Need vs. Perceived Need

How many times in life do you find yourself asking, “Do I really need this?”  Chances are most of the time, after asking, you realize you don’t!

In today’s media driven environment, many voices chime together telling you what you need in your life.  So, how do you go about selecting the things that you actually need?  Are you easily persuaded, or do you consider yourself fairly selective?

Turn of the century research tells us that fulfillment of the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness is a central requirement for well-being (Self Determination Theory; Deci and Ryan, 2000).  This closely resembles the higher levels of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: physiological needs, safety and security, love and belonging, self-esteem, and self-actualization.  Therefore, academics agree that our higher functioning needs are dependent on the fulfillment of our more basic, primal needs.

Contemporary advertising often seems to assume that our most basic needs are already met, as high dollar ads target our self-determined consciousness to elevate the perceptions of our individual self.  Take for instance social media influencers.  How many of these people are teaching us how to meet our basic physiological or security needs, versus those who are speaking to our desires of love and belonging, self-esteem, and becoming our self-actualized selves?  This is how it is in wealthy countries and is a tell-tale sign of development; what was once called the First World, characterized by: stable government, high standards of living, capitalist economies, economic stability, and high national income per capita.  Nowadays the terms “First/Second/Third Word” have given way to the terms “Developed/Industrialized” vs. “Developing.”

Are needs in developed countries really that different from those in developing countries?  This is a question that we should all take a moment to consider.  I think I might need a new jacket this winter, since my old one has faded and is stretched from wearing it too frequently last year.  Do I need a new jacket with any degree of relative necessity to a person sitting on the footbridges in Hong Kong’s Mong Kok (“Busy Corner”) district needing a bowl of rice or a place to sleep at night?

Personally, I don’t think so.  A need is something I can’t do without.  As long as I have a set of basic clothing, I don’t really need more clothing.  Do I need to help that person sitting on the footbridge?  Do they need me to help them?  These questions might be difficult to answer for a self-determined person.  What about for a self-fulfilled person?  What brings them fulfillment?

In contrast to being self-determined, a self-fulfilled person is one who has found peace, purpose, and satisfaction in their life. They may or may not be ambitious or highly driven, but they experience a sense of wholeness and harmony with their choices.  “A fulfilled life refers to the positive appraisal of the person one has become, how one has led one’s life, and the impact one has made” (Baumann and Ruch, 2022, p.2).  Fulfilment is much more concerned with the experience and completeness of life than inherent psychological needs that lead to individualistic personal growth.  To qualify this, a study collected by the National Institute of Health National Library of Medicine concluded, “They understood a fulfilled life primarily as having lived life fully, achieved personally meaningful goals, developed themselves, and contributed to others and left a positive legacy (Baumann and Ruch, 2022).”  Self-fulfilled people report greater satisfaction with life on the whole.

Now, let’s look inward and think about it.  Where do you fall on the spectrum of self-actualization?  Do you lean more toward determinism or fulfillment to find your happiness?

References:

Baumann D, Ruch W. What constitutes a fulfilled life? A mixed methods study on lay perspectives across the lifespan. Front Psychol. 2022 Sep 30;13:982782. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.982782. PMID: 36248492; PMCID: PMC9563392.

Ryan RM, Deci EL. Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. Am Psychol. 2000 Jan;55(1):68-78. doi: 10.1037//0003-066x.55.1.68. PMID: 11392867.