We can say that need is a state that is inherent in almost all living organisms to one degree or another. Their dependence on existence, development, various active forms and actions is precisely expressed in this concept. This is a feeling of need for something or someone: both functional and psychological (for a person).
In human society it manifests itself in different ways depending on the situation. Of course, the needs of a child are quite different from the needs of an adult, and the needs of one individual from the needs of another. But let's start with the lower life forms.
What does a person need?
But human needs represent a very vast and ambiguous area for study. In addition to a system of signals and functions similar to animals, they are determined by the presence of a subtle mental component, popularly called the soul, and are represented in addition to everything by secondary signaling systems, expressed by the thought process and verbally - speech. Therefore, it is not so easy to determine what a person needs in a given context. Although it seems that everything is simple: food, sleep, family and offspring. But there are also needs of a higher order, which vary greatly depending on the circumstances of the existence of a particular individual in a particular socio-political environment. However, through the efforts of scientists, they are still subject to some classification and can be studied and generalized.
What are the differences?
But first, a few words about how lower and higher needs differ and how we can try to classify them. Without further ado, let us turn to the hierarchy of the system of human needs, the so-called pyramid, which was proposed by the American psychologist Abraham Maslow. Here you can clearly see how lower and higher needs differ and what types of steps exist. At the base of the imaginary pyramid are the physiological (so-called lower) ones. Then - the need for safety, love, respect. After that are the needs associated with cognition. Aesthetic, artistic. And finally, at the imaginary peak - self-actualization, that is, personal development and realization of abilities and goals set for oneself, finding meaning in life and a place in human society. What is the difference between lower and higher human needs? Let's take a closer look.
Classification
The issue related to human needs has been studied by many scientists at different times. In this regard, there are many theories and interpretations that differently describe the relationship between needs, need and the process of satisfying them.
Main types of needs:
- Survival is the strongest instinct.
It is in the nature of every individual to strive to preserve life and protect their loved ones and friends from danger. If there is no guarantee of survival, all other needs fade into the background. - Safety . After a guarantee of survival is received, people begin to feel the need for security: financial - people are afraid of poverty and material losses, so they take actions aimed at overcoming them and increasing their income; physical - all people need housing, clothing and food; emotional - when an individual reaches a minimum safe level of security, he has a need for comfort.
- Free time . People strive to relax more, spend less time at work and take care of themselves.
- Respect . A high-ranking position often motivates people more than a large salary. Lack of respect from others can cause deep feelings of dissatisfaction.
- Love. A person experiences an urgent need to love and be loved. Therefore, people strive to create favorable conditions necessary for the emergence and maintenance of this feeling.
- Self-realization .
A person urgently needs to realize his creative and personal potential. Therefore, throughout their lives, people try to show their abilities and achieve the maximum possible.
According to Simonov
The scientific work of psychologist P. V. Simonov provides the following classification of human needs:
- Vital needs . What does it mean? This includes the need for: water; food; night sleep; protection from threats; desire to have offspring.
- Social needs. This includes a person’s desire to be respected and loved by society, to belong to one of the social groups and to occupy a worthy place in it.
It is very important to follow the rules and regulations established in a particular community. Without this condition, the very existence of various groups would be impossible. Describing social needs, Hegel pointed to the need of the human being for ideology and religion, which normalize the behavior of a biological unit in society. - Ideal needs. Here we are talking about the individual’s need to understand the world around him, himself, to find his own purpose and determine his place in life. This need motivates people to engage and be interested in art.
These needs are typical for people who are representatives of one of the biological species.
This point also includes the need to save energy, motivating to spend a minimum amount of energy to achieve a certain goal.
As a result, a person begins to show ingenuity, develop and improve technologies.
In some cases, this approach can lead to the development of laziness.
The author divided social and vital needs into two additional categories:
- For others;
- for myself.
Ideal needs, which consist in the desire to know the truth, do not contain such a division.
Because the true meaning of things and processes implies their only form .
When studying human needs in our time, an integrated approach and a full arsenal of scientific methods are used.
Without knowing the reliable reasons for the origin and formation of needs and the degree of their influence on brain activity, it is impossible to effectively solve the following problems:
- prevention and treatment of mental disorders;
- prevention of antisocial and inappropriate behavior;
- proper upbringing.
Lowest platform
Physiological needs can be satisfied throughout your life and never be satisfied. Pathology and displacement of value orientations, as a rule, occur in many members of modern society (regardless of wealth and social significance). And all these problems are due to the exaltation and highlighting of lower needs. This is how dissatisfaction with oneself and one’s life, destiny, and place in society comes. Lack of understanding of your role in life. The result is a low social role, a feeling that you are a cog in a machine, a piece of gray mass, causing oppression and a feeling of hopelessness.
Needs for food and water, sexual desire
Like excessive hypertrophy of nutritional needs - the cultivation of a table abundant in food. Vivid examples: the New Year's table of the Soviet era, for example. The main goal is for a lot to be presented: both scarce products and delicacies, they say, they could still get them! The next goal is to overeat all this in the presence of family and friends, to the delight of yourself and others. Inflating nutritional needs leads to dissatisfaction. No matter how much you eat, you will still be hungry the next morning! In addition, shifting guidelines will invariably lead to the problem of excess weight and loss of health. It is not for nothing that the wise of this world in various eras advised to eat modestly and without excesses, without loading the stomach and consuming only the amount of calories, vitamins, microelements that are necessary for the normal functioning of the body.
The need for the required amount of water (and the feeling of thirst) manifests itself in a person more organically. But still, we should not forget that for normal life, you need to drink at least 1.5-2 liters of clean water per day. All kinds of “liquid candies” - lemonades, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, overloaded with a huge amount of sugar, which causes obesity - do not count!
Sexual attraction and the need for sex manifest themselves in a person on an instinctive level, as part of the program for procreation and the acquisition of offspring.
Needs. System of needs according to A. Maslow. Reasonable needs. Interest.
2In the development of the individual, the main role is played by the desire to satisfy natural organic needs, in the development of personality - the desire to satisfy cultural needs. Concretize this position by selecting two examples of satisfying needs leading to the development of the individual and personality.
Types of society. Authors of the concept. The main features of an industrial society.
Name 3 features of industrial society, illustrate them with examples.
Types of society. Authors of the concept. The main features of a post-industrial society.
Read the text and complete tasks 21-24.
… The heart of post-industrial society is the class, which is primarily the professional class. Although the boundaries that arise when determining the status of each group are fluid and often vague, nevertheless, the core of the elements that determine it is clearly defined. A profession is a theoretically learned (i.e., comprehended) activity, and thus involves a process of formal training, but within a broad intellectual context. Belonging to a profession means formal or informal recognition of this by people or a special official body. At the same time, the profession contains a norm of social responsibility. This does not mean that professionals are more generous or idealistic people, but the expected pattern of their behavior in comparison with other citizens is predetermined by the ethics of their work, which, as a rule, is primary in relation to the ethics of selfishness. For these reasons, the concept of professionalism embodies the idea of competence and authority of a technical and moral nature and assumes that the professional has grounds for occupying a prominent position in the hierarchical structure of society...
If we consider the social structure of post-industrial society... two conclusions can be drawn. Firstly, the main class in the emerging society is, first of all, a class of professionals who own knowledge, not property. But, secondly, the system of leadership of society is determined not by the transfer of power by inheritance, but by the political system, and the question of who is in charge remains open...
The professional class, as I define it, consists of four classes: scientific, technological, administrative and cultural... The scientific class carries out fundamental research and is naturally concerned with finding ways to protect the conditions for its conduct, free from political and any other external influence. Technocrats, be they engineers, economists, or physicists, base their work on a system of codified knowledge, but the application of such knowledge for social or economic purposes turns out to be limited by the politics of the socio-economic structures to which they belong. The managerial layers are engaged in the management of organizations, and they are connected both by the selfish interests of the organization itself (its preservation and expansion of its sphere of influence), and by the implementation of social tasks, and may come into conflict with any other professional community. The cultural class - representatives of the arts and religious figures - expresses itself in the symbolism (plastic or ideological) of forms and concepts...
Finally, if the most important turn of the last quarter of the 20th century comes down to the subordination of the economic function to social goals, then the political system inevitably turns into a controlling system of society. But who controls it and in whose (or what) interests? First of all, this change may mean that traditional social conflicts have simply shifted from one sphere to another, that the struggle of traditional classes in the economic sphere, where people achieved comparative advantages in status, privilege and influence, has now shifted towards politics, and As part of this process, interest groups and ethnic groups now seek to gain through political action privileges and advantages that they are unable to acquire in the economic sphere.
(According to D. Bell)
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