Maslow's hierarchy

Definition

Maslow's hierarchy in plain English

This is psychologist Abraham Maslow's idea that human needs stack like a pyramid, and you tend to chase the lower ones before the higher ones matter much. At the bottom are body basics (food, water, sleep), then safety (shelter, security), then love and belonging (friends, family), then esteem (respect, feeling capable), and at the top self-actualization (becoming your fullest self) — with self-transcendence added later as helping beyond yourself. The intuition: it's hard to worry about acing a test or finding your life's purpose when you're starving or scared. It's a rough map of motivation, not an ironclad law, but it captures why survival needs usually shout the loudest.

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