A need is something that is necessary for survival or basic functioning. Examples include food, shelter and clothing. Wants, on the other hand, are things that are not necessarily essential for life but make the experience of living more enjoyable. They can include such things as a cheese burst pizza or an exotic holiday.
The word need comes from the Latin noun ne, meaning “to be” or “to become.” It was used in this sense at least as early as the 12th century. The concept of need is closely associated with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, which posits that basic deficiency needs (e.g., hunger and sleep) must be fulfilled before higher-order needs can be satisfied.
In the context of interpersonal relationships, need often refers to a desire for closeness and love. These fulfill the third and fourth levels of Maslow’s hierarchy – the psychological and social needs. The need for connections and the need to feel loved are often confused with the need for security, which is addressed by the second level of the hierarchy.
A noun can be countable or uncountable, and it must be spelled with an article if it is countable. An article is a word, phrase or clause that comes before or after the noun to make it specific. Examples of countable nouns are dates, ages, currencies and names of people or places. They require an article, and the articles are usually a, an or a. Uncountable nouns are less obvious, such as concentration and focus.
When talking about personal needs, a helpful tool is to do a need assessment. This involves writing down your experiences of success and failure, then determining which of these experiences included a need or a want. Then, select which of these you think are the most important and write them down in priority order. You can use this list to analyze your personal needs and develop a plan for meeting them.
The academic study of need reached its peak in the 1950s but has declined since then. One possible reason is that the concept of need differs wildly among individuals and cultures. Moreover, there are many different theories of need. Some of the most notable are those of Doyal and Gough, who assert that all human beings have a right to self-determination. This theory is compatible with the capability approach of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum.
In other words, every person has a vision of what is good in life and has a need to pursue it. But in order to pursue that vision, a person must be equipped with physical health and the ability to participate in societal activities and decision-making. This includes mental health and the capacity to learn, as well as a certain degree of autonomy. If a person has all these abilities, they will be capable of meeting their need for self-determination. If they don’t, they will function poorly in society. For more on this topic, see self-determination theory.