Editing Maslow's hierarchy of needs (section)

=== Pyramid ===
Maslow's hierarchy of [[need]]s is often portrayed in the shape of a pyramid, with the largest, most fundamental needs at the bottom, and the need for [[self-actualization]] and transcendence at the top. However, Maslow himself never created a pyramid to represent the hierarchy of needs.{{sfn|Eaton|2012}}{{sfn|Kaufman|2019}}{{sfn|Bridgman|Cummings|Ballard|2019}}

The most fundamental four layers of the pyramid contain what Maslow called "deficiency needs" or "d-needs": esteem, friendship and love, security, and physical needs. If these "deficiency needs" are not met – except for the most fundamental (physiological) need – there may not be a physical indication, but the individual will feel anxious and tense. Deprivation is what causes deficiency, so when one has unmet needs, this motivates them to fulfill what they are being denied.{{sfn|McLeod|2021}}

The human brain is a complex system and has parallel processes running at the same time, thus many different motivations from various levels of Maslow's hierarchy can occur at the same time. Maslow spoke clearly about these levels and their satisfaction in terms such as "relative", "general", and "primarily". Instead of stating that the individual focuses on a certain need at any given time, Maslow stated that a certain need "dominates" the human organism.{{sfn|Maslow|1954}} Thus Maslow acknowledged the likelihood that the different levels of motivation could occur at any time in the human mind, but he focused on identifying the basic types of motivation and the order in which they would tend to be met.<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 6, 2020 |title=Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs in Education |url=https://educationlibrary.org/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-in-education/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200206215339/https://educationlibrary.org/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-in-education/ |archive-date=February 6, 2020 |access-date=February 6, 2020 |website=Education Library |language=en-US}}</ref> In addition to his anthropological studies, Maslow drew on animal data that "studied and observed monkeys [...] noticing their unusual pattern of behavior that addressed priorities based on individual needs".<ref name=":1" />