Needs and Wants

Abraham Maslow

Perhaps the best known theorization of need appears in the form of psychologist Abraham Maslow's “hierarchy of needs,” wherein needs at the lower levels in the hierarchy must be satisfied before those higher up receive attention. In Maslow's ordering of needs, physiological and security needs are lower down in the hierarchy, followed by belonging and esteem needs, whereas cognitive, aesthetic, and self-actualization needs are located at the top of the hierarchy. While this hierarchical approach to need satisfaction has been subject to a series of criticisms, it has proven an enduring typology for understanding the essence of human needs.

Measurement of Needs

The measurement of needs has been the subject of much debate. Broadly speaking, there have been two approaches to this measurement: absolute and relative. With the first, it is widely agreed that an absolute measure of need is almost elusive. However, a range of different measures have been developed to define minimum levels of well-being. A good example of these is the United Nations’ (UN) development of a set of indicators of severe deprivation, which includes access to food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education, information, and services. With relative measurement, an individual's standard of living is measured relative to others in the same society. For example, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European Union (EU) use 60 percent of national median equivalized household income as a threshold for poverty. Problems with relative measures emerge, however, when comparing rich and poor countries. For example, an individual defined as poor in a country such as [Page 582]Ethiopia would be on a vastly lower income than someone described as poor in Sweden.

Wants

Wants have typically been equated with consumer desire. In-depth considerations of wants can be found in branches of economic psychology and marketing. Psychologist and marketer Ernest Dichter is typically cited as the “father of motivation research.” His work applies a Freudian perspective to understanding motivation in consumer behavior, arguing for a role for the unconscious in the creation of consumer desire. Here, and in other strands of interpretive consumer research, objects derive their importance from communicating symbolic meanings of attachment and belonging, which might be seen as equally central to consumer well-being as their functional material dimensions. Further, the distinction between needs and wants might be located purely at the level of rhetoric. Moral discourses of needs are used to legitimize specific consumer choices, and those of wants are used to condemn others.

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