Read this topic

Maslow's hierarchy of needs matters because it offers a simple, if imperfect, way to think about what motivates human behaviour, and about which needs must be met before higher goals become achievable. It proposes needs are arranged in a pyramid, from basic physiological needs (food, water, sleep) at the base, through safety, love and belonging, and esteem, up to self-actualisation (realising one's full personal potential) at the top. For example, imagine a homeless patient struggling to attend follow-up appointments, their unmet basic needs for food and shelter can take priority over any goal of personal growth. This is a humanistic theory, emphasising personal growth and potential rather than unconscious drives or learned behaviour.

The lower four levels, physiological, safety, love/belonging, and esteem, are called deficiency needs, because a lack of them creates a felt deficit that motivates behaviour aimed at reducing it. Self-actualisation at the top is a growth need, motivating behaviour aimed at expanding potential rather than filling a lack. In the original model, lower needs generally had to be reasonably satisfied before higher needs became motivating, though later versions allow more flexibility. For example, imagine a patient with untreated chronic pain, an unmet safety-adjacent need, who finds it hard to engage with esteem-building activities like returning to work. In practice, this means care planning often has to address more basic unmet needs first, food, safety, housing, before an intervention aimed at self-esteem can realistically succeed.

• Which need sits immediately above safety in Maslow's original hierarchy?
• What is the main criticism of Maslow's hierarchy as a scientific model?
• Which needs did Maslow later add above esteem in extended versions of his model?

• Deficiency needs (physiological to esteem), motivated by filling a felt lack, unlike self-actualisation, a growth need motivated by expanding potential.
• Maslow's hierarchy, a humanistic theory of conscious motivation, rather than a psychodynamic theory built on unconscious drives.
• Self-actualisation, realising one's own potential, whereas esteem is about respect and self-worth in relation to others.
• Maslow's model, a fixed pyramid order in its original form, unlike more flexible motivational theories that allow needs to be pursued out of sequence.

• Physiological needs sit below safety rather than above it.
• Esteem sits above love and belonging rather than immediately above safety.
• Self-actualisation is at the top of the original hierarchy.
• Self-actualisation is the apex of the model.
• It was proposed as a general theory of human motivation.

• Name the learning, social or research principle being tested before reading the options.
• Identify the antecedent, behaviour, consequence or cognitive process in the vignette.
• Compare the direction of effect with the nearest competing principle.
• Apply the same rule to a new example to confirm that the answer transfers.