Maslow's hierarchy of needs
Also known as: Hierarchy of needs
Human needs stack in a pyramid, from basic survival up to self-fulfillment, with lower needs claiming priority.
What it means
Maslow's hierarchy arranges human needs into levels — physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization — proposing that lower, more basic needs generally must be satisfied before higher ones become salient motivators. The first four are 'deficiency needs' whose lack creates tension, while self-actualization is a 'growth need' for realizing one's potential that is never fully sated; later writing added self-transcendence above it. The theory's enduring appeal is its intuitive ordering of why a starving person isn't worried about prestige. Its serious limitations are well documented: the strict prerequisite ordering rarely holds, the levels are hard to test, and cross-cultural evidence finds people pursue multiple needs at once and rank them differently. It matters historically as a humanistic counterpoint to drive theory and as a fixture of management training, even where the science is shaky.
Examples
A refugee focused on food and safety has little attention for career esteem until those basics are secured — though in practice people often pursue several needs simultaneously.
A company answers falling morale with a new mission statement and purpose workshops while pay is late and layoffs are rumoured — esteem talk aimed at people worried about rent.
During a long power cut, a family's evening shrinks to heat, light and food; the half-finished novel and the promotion can wait until the lights come back on.
First described in Abraham Maslow (1943, 1954).