In his Choice Theory, William Glasser make the point that we are all born “genetically programmed” to have five basic needs. However, we don’t all have each particular need to the same degree as another person. Our personal mix of these five needs will tell us a lot about our personal motivations and what lies behind the choices we make in life. The five needs are
- Survival
- Belonging (love and loving sex)
- Power
- Freedom
- Fun
He makes suggestions to help you figure out the strengths of these various needs in your own life.
If you have found that you are less willing to take risks than most people, you have a high need for survival.
The key to assessing the strength of your need for love and belonging is how much you are willing to give.
To assess the strength of your need for power, ask yourself if you always want to have your own way, to have the last word, to own people, and to be seen as right in most of what you do or say.
If you can’t stand the idea of following rules, conforming, or even staying in one place or with one group of people for very long, you have a high need for freedom.
If you enjoy learning and laugh a lot when you do, you have a high need for fun.
You get the idea? Of course, you could say that ALL of us have ALL of these needs. The point is to understand which of these resonate most strongly with you. Because that’ll be your prime motivator.
1. Survival
2. Fun
3. Belonging
4. Freedom
5. Power
And actually I’d put 2 and 3 on the same slot.
I didn’t see chocolate in the list!
For me number four has been most important most of my life. I think I have been gone over the top a bit. But these days, four and five are where I live, for the time being. Everything changes, nothing remains the same.
And Bob, I want to thank you for your invitation on Facebook ( I think it was). I decided not to use that network. Being a slow guy, there is only so much I can do, and right now I’m 15,000 words into writing a novel and that is my focus for the next few months.
However, I’ll always find time to drop by your blog. You always have something of interest.
this a very interesting post… i think all five needs mentioned were truly essentials in our daily living.I agree that we should know and acknowledge our five needs…
I can’t say i ever really feel i Need, to have power, Freedom, yeah, but control is not something you have, unless you consider the freedom to choose thus control yourself as Power, but power over the world or thoughs around you, that seems some what Hypocritical, no?? If we took out the whole part about owning others, I can see it being more understandable, i guess…
Other wise, it’s pretty much like Masslow’s List of needs.
Masslow’s Glasser’s
1)physical needs —————————1)Survival
2)Safty -(I’d put this in with survival)—1) ”
3)Belonging ———————————2)Belonging
4)self esteem-(I’m more with masslow)3)Power
*) (Masslow kinda drops the ball here.)4)Freedom
5)self actualization-(learning,joy of life)5)Fun
Pretty close, combine the two, and you got a great start to a person’s needs. Or at least that’s what i see.
peace be with you.
[…] outside of our control don’t have an impact. Of course they do. But as Viktor Frankl and William Glasser, amongst others, have said, what’s important is how you respond to the situations you find […]
the difference between Dr. Glasser’s 5 Basic Needs and Maslow’s Hierarchy is that Maslow taught that you must meet your needs in order and that you can not achieve other needs until the need below was met…must meet survival need before you can begin to meet self esteem etc. Dr. Glasser’s theory teaches that you can be meeting all needs at the same time or one at a time and in any order. No one need is more important than another. We all have individual needs profiles and each need is of different importance.
I would like to clarify Dr. Glasser’s meaning of power. He does not mean to have power over others. Dr. Glasser teaches that we can only control self and that everyone has and makes choices. When he talks of power it is the power to make choices. It is also in regards to learning, being acknowledged….. it’s kind of like feeding our self esteem.
I used to use Glasser’s theories to run a Time-Out room in a public middle school. I agree with Glasser’s list of needs, but I would add one more: hope.
We all need to think the future (short or long-term) will be different or better. Those who have no hope become the misfits of society, gang members, criminals, terrorists, addicts, people out to destroy rather than create. The people I know who suffer depression may not be fulfilling one or more of their motivating needs, but when they have no hope that things will improve, they sink into debilitating despair.
As a school psychologist working with incarcerated youth, about 2/3 gang members, I have to agree with CJ’s post about hope, although it could be argued that those who have love and belonging, will automatically have hope. Those who don’t, won’t.
cw
I suffer from Combat PTSD and my counsellor uses these as a an assessment tool when we are not satisfied with our lives.
I agree with all; however, I don’t understand the love and belonging. Some people live as hermits and are quite happy with that. Where as I am a people person but have a major trust issue which restricts me from getting very close. Can anyone share any light on this???
Interesting discussion.
2 ideas on the hermit theory:
I think even the hermit point is justified if you pull the focus back a bit; Maybe their “love & belonging” is in the form of their “mark on the world” or “love of nature”, ect. I think whatever causes similar chemicals/feelings in us can pass or trigger that that particular need has been met.
Or, a counterpoint to this is that some people have almost no need for a particular one of these. An example would be the Samurai ending his own life (little desire for survival) to keep his honor (power/self-esteem?), or similarly, a Buddhist monk setting himself ablaze in protest. If a need for survival can take a back seat, then I’m sure the need for belonging can as well.
@spaceagesage,
“Chocolate” would be part of need #1, especially as far as my wife is concerned!
Most of you posters need to go back and read Glasser a bit more closely. “Power” as Glasser envisions it, is a combination of skills a person develops to a degree of competence and that cause the person to gain recognition from others and creating a sense of importance. The more skills; the higher the levels of competence at those skills; the greater the recognition and sense of importance to the world.
Glasser’s love need is most often mis-characterized as being equated with sex. We all need to have a sense of affiliation; that there are others to whom we are important and with whom we are involved in an active and friendly paradigm.
As for the ‘hermits are happy’ folks…it causes me to wonder who surveyed them regarding their level of happiness given that they are, well, hermits.
on the hermit discussion. a hermit has a high need of love for himself, he doesn’t have a high need for belonging. thus the love is found with himself thus he doesn’t need to be with anyone else…. that alone satisfy his basic needs of love/belonging. The r/s is with him & nature (for example).
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my feeling on this is that the priority of the needs is fluid. By and large my need for survival is low, things tick over. But if things fall short in that department it shoots up in priority to the detriment of everything else. Balance keeps me happy
Who really can be a hermit these days.
When I first read the 5 needs, I thought that my priorities were one way. After reading the explanations, my priorities weren’t what I thought they would be. It’s oddly refreshing to learn something about myself this way. I hope you will post similar posts like this one. This is really good. 🙂
I think this analysis has made one error.
I believe Glasser was talking of SELF empowerment, not power over others.
Empowerment is about having choices in your life. That’s why he has CHOICE THEORY, ( importantly, he amended it to the word Choice as opposed to CONTROL).