Friday, September 02, 2005

Who needs sleep?

Maslow has been running through my head all night. Not the “Self-transcendence” crap he could never fully explain – but the chart explaining the hierarchy of needs.

For those of you not familiar with Maslow:

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is often depicted as a pyramid consisting of five levels: the four lower levels are grouped together as deficiency needs, while the top level is termed being needs. While our deficiency needs must be met, our being needs are continually shaping our behaviour. The basic concept is that the higher needs in this hierarchy only come into focus once all the needs that are lower down in the pyramid are mainly or entirely satisfied. Growth forces create upward movement in the hierarchy, whereas regressive forces push prepotent needs further down the hierarchy.




The two levels that apply here are the bottom two:

Physiological needs

The first need for the body is to achieve homeostasis. This is obtained through the consumption of food, drink and air, achieving adequate sleep, and a comfortable temperature etc. When some needs are unmet, a human's physiological needs take the highest priority. For instance, if one simultaneously experiences the desire for love and the hunger for food, a human is more likely to seek to satisfy the latter need first. As a result of the prepotency of physiological needs, an individual will deprioritize all other desires and capacities.

Safety needs

When the physiological needs are met, the need for safety will emerge. Safety or security ranks above all other desires; a properly-functioning society tends to provide security to its members. Recent examples of failure in this area include the cases of societal breakdown in Somalia and Afghanistan. Sometimes the desire for safety outweighs the requirement to satisfy physiological needs; for example, during the Kosovo War many residents of Kosovo chose to occupy a secure area rather than an insecure area, even though the latter provided better access to food.

I guess I am still just wrapping my head around this – If you can, please make a donation or give blood Red Cross, Guide to Giving

5 comments:

  1. Just to make it about me for a nano second, now I understand why I have been so focused on sleep and nothing else lately.

    Now back to the rest of the world, well put. Let's do what we can.

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  2. I think it's okay to be about you first, or for a bit. You can't help others if you are not in good shape to begin with.

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  3. I love that you used Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs for this post! I teach it often and how powerful it can be for persuasive speeches. You did a great job here, Paul. We are doing lots of things here on campus for the people of New Orleans. One of the grad students who was planning to start school in Jan. is in New Orleans now and lost everything. We pooled together enough money to fly her in and get her a place to stay for awhile so she can start here right away. How horrifying it must be to lose EVERYTHING! I can't even begin to imagine what those people are going through right now. Great post, Paul.

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