human behaviour is motivated, even if the person is not necessarily aware of his motives at the time of behaviour.
To sum up, motivation is a forcing power of a specific desire, need, or want that is conducted by some purposes and becomes the reason for a person to do the
action that leads to a goal. Besides, through motivation a person is able to achieve his goal with satisfactory feelings.
5. Human Basic Needs
When people do some actions, they are motivated by the need to fulfil those actions. Maslow 47 says that “man is initially motivated by a series of basic
needs; as those are satisfied, he moves toward the level of the higher needs and become motivated by them”. It means that human motivations are based on human
needs. Maslow also proposes seven basic needs but only five needs are reviewed in the study.
The needs are the physiological needs, the safety needs, the belongingness and love needs, the esteem needs, and the self-actualization needs Maslow 38-42.
These five basic needs are also known as the hierarchy of human needs. He argues that usually the lowest need of the hierarchy has to be satisfied first before the
higher needs on the hierarchy are satisfied. The explanation of each need is as follows:
1 The Physiological Needs The physiological needs are the most basic needs in our life. They are the
need for food, liquid, shelter, sex, sleep and oxygen. When someone is lacking food, love or shelter; he is absolutely going to demand food first and he will ignore
the other needs until the need for food is fulfilled. In order to survive in life, of course, the needs that we should fulfil first are the physiological needs Maslow
38. 2 The Safety Needs
After the physiological needs are sufficiently satisfied, the safety needs emerge. They emerge because of the needs to feel secure, stable, independent,
protected, free from fear, anxiety and chaos. Someone will feel that other higher needs become unimportant when his life is in danger. A man needs the security and
protection from anything that is considered as being harmful. He also needs a peaceful society, familiar surrounding, secure jobs and some of the evidence of the
needs for safety Maslow 39. 3 The Belongingness and Love Needs
When the two needs of physiological and safety are satisfied there will emerge the belonging and love needs. After a person fulfils the physiological and
safety needs, now he will find the absence of friends, a sweetheart, a wife, or children. He will seek for affectionate relations with people in general, for a place
in his group or family or a feeling that one “belongs” and he will strive with great intensity to achieve his goal. The love needs require both the receiving and giving
of love- love from another and someone to love Maslow 40. 4 The Esteem Needs
When the first three classes of needs are satisfied, the needs for esteem can become dominant. These involve needs for both self-esteem and for the esteem a
person gets from others. A person has a need for a stable, firmly based, high level or self-respect and respect from others. When these needs are satisfied, the person
feels self confident and valuable as a person in the world. Unfortunately, if these needs are frustrated, the person feels inferior, weak, helpless and worthless
Maslow 42. 5 The Self-actualization Needs
The self-actualization needs emerge after all of the foregoing needs are satisfied. Self-actualization is a person’s need to be and do that which the person
was “born to do”. It is also the identification of the psychological need for growth, development and utilization of always know what are he desire but when it comes
to the self-actualization it is not always clear what a person wants in his life Maslow 42.
All the basic needs mentioned above are important but it depends on each person on how he or she is able to fulfil it. Each person will experience a different
process in fulfilling their needs and those needs may appear not as described. Maslow states that the process of needs may not work based on the theory since
most people have been able to fulfil most of their basic needs. For example, nowadays a lot of people choose to find a secure job first in order to fulfil their
basic needs such as food and shelter. It can be assumed that we cannot guaranty that the physiological needs will appear first. On the contrary the safety needs may
appear first and then proceeds to the physiological needs or other needs qtd. in Huitt 2001.
6. Struggle for Life
