order, and freedom from fear or chaos. These needs are most evident when the
future is unpredictable or when stability of the political or social order is
threatened. People who perceive threats to their safety may build large savings
accounts or settle for a job with a lot of security rather than pursue a better
but riskier position. People stuck at the safety-need level in their personal devel-
opment may tolerate an unhappy marriage or a military dictatorship if these
situations provide stability or a sense of security.
Belongingness and Love Needs
For most middle-class American adults, the need for food and water and theneed for security and stability are fairly well satisfied. Most of us have jobs,
homes, and food on the table. But satisfaction of these lower level needs
does not guarantee happiness. The need for friendship and love soon emerges.
“Now the person will feel keenly, as never before, the absence of friends, or a
sweetheart, or a wife, or children, ”Maslow wrote. “He will hunger for affec-
tionate relations with people …for a place in his group or family ”(1970,
p. 43). Although some adults remain slaves to their safety needs and devote
most of their energy to their careers, most people eventually find work unsa-
tisfying if it means sacrificing time spent with friends and loved ones.
Maslow identified two kinds of love. D-love , like hunger, is based on a
deficiency. We need this love to satisfy the emptiness we experience withoutit. It is a selfish love, concerned with taking, not giving. But it is a necessarystep in the development of the second type of love. B-love is a nonpossessive,
unselfish love based on a growth need rather than a deficiency. We can never
satisfy our need for B-love simply with the presence of a loved one. Rather,
B-love is experienced and enjoyed and grows with this other person. It is a
“love for the Being of another person. ”Need
for Self-
Actualization
Esteem Needs
Belongingness
and Love Needs
Safety Needs
Physiological Needs
FIGURE 11.1 Maslow ’s Hierarchy of Needs286 CHAPTER 11 The Humanistic Approach