Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Survival needs and motivation

Survival needs and motivation:
What are survival needs and how do they influence motivation?

Multimedia presentation (3 min)

Overview

Have you ever been inspired to wake up at 6am to exercise after a health scare? Have you changed your own behaviour or actions during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as suddenly avoiding others and stocking up on food and other groceries? These are some examples of satisfying survival needs that we believe to be necessary to support and preserve our own health and wellbeing.

Satisfying survival needs is crucial to sustaining human life. Survival needs typically mean satisfying the basic physiological needs of water, food, shelter and acquiring enough sleep. However, survival needs for human beings is more complex than satisfying basic physiological needs. Human survival to support wellbeing can also include the need to satisfy social, emotional and psychological wellbeing. To satisfy the range of survival needs, human behaviour is motivated to change.

Motivational drive for our survival is considered to be a function of internal states as well as external environmental conditions and influences (Simpson & Balsam, 2016).

What drives our behaviour is our goal of satisfying a survival need. Understanding what motivates these goal-driven behaviours can help both researchers and practitioners alike to recognise contributing factors, regulate behaviour and support wellbeing.

Focus questions: What are our survival needs? Can survival needs motivate change in our behaviour? Are we consciously aware of our motivations and behaviours to satisfy survival needs?

Case study - Yeonmi Park Yeonmi Park often reflected upon the lights in the distance of China from her home on the border in North Korea. She often thought that where the lights were, there would be a bowl of rice to satisfy her hunger. Her family fell victim to famine and her father was sent to a labour camp for selling smuggled goods. As she, her sister and her mother starved, at the age of 13 she decided to escape to the lights that she saw in the night in China. However, Yeonmi did not know what the term or the concept of escape was. She did not understand what the concept of freedom was. To her at the time, those words did not exist and had no meaning. Her basic survival needs were not being met in North Korea, and she became motivated to find food, survive and avoid hunger. Despite not knowing what it meant to escape, her needs drove her into action. The motivation to avoid starvation saw Yeonmi and her family swim across a frozen river into China. In China, Yeonmi and her family’s wellbeing were still under threat. They fell into the hands of human traffickers and Yeonmi and her mother were sold into sex slavery. Sadly, Yeonmi was sold and separated from her mother and sister. As a victim of human trafficking, Yeonmi had her first full meal. For the first time in her life, she felt full. It was the very first time in her life that she did not have to constantly think about food. And yet, Yeonmi developed suicidal ideations. She was separated from her family. She had no place to call home. The man who trafficked her informed Yeonmi that he knew the location of her mother, and that it was possible that they could reunite. This information alone reignited the motivation for Yeonmi to survive once again and strive toward a new goal of reuniting with her family. Yeonmi eventually did reunite with her mother, where they managed to escape into Mongolia and then to South Korea as refugees. To Yeonmi, and her family, the risk of being caught, the risk of falling into human trafficking and sex slavery and traveling across frozen rivers and deserts did not deter them from striving to meet their survival needs. Satisfying the basic need for food, safety and security, and belonging was motivation enough to put into action risk taking behaviours. Yeonmi Park now lives in America as a Human Rights Activist and as a free woman.

What are survival needs?

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

When we first think of survival needs, we think of the key physiological factors. These such factors are:

·        Food

·        Water

·        Sleep

·        Shelter

·        Sex

These factors are considered the dominant drives to actioning behaviour. However, studies have shown that there are more complex factors that contribute to our survival as human beings and satisfying our physiological needs are not enough to sustain a healthy life. There are more complex needs that drive our behaviour.

Abraham Maslow’s Humanistic approach introduced the theory that the survival needs of human beings included more than the foundational physiological needs. According to Maslow, human beings are constantly striving for growth and self- realisation. In his theory, Maslow believed that humans are internally motivated by the need to become ‘self-actualised’. As a result, Maslow produced the Hierarchy of Needs. This hierarchy began with five distinct categories that were believed to drive human behaviour (See Figure 2):

Figure 1: The Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow’s 5 categories are:

·        Physiological Needs

·        Safety Needs

·        Belonging Needs

·        Esteem Needs  

·        Self-Actualisation

According to the hierarchy, humans are driven to progress from the foundations of satisfying our physiological needs towards self-actualisation. As human beings, we are driven to do more and to be more and become a part of a community and society (Maslow, 1943). What does it mean to be self-actualized? According to Maslow (1987) this meant to be at peace with oneself in life.

We move from just being happy with food, shelter and water to needing emotional and social gratification. We seek this gratification through means of safety, establishing a sense of love and belonging, knowing our own individual identity and social identity through esteem needs, and finally acquiring self-actualisation (Maslow, 1987). Deficiency in one, or more, of the categories in the hierarchy ignites the drive to action behaviour to satisfy that need (Winston, 2016). According to Maslow’s theory, human beings become overwhelmed with the drive to satisfy a need when it is deficient. As a result, Maslow proposed that when the deficiency is severe enough, we become obsessed with acquiring and satisfying that distinct need (Maslow, 1987; Winston, 2016).  However, higher order needs such as belonging, esteem and self-actualisation cannot be fulfilled until the foundational needs are first satisfied (Winston, 2016). Until the physiological and safety needs are met, we cannot progress to reaching our emotional and psychological needs.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs faces one distinct limitation: there is no method to measure when an individual has satisfied one need before moving on to the next (Seligman, 2002; Winston, 2016). Despite this, the hierarchy of needs has been referenced as a foundation to understanding behaviour motivation in relation to human survival needs. Some later theories have reduced the number of needs, and others have used Maslow’s hierarchy to suggest additional needs. Regardless, each category of the hierarchy of needs has often been identified as key features of motivation and actioning behaviour.

Physiological needs

Physiological needs are biological necessities for human survival, such as air, food, and drink, as well as shelter, clothing, warmth, sex, and sleep. Some of these needs include efforts to meet the body's need for homoeostasis, or the maintenance of consistent levels in various bodily systems. Maslow considered physiological needs to be the most important because until these needs are met, all other needs become secondary (Mcleod, 2007).

Dopamine and motivating survival behaviour

Survival needs can be described as goals that we both need and want to achieve. Behaviours are motivated in pursuit of a goal, and regulation of motivated behaviours are achieved by actions of hormones and neurotransmitters. Dopamine is a hormone and neurotransmitter that is part of the brain’s reward centre what makes an individual feel good or even satisfied (Newquist and Gardner, 2015). Achieving or satisfying a goal releases dopamine. Survival needs are goals that, reflecting upon Maslow’s theory, we are consistently seeking to satisfy. Once a survival need is satisfied, we receive a dose of dopamine which in turn, produces a sense of satisfaction and wellbeing (Oei, et, al. 2012; Newquist and Gardner, 2015).

Neuron activity in several brain regions such as the orbitofrontal cortex (frontal cortex within frontal lobe), anterior cingulate, and basolateral amygdala has been shown to correlate with reward prediction of satisfying a goal (see Figure 2). This is part of the dopamine pathway and the brain’s reward centre. When dopamine is released after satisfying a survival need, it reinforces the behaviour that had allowed us to satisfy that need. In turn, this increases our motivation in future. This is typically known well in satisfying physiological needs such as sex or after eating.

Figure 2. Dopamine Pathway/Reward Center

The release of dopamine is not restricted to physiological needs. Dopamine is also released after socialising, feeling loved, achieving safety and other emotional and psychological gratifications (Simpson and Balsam, 2016; Newquist and Gardner, 2015).

According to a study by Simpson and Balsam (2016), human beings perceive the costs and benefits of actioning behaviours of satisfying survival needs.

The costs associated with behavioural action may include:

·        Physical effort

·        Mental effort

·        Discomfort and danger (pain or potential death)

The benefits associated with behavioural action may include:

·        Fulfilling physiological and psychological needs

·        Escaping from harm

·        Avoidance of costs

For any given survival motives, there are often multiple types of costs and benefits as many types of control systems are at play through hormonal regulation and neural changes (Simpson and Balsam, 2016). There may also be competition for multiple goals, or survival needs, that need to be achieved. This may generate an imbalance in the strength of motivation for each goal or need and can cause dysfunctional behaviour (Oei et, al. 2012; Simpson and Balsam 2016). Dysfunctional behaviour can include aggression and extreme risk taking ignoring the threat to one’s own well-being. Such dysfunctional behaviour can be caused by enhanced activation of dopamine in the brain regions regulating the ‘wanting’ response (Oei, et, al. 2012) that may not even be consciously perceived.

Case Study - Yeonmi Park Refering back to the case study, Yeonmi was constantly thinking about food. She did not know nor understand the concept of the behaviours she was driven to action. For simply a bowl of rice to satisfy her hunger, she did not consider the costs such as the threat of death or pain escaping North Korea, or swimming across a frozen river. Yeonmi had such a severe deficit in satisfying her basic physiological need for food that it motivated extreme risk-taking behaviour to achieve her goal – a full bowl of rice to satisfy her hunger. Theorists and studies suggest that our survival is to seek pleasure and avoid pain (Newquist and Gardner, 2015; Winston, 2016). However, our unconscious drives to satisfy our needs through biological functioning through the dopamine pathway can be motivation enough to action behaviour without conscious thought of avoiding pain.

Safety needs

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs allows us to explore key survival needs that can allow both researchers and practitioners alike to identify motives behind behaviour. Safety needs become the next priority after satisfying physiological needs. There are multiple elements that contribute to meeting safety needs. The most fundamental elements to safety needs include personal security of health and well-being and financial security. According to Kenrick et al., (2010), humans have motivational systems for identifying and managing threats. These systems involve rapid learnings of associations with stimuli that would have threatened our ancestors. Behaviours driven by satisfying our safety needs allows us to avoid threatening or risky situations. For example, when confronted by unfavourable strangers that are a threat to our wellbeing, a hostile situation, and even predatory or poisonous animals, we are instinctively driven to respond with behaviours that are associated with our flight or fight response. It is argued by researchers that our safety needs are evolutionary (Kenrick et al., 2010). Safety can motivate both avoidance behaviour, or confrontational behaviour, depending on the perceived costs and benefits of actioning that behaviour (similar costs vs benefits situation in physiological needs).

However, safety is not a distinct survival need separated from our physiological needs. For instance, we cannot have adequate food or shelter without financial stability (Kenrick et al., 2010; Winston, 2016). When barriers of safety needs are present, no other needs are fulfilled, motivation to satisfy safety needs becomes the primary, obsessive focus (Winston, 2016). When there is a deficiency in our safety needs, it can block our physiological needs (Zheng et al., 2016). It is argued that financial needs and stability are important to satisfy survival needs, particularly to satisfy physiological needs. Concern for meeting safety needs is a major contributor to other types of dysfunctional behaviours associated with mental disorders such as anxiety, phobias, depression, and PTSD (Zheng et al., 2016).

Belonging

Social needs

Figure 3. Belonging to a social group or family is a critical survival need

On an evolutionary level, social bonding has allowed humankind to survive. Forming social groups has allowed us to share resources and support and protect each other in groups. It is hypothesized that human beings have a persistent drive to create and maintain long lasting, positive and interpersonal relationships (Baumeister and Leary, 1995). According to research by Baumeister and Leary (1995), satisfying this drive of belonging to a social group involves two factors: the need for frequent pleasant interactions with other people, and second, that these interactions take place with affective concern for each other’s welfare. The need to belong and the need to form and maintain quality interpersonal relationships is believed to be intrinsically prepared (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Stallen et al., 2012) and universal among human beings.

Significance of culture and community

Indigenous Australians value culture and community. Culture and belonging to a community are key features that are significant and give meaning to their lives (Lovett and Brinckley, 2021). A sense of belonging means social connectedness and establishes what is called cultural social capital. This social cultural capital builds a sense of identity, agency, empowerment, passes on generational teachings and of course, satisfies a sense of belonging (Gibson et al., 2021; Lovett and Brinckley, 2021). Without establishing and maintaining the sense of belonging within a social cultural group, the deficit of not meeting social and belonging needs can motivate negative extreme behaviours. Such negative behaviours have been recorded to be severe, including a rise in recorded self-harm and suicide rates of Indigenous peoples. Even an extreme deficit of psychological needs, such as the need for belonging, causes an extreme motivation to action behaviour. When those needs cannot be met, motivated behaviour becomes dysfunctional, leading to mental illness and self-harming behaviours. According to Gibson et al., (2021) satisfying the need for belonging reduced Indigenous youth suicide rates by 44% when the individual had opportunities to participate in social and community events. A lack of attachment has been proven to result in ill effects on health, adjustment and well-being (Baumeister and Leary, 1995). The need to satisfy our sense of belonging is thought to be an intrinsic (unconscious) motivation to affiliate with others. People have intrinsic social motives as a result of our socially-grounded evolutionary past (Stevens & Fiske, 1995).

Reflection of case study - Yeonmi Park In China, Yeonmi finally fulfilled her need to satisfy her hunger. For the first time in her life, she was full and did not need to constantly think about food. Although she had satisfied this physiological need she had been striving to achieve for so long, her other needs were not being met. Yeonmi felt isolated. She was separated from her family. She did not have an established level of trust, safety or reciprocal pleasant interactions. She was a slave with no one concerned for her welfare. As a result, Yeonmi fantasised about self-harm until she discovered the possibility of uniting with her mother. Yeonmi had two different drives from having this deficit in her sense of belonging. She was at first conflicted and began motivating herself to action negative behaviours toward her own wellbeing. When she discovered her mother was still alive and was able to be reunited with her, Yeonmi’s behaviour switched. She now had determination and motivation to survive and find her family. Her sense of belonging was re-established, and she took action to satisfy this.

Self-fulfillment & self-actualisation

Through establishing a sense of belonging, we establish both our own individual identity through comparisons, and establish our social identity as well (Eek-Karlsson, 2021). Research has argued that human beings are motivated to protect and enhance their sense of self (Vignoles et al., 2006). The feelings of continuity, distinctiveness and efficacy create meaning within our identities. To have self-esteem and self-actualisation is to understand oneself, to have confidence and know ones own limits. Basically, to have self-actualisation is to be self aware. However, this cannot be reached until the sense of belonging is established as social and individual identity is fostered and formed within this distinct category. Self-esteem and self-actualisation in Maslow's hierarchy seem to overlap (Eek-Karlsson, 2021;Winston, 2016). Although the desire to acquire self-actualisation is highlighted in Maslow’s hierarchy, it has been recognised as a motivational factor to human behaviour.

Quiz

1 Survival needs do not motivate changes in our behaviour:

	True
	False

2 Survival needs are driven by both conscious and unconscious motives:

	True
	False

Conclusion

Theorists and studies suggest that our survival is to seek pleasure and avoid pain (Newquist and Gardner, 2015; Winston, 2016). However, our drives to satisfy deficits in our survival needs can motivate risk-taking behaviour for those needs to be met. The benefits and costs of actioning behaviour can be both consciously and unconsciously recognised. Motivation for behaviour is influenced by our inner drive to succeed and survive. We consciously or unconsciously set goals for ourselves to achieve (Winston, 2016).  The biological and psychological process for motivation are a result of evolution, from individual molecules, hormones and neurotransmitters, such as the reward of dopamine, to social and environmental contributions (Simpson & Balsam, 2016).

From Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to researched evidence, our behaviour can be motivated to change in order to satisfy deficits in our survival needs. It is also important to note, that when such deficits cannot be avoided, we can also be motivated to action behaviour that can pose as a risk our health and wellbeing. Understanding what motivates these goal-driven behaviours can help both researchers and practitioners alike to recognise deficits in survival needs, regulate behaviour and support wellbeing,

See also

• Needs (Book chapter, 2013)
• Dopamine and motivational drive (Book chapter, 2021)
• Healthy risk-taking (Book chapter, 2020)
• Unconscious motivation (Book chapter, 2020)
• Goal sharing and goal pursuit (Book chapter, 2019)
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs (Wikipedia)
• Park Yeon-mi (Wikipedia)
• Survival needs and motivation (Book chapter, 2022)

References

Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The Need to Belong: Desire for Interpersonal Attachments as a Fundamental Human Motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117(3), 497–529. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.497

Eek-Karlsson, L. (2021). The Importance of Belonging: A Study About Positioning Processes in Youths’ Online Communication. SAGE Open, 11(1), 1–. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244020988860

Gibson M, Stuart J, Leske S, et al. (2021). Suicide rates for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: the influence of community level cultural connectedness. Med J Aust 2021; 214: 514–518.

Kenrick, D. T., Griskevicius, V., Neuberg, S. L., & Schaller, M. (2010). Renovating the Pyramid of Needs: Contemporary Extensions Built Upon Ancient Foundations. Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, 5(3), 292–314. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691610369469

Lovett, R. W., & Brinckley, M. (2021). Community level cultural connectedness and suicide by young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Medical Journal of Australia, 214(11), 511–512. https://doi.org/10.5694/mja2.51092

Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50, 370–396.10.1037/h0054346

Maslow, A. H. (1987). Motivation and personality (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Harper & Row.

Mcleod, S. (2007). Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html

Newquist, G., & Gardner, R. A. (2015). Reconsidering Food Reward, Brain Stimulation, and Dopamine: Incentives Act Forward. The American Journal of Psychology, 128(4), 431–444. https://doi.org/10.5406/amerjpsyc.128.4.0431

Oei, N., Rombouts, S., Soeter, R. et al. (2012). Dopamine Modulates Reward System Activity During Subconscious Processing of Sexual Stimuli. Neuropsychopharmacol 37, 1729–1737. https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2012.19

Seligman, M. E. P. (2002). Authentic happiness: Using the new positive psychology to realize your potential for lasting fulfilment. New York, NY: Free Press.

Simpson, E. H., & Balsam, P. D. (2016). The Behavioral Neuroscience of Motivation: An Overview of Concepts, Measures, and Translational Applications. Current topics in behavioral neurosciences, 27, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1007/7854_2015_402

Stallen, M., De Dreu, C. K., Shalvi, S., Smidts, A., & Sanfey, A. G. (2012). The herding hormone: Oxytocin stimulates in-group conformity. Psychological Science, 23(11), 1288-1292.

Stevens, L. E., & Fiske, S. T. (1995). Motivation and Cognition in Social Life: A Social Survival Perspective. Social Cognition, 13(3), 189–214. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.1995.13.3.189

Vignoles, V. L., Regalia, C., Manzi, C., Golledge, J., & Scabini, E. (2006). Beyond Self-Esteem: Influence of Multiple Motives on Identity Construction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(2), 308–333. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.90.2.308

Winston, C. N. (2016). An Existential-Humanistic-Positive Theory of Human Motivation. The Humanistic Psychologist, 44(2), 142–163. https://doi.org/10.1037/hum0000028

Zheng, Z., Gu, S., Lei, Y., Lu, S., Wang, W., Li, Y., & Wang, F. (2016). Safety Needs Mediate Stressful Events Induced Mental Disorders. Neural Plasticity. 8058093–8058096. https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/8058093

External links

• The power of motivation
• Tyranny, slavery and Columbia U | Yeonmi Park | The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast - S4: E26
• Yeonmi Park: What I learned about freedom after escaping North Korea | TED Talk