What motivate us?

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4 years ago

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Have you wondered what drives us to perform something every day? What drives us to do some task? Why are you writing here in this platform?

Maybe you'll think that it is because you need to do it. There is something inside our minds that dictate us, something like we will be rewarded for doing or satisfactions will be meet. And that thing is called motivation. From the root word "motive", it means an individual's reasons of actions, goals and willingness.

There are so many theories that explains what motivates us to behave or perform certain task; some describes how human behavior motivated. But there is this particular theory that explains everything about motivating factors and gives a comprehensive explanation to what are those drive forces or needs that keep us on doing things. And in my opinion, it perfectly gives us a logical idea about motivation and it's easy to understand because of it's simplicity in nature.

You probably heard it before, especially in your psychology subject. The theory that I'm going to discuss to you is about the Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

Who is Maslow?

Image source: https://positivepsychology.com/abraham-maslow/

Abraham Harold Maslow (April 1, 1908 – June 8, 1970) is an American psychologist and considered as one of the most influential psychologist in the twentieth century. This is because of his many contributions to humanistic psychology and as well as his famous theory of the Hierarchy of Needs. One thing that I've admired to this guy is that he didn't think of his patients as a "bag of symptoms" but instead, he is focused on the positive qualities of them while helping them to recuperate from their condition.

Hierarchy of Needs

Image source: https://regi.tankonyvtar.hu/hu/tartalom/tamop412A/2011-0023_Psychology/030300.scorml

This the one of the earliest and most widely known theory of motivation developed by Maslow in the 1940s. He emphasized that motivating factors come from the act of trying to fulfill our needs. And he categorized it into 5 basic categories namely: physiological, safety and security, belongingness and love, esteem, and self-actualization. In this theory, the lowest unsatisfied need becomes the most significant that needs to be fulfilled. And that would trigger an individual to act trying to fulfill or to satisfy that said needs. It also means that a satisfied needs don't motivate, it is the unsatisfied need that motivates us.

In this illustration, Hierarchy of Needs is usually shown in a shape of pyramid. Putting the physiological needs at the bottom as it's the most basic among the 5 needs, it followed by safety and security, belongingness and love, esteem and lastly, the most complex needs among them is the self-actualization.

1. Physiological needs

This refers to the most basic needs of a human to survive, such an example of it are water, food, and air. This the immediate needs that we will probably look for every time we wake up the morning. Basically, our mind and body won't function well if there is a deficiency of those so, it is placed at the bottom of the pyramid to illustrate its dominance among the needs. So if someone is acting something; like looking for a job, going to kitchen to cook, unwinding at the top of mountain; the immediate needs that he is trying to fulfill might be his physiological needs rather than any other. In all likelihood, we're here in read.cash to earn extra money.

2. Safety and Security

If all those needs mentioned above were relatively satisfied, we would likely look for new satisfaction or motivation. And that would scale up one level in the Hierarchy of Needs which is called the safety and security needs. It will then dominates our behavior after satisfying our physiological needs. We will seek for our security before engaging in any activity. Imagine that you're working in a hazardous workplace; would you be at ease knowing that at any moment, your safety would be jeopardized? Probably, not. This is also the reason we put some money on an insurance company for financial security. Health conscious people invest so much time and money for the purpose of health and well-being safety.

3. Belongingness and Love

If both the physiological and the safety needs are fulfilled, the affection, love and belongingness needs will appear as their prominent needs. This needs refer to the integration of oneself to a social group, be a part of a community, and have a passionate relationship. Humans are "social animal" and therefore naturally seek for the companionship of others and be accepted.

Love is not synonymous with sex; love means to give and receive affection(to love and be loved); sex is more of a physiological need. People suffer from social anxiety, isolation, loneliness, and depression because they lack of this kind of love and belongingness.

4. Esteem

Esteem means respect and admiration typically for a person or for himself. In our society, being respected and admired by many people are our aspirations. That's why many people are working hard to reach such positions. Being valued is also a part of this needs, such as being useful and necessary in a particular group. Maslow categorize esteem into two: the lower and the higher version. Lower version of esteem means the need of respects from the others: such as attention, prestige, status and loving their opinion. While the higher version of esteem is the need of self-respect: such as the person may need independence, and freedom or self-confidence.

5. Self-actualization

Among the five given needs, this the most complex. This is the individual's desire for a growth and development to the highest extent. People likes opportunity, challenge, risk-taking because they wanted growth. They are likely aiming for an accomplishment, things that are uncommon to many. But before reaching such level of motivation, they'll have to overcome the preceding needs first. That reason makes the differences between humans because some people are already satisfied with what they have; and some are still striving to have more.

Frustration-Regression process

If each level will be adequately satisfied, it would trigger an individual to move up to the next level of needs. But there are some circumstances that a person failed to achieve or satisfy their needs; such as break-up, job-termination, divorce, broken family, injury, financial woes etc. That would lead them to return to the lower level of the Hierarchy of Needs and experience demotivation. That event is called Frustration-Regression process. For an instance, a student is aiming for a higher grades(self-actualization) so that he will become known in the campus(esteem). But what if it didn't happen and only results to frustration? He will surely regress from that level into the lower hierarchy. From "I want to be on top of the class" into "Forget about the grades, I just want to eat some food and have some rest" (physiological needs).

Manage ourselves well

It is important that we know ourselves; what we really wanted, what's our purpose, what we like the most, and our aspirations. Self-monitoring is imperative when it comes to this. There is no problem in aiming highly provided that we know how to achieve it and be motivated. Know our priorities and manage our time, as we are our managers to ourselves. Take actions when you are well-motivated as Dalai Lama XIV said, “Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.”