Maslow´s Hierarchy of Needs using Joe as a case study

“After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.”
― Philip Pullman

One of the theories of psychology that I love the most is Maslow´s Hierarchy of Needs which was gotten from the theories of motivation of human beings. According to Abraham, one cannot understand the motivation behind why people do things they do or act without fully getting the full understanding of these needs. If you want to know why people are motivated to do things, like leaving a high paying job and settling for their passion that doesn't bring much money, why they choose to give a huge amount of money to someone or a charity organisation and spend a little on themselves, or why a close friend suddenly becomes moody and would lock themselves up. You have to understand these needs first. 

These needs are classified into five stages and are called “Pyramid”. According to him, people are motivated through these five needs which are;

• Physiological Needs

• Need for Safety and Security

• Need for Love and Belongings

• Need for Self-esteem

• Need for Self Actualization

Maslow said that physiological needs such as food, water, air, and shelter need to be satisfied first before moving to the next stage. He said if these needs aren´t met, an individual will find it difficult to function in society. 

We will use Joe, a 30-year-old individual as a case study to understand these needs and how it applies to every individual and why they are motivated to do things they aren´t expected to do at first. 

Joe has just completed his Degree studies and studied Engineering. He doesn't have a job at the moment and he finds it difficult to interact with other people or even function in society and this has become so tough for him. His problem now is to satisfy his “Physiological Needs” as he believes that it is the most distinctive need as other needs are secondary to him. Joe understood that it is until these needs are met before he can move on to the next stage of his life. The physiological needs would dictate Joe´s life to a very large extent.

He has no money to do these things and he needs to stand up to look for a job so he can be able to meet his needs such as food, water and shelter. He went in search of a job and found one as a staff in a small firm. He starts to make money and from there bought food and got a room apartment for himself. At this stage, Joe has achieved the first stage of Maslow´s hierarchy of needs.

Now, Joe thinks of his “Safety and Security Need” as he has now started earning money in his company. The house he rented at first is not safe for him as there are burglaries, gangs works and drug abuse around him. He gather some amount of money and went to look for a safer place to stay. He set aside part of the money for savings for his future and went into a life insurance plan that will help him cover some hospital charges in case he needs to go for an operation in the future. 

During this process, Joe got a promotion as a manager in the company which makes his job more secure for him. He now develops a major sense of security and could now progress higher to the third stage of human needs which is the “Need for Love and Belongings”. 

According to Maslow, humans need to love and be loved among social groups and without this, such an individual cannot go up to the next stage of the needs. A human will crave love, affection and relationship with friends and families. 

Joe now has a stable job plus a higher income with a good house, but he feels lonely, he needs love and decided to find it. At this point, Joe has met his physiological, safety and security needs and he needs love and affection. He falls in love with a lady, and they both got married and had children. The sadness, anxiety, depression and loneliness that Joe had has now been replaced with love, happiness, companionship and affection with a beautiful family.

He is now wanting to create a meaningful relationship in the outside world apart from his family. He decides to join a local book club in his environment and got involved in the circling group with different people on weekends. 

He starts attending his children´s PTA meeting in the school, accompanying them to their music and football practices where he gets to meet other parents and people with similar goals and interests. Then on one of the weeks, probably Sundays, he decides to be hosting a barbeque party where he invites all these new people around to celebrate and have fun with him. 

Maslow then said once an individual has achieved all these needs up to the social needs, he starts to desire self-esteem needs which is the fourth stage. 

Self Esteem includes two components which are; 

• Feeling confident and good about yourself

• Being valued by others. 

When these esteem needs are not met, an individual will experience feelings of inferiority and won´t function or grow well among his peers in society. 

Joe starts to accept contracts from different organisations and even beyond his location and he sees this as an achievement for him as he earns more income than before. He now has a great Job title and earns respect from people. Joe has now reached his goal and feels a sense of superiority. After many years of working, and having reached the epitome of his career, he starts to feel the excitement and hollowness from inside and then he began to question if life is only about making money, buying luxurious homes and expensive cars, he starts to question his career path as a manager in the company.

He realizes this wasn't his passion after all, but took the step to meet his physiological needs years back. His true passion is to invent things for which he has done his degrees in Engineering. He decides he has enough savings and a good investment portfolio to help him in his passion. He quit his job and starts a technology startup and he starts enjoying what he was passionate about and worked hard to achieve more goals. At this stage of the hierarchy needs, Joe has fulfilled the fifth stage which is “Self Actualization”. He has been able to define himself and do what he was meant to do. 

This is the highest stage of the pyramid of needs and this self-actualization varies. Your self-actualization need might be to become a freelancer or a programmer or even a chef. 

Now, we can see the life of Joe as he started from the first stage to the last stage and was able to self examine himself to follow his passion after going through years of making money to satisfy his needs from physiological to being valued by others. 

Also, we were made to know that not everyone would reach this stage especially when there are some people who do not understand why they go to school in the first instance. All they are after is to keep making money and living a good life. Self-actualization is when you are able to reach your full potential and this is already considered an exception since people are working to meet their pressing needs. 

Thanks for reading. 

Lead image created on Canva

Images by Albert and Sincerely on Unsplash

[May 11, 2022] (No 131 article for the year)