Motivation, Needs and Nirvana

Motivation and Needs

What are needs?

What does one need in life? Is it limited to the age-old definition of ROTI, KAPDA, and MAKAAN (food, clothing, and shelter)? Over a period of time, this definition also seems to have evolved just like time. Ask someone, what are your needs? And the answer might surprise you. Even better is ask yourself what are your needs? Surely the needs don’t limit themselves to food, clothing and shelter.

Maslow’s theory is based on the premise that human beings are motivated by needs ranked in order hierarchically. Some of these needs are simply essential to all human beings. When a basic need is satisfied, we begin to seek higher-order needs.

According to Maslow, when physiological needs, such as air, food, and water are satisfied, we become concerned about safety, which includes our own physical safety and security, as well as our employment security. The next need to fill is social: our need to bond with other human beings. The need for love, friendship, and family is considered to be a fundamental human motivation. When we have achieved a sense of belonging, our need for esteem—the desire to be respected by one’s peers, feel important, and be appreciated—becomes more salient. The highest level of the hierarchy is the need for self-actualization, which refers to “becoming all you are capable of becoming?”

Murray(1937) made another classification of human needs. Murray defines a need as a drive that has the potential to prompt a behavior from the person. Like, the need for affiliation may drive a person to join social organization.

Henry Murray proposed that a series of needs are present, and the combination of needs at that particular time and their individual strength, plays an important role in human motivation. Murray emphasized upon how motivation influences behavior, and not on whether motivation is innate or learned. Research findings have established some relationships between these needs and other psycho-social factors.

1. Affiliation (Need to be near &enjoyably reciprocate with another). Need for Affiliation is found more in females.
2. Autonomy (Need to be free & independent of others)
3. Achievement. Need for Achievement has been found to be positively related with occupational and financial success.
4. Dominance (Need to control or influence others)
5. Exhibition (Need to be seen & heard, entertain & entice)
6. Harm-Avoidance (Need to avoid injury, take precaution)
7. Nurturance (Need to help, console, nurse the weak)
8. Order (Need for organization & neatness)
9. Play (Need for enjoyment & fun)
10. Sex (Need to form erotic relationships)
11. Succorance (Need to be loved, nursed, controlled)
12. Understanding (Need to analyze, speculate, generalize)

According to Murray, we both have primary needs which are biologically based such as the need for water, food, air, sex and the avoidance of pain, and secondary needs that derive from biological needs or are part of human nature.   Of the long list of 27 psychogenic needs, the most often cited for their importance in research are: achievement, power (dominance), affiliation, and nurturance.

Personality

While Murray differentiated real environmental forces and perceived, in his model it is the psychogenic needs that give rise to personality.  How the environment will ‘press’ or put pressure on individuals and force them to act defines our personality; i.e.. which of the 27 psychogenic needs are expressed most strongly.

Personality can be defined as patterns of thought, feeling and action amongst our three spheres.  Some extreme personality types may emerge when one sphere is consistently given precedence over the others.

To sum it up needs are divided in to two categories:

Primary Needs: Primary needs are basic needs that are based upon biological demands, such as the need for oxygen, food, and water. 

Secondary Needs: Secondary needs are generally psychological, such as the need for nurturing, independence, and achievement. While these needs might not be fundamental for basic survival, they are essential for psychological well-being.

At every stage of our lives our needs change and we are motivated towards achieving that goal as to what we desire. Happiness too is one of them, let’s transform happily, to feel better and grow better. After all our well-being is of top priority.