Needs

What are needs?

Needs are necessities that, if satisfied, lead to well-being.

Why do we have needs?

Needs are a way our brain use to highlight what we need to live well. They are an evolutionary mechanism that is used to create the necessity to satisfy those needs and facilitate the engage of behaviours that maximize the likelihood to survive and live well.

Therefore needs define our behaviours. We engage in a particular behaviour if we believe that this behaviour can lead to desired goals and to the satisfaction of our needs.

Behind a behaviour and an habit there is always a need.

What kind of needs exist?

Some needs are physiological and we feel them because we need them for our survive. Some example of physiological needs are water, food, air,…

Other needs are psychological and we feel them because if we satisfy them, we feel well.

Some needs we are aware of, other needs we are unaware of. Sometimes we engage in ineffective behaviours because we are unaware of the need that we are going to satisfy.

Maslow identified various categories of needs:

• Physiological
• Safety
• Belonging and love
• Esteem (self-acceptance and respect from others)
• Cognitive (curiosity, creativity, meaning)
• Aesthetic (beauty)
• Self-actualization (realization of one’s full potential, personal growth)
• Trascendence (giving oneself to something beyond oneself and bigger than oneself)

There is a continuous overlap between the various categories identified by Maslow.

Some needs may be defined as hedonistic needs and are those needs that give us short time pleasure.

Some needs may be defined as eudaimonic needs and are those needs that give us long time happiness.

When do we have needs?

Needs are always be present in ourselves.

When a need is not satisfied, we feel anxious and tense.

When a need is satisfied, we may not feeling it.

Who define our needs? Do we all have the same needs?

Researches suggest that there are some universal psychological human needs like:

• Competence
• Autonomy
• Relatedness

These needs are innate and not learned in human beings due to evolutionary purpose.

Other needs may be specific and depend on the person’s values and are learned during lifetime.

Are needs related to happiness?

I believe that the gap between our needs and the outcomes we get in life related to those needs defines happiness.

If the gap is low, we feel happy. If the gap is high, we feel unhappy.

Some needs are hedonistic needs and when satisfied give us short time pleasure.

Some needs are eudaimonic needs and when satisfied give us long time happiness.

What are the most influential theories about needs?

Two of the most influential theories about human needs are:

• Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
• Self Determination Theory

How to satisfy our needs?

1. Find your needs. Listen your emotions and analyse your behaviours asking yourself:
   • Why did I behave in this way?
   • What is the need that I wanted to satisfy?
   • Is the taken behaviour or habit effective to satisfy this need?
2. Define effective behaviours and habits to satisfy your needs.

My current conclusions about Needs

• Sometimes we engage in behaviours that do not allow to satisfy our needs because of:

  • an inadeguate problem solving
  • an evaluation of only the short term benefit without considering the long term benefit.

• Our values contribute to define our needs. However we may have hedonistic needs that may not be aligned with our values.

• Considering that:

  • human beings tend to weigh losses more than gains

  • often, our brain considers only the short term rather than long term

  • giving up to satisfy a hedonistic need may be considered a loss in the short term

  • satisfying eudaimonic needs leads to long term satisfaction, but may not be lead to short term gains

    Then, it is simpler to satisfy hedonistic needs than eudaimonic needs because they lead to a sense of well-being in the short term.

• To reduce the effect indicated in the previous consideration, it could be useful to define short term rewards that are obtained if one adopts behaviours oriented towards the satisfaction of eudaimonic needs related to values.

• A good compromise to be happy is to opportunely balance the satisfaction of hedonistic needs with eudaimonic needs defining short term rewards related to eudaimonic needs as indicated above.

• Considering that:

  • culture may influence our values

  • values contribute to define needs

    Then, immersing in other cultures may allow to experiment new values that may lead to greater happiness.

• Needs have a priority that is defined by oneself values and culture.

• Sometimes two needs may seem in contrast, but I think that the contrast may be related only to the behaviours that one thinks are necessary to satisfy those needs. Actually the two needs may not be in contrast and may subtend the same need and, if one searches, there could be behaviours that may lead to satisfying both the necessities.

References

• Creiamo cultura insieme | Facheris I. | 2018
• The Power of Habit | Charles Duhigg | 2012
• Maslow’s hierarchy of needs | Wikipedia
• Cross-Cultural Variations in Predictors of Life Satisfaction: Perspectives From Needs and Values | Shigehiro Oishi, Edward F. Diener, Richard E. Lucas, Eunkook M. Suh | 1999
• The “What” and “Why” of Goal Pursuits: Human Needs and the Self-Determination of Behavior | Edward L. Deci and Richard M. Ryan | 2000