Human social needs - definition, features and types

What is a “need”?

This is a need for something. It can be both physiological and psychological in nature, serves as a motive for action and “forces” the individual to take steps aimed at satisfying his needs. Needs appear in the form of emotionally charged desires and, as a result, its satisfaction manifests itself in the form of evaluative emotions. When an individual needs something, he feels negative emotions, and as his needs and desires are satisfied, positive emotions appear.

Failure to satisfy physiological needs can lead to the death of a living organism, and psychological needs can cause internal discomfort and tension, depression.

The satisfaction of one need entails the emergence of another. Their limitlessness is one of the features of the development of an individual as a personality.

Needs force us to perceive the surrounding reality selectively, through the prism of our needs. They concentrate the individual’s attention on objects that help satisfy the current need.

The nature of the social needs of the individual

In a broad sense, social need is explained as a form of contact of a living being with the surrounding reality. For people, these are aspirations that are characteristic of all individuals, as representatives of the human group.

An individual’s belonging to society gives rise to emotionally charged drives. When they are implemented, personal growth occurs. Needs provide motivation for activity and shape behavior, and as they are satisfied, they are replaced, and new desires come into activity.

Biological requirements are expressed in the need to maintain the functioning of the body. In humans, as in animals, realization occurs in the form of an unconscious instinct. However, the question of the “foundation” inherent in this concept remains controversial in the scientific world.

Hierarchy

The diversity of human nature is the reason for the existence of various classifications of needs: by object and subject, areas of activity, temporary stability, significance, functional role, etc. The most widely known is the hierarchy of needs proposed by the American psychologist Abraham Maslow.

The first stage is physiological needs (thirst, hunger, sleep, sexual desire, etc.).
The second stage is security (lack of fear for one’s existence, confidence).
The third stage is social needs (communication, friendship, love, caring for others, belonging to a social group, joint activities).
The fourth stage is the need for respect from others and oneself (success, recognition).
The fifth stage is spiritual needs (self-expression, revealing inner potential, achieving harmony, personal development).

Maslow argues that satisfying needs at the lower levels of the hierarchy leads to strengthening of those above. A thirsty person concentrates his attention on finding a source of water, and the need for communication fades into the background. It is important to remember that needs can exist simultaneously, the issue is only a matter of priority.

Characteristics of social and individual needs.

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Social needs are the needs of the majority of individuals. All members of any society are in one way or another involved in the process of realizing social needs for the results of social reproduction. In this case, economic entities can act in the following roles:

— as owners of various resources (labor, including such a specific variety as the ability to engage in entrepreneurial activity; all types of means of production; financial resources);

-as consumers of various results of social reproduction (depending on the functional orientation of these results, consumers are divided into consumers of means of production and consumers of consumer goods);

- as direct participants in the process of social production and, therefore, creators of the product - the result of social reproduction;

Society consists of individuals who have their own biological characteristics - health status, characteristics of physiological processes in the body, differences in the structure and functioning of the nervous system, which determine the natural inclinations of a person. Based on natural inclinations, the abilities that a person realizes in his life are formed. The formation of a person’s needs is influenced by both his natural individual traits and the influence of the social environment.

Features of social and cultural needs.

An important feature of cultural needs is their duality. This is manifested in the fact that, on the one hand, the cultural need satisfies the personal interests of familiarization with artistic values, knowledge or creation of certain cultural samples. But the process of satisfying cultural needs is not limited to this.

The other side of cultural need is its objective-active essence. The need for artistic creativity can be satisfied if it has found forms of evaluative embodiment and has been perceived not only by an individual (master, actor, amateur performer), but also by a mass consumer of artistic values (reader, viewer, audience). Taking these features into account makes it possible to differentiate the needs of artistic creativity from the point of view of their practical implementation. And this, in turn, makes it possible to purposefully form the needs for artistic creativity, taking into account their feedback, which manifests itself differently in each specific cultural and historical situation.

Historical development of service activities.

In pre-industrial society (slave-owning, feudal formations and the early stages of the development of capitalism), industry either had not yet emerged or provided employment to a much smaller number of people than agriculture. A census taken in Great Britain in 1851 showed that the most common occupations in the country were agricultural workers and domestic servants. It was domestic servants who occupied the main place in the service sector.

In industrial, i.e. In mature capitalist and socialist societies, the development of industry led to a sharp reduction in the number of domestic servants. The main task of the economy in this era is the mass production of goods.

The development of the service sector in industrial society occurred simultaneously in two directions.

First, the hidden role of servant in the household is transferred to the woman.

Secondly, numerous services previously performed in the household (for example, in a peasant family) are transferred to small firms and independent private entrepreneurs. Multifunctional devices are being developed to make household work easier (washing machines, vacuum cleaners, food processors, etc.), and enterprises are being created to repair and service them.

Features of a service as a product.

Over the last century, the very concept of a product has evolved quite significantly. As an economic category in the modern sense, a product is everything that must be offered on the market to satisfy wants or needs. Goods are material objects, services, experiences, events, images, identities, places, property objects.

The consumer does not need toothpaste, but healthy teeth and fresh breath. A woman does not buy face cream, but skin moisturizer; being in a beauty salon, she only at first glance gets her hair cut and colored, but in reality she gains beauty, youth and self-confidence.

The essence of a product like a motorcycle is speed and freedom. The essence of yogurt is pleasure and benefit. The essence of food equipment is not technical characteristics, dimensions and weight - it is a stable food business. Well, soap is purchased for cleanliness. In other words, in each of the listed cases, the consumer receives what he needed, a need, highlighting the product according to a set of tangible and intangible properties, including packaging, color, price, prestige of the manufacturer or dealer. For the consumer, it is not the offer that is important, but rather the subjective way of perceiving it.

Characteristics of types of services.

1) production – engineering, leasing, maintenance and repair of equipment;

2) distribution – trade, transport, communications;

3) professional – banking, insurance, financial, consulting, advertising;

Social needs

Human social needs are not as acute as physiological ones, but they play a vital role in the interaction between the individual and society. The realization of social needs is impossible outside of society. Social needs include:

need for friendship;
approval;
love;
communication;
joint activities;
caring for others;
belonging to a social group, etc.

At the dawn of human development, it was social needs that contributed to the development of civilization. People united for protection and hunting, fighting the elements. Their satisfaction in joint activities contributed to the development of agriculture. The realization of the need for communication pushed the development of culture.

Man is a social being and he gravitates toward communicating with his own kind, therefore satisfying social needs is no less important than physiological ones.

Types of human social needs

Fulfilling needs helps not only to develop, but also to improve the standard of living. But understanding the huge variety is not as easy as it seems at first glance. Conventionally, basic drives are divided into 3 categories. And my consultation will help you determine your own desires and make every day happy.

For myself

These are aspirations that help to achieve the desired degree of development and status in society. These include:

Self-identification. The need to be like a specific person or image. This is how the child correlates his “I” with the parent of his gender and thereby begins to recognize himself as a boy or a girl. This becomes active at different stages: when studying at school, university, at work, when starting a family.
Self-affirmation. An individual wants to realize his full potential and take a worthy position in society. He achieves the respect of others and establishes himself as a professional in a certain field.

This also includes the need to have power and gain universal recognition. A striking example of such a social human need is Benvenuto Cellini. This undoubtedly talented sculptor lived a long life, also becoming famous as a jeweler, warrior and writer. In his last years, he released an autobiography, where, in an effort to gain even more fame, he attributed to himself actions that he had never committed.

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For others

This category differs from the previous type in the absence of egoistic manifestations. A striking example is altruism. This is free help to others, even if it comes to the detriment of one’s own interests and benefits. A person cares about people as much as he cares about himself, and sometimes even better.

Such an individual wants to selflessly serve humanity, is ready for self-sacrifice, and strives to protect the weak.

In addition, this includes selfless friendship, built not on benefiting from communication, but on the mutual sympathy of friends. And, of course, love. This is a special feeling that takes place in everyone. Often it is synonymous with the meaning of existence, the personification of happiness. Its role in life cannot be overestimated.

This is the reason why families are formed and children are born. And vice versa, the basis for psychological and often physical complications is if the love is non-reciprocal, unhappy or unsatisfied.

This is an effective motivation for activity and development, because it inspires new achievements. Satisfying a person’s social need for love for parents, child, existence, work, city is the basis for the formation of a harmonious and full-fledged personality.

Together with others

This is a set of needs that unite the actions of individuals in solving social problems that have become the most pressing at the moment. This includes the need for security, universal peace, and freedom.

The most revealing example is the invasion of fascist troops into the territory of the USSR. All people, regardless of gender, religion and place of residence, united for a common goal - to repel enemies.

Independence, justice, humanity and adherence to the rules of ethics and ethics - these are the points that everyone wants not only for themselves, but also for loved ones and all of humanity.

Types of social needs

Social needs are distinguished according to the following criteria:

“For oneself” (desire for self-affirmation, recognition from others, power).
“For others” (the need for communication, protection of others, selfless help, renunciation of one’s desires in favor of others).
“Together with others” (expressed as a desire to be part of a large social group to implement large-scale ideas that will benefit the entire group: unification for the sake of opposing the aggressor, for the sake of changing the political regime, for the sake of peace, freedom, security).

The first type can only be realized through the need “for others.”

Classification according to E. Fromm

The German sociologist Erich Fromm proposed a different classification of social needs:

connections (an individual’s desire to be part of a social community or group);
attachments (friendship, love, desire to share warm feelings and receive them in return);
self-affirmation (the desire to feel significant to others);
self-awareness (the desire to stand out from others, to feel one’s own individuality);
reference point (an individual needs a certain standard to compare and evaluate his actions, which can be religion, culture, national traditions).

Classification of social needs

Depending on the motives of social action. Depending on the social institutions through which social needs are satisfied.

Speaking about the motives of social action, T. Parsons identified typical action variables - that is, pairs that determine the possibilities for choosing actions. These are pairs between: acting in one’s own interests or with the need to take into account the needs of the environment, the desire to satisfy immediate needs or abandoning this in order to satisfy long-term and important goals, focusing on the qualities inherent in the individual or focusing on social assessments, subordinating behavior to rules or taking into account the specifics of the moment and situation .

For example, a person would like to buy a car, however, not having sufficient funds, he can behave in different ways: save money, convince relatives to help him. An individual goal, understood through the prism of social relations, connections, expectations, became the motive for social action.

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It is obvious that the motive is influenced by the system of values, and by the characteristics of temperament and personality, however, conscious, rational elements play a large role in the process of motivating social action. Therefore, M. Weber bases the classification of social actions on purposeful, rational action.

Note 2

Purposeful action is characterized by a clear understanding of what a person wants to achieve, which ways, means are most suitable, effective, etc. This means that a person correlates both positive and negative means and consequences of his actions.

Speaking about social institutions through which an individual realizes his social needs, we can talk about the categories of social norm and social exchange. If social norms represent certain general rules of interaction between participants in social relations, then social exchange is an exchange that exists between members of society, various organizations and spheres, and, unlike exchange between people, does not contain a personal component.

Social institutions are elements of the social structure of society, representing relatively stable types and forms of social practice, through which social life is organized and the stability of connections and relationships is ensured within the framework of the social organization of society. Social needs act as a condition for the emergence of social institutions.

Social needs can be divided into:

vital (their dissatisfaction entails the liquidation of the social subject or its revolutionary change);
needs at the level of social norms (evolutionary development of social institutions);
needs at the level of minimum social norms (preservation, but not development of the social subject);
needs for comfortable functioning and development.

The most important need of a social group is to expand its spheres of activity and transform its environment and social relations.

We can talk about such features of the needs of social groups as mass, stability in space and time, interconnectedness.

Figure 1. Key social needs. Author24 - online exchange of student work

Classification according to D. McClelland

American psychologist David McClellad proposed his classification of social needs based on a typology of personality and motivation:

Power. People gravitate toward influencing others and being able to control their actions. There are two subtypes of such individuals: those who desire power for its own sake, and those who strive for power in order to solve other people's problems.
Success. This need can be satisfied only when the work started is successfully completed. It forces the individual to take initiative and risks. However, in case of failure, the person will avoid repeating the negative experience.
Involvement. Such people strive to establish friendly relations with everyone and try to avoid conflicts.

Ticket number 8. Typology of social institutions

Institutions can be classified according to different criteria - by main/non-main, time of origin and existence, sanctions, conditions of existence, presence/absence of bureaucratic management, presence/absence of formal rules and procedures.

Social institutions are main and non-main.

The main ones are institutions that fulfill the basic needs of the entire society: the need for reproduction of the family (the institution of family and marriage), the need for security and social order, the need for obtaining and producing means of subsistence (economic institutions), the need for the transfer of knowledge, the socialization of the younger generation, training (institute of education), the need to solve spiritual problems, the meaning of life (institute of religion).

The non-main ones include social practices, i.e. private activities, for example, economic institutions include mechanisms and practices such as currency conversion, protection of private property, etc., one main political institution includes the institutions of forensic examination, passport registration, legal proceedings, advocacy, juries, judicial control over arrests , judiciary, presidency, etc.

In addition to the classification of social institutions into main and non-main, institutions also differ in the time of their origin and duration of existence, in the conditions of existence, in the types of sanctions, in the presence or absence of a bureaucratic management system, but in the presence or absence of formal rules and procedures.

Typology of social institutions based on the needs they fulfill:

1. Economic

- these are all institutions that ensure the process of production and distribution of material goods and services, regulate money circulation, organize and divide labor, etc. (banks, exchanges, corporations, firms, factories.)

2. Political

- these are the institutions that establish, execute and maintain power. They express the political interests and relationships existing in a given society. The set of political institutions allows us to determine the political system of society (the state with its central and local authorities, political parties, police or militia, justice, army). The forms of institutionalized activity in this case are strictly defined: elections, rallies, demonstrations, election campaigns.

3. Reproduction and kinship

- these are institutions through which the biological continuity of society is maintained, sexual needs and parental aspirations are satisfied, relations between the sexes and generations are regulated, etc. (institute of family and marriage).

4. Socio-cultural and educational

- these are institutions whose main goal is to create, develop, strengthen culture for the socialization of the younger generation and transfer to it the accumulated cultural values of the entire society as a whole (family as an educational institution, education, science, cultural, educational and artistic institutions, etc. ).

5. Religious

– institutions that organize a person’s connection with transcendental forces. For believers, the other world really exists and in a certain way influences their behavior and social relationships. The institution of religion plays a prominent role in many societies and has a strong influence on numerous human relationships.

You can also classify social institutions, depending on the rigidity and methods of regulating their activities:

—formal social institutions in which interaction between subjects is carried out on the basis of formally agreed upon regulations, rules, norms, regulations, etc.

—informal social institutions that do not have strict regulation, and the normative-value relationships in them are not clearly formalized in the form of instructions, regulations, charters, etc.

Parsons identifies the following types of social institutions:

First, relational institutions that establish mutual role expectations regardless of the content of people's interests and needs. This could be family, university, money, etc.

Secondly, regulatory institutions , which determine the boundaries of the legitimate implementation of private interests, taking into account goals and means. These are legal (laws) and moral (public opinion) institutions.

Thirdly, cultural (spiritual) institutions that establish mandatory cultural models of behavioral motivation: a) cognitive beliefs (Newton’s laws, social equality, etc.); b) expressive (need) symbols (jeans, cell phones, etc.); c) private moral duties (friendship, loyalty to sons, patriotism, etc.).

*There are two types of social institutions: 1) organizational (state, parties, trade unions, etc.); 2) normative (system of laws, customs, traditions, moral values, standards of behavior). Formal normative institutions (constitutions, laws, administrative norms, party programs) give legitimacy to the institutions of political power and determine their activities. Within the main institutions, there are smaller entities, which are also institutions, but non-main and non-main ones. Unlike core institutions, non-core institutions perform specialized functions. For example, within the framework of the institution of the judiciary there are the institutions of legal proceedings, forensic examination, advocacy, and juries. Within the institution of religion there are the institutions of diocese, episcopate, baptism and confession in Orthodoxy, monasticism, etc.

Meeting social needs

The main feature of social needs is that they can only be satisfied through interaction with society. The very emergence of such needs is associated with society at the current stage of cultural and historical development. Activity is the main source of satisfying the social needs of the individual. Changing the content of social activities contributes to the development of social needs. The more diverse and complex social activity, the more perfect the system of individual needs becomes.

Concept

The term includes a set of desires that arise in the process of life in society and during interaction with others. It should not be confused with primary needs - food, drink, safety, rest, comfort.

In relation to the primary ones, social needs are secondary. An individual cannot exist without food or sleep, because this will lead to his death. The absence of secondary needs does not entail such tragic consequences, but it can have a negative impact on psychological health and become an obstacle to socialization.

In addition, dissatisfaction leads to a decrease in living standards. There are often cases when this, in turn, makes it difficult to complete the primary ones. For example, an unfulfilled desire at work leads to a loss of confidence in the future, and therefore security.

Significance

The influence of social needs should be considered from two sides: from the point of view of the individual and from the point of view of society as a whole.

Satisfying social needs helps a person feel complete, needed, increases self-esteem and self-confidence. The most important social needs are communication, love, friendship. They play a primary role in the development of an individual as a personality.

From the point of view of society, they are the engine of development of all spheres of life. A scientist, wanting recognition (satisfying a need “for himself”), invents a method of treating a serious illness that saves many lives and contributes to the development of science. An artist who dreams of becoming famous, in the process of satisfying his social needs, makes a contribution to culture. There are many similar examples that can be given, and all of them will confirm that satisfying the needs of an individual is as important for society as it is for the person himself.

Man is a social being and cannot develop harmoniously outside of it. The main social needs of an individual include: the need for communication, friendship, love, self-realization, recognition, power. The variety of social activities contributes to the development of the individual’s system of needs. Failure to meet social needs causes apathy and aggression. Social needs contribute not only to the improvement of the individual as a person, but are also the engine of development of society as a whole.

Some examples

Human motivation - what is it?

In order to better understand what social needs are, you need to analyze them using examples. In social studies, this topic is studied in detail, as it will be useful in life.

In development

In fact, all human inventions appeared to satisfy a specific need: clothing, tools, dishes and much more. Someone sought to make a discovery in science in order to become famous.

In public order

An example is any politician who is interested in gaining public recognition. Another example is a volunteer, event organizer, or other active person. The peculiarity of this type of activity will be that it is aimed not at obtaining material benefits, but at helping people.

Entrepreneurship can also be useful to society. A simple example is that a store owner gives away a certain amount of goods to charity.

In altruism

Subconsciously, all people strive to do what is beneficial to them and protect themselves. It is difficult to give up this, but it is possible. Selfless help and self-sacrifice are examples of the realization of social needs. A person in them does not seek any benefit for himself; he does this out of a desire to gain public recognition.

With altruism, an individual sacrifices his own interests

Social needs are very important for a fulfilling life. In their absence, no one dies, but you won’t be able to enjoy what is happening.