Social sphere. What is the essence of human social needs, where do these needs begin?

Ways to satisfy modern man

The definition of social needs has changed as the world has evolved. In current conditions, people are increasingly excluded from society. The Internet, social networks, gadgets - all this leads to the fact that individuals have little face-to-face contact.

Important! It is impossible to clearly name effective ways to satisfy needs, since they are different for each person. There are general recommendations that will allow you to realize a social need

The individual organizes his own activities, so he must communicate, make contact, meet other people and take initiative

There are general recommendations that will allow you to realize a social need. The individual organizes his own activities, so he must communicate, make contact, meet other people and take initiative.

The ability to conduct conversations does not appear with the birth of a person. Social skills are trained through practice. You need to constantly communicate and get to know each other.

Another way is to learn new things. Meetings, seminars, training courses - all this allows you not only to gain knowledge, but also to acquire new social connections.

A person must understand who he is. To do this, he needs to devote time to reflection. Such self-analysis allows you to get an idea of your pros and cons. Self-esteem appears only in self-confident people.

Human social functions

A person always acts not only in the name of his own well-being and benefit. In various life situations, he helps meet the needs of other people: a fireman puts out fires and saves fire victims, a doctor treats, a hairdresser serves clients, teachers and parents raise children and prepare them for a decent life in society.

Thus, everyone performs actions necessary for other people, which are called social functions. They are carried out within the framework of the rights and obligations imposed by the rules of law and morality.

The concept of “social essence of human functions” is determined by the roles that a person plays in the family, in professional and social activities. So one and the same person, being a father, performs the function of an educator, and at work he also performs the functions of a leader or performer.

Social roles can be long-term (father, worker, housewife, citizen) or short-term and are determined by his immediate needs. Often the person enters into the brief role of buyer, passenger, spectator, observer, patient and others.

Each of these social functions has its own rules of implementation, which a person becomes familiar with and exercises in their implementation in the process of family and public education and training.

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 higher ones.

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

Significance

Satisfying social needs from the “for oneself” group is a necessary condition for the formation of a full-fledged personality.

Compliance of a person’s life with his social expectations guarantees the positive socialization of such a person in society and excludes the manifestation of any forms of deviant behavior.

A person who is satisfied with his level of development, education, career, friends and family life is a useful member of society.

Each of his satisfied needs leads to the emergence of some socially significant result: a strong family with children is a full-fledged unit of society, career achievements are the successful performance of work functions, etc.

Satisfying needs “for others” and “together with others” is the key to the positive functioning of society.

Only positive interaction between people, their ability to act together in the public interest, and not just individually for personal purposes, will help create a mature society.

The problem of modern society lies precisely in the reluctance of people to satisfy common needs. Each person approaches the issue from a selfish point of view - he does only what is beneficial for him.

At the same time, the lack of initiative in carrying out important social actions leads to disorder, violations of the law, and anarchy.

As a result, the integrity and well-being of the society in which a person lives is violated, and this immediately affects the quality of his own life.

That is, his selfish interests are affected in any case.

Examples of satisfaction

Let's look at examples of how a person satisfies emerging social needs:

In development. The group is “for oneself.”
From an early age, a child strives to understand the world around him. As soon as the baby acquires the first communication skills, he begins to be interested in everything that happens around him, asking numerous questions to the close people around him. Having acquired reading skills, the child begins to independently draw information from books. Gaining knowledge occurs constantly: in the process of communicating with parents, walking on the street, classes in kindergarten, watching cartoons, etc. Later, the child gains knowledge at school, college, etc. Having got a job for the first time, an adult begins to understand his profession and acquire practical skills in it. In everyday life, when faced with a question of interest, people make efforts to obtain the necessary information. At this moment, they are driven solely by the need for development, curiosity.
In public order . Group - “together with others.” A person feels a desire to live in a prosperous society in which the norms of morality, discipline, and law and order are observed. His desire for such a way of life is expressed in compliance with existing norms of the law, building communication with people on the principles of equality and respect, observing basic rules of behavior (social needs demonstrate the need of a person to pick up trash after himself, walk his dogs in designated places, come to work on time, vote in elections, etc.).
In altruism. In modern society, this type of need is underdeveloped.
Altruism involves the renunciation of one's own desires and aspirations for the sake of the interests of other people. Not all members of society are capable of sacrificing themselves for the sake of others. As a rule, altruists are gentle, calm people who are sincerely interested in helping others. They can satisfy their need in various ways: organizing a shelter for homeless animals, helping the elderly, helping dying patients in hospices. All their actions are carried out free of charge.

Is it possible to manage your needs?

Needs must be satisfied, but they should not control the will of a person. In addition, not all needs are useful, reasonable, or truly necessary. There are so-called imaginary needs that a person does not need, but is not aware of it.

Example. Alina wanted to dye her hair green. Parents did not agree to such an experiment for a long time. Then the girl bought the dye herself and dyed her hair secretly from her family. When Alina came to school, boys and girls began to laugh at her, calling her a mermaid, a swamp monster. Alina expected a backlash; it seemed to her that green was a fashionable color, that she would become popular thanks to this change in image.

At best, imaginary needs do not bring any benefit; at worst, they harm health, life, and well-being.

This is interesting! According to statistics, the number of alcoholics in the world is increasing every year. Scientists have calculated that by 2050, every twentieth person on the planet will be an alcoholic. Addiction causes irreparable harm to health and psyche, but people cannot refuse the need imposed on them.

To learn how to manage your needs you need:

Have a purpose in life. A purposeful person will not be distracted by nonsense and will prefer useful things to harmful ones;
Enrich your inner world. A person with many interests, developed abilities, and talents pays less attention to satisfying material needs;
Show will. When tempted to abuse something, think about the consequences.

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Thus, a person will become the master of his feelings and needs, he will manage them, and consciously make decisions.

Needs for love and belonging

This is the next level of Maslow's pyramid. The need for love is closely related to the individual’s desire to avoid loneliness and be accepted into human society. When the needs at the previous two levels are satisfied, motives of this kind occupy a dominant position.

Almost everything in our behavior is determined by the need for love.

It is important for any person to be included in relationships, be it family, work team or something else. The baby needs love, and no less than satisfaction of physical needs and security needs

The need for love is especially pronounced during the teenage period of human development. At this time, it is the motives that grow out of this need that become leading.

Psychologists often say that typical behavior patterns appear during adolescence. For example, the main activity of a teenager is communication with peers. Also typical is the search for an authoritative adult – a teacher and mentor. All teenagers subconsciously strive to be different - to stand out from the crowd. This gives rise to the desire to follow fashion trends or belong to a subculture.

Maslow's pyramid

The world-famous psychologist Maslow identified his own classification of needs. It is depicted as a pyramid, where basic needs are located at the very bottom, and those achieved at the very top.

Maslow believed that without realizing the lower stages, it is impossible to move on to higher ones.

Structure of Maslow's pyramid levels:

Physiology is the biological need for food, rest, safety, water, procreation.
Feel protected.
Realize yourself in society.
Get recognition.
Strive for knowledge.
Have aesthetic needs.
Self-actualization and self-expression.

Having studied Maslow's pyramid, you can understand that in order to satisfy spiritual needs, you need to go through all the listed stages. There is an important point: modern experts do not recognize Maslow’s theory due to the low validity of the hierarchy of values.

Material needs

Material needs play a major role in human life. This group includes all the needs necessary for a comfortable material existence:

home;
cloth;
Appliances;
furniture;
means of transportation (personal or public transport);
electronic devices;
food.

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Everyone has their own idea of comfort; the level of material needs depends on a person’s financial situation and personality characteristics.

Example. For Nastya, two pairs of boots are enough for the winter; the main thing for her is that the shoes are comfortable. Maria is worried that her parents refused to buy her new boots because she has a lot of shoes and a new pair won’t fit in her closet.

The entire economy is built on satisfying material needs. Factories and factories produce even more products than a person can purchase. Therefore, wanting to artificially increase needs, manufacturers use a trick - advertising goods. Seeing a beautiful picture on the screen, a person, without meaning to, begins to think about this product and consider it valuable.

Material needs develop with the improvement of technology, so 100 years ago people could only dream of a wired telephone, today everyone has their own mobile phone.

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Types of needs

Needs can be classified on various grounds, of which there are quite a lot in the theory of psychology. The main types of division of needs are presented in the next section.

If we summarize all available theories, then we should distinguish three basic types of human needs.

Biological or physiological

Among the innate human needs laid down at the genetic level are the following:

Food safety and taste characteristics.
Comfortable external temperature and electromagnetic background.
Clean water suitable for quenching thirst.
Healthy ecology.
Safety of life and home.
Sexual satisfaction.
Disposal of waste products.

These things are necessary for any living creature. This set of needs has practically not changed since the creation of the world, since from a physiological point of view, we are the same as millions of years ago. A person strives to realize them first and foremost and immediately.

Spiritual

Existential needs come from a system of universal human spiritual values, including: beauty, mercy, tranquility, harmony, peace, art. Each person has their own spiritual needs (as opposed to biological ones) and change over time and experience.

Among the spiritual needs are the following:

The need for knowledge
. A mature person understands that in order to further grow, he must constantly learn. Moreover, expand the boundaries of existing skills and acquire new ones. People enter educational institutions to receive additional education, take advanced training courses, master new professions, and master the basics of painting and music.
The need for constant work on oneself, improving one’s personality (self-improvement)
. By satisfying this need, we quit smoking, go on a diet, get rid of toxic people and harmful emotions. A person thinks about how he would like to see himself after a certain period of time and strives for this.
The need for love and personal happiness
. The vast majority of people dream of having a loved one of the opposite sex nearby and creating a stable family. Many have been searching for many years, this need is so strong.

The realization of spiritual needs can be carried out through the simplest things. For example, a person goes into nature and sits with a fishing rod, fishing. At this time, he reflects, calms down, acquires spiritual harmony, satisfying his need for peace and making plans for the future.

Social

This type of needs is aimed at understanding one’s place in society and is associated with groups of people, social and economic activity.

Examples of social needs:

Personal identification. A person positions himself as a part of society with common traits inherent in society or a separate group. At the same time, he recognizes himself as an individual unit with a set of specific qualities and characteristics. Self-affirmation. We want to be satisfied with ourselves, with the actions and deeds we perform

It is also important for a person to feel significant in society, to enjoy respect and approval from other people. Altruistic aspirations

The individual takes pride in actions aimed at helping and assisting other people or living beings. He needs to be needed, useful, even in conditions of abandoning his own interests.

All of these types of needs are interpenetrating, they complement each other, some follow from others. For example, having satisfied the spiritual need to acquire a profession, we strive to achieve success in work for which we will be praised, and this is already a social need.

Concept of need

The need for any goods that requires satisfaction in the human consciousness is called a need. The concept is used not only for humans. Every living creature, plant, has a need. Need is a form of connection with the outside world and environment. Human needs are necessary for the development of one specific individual, an entire social group.

The concept undergoes changes during the evolution of society. What people dreamed of in ancient centuries is not similar to the desires of their contemporaries. At the same time, at the same social level, people can dream about different things. Needs directly depend on various factors:

living conditions;
level of education;
cultural development;
wealth;
profession.

A state in which a person experiences needs, but cannot satisfy them, causes a feeling of discomfort. Dissatisfaction leads to tension in society and population activity.

Satisfying the needs that arise returns a person to balance and a normal perception of the world.

Types of social needs

Social aspirations, desires, and drives are determined by people’s belonging to society and are satisfied only in it.

There are three categories of social needs:

“For myself”: self-identification, self-affirmation, power, recognition.
“For others”: altruism, free help, protection, friendship, love.
“Together with others”: peace on Earth, justice, rights and freedoms, independence.

Next, consider a detailed description of each of the needs:

Self-identification lies in the desire to be similar to a specific person, image or ideal. The child identifies himself with the parent of the same gender and recognizes himself as a boy/girl. The need for self-identification is periodically updated in the process of life, when a person becomes a schoolchild, student, specialist, parent, and so on.
Self-affirmation is necessary, and it is expressed in the realization of potential, well-deserved respect among people and a person’s assertion of himself as a professional in his favorite business. Also, many people strive for power and calling among people for their own personal purposes, for themselves.
Altruism is free help, even to the detriment of one’s own interests, prosocial behavior. A person cares about another individual as about himself.
Unfortunately, selfless friendship is rare in our time. A true friend is an asset. Friendship should be selfless, not for the sake of profit, but because of mutual disposition towards each other.
Love is the strongest desire of each of us. As a special feeling and type of interpersonal relationship, it is identified with the meaning of life and happiness. It's hard to overestimate her. This is the reason for the creation of families and the appearance of new people on Earth. The overwhelming number of psychological and physical problems come from unsatisfied, unrequited, unhappy love. Each of us wants to love and be loved, and also have a family. Love is the most powerful stimulus, motivation for personal growth, it inspires and encourages. The love of children for their parents and parents for their children, the love between a man and a woman, for their business, work, city, country, for all people and the whole world, for life, for themselves is the foundation for the development of a harmonious, holistic personality. When a person loves and is loved, he becomes the creator of his life. Love fills it with meaning.

Each of us on Earth has universal social desires. All people, regardless of nationality and religion, want peace, not war; respect for your rights and freedoms, not enslavement.

Justice, morality, independence, humanity are universal human values. Everyone desires them for themselves, their loved ones, and humanity as a whole.

When realizing your personal aspirations and desires, you need to remember about the people around you. By harming nature and society, people harm themselves.

Spiritual Needs

As we noted above, each need is characterized by a focus on a particular topic and motivates a person to master this topic.

Biological need encourages a person to master the universal resources of life, material need has as its subject the material means of satisfying all needs, social need encourages a person to master forms of communication and connection with other people. The subject of spiritual need is spirituality.

Spirituality and consciousness are one and the same. But not every consciousness is spiritual. For example, a worker performing work on a factory line does so with skill. But these actions are technological, not spiritual in nature. To explain the phenomenon of spirituality, it is necessary to use the term transcendence. The complex meaning of this term can be widely seen in the philosophy of I. Kant. But we are interested in transcendence only in connection with spirituality.

Transcendence means going beyond the limits of the everyday natural existence of a person, beyond the limits of the understanding of the world achieved by man. Transcendence means going beyond one's empirical existence, going beyond oneself, striving to become higher, to achieve a new level of freedom.

So, spirituality is the desire to overcome in one’s consciousness, achieve high goals, follow personal and social ideals, and universal human values. Spirituality is also expressed in the desire for beauty, contemplation of nature, classical works of literature and art. Culture is the substance of spirituality, it is the quintessence of the spiritual experience of humanity.

Spirituality is the most valuable wealth of a person; it cannot be bought or borrowed from anyone, it can only be formed through one’s own efforts. Only a spiritually rich person is capable of true selfless friendship, of lasting love that binds a man and a woman by marriage.

A more complete definition of spirituality can be obtained by comparing it with its antipode - lack of spirituality. Lack of spirituality is a consciousness that does not go beyond utilitarian benefits, that does not rise above the bustle of everyday life, above the satisfaction of biological needs and things.

Such a consciousness has people without high life ideals, focused on the meaningless accumulation of things and money, callous to the concerns of their neighbors, lovers of momentary happiness, “wasters of life.”

Lack of spirituality is one of the main reasons for the loss of humanity in a person; alcoholism, drug addiction, cynical prostitution, immorality - all those vices that hinder social progress. An unspiritual person is an alienated person; he is alienated from the sublime form of his being.

From the above analysis of the phenomenon of spirituality, it follows that the quality of spirituality is not limited to the sphere of consciousness, it can be realized in individual life only when a person has developed volitional qualities, his ability to direct his life energy in a certain direction, and a thoughtless person is, first of all, weak-willed , spineless person. Although developed volitional qualities themselves are not related to spirituality, under certain circumstances they can serve the forces of evil and the destruction of spiritual values. This is evidenced by many events in the history of Russia, especially in Chechnya.

Spirituality, therefore, is not just a carrier of the functions of consciousness, but a function of the active essence of man. By accumulating knowledge about himself and the outside world, a person enriches his consciousness with internal energy, which strives to break out of the limitations of matter and expresses itself in the spirit. The spirit destroys physiological divisions, national differences, group differences with its desire for unity, for the integration of diversity into a single integrity.

Spiritual needs are the desire to gain and enrich one’s spirituality. The arsenal of spirituality is infinitely diverse: knowledge about the world, society and man, art, literature, philosophy, music, artistic creativity, religion.

Sailing through life in the same boat...

Even the most lonely and unsociable person sooner or later discovers that he needs to turn to other people for something. That is, the satisfaction of his needs directly or indirectly depends on their actions (or inaction) and attitude towards him.

A person's life can be compared to a long journey across the sea in the same boat with its other passengers. Lack of coordination and disregard for the needs of neighbors can result in disaster.

Each member of society, unwittingly or intentionally, can improve or significantly worsen the material, physical, psychological, and social situation of another person. Awareness of this imposes the obligation to renounce destructive desires and actions that can bring misfortune and grief into the life of another person or society. The social essence of a person lies in the fact that, realizing the inviolability of her own rights and freedoms, she strictly fulfills her duties in relation to other members of society and lives by the rule “my rights end where yours begin.”

Classifications of needs

Theoretical psychology offers many classifications of needs. We have already discussed one of them above: physiological, social and spiritual, these are the main groups of needs.

Foreign researchers did not so much classify needs as offer a specific list of them.

Examples:

G. Murray
- achievements, aggression, independence, sex, creativity, understanding, respect, self-knowledge.
A. Pieron
- novelty, hedonism, communication, competition, mutual assistance and others (more than 20 types in total);
E. Fromm
- significance, self-affirmation, communication, affection, self-identification.

Some scientists have identified so-called neurotic needs as a separate group, the lack of satisfaction of which can lead to mental illness. These include: lack of social and interpersonal justice, the need for support and empathy, recognition, and possession.

In Russia, a classification of needs has been adopted, which divides them into the following levels:

Based on the nature of the emergence of needs - natural and cultural
.
Depending on the area of application - communicative
(communication with other people),
cognitive
(the need to acquire new knowledge),
labor needs
, etc.
In relation to the object to which the need is directed - biological, material, spiritual and social
.
Correlating to their origin - endogenous
(determined by internal factors) and
exogenous
(depending on external conditions).

As we see, the number of human needs is numerous; today there is no complete list of them; there are only generalized groups and types. The most famous theory that places all types of human needs in order of priority is Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

The psychologist drew a whole pyramid, where needs are indicated in ascending order. This is what she looks like.

Maslow assured that until a person has satisfied the needs of the widest part of the pyramid, he will not strive to receive benefits from the higher levels. For example, if a person is hungry, then he has no time for public recognition. He considered hunger not only in relation to food, but also to sleep, thirst, sex, etc.

Maslow’s rule does not work in the opposite direction: an individual who has fulfilled the need for respect and recognition still needs food and sleep.

Cost Based Requirements

The basis for identifying this group of needs is the classification of needs according to the criteria of their humanistic and ethical orientation, their role in the lifestyle and comprehensive harmonious development of a person.

In accordance with these criteria, one can distinguish reasonable and unreasonable (perverted) needs, true and false, progressive and destructive.

Consider reasonable and unreasonable needs.

Reasonable needs are those needs, the satisfaction of which contributes to the normal functioning of the human body, the growth of the prestige of the individual in society, his humane development, and the humanization of all aspects of social life. The following criteria for reasonable needs can be distinguished:

a sense of proportion in satisfying needs, which does not lead to personality degradation.
a harmonious combination of different needs. Also, a spiritual need cannot be recognized as reasonable if its satisfaction is achieved through the suppression of other (natural and material) needs.
the correspondence of needs to human capabilities and the availability of means for their implementation.
controllability of needs. Corresponding needs can be defined as those needs that are controlled by a person, and not vice versa, when needs control a person.

The formation and satisfaction of reasonable needs is a noble and honorable task of the system of public administration, education, and the entire way of social life.

Irrational needs are a group of needs that cause a block in the functioning of the human body, in the development of the individual, harm the interests of society, and in case of their inaction lead to the degradation of human society and the dehumanization of all social relations. The range of irrational needs is extremely wide: from smoking to drugs.

We call perverse (detrimental) needs irrational needs, the satisfaction of which leads not only to the destruction and cynical disregard of the moral and legal norms of human society, but also in its extreme manifestations contributes to the degradation of human nature and the dead state of development of the “human” species.

This is an excessive need for alcohol, drugs, homosexuality and lesbianism, and some plastic surgery. These vices of modern society are not so much the lack of material wealth as the saturation of material wealth and the lack of spirituality of man, the lack of ideals for which people should fight.

Let's consider the most dangerous “triangle” of all human vices: homosexuality, drug addiction and AIDS. What is the meaning of this triangle? AIDS is rightfully considered the plague of the 20th century. According to medical experts, the most common causes of AIDS are homosexuality and drug addiction. They are the most dangerous carriers of the AIDS virus through sexual intercourse and incest.

The first step towards the radical eradication of drug addiction and AIDS is the recognition of these diseases as social ones and a shift in the emphasis in the search for treatment from the biological sphere to the social and inner spiritual and psychological world of man.

The effectiveness of these measures can only be positive in the early stages of the disease. One of these measures is sublimation - replacing vicious needs with reasonable or less vicious needs. The term “sublimation” was created by 3. Freud to neutralize the excessive pressure of sexual needs and the resulting mental disorders. To do this, it is necessary to form the will - the ability to resist tempting needs; you need to manage your needs.

Finally, the last of the groups of value needs is true and false needs.

Although the definition of the above group of needs can hardly be called absolutely correct, nevertheless, they play a certain role in orienting a person in the complex intricacies of tastes, needs, and moods. In practical life there is no stable subordination in the hierarchy of needs. Depending on the conditions and circumstances of life, biological, material or spiritual needs come first.

Being love

This feeling is based on recognition of the unconditional value of a loved one, but not for any qualities or special merits, but simply for the fact that he exists. Of course, existential love is also designed to satisfy human needs for acceptance, but its striking difference is that there is no element of possessiveness in it. There is also no desire to take away from your neighbor what you yourself need.

The person who is able to experience existential love does not seek to remake a partner or somehow change him, but encourages all the best qualities in him and supports the desire to grow and develop spiritually.

Maslow himself described this type of love as a healthy relationship between people that is based on mutual trust, respect and admiration.

Social

Being a biological being, man is at the same time a social being. This is an important feature that sharply distinguishes it from a number of animals. The social essence is expressed as follows:

a person knows how to control his feelings, emotions, instincts;
labor is his internal and physical need;
he is able to modify his habitat, make it safe, comfortable, aesthetic;
He has, in addition to physiological, spiritual needs.

A person, being born as a natural being, experiences such an influence, which is not typical for the animal world, as upbringing.

It is this that gradually introduces him into the world of human relations, that is, into society. Society is interested in its citizens understanding well the essence of social functions and strictly fulfilling them. In addition, he must have certain human qualities that distinguish him from an animal, for example: hard work, kindness, honesty, patriotism, responsibility, and so on.

It should be said that the need for socialization is mutual. Just as society needs a person to adapt to its requirements and rules, so a person needs protection and help from society.

Concept

Human social needs indicate that an individual cannot live alone. He craves love, friendship, and other positive feelings that appear when two or more people communicate.

Unfulfilled social needs do not lead to death, but can seriously reduce the quality of life. Therefore, it is necessary to think about how to implement them.

By the term “social needs,” psychologists understand this type of need that is satisfied not only by communication

It is important for an individual to receive assessment of his activities and feedback from other people

This happens because a person is not only a unit of a biological species. His psyche is represented by a complex and multicomponent mechanism, which differs from that of an animal.

The individual wants to do something meaningful for the group that will give him recognition and praise. If he once received this, he strives to repeat the experience. It is the need for positive emotions that serves as the impetus for carrying out useful activities.

Psychologists believe that it is social needs that can contribute to the development of an individual’s personal sphere. It includes a person’s actions, his motivation, peculiarities of information perception, etc.

Psychologists are sure that it is social needs that force an individual to act actively. To gain recognition, he works and participates in public life.

For a full-fledged existence, a person needs to satisfy two groups of needs. The first is the need for food, drink, rest, etc. The second is the need for communication and recognition.

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.

Diversity of needs

Man is a biosocial being, therefore all human needs can be divided into two types: biological and social. Biological (natural) are called simple needs, without which it is impossible to survive in this world: sleep, drink, breathe, eat. They form the basis of human life, connecting the individual with the animal kingdom.

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Such needs need to be satisfied, but they do not need to be indulged. Excessive satisfaction of natural needs can ruin the life of any individual.

Example. Vasya likes to sleep 10-12 hours a day, because of this he is constantly late for classes. Masha loves cakes, chocolates and other types of sweets. She cannot control herself and eats the entire box of chocolates at once if she finds one at home. Because of this, Masha has health problems and frequent acetone.

Natural needs appear in a person from birth, and social needs are acquired in the process of living in society. The presence of social needs indicates the development of the individual as a person. Since social needs are more complex, they develop as the child grows up.

Examples of social needs:

Communication;
Respect;
Friendship;
Recognition of merit;
Understanding;
Cooperation;
OK;
Love;
Establishing justice.

In addition, other types of needs can be distinguished:

Aesthetic – this is the desire to see harmony, beauty, the need to take care of one’s appearance and physical form;
Personal - self-development, self-knowledge, self-improvement. These needs manifest themselves in the process of growing up, the formation of the child as an independent person;
Emotional – a person needs to express emotions himself and receive them from others (joy, sadness, anger, surprise, etc.);
Intellectual – from birth it is natural for a child to learn about the world around him; the need for knowledge and development of thinking persists throughout life;
Creative is the search for self-expression through music, art, poetry, dance;
The need for work - a person engages in labor activity not only for the sake of material reward, he receives pleasure and satisfaction from it. A person strives for the fruits of his labor to be highly appreciated by society, colleagues, and relatives.

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All needs that a person cannot live without are called primary (they are needed first), the rest are considered secondary (they are thought about after the first ones are satisfied). Primary needs include: sleep, food, safety, shelter, clean drinking water. Secondary needs: smartphone, branded bag, travel to exotic countries, higher education.

Example. Petya forgot to have breakfast at home and take money for lunch to school. By 12 o'clock in the afternoon he had developed an appetite. At this time, everyone was writing a test in mathematics, he really wanted to get an 5, but could not think about anything other than delicious food. After 10 minutes, his desk neighbor Andrei realized what was going on, he carefully handed Petya a bun so that the teacher would not notice them. Petya asked to leave the class and ate a bun in the corridor. After this, things went better and he successfully completed all the tasks.

At the time of birth, a person has only predominantly material needs. But as one grows older and develops a personality, the share of material needs decreases in favor of an increase in spiritual ones. This process is called the elevation of needs.

Hierarchy of interests

In simple words, the hierarchy of interests is a pyramid, at the base of which are secondary interests, and at the top are the main ones.

From this diagram you can see the interests of twelve-year-old Petya Ivanov. Petya is good, he is interested in studying, but lessons are not the most important thing for him. He spends more time on the street, playing football with the kids in the yard. But Petya’s favorite pastime is watching and helping his father repair small household appliances, engines, and solder wires on various parts with a soldering iron. Most likely, in the future Petya will become an engineer, a car mechanic, and will repair special equipment.

A large number of interests indicates the comprehensive development of the individual. But among everyone there is a main hobby that prevails over everyone. Such interest needs to be given more time and attention. Most likely, it will be associated with the choice of profession in the future.

The cover of the lesson is taken from the source.

Basic sociogenic needs

List of basic social needs experienced by a person living in society:

Work. A full-fledged member of society feels the need for professional fulfillment, which allows him to gain the respect of other members of society, acceptance and recognition, develop his own skills and receive material benefits. The fulfillment of the need for work allows you to simultaneously satisfy several social needs - for communication, for recognition, for obtaining material benefits, for getting closer to power, etc.
Development. A complete person always strives to gain knowledge. A person can acquire new knowledge throughout his life, satisfying the desire to learn and comprehend new things.
Communication. No person can exist without society, without communication.
Forced isolation certainly leads to personality degradation and loss of social skills.
Through communication, a person shares his thoughts, gains new experience, receives support, etc.

Main types

Social norms - what they are and how they are formed

In psychology, there are several classification options. Each group is based on one characteristic, but even such a division does not provide a complete answer to the question of what social needs are.

Some experts believe that this is a person’s desire to be significant for a certain group of people

Psychologists classify them according to the direction of influence:

On oneself - the individual wants to assert himself, receive recognition from the authorities and other people.
On others, a person is able to give up something personal for the benefit of others. He wants to protect the weak and receive communication.
Together with others, the individual feels a desire to unite with some large group that will help implement global ideas, for example, a revolution.

Erich Fromm proposed his list of social needs. The psychologist proposed the following classification:

Connections are a person’s desire to be part of a group.
Attachments are an individual’s desire to love and share love.
Self-affirmation is the need to be significant.
Self-awareness is the need for self-determination, individuality.
Landmark - a person wants to have a guideline (a person who will serve as an example).

Psychologist McClelland proposed his own classification. It is based on personality typology and motivation. In the first group he included people who sought to dominate. Secondly, those who want to be successful. The third category includes individuals with a craving for belonging (they need to avoid conflicts and be friends with everyone).

Basic needs

When a person lives in society, he experiences certain needs. The first is the need to work.

Important! With its help, the individual feels the desire for professional self-realization, which gives recognition to society.

The second is development. At the core of man lies the desire to acquire knowledge. He is a lifelong learner. The third group is communication. An individual cannot fully exist without contact with other individuals. Isolation from society invariably leads to degradation.

Maslow's pyramid

Psychologist Maslow created his own classification of needs. He depicted it as a pyramid, with basic needs at the bottom and more difficult to achieve needs at the top.

Not every person can reach the end

The specialist argued that without the implementation of one stage, the transition to another is impossible. Levels:

The first level is physiology. This includes the need for food, water, rest, sex;
The second is a sense of security;
The third is implementation in society;
Fourth - gaining recognition;
Fifth - the desire for knowledge;
Sixth – aesthetic needs;
The seventh is self-actualization and self-expression.

Through Maslow's pyramid, you can clearly see that in order to realize spiritual aspirations, you need to go through the previous stages. Modern psychology does not fully recognize Maslow’s theory, since the hierarchy of values has low validity.

What is its essence

So, social needs also include the need for security. After all, almost every person thinks about the future, analyzes the present and predicts events ahead in order to remain calm and confident in the future. It is because of this need that a person reaches for stability and constancy. He accepts everyday routine and everyday life better than spontaneous changes and surprises, because his peace of mind and sense of security are disturbed. Thus, human social needs include the need for security.

For most people it is of great importance in life. Because it has a strong influence on behavior, character, sensation and well-being. It means:

The main thing is physical safety (the situation in society, the imperfection of the legal sphere, unpreparedness for natural disasters, poor ecology).
Secondary is social insecurity in the areas of health and education.

This need does not always act as an active force. It prevails only in situations with a critical level of danger, when it is necessary to mobilize all forces to fight evil. For example, during military operations, natural disasters, serious illness, economic crises, that is, during any circumstances that threaten unfavorable conditions. Go ahead. Human social needs also include the need for communication.

Classification by characteristics

Among social needs there are three categories:

For myself. This is the need for self-realization, finding one’s place in society, and also the need to have power.
For others. The need for communication, protection of the weak, altruism. Its implementation occurs through overcoming the selfish category “for oneself.”
Together with others. This group of needs is characterized by the unification of people in communities to jointly solve problems. This is the need for security, freedom, pacification of the rebel, change of the current regime, in a peaceful environment.

The development of an individual is impossible without satisfying needs. Let's talk about them in more detail. So, what are the social needs of the individual?

Social needs

According to the definition, this is the need for something, the need for something that will satisfy the desires and requests that have arisen. The social essence of human needs is manifested in what is not characteristic of animals and is explained by his belonging to the human race:

He needs communication and recognition of the merits of his personality by other members of society, self-respect, achieving a certain position in society, in power.
He wants to be useful to others, to help the weak and sick, to love and be loved, a good friend.
He is ready to defend freedom, peace and justice.

Of course, these and other personal needs are not expressed clearly enough in all people. A person can have various negative qualities: to be selfish, with hypertrophied self-esteem, in critical situations - a coward, a traitor. His personal qualities and social needs are the result of family and public upbringing, education, and cultural development.

Kinds

What are social needs? There are a large number of human social needs, which can be divided into three main groups:

For myself. These are needs, the satisfaction of which allows a person to achieve the desired level of development and position in society. This includes the desire for self-development, leadership, career growth, power, recognition.
For others . This type of needs differs from the previous one in that it contains no signs of egoistic aspirations. A person wants to take actions aimed at satisfying the interests of other people. These are the needs for mutual assistance, help, altruism.
Together with others. Such needs unite people as equal members of society.
A person experiencing these needs feels supported by other people with similar desires.
This may include the desire for communication, peace, order, discipline, etc.