In the context of a person’s life, needs are requirements that must be met to function normally. Needs can include food, water and shelter, but also more subjective requirements like self-esteem and belonging. A study of a person’s needs can be used to determine what steps they need to take to be happy. The concept of need is a controversial one. Some people think that it is impossible for anyone to fulfill all their needs, while others believe that all of a person’s desires should be considered needs and must be satisfied to be functional in society.
The word need is also used as a semi-modal verb, meaning that it acts in some ways like a modal verb and in other ways like an auxiliary verb. For example, “No one need know that he is sick,” or “I don’t think that we need to tell them anything.” The use of the semi-modal verb need can be confusing to English learners because many articles are required in the language.
For example, a definite article must always be used before a noun that is singular countable. For example, “The wolf is an endangered animal” and “There are four exams scheduled this year.” This is because there is only one wolf in the world. However, there are many uncountable nouns that do not require an article.
The term need is often confused with want, a similar word that has different definitions. Wants are things that a person would like to have, but are not necessary for survival. For example, sports cars and designer clothing are wants, but not necessities.
A famous academic model of psychological needs was developed by Abraham Maslow in 1943. His theory was that people have a hierarchy of psychological needs, starting with basic physiological (or lower-order) needs such as food and water, through to higher order needs like esteem and self-actualization. People tend to spend most of their time and resources attempting to satisfy the lower-order needs before they can work on the higher-order ones.
The academic concept of need has been criticized by scholars for its emphasis on psychology and the way that it can be easily misinterpreted as a form of greed or addiction. In addition, it has been found that people’s conception of their own needs can vary widely in different cultures and social situations. For these reasons, the need concept receives little attention in the field of ethics. Instead, a more general notion of an individual’s capacity to function within a societal setting is sometimes referred to as the need for personal autonomy. This need for autonomy requires cognitive skills, physical health and opportunities to engage in the societal process. This is a more practical and inclusive view of need than the academic needs theory. It may be more useful in determining what an individual needs to live a fulfilled life.