Chapter 9 Maslow: Holistic-Dynamic Theory 263Physiological Needs
The most basic needs of any person are physiological needs, including food,
water, oxygen, maintenance of body temperature, and so on. Physiological needs
are the most prepotent of all. Perpetually hungry people are motivated to eat—not
to make friends or gain self-esteem. They do not see beyond food, and as long
as this need remains unsatisfied, their primary motivation is to obtain something
to eat.
In affluent societies, most people satisfy their hunger needs as a matter of
course. They usually have enough to eat, so when they say they are hungry, they
are really speaking of appetites, not hunger. A truly hungry person will not be
overly particular about taste, smell, temperature, or texture of the food.
Maslow (1970) said: “It is quite true that man lives by bread alone—when
there is no bread” (p. 38). When people do not have their physiological needs
satisfied, they live primarily for those needs and strive constantly to satisfy them.
Starving people become preoccupied with food and are willing to do nearly any-
thing to obtain it (Keys, Brozek, Henschel, Mickelsen, & Taylor, 1950).
Physiological needs differ from other needs in at least two important respects.
First, they are the only needs that can be completely satisfied or even overly satis-
fied. People can get enough to eat so that food completely loses its motivational
power. For someone who has just finished a large meal, the thought of more food
can even have a nauseating effect. A second characteristic peculiar to physiological
needs is their recurring nature. After people have eaten, they will eventually become
hungry again; they constantly need to replenish their food and water supply; and
one breath of air must be followed by another. Other level needs, however, do not
constantly recur. For example, people who have at least partially satisfied their love
and esteem needs will remain confident that they can continue to satisfy their love
and esteem needs.
Safety Needs
When people have partially satisfied their physiological needs, they become moti-
vated by safety needs, including physical security, stability, dependency, protec-
tion, and freedom from threatening forces such as war, terrorism, illness, fear,
anxiety, danger, chaos, and natural disasters. The needs for law, order, and struc-
ture are also safety needs (Maslow, 1970).
Safety needs differ from physiological needs in that they cannot be overly
satiated; people can never be completely protected from meteorites, fires, floods,
or the dangerous acts of others.
In societies not at war, most healthy adults satisfy their safety needs most
of the time, thus making these needs relatively unimportant. Children, however,
are more often motivated by safety needs because they live with such threats as
darkness, animals, strangers, and punishments from parents. Also, some adults
feel relatively unsafe because they retain irrational fears from childhood that cause
them to act as if they were afraid of parental punishment. They spend far more
energy than do healthy people trying to satisfy safety needs, and when they are
not successful in their attempts, they suffer from what Maslow (1970) called basic
anxiety.