are part of this level.
Self-actualisation
A person realising their potential, producing something that feels meaningful to them, and growing towards becoming "who they could be". Maslow saw this less as a destination than as an ongoing orientation. Self-actualisation does not necessarily mean great achievements; a retired person carefully tending their garden, or a teacher giving free lessons to children in the neighbourhood, may well be living out this need.
Maslow called the first four levels "deficiency needs": when they are not met, we feel discomfort. Self-actualisation, on the other hand, is a "growth need": it arises not from making up for a deficiency but from a desire to develop.
The Limits of the Model: Criticisms and Updates
Although Maslow's hierarchy of needs is an intuitively powerful model, it has been the subject of some important criticisms in psychology. Knowing these criticisms allows us to use the model more wisely.
Needs are not a rigid ladder. In real life, people experience more than one need at the same time. Maslow himself did not say that one level must be fully satisfied before moving to the next; he spoke of needs being "relatively" met.
Higher needs stay alive in difficult conditions too. People living in poverty or in disaster conditions also form deep bonds of belonging, search for meaning and create art. The solidarity that formed around the rubble after the 6 February 2023 earthquakes shows that, even when their most basic needs are under threat, people continue to need to connect with one another and to search for meaning.
There are cultural differences. It is often pointed out that the model was developed in an individualistic society, and that placing self-actualisation at the top reflects that perspective. In cultures such as Turkey's, where family and community ties are strong, the need to belong may come even before the need for safety for some people. A young person may choose to stay close to their family despite a better job opportunity elsewhere.
Maslow expanded the model himself. In the last period of his life, he spoke of a need that goes beyond self-actualisation: self-transcendence, in other words the need to serve something greater than oneself, other people or a cause.
Another criticism is that the model does not sufficiently take differences between individuals into account. For some people, being appreciated is an even stronger motivation than safety; others prefer solitude to the satisfaction that someone else gets from a busy social life. These criticisms do not make the model worthless. Maslow's hierarchy gains value when it is seen not as a precise scientific law but as a useful map for thinking about human motivation.
What Does Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Tell Us About Everyday Life?
The model's real strength lies in helping us look at ourselves and others with more understanding. A few everyday examples:
Economic uncertainty and "my brain not working". In periods when the rising cost of living is felt intensely, many people complain that they cannot concentrate, have lost the desire to learn anything new, or cannot return to hobbies they used to enjoy. This is usually not a personality flaw but the mind redirecting its energy towards survival when the need for safety is shaken. We discussed this subject in detail in our article on the cost of living and mental health.
Priorities after a disaster. For a family affected by an earthquake, the agenda in the first weeks is shelter, warmth and the children's safety. During this period the question "Why can't I grieve, why don't I feel anything?" is often heard. Once basic needs have been relatively secured, grief, anger and the search for meaning begin to rise to the surface.
Belonging far from home. Someone who moves abroad or to another city may feel a deep emptiness even after finding a good salary and a safe home. This is often the need to belong not being met. Our article on the need to belong offers more information on this.
The pressure to "actualise yourself" on social media. Let us return to the young mother at the beginning of the article. The sense of inadequacy she feels actually comes from an unfair comparison. Someone who puts great effort into meeting basic needs every day can forget that this effort is valuable in itself. The effort she makes to keep her family going is already work full of meaning and love.
In relationships with children and teenagers. It is not realistic to expect a child who is hungry, tired or who does not feel safe because of tension at home to concentrate on lessons. The great importance teenagers give to their group of friends is also linked to how intense the need to belong is at that stage.
In working life. A salary is not only a matter of security but also a matter of esteem. An employee who feels they are not being paid fairly for their work experiences not only financial hurt but also the hurt of not being seen.
Expecting creativity from a mind that has lost sleep and cannot be sure of tomorrow is unfair to it; first the ground, then the height.
A Practical Exercise for Assessing Your Own Needs
The model can be turned into a simple checklist for looking at your own life. Take a piece of paper and ask yourself the following questions for each level, then rate yourself in that area from 0 to 10:
- Body: Am I sleeping enough? Am I eating regularly? Am I meeting my body's basic needs?
- Safety: How safe do I feel at home, at work and financially? Is there a predictable order in my life?
- Belonging: Are there people I feel close to, who are good for me? When did I last feel truly understood?
- Esteem: Do I feel that my efforts are seen? Do I respect myself?
- Meaning and growth: Do I have an activity that feels meaningful to me and helps me grow?
Then choose the area to which you gave the lowest score and decide on a single small step you could take in that area this week. The aim is not to make every area perfect but to see where your energy needs to go.
Repeating this exercise every few months can also be instructive. Seeing how the scores change over time helps you understand the different periods of your life: when you start a new job your safety score may fall, while your belonging score may rise when you build a new circle of friends. Low scores are not a failure but a sign of where you need to direct your attention. Doing the same exercise together with your partner or your teenage child can also be a calm way of seeing each other's needs at that point in time.
When the young mother does this exercise, she gives the lowest score to the "body" area: she has not gone to bed before midnight for months. Her goal for this week is not a big career plan but putting her phone down at eleven o'clock three nights a week. A month later she still watches videos about realising her potential; but now, when she looks at them, what she feels inside is not a lack but a calm voice saying, "Its time will come."
When Should You Seek Professional Support?
Periods when our needs are not being met are a natural part of life. However, in the following situations it may be helpful to speak to a professional:
- If, although your basic needs are met, you have been feeling a deep emptiness and meaninglessness for a long time
- If economic or safety-related worries noticeably disrupt your sleep, appetite and daily functioning
- If you have felt lonely for a long time, as if you do not belong anywhere
- If you are struggling to recover after a loss, a migration or a disaster
- If you notice that while constantly meeting other people's needs you completely ignore your own
How Are Needs Addressed in Therapy?
Maslow's model is not a therapy method in itself; however, the legacy of humanistic psychology lives on in many therapy approaches today. In therapy, the focus is not only on a person's problems but also on their needs, values and potential for growth.
Schema therapy offers a framework close to Maslow's thinking in this respect. According to this approach, every child has core emotional needs such as secure attachment, autonomy, being able to express emotions, spontaneity and play, and realistic limits. When these needs are not sufficiently met in childhood, certain recurring patterns can emerge in adulthood. In therapy, these unmet needs are recognised, and work is done so that the person can meet them in healthy ways today.
Cognitive behavioural therapy, meanwhile, addresses beliefs and behaviours related to needs. When beliefs such as "Having needs is a weakness" or "Everyone else must be fine first, then me" are recognised, the person can learn to recognise and voice their own needs. If you would like to explore together which of your needs are being overlooked in your life, it is possible to carry out this work within individual therapy, either face to face or online.
Frequently Asked Questions
Has Maslow's pyramid been scientifically proven?
The model's assumption of a rigid order has not been fully supported by research; people can experience different needs at the same time. Nevertheless, it is generally accepted that meeting basic needs is associated with wellbeing. The model should be seen not as a precise law but as a framework that helps us think.
Is self-actualisation possible for everyone?
According to Maslow, self-actualisation is not a destination but an orientation. This orientation does not require great achievements; it is about a person bringing to life what is meaningful to them, within their own circumstances. In that sense it is possible for everyone, in different forms.
How is Maslow's hierarchy of needs used in working life?
Managers and human resources professionals often draw on this model to understand employee motivation. Trying to motivate people only through recognition or development opportunities, without meeting basic needs such as fair pay and job security, usually has limited effect.
How can I use this model when raising children?
Asking about the need behind your child's behaviour is a good starting point: Are they hungry, tired, do they feel safe, do they need to be seen? A lot of "naughtiness" is the way an unmet basic need finds expression.
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Eda Erkan Alapala
Klinik Psikolog. İstanbul Kent Üniversitesi Klinik Psikoloji Tezli Yüksek Lisans mezunu; bilişsel davranışçı terapi, çocuk merkezli oyun terapisi ve çocuk-ergen psikoterapisi alanlarında eğitimlerini tamamlamıştır.
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