Human Needs: Definition, Types, and Prioritization Framework
Understanding Human Needs: Definition, Types, and Prioritization
Defining Needs and Desires
What is a Need?
A need is the lack of something linked to the desire to obtain it. We may have needs we are unaware of or do not realize we possess.
There are two primary types of needs:
- Basic / Primary Needs: These are physiological needs shared with other living beings, such as shelter from the cold (clothing).
- Higher / Social Needs: These are shaped by the historical moment and the social and cultural context in which we live, such as the need for a specific type of clothing.
Needs and Legislation
Legislation often establishes criteria, theoretically desirable levels defined by experts, to satisfy specific needs. These criteria evolve with advancements in knowledge and changing social values.
Comparative Needs
Needs can be identified through comparison, such as observing higher or lower indicators in a given context.
Changing Needs
Needs evolve with each stage of human development. For example, 100,000 children born in 2009 might have a specific need ‘X’ by 2014.
Needs and Demand
Needs can be expressed in terms of demand:
- Explicit: Clearly articulated.
- Implicit: Linked to explicit needs but not outwardly manifested.
- Nonspecific: Not concrete or clearly specified.
In such cases, practitioners must engage in active listening and questioning to help individuals become aware of and explicitly formulate their needs.
Desire vs. Need
Television does not create needs; advertising creates desires. For example, if I’m hungry and eat spaghetti, the underlying need is for food; eating spaghetti specifically is a desire.
Referral
When a need cannot be satisfied internally, the situation is referred externally because the required services cannot be provided. This involves not just ‘getting rid of the problem,’ but actively seeking other services that can meet the need.
Needs and Consumption
Many needs are satisfied by consuming something, whether it’s food, soap, or any purchased item. The market, therefore, serves as a means of meeting needs.
Advertising, based on human needs, manipulates desires to meet them. It attempts to position a brand as fulfilling a specific need. Furthermore, products are often associated with satisfying other needs that they inherently cannot fulfill. For example, a Kinder Egg will never provide the love of your parents. In these instances, products are linked to moods and social situations.
Detecting and Prioritizing Needs
Detecting Needs: When to Intervene?
Intervention is necessary when individuals or groups, due to their characteristics or situations, have needs but lack the resources to meet them, leading to marginalization. This is where an integrator serves.
Intervention is guided by specific criteria for detecting and prioritizing needs. The method or project of an integrator aims to identify and prioritize needs that contribute to marginalization.
There are six types of criteria for detection:
- Normative Standards: Criteria established by professionals, representing recommended levels or amounts.
- Programmatic Criteria: Based on existing plans and programs with intervention forecasts. For example, a law against gender abuse aims to reduce the percentage of cases. If statistics remain similar over time, it indicates the intervention did not achieve its goals.
- Comparative Criteria (Ideal): Comparing current situations against an ideal or desirable standard. For example, if a law sets minimum square meters for housing, the ideal is that everyone has a home meeting or exceeding this standard.
- Felt Needs: Based on the absence or lack of something necessary.
- Anticipatory Criteria: Utilizing existing data to anticipate situations and understand the consequences of non-intervention.
- Observed Needs: Detecting needs through the observation of negative effects.
Prioritizing Needs
Prioritization involves implementing procedures and decision criteria to hierarchically process social needs. It is necessary to consider three key variables:
- Social Needs of Users: (e.g., individual needs, personal and collective status, race, religion, etc.)
- Needs of the Implementing Institution: (Derived from its service function, performance, and the preservation of its identity.)
- Needs of Professionals (Three Subgroups):
- Personal Needs: Such as self-esteem, achievement, status, or personal values and biases.
- Group Affiliation Needs: The need to belong to a particular group, for example, within a specific professional community.
- Institutional Needs: Needs of professionals as members of an institution.
Key Prioritization Criteria
Important criteria for prioritization include urgency, available resources (institutional and internal), institutional ideology, cost, and the number of beneficiaries.