Needs

A need is something that is necessary for an organism to live a healthy life. Needs are distinguished from wants in that, in the case of a need, a deficiency causes a clear adverse outcome: a dysfunction or death. Basic needs such as water, air, food and protection from environmental dangers are necessary for an organism to live.

Needs can be objective and physical, such as the need for food, or psychological and subjective, such as the need for self-esteem.

There are also needs of a social or societal nature.

Needs and wants are a matter of interest in, and form a common substrate for, the fields of philosophy, biology, psychology, social science, economics and politics.

To most psychologists, need is a psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a goal, giving purpose and direction to behavior.

The most widely known academic model of needs was proposed by psychologist Abraham Maslow. His theory proposed that people have a hierarchy of psychological needs, which range from security to self-actualization. However, while intuitively appealing, this model has been difficult to operationalize experimentally. It was developed further by Clayton Alderfer.

The academic study of needs, which was at its zenith in the 1950s, receives less attention among psychologists today. One exception involves Richard Sennett's work on the importance of respect.

One difficulty with a psychological theory of needs is that conceptions of "need" may vary radically among different cultures or among different parts of the same society. For a psychological theory of human need, one found compatible with the Doyal/Gough Theory, see self-determination theory.

...
Wikipedia