human needs in development according to Maslow

Brooklyn-born American psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) was dismayed by these attempts to reduce human psychology to mindless mechanisms. He wanted to know what constituted positive mental healthand happiness, not just mental illness and misery.Maslow was thus inspired to start a whole new movement in psychology — a third wave — which he called humanistic psychology.This was a real departure from the two dominant theories of the time in that it acknowledged a human or existential urge to grow, to seek happiness and fulfilment, to live up to our potential.Without actually rejecting the insights of earlier psychologists, Maslow proposed that human beings are driven by different factors at different times. These driving forces are hierarchical, in the sense that we generally start at the bottom layer and work our way up.

LEVEL 1: Physical Survival Needs

The first and most basic of all needs are those to do with physical survival. This is the need for food, drink, shelter, sleep and oxygen. If a person cannot satisfy this basic survival need it dominates their interest and concern. A person who is cold, sick or hungry will not be very interested in socialising, learning or working.

LEVEL 2: Physical Safety Needs

Once the physical survival needs are met, a new set of needs emerges. The physical survival needs still exist, but having these needs satisfied regularly, a person becomes aware of the next level of human need – physical safety. This is the need to feel safe in the world: to feel safe from personal danger and threats; being deprived at Level 2 results in fear. When a person is fearful, all concentration goes to calming the fear with no thought for any other task. For a person to develop fully as a human being there must be some freedom from fear of personal attack, particularly in one's own home.

LEVEL 3: Love and Belonging Needs

Once the physical survival and safety needs are being regularly met, a need for love, affection and belonging begin to emerge. Level 3 needs result from the fact that human beings are sociable and need relationships with others. Maslow states: "The person … will hunger for affectionate relationships with people in general for a place in the group."

People deprived at this level seem bored and joyless, even if they are doing well at their chosen tasks. They have feelings of loneliness, pain, sadness, separation and unworthiness.
LEVEL 4: Self-esteem Needs
With a few exceptions, people in our society have a need to feel of value and to count for something. This is called the need for esteem. It is a degree of self-respect and respect from others. Self-respect includes the need for confidence, achievement, independence and freedom. Respect from others includes recognition, attention and appreciation.
LEVEL 5: Self-fulfilled (Self-actualised) 
If the first four needs are being met, a new one will probably develop: the need for self-fulfilment. This is to become more what a person can be: to develop all aspects – physical, social, emotional and spiritual. Among the characteristics of self-fulfilled people is awareness of living, completeness, joyfulness, unforgettable moments or periods of joy, unity and understanding.