Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: Physiological Level

Abraham Maslow was a 20^th century American psychologist who is most well-known for theorizing a hierarchy of needs that motivate human behavior. Creating a branch of psychology called humanistic psychology, he emphasized the positive potential of humans as well as our free will. This branch directly contrasted Freud’s theory of biological determinism. Maslow believed we all have a strong desire for self-fulfillment and there were different needs that needed to be met to achieve it. In 1943, he compiled these needs in a hierarchy, progressing from basic to psychological to self-fulfillment; he did not create the pyramid diagram that we are accustomed to seeing today. Maslow also stressed that the levels are not a rigid and fixed order. They can be concurrent and exist simultaneously.  

At the bottom level are the basic needs that must be met for human survival from a biological standpoint: air, food, water, sleep, shelter, and clothing. Without these necessities, humanity dies. I remember writing my own list in my early 20s and then comparing it to existing lists. While I’m not sure which book I compared my list to, my final compilation includes food, drink, shelter, clothing, work, and hope for the future. I completely neglected air and sleep, added a Protestant work ethic and a non-physiological need of hope. Yet without hope, the body will give up. This is why it’s a hierarchy and the needs overlap.  

Even the 1987 cult classic movie “Spaceballs” recognized the importance of air.

Returning to strictly biological necessities, these are needs that must be met before we can focus on education or work or leisure. Meeting this basic level of needs is why schools began offering breakfast for students. You will not be a successful student if you haven’t had anything to eat. Free school lunches began for students with food insecurity in 1946 immediately following World War II. Free school breakfasts, however, did not begin until the 1960s. The federal government began with a pilot program in rural Kentucky in 1966, but did not become widespread until 1975. In the intervening years, the largest provider of free school breakfasts nationwide was the Black Panther Party.* While the head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, had declared war on the Black Panthers for political reasons, school officials could tell an immediate noticeable difference in the students. Their basic physiological need for food was being met.  

Archbishop Desmond Tutu pointed out that “When people were hungry, Jesus didn't say, ‘Now is that political or social?’ He said, ‘I feed you.’ Because the good news to a hungry person is bread.” When you’re hungry, you don’t need a prayer for food, you need food. If you can’t breathe, you need air. If you’re unhoused, you need a roof over your head. There are times where we offer to meet a person’s need that is higher up the hierarchy when they’re not in a position to focus on that. They have a more basic level need to be met first. Good news to a hungry person is bread. 

This final prayer is a common one that I first learned in Spanish:  

Dear God, give bread to those who are hungry and a hunger for justice to those who have bread. Amen. 

* https://www.history.com/news/free-school-breakfast-black-panther-party