Maslows Hierarchy of Needs and How Belonging Needs Apply to Me free essay sample

There are an nigh infinite reason for why we would communicate with another person but Abraham Maslow (1968) placed all these reasons into 5 separate categories and stated that the most primal and basic needs must be met before the more abstract ones could be. Literature Review In the first chapter of her book, Interpersonal Communication Everyday Encounters, Julia T. Woods (2013) examines how various interpersonal communications satisfy basic human needs. She starts off by examining Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs places the most important needs as the Physical Needs for Survival (1968). These include the need for air, food, reproduction, and all the other needs for basic survival as a species. While some of this may be obvious in our communications, i. e. a baby crying because it’s hungry, not all of it is. We are satisfying this need when we speak to our doctors about symptoms we may be having. We will write a custom essay sample on Maslows Hierarchy of Needs and How Belonging Needs Apply to Me or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Communicating our Physical Needs of for Survival is, at its heart, any communication we do that may help us stay alive. The next level in Maslow’s Hierarchy is Safety and Protection Needs. These needs encompass all the needs to give us shelter, make ourselves and others feel safe, to protect us. Examples of these include offering to be a designated driver, asking security to walk you to your car at night, notifying your supervisor of unsafe working conditions (Woods, 2013). All of these are used to create the safest environment for your well-being as possible. In the middle of Maslow’s Hierarchy lies the Belonging Needs. Humans need other humans in order to survive. We have the need to feel wanted and loved and we want to love and want others as well. We have friends, families, coworkers, fellow students, we join clubs, play sports, all these groups of people we gather with to satisfy our need of belonging. Next is Self-Esteem Needs. These are the needs of being respected and valued and the needs of respecting and valuing others (Woods, 2013). These are labeled as Self-Esteem Needs because these are the needs that show us how others view us and set the stage for us to develop our own view of ourselves. Parents, teachers, peers, and romantic partners all come together and help mold our definition of self. From whether we are smart, good-looking, selfish, believable; all of these are reflections from others that help us to determine our self-worth and these are all â€Å"shaped by how other people communicate with us† (Woods, 2013). Finally is the need for self-actualization. This is the most abstract need according to Maslow (Woods, 2013). This is the need to stretch the envelope, challenge our values and perspectives, to learn new things, to grow. â€Å"To become our fullest selves – to self-actualize – we must embrace the idea that personal growth is an ongoing process – we are always evolving, growing, changing† (Woods, 2013). We rely on communication with others to do this process. We can do this verbally by talking with friends, family, coworkers, etc. y â€Å"bouncing ideas off them† on how we want to grow or what we want our future to be or ways to handle tasks better. Other times we do so non-verbally and wait for communication from others to see where we stand. For example we may try a new hairstyle and see how our friends and family respond to it. Now that we have a basic idea of the different levels proposed by Maslow, let’s focus on how two of these levels apply to me; specifically the belonging and self-esteem needs. The belonging needs are quite evident in my life, I believe. I am a â€Å"social butterfly† and go out of my way to spend time with friends and family. In fact I have noticed that on a day when I don’t have a chance to get out of the house I tend to be more sullen and irritable than if I get to spend time with people. The self-esteem need I feel is also very evident. I have had many a talk with my partner on occasions, when she is distracted with school or work, whether or not she even likes me because I feel sometimes that the lack of communication that occurs when she is distracted is a sign of disinterest. And these are just two examples of how I feel that the belonging and self-esteem needs apply to me in my life.