Types of Needs & Malthus Theory

What is a need? * Require as useful, just, or proper. * A condition requiring relief. * Anything that is necessary but lacking. * A state of extreme poverty or destitution. Positive, GNMENT 1hunger that compels action for its satisfaction. Needs range from basic survival needs (common to all human beings) satisfied by necessities, to cultural, intellectual, and social needs (varying from place to place and age group to age group) satisfied by necessaries. Needs are finite but, in contrast, wants (which spring from desires or wishes) are boundless.

A need is something that is necessary for organisms to live a healthy life. Needs are distinguished from wants because a deficiency would cause a clear negative outcome, such as dysfunction or death. Needs can be objective and physical, such as food, or they can be subjective and psychological, such as the need for self-esteem. On a societal level, needs are sometimes controversial. Understanding needs and wants is an issue in the fields of politics, social science, and philosophy.

Concepts of need There is a considerable amount of complex literature related to the subject of need.

Bradshaw’s (1972) Typology of Needs provides a useful starting point as he splits the concept of need into four different types. 1. Normative need This is defined by an expert or professional and relates to established standards and protocols. This type of need is often highlighted when a standard needs to be met or maintained. 2. Felt need This concerns a need identified by individuals or groups, which is equated to what people want.

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3. Expressed need This is a felt need that is turned into an expressed request which is then initiated via some form of action or demand.

This often concerns access to resources or services in order to meet the need. 4. Comparative need This is defined by comparing the needs of similar groups and using the information to establish parity where possible. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BASIC AND ACQUIRED NEED? BASIC NEED The basic needs approach is one of the major approaches to the measurement of absolute poverty. It attempts to define the absolute minimum resources necessary for long-term physical well-being, usually in terms of consumption goods.

The poverty line is then defined as the amount of income required to satisfy those needs. A traditional list of immediate “basic needs” is food (including water), shelter, and clothing. Many modern lists emphasize the minimum level of consumption of ‘basic needs’ of not just food, water, and shelter, but also sanitation, education, and healthcare. Different agencies use different lists. In the development discourse, the basic needs model focuses on the measurement of what is believed to be an eradicable level of poverty.

Development programs following the basic needs approach do not invest in economically productive activities that will help a society carry its own weight in the future, rather it focuses on allowing the society to consume just enough to rise above the poverty line and meet its basic needs. These programs focus more on subsistence than fairness. Nevertheless, in terms of “measurement”, the basic needs or absolute approach is important. ACQUIRED NEED Need are shaped over time by our experiences over time. Most of these fall into three general categories of needs: * Achievement. * Affiliation. * Power.

Acquired Needs Theory is also known as the Three-Need Theory or Learned Need Theory. We have different preferences We will tend have one of these needs that affects us more powerfully than others and thus affects our behaviors: * Achievers seek to excel and appreciate frequent recognition of how well they are doing. They will avoid low risk activities that have no chance of gain. They also will avoid high risks where there is a significant chance of failure. * Affiliation seekers look for harmonious relationships with other people. They will thus tend to conform and shy away from standing out.

The seek approval rather than recognition. * Power seekers want power either to control other people (for their own goals) or to achieve higher goals (for the greater good). They seek neither recognition nor approval from others — only agreement and compliance. ERG THEORY A theory of human motivation that focuses on three groups of needs that form a hierarchy: existence needs (physical and material wants); relatedness needs (the desire for interpersonal relationships and for deeper relationships with the important people in one’s life); and growth needs (desires to be creative and productive).

The theory suggests that these needs change their position in the hierarchy as circumstances change * Existence Needs co-relate to Maslow’s first two levels. This group of needs is concerned with providing the basic requirements for material existence, such as physiological and safety needs. In a work context this need is satisfied by money earned in a job for the purchase of food, shelter, clothing, etc. * Relatedness Needs co-relate to Maslow’s third and fourth levels. This group of needs focuses on the desire to establish and maintain interpersonal relationships with family, friends, co-workers and employers.

This need includes the need to interact with other people, receive public recognition, and feel secure around people. In a work context and given the amount of time most people spend at work this need is normally satisfied to some extent by their relationships with colleagues and managers. * Growth Needs co-relate to Maslow’s fourth and fifth levels. These needs are about the fulfilment of desires to be creative, productive and to complete meaningful tasks in order to build and enhance a person’s self-esteem through personal achievement.

These needs are all about by personal development. In a work context a person’s job, career, or profession can provide a significant satisfaction of growth needs. Varying needs ERG Theory recognizes that the order of importance of the three categories may vary for each individual depending on the circumstances experienced by the individual and also how the individual perceives the circumstances. According to ERG theory, focusing exclusively on any one need at a time will not optimise effective motivation.

The leadership and management implications of this are that change leaders need to recognise that people have multiple needs to satisfy simultaneously. There seems to a general concensus that ERG theory provides a workable explanation of the dynamics of human needs as experienced and expressed in organisational situations. The theory is less rigid than Maslow’s famous “Hierarchy of Needs” theory, and Human needs cluster more neatly around the three categories proposed by Alderfer than the five categories in Maslow’s hierarchy.

Also, the identification of the processes of satisfaction-progression and frustration-regression offers a more flexible and realistic explanation of why and how people’s needs can change: * To their own changing circumstances * Their own perception of those circumstances * To their leaders framing and communication of those circumstances Contrasting Maslow and ERG Theory Maslow’s Theory of Motivation – Hierarchy of Needs In 1943, Dr. Abraham Maslow ‘s article “A Theory of Human Motivation ” appeared in Psychological Review, which were further expanded upon in his book: Toward a Psychology of Being In this article, Abraham H.

Maslow attempted to formulate a needs-based framework of human motivation and based upon his clinical experiences with people, rather than as did the prior psychology theories of his day from authors such as Freud and B. F. Skinner, which were largely theoretical or based upon animal behavior. From this theory of motivation, modern leaders and executive managers find means of motivation for the purposes of employee and workforce management. Abraham Maslow’s book Motivation and Personality (1954), formally introduced the Hierarchy of Needs.

The basis of Maslow’s motivation theory is that human beings are motivated by unsatisfied needs, and that certain lower factors need to be satisfied before higher needs can be satisfied. According to Maslow, there are general types of needs (physiological, survival, safety, love, and esteem) that must be satisfied before a person can act unselfishly. He called these needs “deficiency needs. ” As long as we are motivated to satisfy these cravings, we are moving towards growth, toward self-actualization. Satisfying needs is healthy, while preventing gratification makes us sick or act evilly.

As a result, for adequate workplace motivation, it is important that leadership understands the active needs active for individual employee motivation. In this manner, Maslow’s model indicates that fundamental, lower-order needs like safety and physiological requirements have to be satisfied in order to pursue higher-level motivators along the lines of self-fulfillment. As depicted in the following hierarchical diagram, sometimes called ‘Maslow’s Needs Pyramid’ or ‘Maslow’s Needs Triangle’, after a need is satisfied it stops acting as a motivator and the next need one rank higher starts to motivate.

Self-Actualization| Esteem Needs| Social Needs| Safety Needs| Physiological Needs| Maslow has set up a hierarchy of five levels of basic needs. Beyond these needs, higher levels of needs exist. These include needs for understanding, esthetic appreciation and purely spiritual needs. In the levels of the five basic needs, the person does not feel the second need until the demands of the first have been satisfied, nor the third until the second has been satisfied, and so on. Maslow’s basic needs are as follows: Needs for Self-Actualization

When all of the foregoing needs are satisfied, then and only then are the needs for self-actualization activated. Maslow describes self-actualization as a person’s need to be and do that which the person was “born to do. ” “A musician must make music, an artist must paint, and a poet must write. ” These needs make themselves felt in signs of restlessness. The person feels on edge, tense, lacking something, in short, restless. If a person is hungry, unsafe, not loved or accepted, or lacking self-esteem, it is very easy to know what the person is restless about.

It is not always clear what a person wants when there is a need for self-actualization. The hierarchic theory is often represented as a pyramid, with the larger, lower levels representing the lower needs, and the upper point representing the need for self-actualization. Maslow believes that the only reason that people would not move well in direction of self-actualization is because of hindrances placed in their way by society. He states that education is one of these hindrances. He recommends ways education can switch from its usual person-stunting tactics to person-growing approaches.

Maslow states that educators should respond to the potential an individual has for growing into a self-actualizing person of his/her own kind. Needs for Esteem When the first three classes of needs are satisfied, the needs for esteem can become dominant. These involve needs for both self-esteem and for the esteem a person gets from others. Humans have a need for a stable, firmly based, high level of self-respect, and respect from others. When these needs are satisfied, the person feels self-confident and valuable as a person in the world.

When these needs are frustrated, the person feels inferior, weak, helpless and worthless. Needs of Love, Affection and Belongingness When the needs for safety and for physiological well-being are satisfied, the next class of needs for love, affection and belongingness can emerge. Maslow states that people seek to overcome feelings of loneliness and alienation. This involves both giving and receiving love, affection and the sense of belonging. Safety Needs When all physiological needs are satisfied and are no longer controlling thoughts and behaviors, the needs for security can become active.

Adults have little awareness of their security needs except in times of emergency or periods of disorganization in the social structure (such as widespread rioting). Children often display the signs of insecurity and the need to be safe. Physiological Needs These are biological needs. They consist of needs for oxygen, food, water, and a relatively constant body temperature. They are the strongest needs because if a person were deprived of all needs, the physiological ones would come first in the person’s search for satisfaction. Differences from Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy

Beyond simply reducing the distinction between overlapping needs, the ERG theory improves upon the following shortcomings of Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy: Alderfers ERG theory demonstrates that more than one need may motivate at the same time. A lower motivator need not be substantially satisfied before one can move onto higher motivators. The ERG theory also accounts for differences in need preferences between cultures better than Maslow’s Need Hierarchy; the order of needs can be different for different people. This flexibility accounts for a wider range of observed behaviors.

For example, it can explain the “starving artist” who may place growth needs above those of existence. The ERG theory acknowledges that if a higher-order need is frustrated, an individual may regress to increase the satisfaction of a lower-order need which appears easier to satisfy. This is known as the frustration-regression principle. After the original formulation of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, studies had shown that the middle levels of Maslow’s hierarchy overlap. Alderfer addressed this issue by reducing the number of levels to three. The letters ERG represent these three levels of needs: * Existence refers to our concern with basic aterial existence motivators. * Relatedness refers to the motivation we have for maintaining interpersonal relationships.

* Growth refers to an intrinsic desire for personal development. Like Maslow’s model, the ERG motivation is hierarchical, and creates a pyramid or triangle appearance. Existence needs motivate at a more fundamental level than relatedness needs, which, in turn supercedes growth needs. Growth Self-Actualization| External Esteem Needs| | Relatedness Internal Esteem Needs| Social Needs| | Existence Safety Needs| Physiological Needs| | |