Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Welcome back, my literary friends!

Today we are talking about the psychology of character development. One of my favourite parts of being a writer is establishing a back story for my characters; who they are, where they came from; what their deepest wishes and fears are. The combinations are endless! However, if you are an avid reader, you may have come across certain ‘tropes’ for common character backgrounds.

I see you nodding away; you know the ones - the daddy issues, the orphan, homeless, hungry, unloved - the list goes on. Now, you may have noticed that many of these ‘traits’ (for want of a better word) have a common thread to them - trauma or depravity. Why do we so often find ourselves connected to characters who suffer? To characters who feel as though there are significant chunks of life and happiness missing from their world?

Give it up for Abraham Maslow! The man who penned a journal article in 1943 entitled ‘A theory of Human Motivation’. Maslow’s theory beautifully summarises why we connect so deeply with suffering.

When a need is fairly well satisfied, the next prepotent (higher) need emerges, in turn to dominate the conscious life and to serve as the centre of organisation of behaviour, since gratified needs are not active motivators (Maslow, A. H., 1943).

As the (now iconic) pyramid derived from his text shows, Maslow believed humans spend their days striving for Self-Actualisation, a state of being where one feels truly fulfilled, as though their purpose on this earth has been achieved. The holy grail of success and happiness, if you will.

However, it doesn’t take much investigating to see a few major flaws in this plan.

A statistically significant proportion of us look at this pyramid and work our way up, finding something that we can’t ‘tick off’ on our journey to self-actualisation. For example, you may look at the bottom tier and tick off physiological needs, therefore moving up to the next tier.

Safety is contentious in my book, as many people around the world may argue that safety is in the beholder's eye. I for one, identify as female and often feel that safety is a construct rather than a state of being. But that’s an argument for another day. Perhaps you tick the safety and security boxes, moving on to psychological needs.

Do you have secure relationships with the people around you? Do you feel loved and a sense of belongingness in your family and community? Let’s say you managed to get this far. Congratulations, according to societal constructs, you are a well-rounded individual. Maslow believed that the reason many people feel their lives are unfulfilled sit in the top two tiers. Esteem needs and self-actualisation.

Do you feel as though you have accomplished something? With your life, with your work, with your family? Oftentimes, this is a stumbling point for people. How does one know if they are accomplished? How is that measured?

Circling back to how this impacts character development, if you hadn’t joined the party before now; let me break it down for you. Please keep in mind these are my interpretations only, and intended to help writers better understand the underpinning psyche of their fictional characters.

Can you identify characters you’ve read, based on the descriptions below?

Common ‘character tropes’ and their corresponding pyramid pitfall

‘The Black Sheep’ - Psychological - Often lacks ‘belongingness’ and relationship security

‘Street Rat’ - Physiological and Safety - lack of safety and a lack of warmth and rest

‘Clinger’ - Psychological - Often lacks ‘belongingness’ and relationship security, over reaches when seeking it

‘Spoilt Princess’ - Psychological - often these characters have their basic needs met, but are written to miss strong friendships, a sense of purpose.

You may notice that most of these tropes sit somewhere beneath the Esteem needs level. Why? Because who wants to read a book about a well-rounded human being who has their life together, who feels confident, happy and comfortable in their world where nothing goes wrong?

For most of us, this isn’t reflective of real life. Readers love to support an underdog, and to journey through an experience battling adversity. Mostly, I’d argue, because it gives us hope that we too might find a way to work through the adversity in our own lives.

It is important to point out that Maslow’s paper clearly states the limitations of his theory, including its failure to account for (some fairly important factors); early childhood, habit and conditioning, specific interpersonal relations, the impact of therapy, societal changes, selfishness, cultural patterns and individual values. In a nutshell, this means that this theory may not translate well across people of different cultural and social backgrounds, nor could his research possibly have fathomed the society we find ourselves in 77 years after publication.

With that being said, next time you are establishing a character’s backstory, look at Maslow’s pyramid and decide (if and) where your character sits, or perhaps where they sat previously, and why they would do anything to avoid slipping back into that tier.

If you can think of any recurring tropes, you’d like to share and where/why they fall into the pyramid, I’d love to hear about them!

x Anna

Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370–396. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0054346