Human Needs Theory
Abraham Maslow (1987) first published his research in 1943 postulating a hierarchy of five individual needs (Figure 4.1) each with a minimum level of satisfaction (the black area in Figure 4.1) varying with the individual.
The most basic needs, those required for survival such as oxygen, water, food, and shelter, are physiological (P). Those needs reasonably satisfied, individuals become concerned with physical, psychological and financial safety (S), while still trying to improve the quality of food and housing. When the individual feels safe, the need to belong (B) and to have friends comes to the fore while the individual continues to seek better housing and more security. A person with friends desires their esteem (E), which requires both personal achievement and recognition. With these needs satisfied, self-actualization (SA) will come to the fore as people strive to achieve their full potential.
Erich Fromm’s (1973) contribution is distinguishing two types of aggression based on his extensive review of the literature of anthropology, biology, ethology, and paleontology. The first, benign aggression, is defensive, contributory to species survival, and instinctive—that is, programmed into the brain of animals and humans alike. The second, malignant aggression, is cruel, socially disruptive, deleterious to species survival, and found almost exclusively in Man. Fromm explains malignant aggression with a mix of philosophy and Freudian rhetoric that is neither clear nor convincing. That is, he resolves the nature-nurture dispute by creating two types of aggression, one of which he attributes to nature, the other to nurture. It is a clever effort at making and explaining a potentially important distinction.