PREVIOUS: Parenting

♦ SELF-LOVE
DEFICIT base: Childhood trauma dissociation. Repressed memories of abandonment.
CORE SHAME: :”I’m only as good as what I do or not do for others”
LONELINESS: Excruciating feeling of worthlessness – the existential void
ADDICTIONS: Isolation, chemicals & narcissistic lovers mask intense pain
PEOPLE-PLEASING / RESCUING: Compulsive caretaking, manipulate others for acceptance & love

ABUNDANCE Base: Self-respect & self-care
CORE Beliefs: “I love myself & I can be loved by others – just for who I am”
INNER PEACE: Freedom to be happy without a ‘relationship’ – no void to fill
MUTUALITY in Relationships: Interdependent, expecting respect & love from others
SELF-LOVE: Acceptance & appreciation of one’s place in the world

♦ LETTING GO….
REVERSE PYRAMID of Transcendence (re. Maslow Level 6):
It foes not mean we top doing whatever it is we do in everyday life – but rather letting go of attachment to perfection, outcomes & neediness – which we base our actions on. “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood carry water.”

Progress of enlightenment (small e) by LETTING GO :
Base: of perfection, moving toward appropriate vulnerability
✱ Low attachment to outcomes
2. of need for other’s opinions. Not judgemental, moralizing or shaming
✱ See self as part of larger whole
3. of need to hang on to others. Loosen grip on self-preservation instincts, thoughts & emotions
✱ Able to ship internally to solve problems

4. of need for security & certainty, learning to give up control over everything
✱ Being in the present – to take actions

5. of need for physical safety, to be able to sacrifice self for a greater cause
6. of the grip of fear of death. Go for one’s dreams, no matter what the cost.

♦ Addiction RECOVERY process
Just as individuals’ substance use disorder recovery needs might be different depending on their life course stage, those needs may also be different depending on their recovery stage. What one needs to sustain substance use disorder recovery will be different depending on if they have 3 weeks versus 3 months versus 3 years, and so on in recovery

A prominent model of behavioral change that cuts across theories – The Trans-theoretical Stages of Change Model – serves as a useful way to understand this change process. The different stages of change necessitate different recovery strategies.

From the least aware to life-long sobriety: Pre-contemplative, Contemplative, Preparation & Action, Maintenance. (More….)

♦ SOUND RELATIONSHIPS & ADDICTION

“HOUSE” of Healthy relationships:
Base level:  Building Love Maps – how well partners know one another
2. Share Fondness & Admiration. the amount of affection and respect within a 3. 3. Turn Towards in everyday moments, which are actually the building blocks of relationship. (More….)

BUT – If Substance Abuse intrudes, it will erode an intimate relationship, like an unwanted guest. If the couple is willing to enter recovery (AA, Al-Anon….), the ‘house’ levels can be used for healing, with special attention to building solid walls against the return of the uninvited-invited guest, & open up windows to each other, to communicate growth needs & challenges. (More….)

♦ BUILDINGS
In his classic book Why Buildings Stand Up, architect Mario Salvadori agreed with Maslow’s final addition of spiritual ‘Transcendence’. Salvadori pointed out that spiritual needs have always preoccupied people, even when they are lacking basic physiological comforts.

Once humans abandoned their nomadic lifestyles to live in fixed communities, the larger architectural dwellings were usually places of worship & communion.

Monuments also expressed a culture’s conception of spiritual needs, & of life and death. The Pyramids of ancient Egypt and the mausoleum of the First Emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi, complete with terracotta army…… illustrate obsessions with death & immortality.

Cultures & the way we do architecture may have changed, because of advances in science & technology, but our needs – from physiological to spiritual – have not. We live, eat, sleep & procreate in the same way. However, today our largest buildings are shopping malls, as fewer people are motivated by organized religion.
We worship the material, so these large structures express our concept of our greatest need: to consume as much as we can. (re. buildings) //  (re. Fashion needs)

NEXT:

  PREVIOUS : Trauma

SITE: Toddler’s Food pyramid

♦ MOTHER & CHILD’S NEEDS

ANNIE (mother of 2) at “PhD in Parenting” points out that “No (wo)man is an island”. For mothers, this means they can’t thrive if they’re isolated, & that they can’t selfishly pursue their own needs all the time. 

Women are often in a position to have to help others meet their needs, whether directly (feeding an infant) or providing someone with the space to do so (a quiet space to study, a car ride to the doctor….).

But if women feel pressured to meet all their responsibilities by themselves (to spouse, elders, children, work), they’ll end up neglect their own needs and/or those of their child(ren).
Mothers need help too, like being freed up to have a quiet bath, or get away for a few hours. That takes ‘a village’ & ideally, women have to develop support systems before they’re needed, before they’re desperate.

Annie notes that it’s more important for a parent to meet their child’s physiological, safety & security needs (levels 1-3), than to meet their own esteem & self actualization needs (4-5).
It’s also more important for the parent to meet their own physiological, safety & security needs (1-3) than to provide esteem or self-actualization needs of their children (4-5)

After all – she’s unlikely to provide the support & energy required to fulfill the child’s esteem & self-actualization needs if she is hungry, exhausted & insecure.

♦ GOOD PARENTING
1. Feeling Supported & Connected
Brain systems have two settings: Responsive and Reactive.
😨 When support in Times of Need is not available or utilized, we React with worry, frustration, anxiety & anger. Then we turn INWARD – isolating.
😄 When each level of needs is met, the system tends to be Responsive. This is provided during Tough Times by turning OUTWARD, to get whatever help is required.

3. CONNECTION: Everyone benefits when parents spend more time developing a strong, loving relationship with their children. After all, teaching & disciplining (levels 4-5) won’t work if the child doesn’t like the parent!

KEYS to healthy parenting:
a. Loving = affection, compassion, involvement, positivity, understanding, warmth…..
b. Guiding = discipline, setting limits, structure, supervision, teaching….

4. TEACHING: Too much focus is on what to do when things go wrong – on discipline strategies & consequences. However, if the goal is to be  effective, parents need to lovingly, patiently teach children what is expected, how to behave, & what the consequences are of disobedience – rather than seeing them as ungrateful, disobedient burdens!

So, effective correction will depend on the quality of the parent’s teaching, & the quality of teaching will depend on the quality of the relationship with their children. (More….)  CONNECTION first, correction last.

♦ PARENTING SkILLS & STRATEGIES
In order of importance & effort:
1. Base activities lay the foundations for a positive parent-child relationship, making all parts of parenting, even discipline & consequences, easier & more effective.
PARENTS give attention, empathy,  involvement, listening, play, problem-solving, taking
BENEFITS to child: better attachment, co-operation, self-esteem, problem-solving

2. PARENTS: celebrate, coach, encourage, praise, reward
BENEFITS: Improved motivation, thinking & social skills

3. PARENTS: Clear limits, consistent follow-thru & household rules
BENEFITS : Increased obedience, predictability & responsibility

4. PARENTS: Distract, ignore, redirect – child’s demands, noise, tantrums….
BENEFITS : Reduces annoying behavior (don’t get a rise out of parent)

5. PARENTS: Provide consequences (time out, loss of privileges….)
BENEFITS : Less aggression  (From “The Incredible Years” Series)

IF parents overuse consequences & forget to make time for play & positive time, children will become discouraged, & will stop trying to behave properly – because they feel unable to get any attention other than when they’re ‘bad’.

♦ DIGITAL USE (for Children)

♦ TODDLER’S FOOD GROUPS 😉

NEXT:  MBTI Preference stacks #1

PREVIOUS: Misc. uses

SITE: Trauma & Social Locations

◆ CHILDHOOD TRAUMA

Childhood experiences have a tremendous impact on future violence, victimization & perpetration, as well as lifelong health & opportunities.
But there’s more to a person’s stressors than just experiences. We come “into this world in structures & conditions already established,” which are often punitive & embedded in racial bias. They limit opportunities & come with built-in economic & social inequities. (More…)

The original ACE Study (scroll to Quiz) was conducted at Kaiser Permanente (1995 – 97) in two waves of data collection. Over 17,000 Health Maintenance Org. members from Southern California who receive physical exams, also completed confidential surveys about their childhood experiences, as well as current health status & activities. (More….)
❖ Almost 2/3 of study participants reported at least one ACE, & more than 1 in 5 reported three or more. (Traumatized brain…. slides #21, 22)

◆ VERBAL ABUSE
This pyramid show how barrages of cruel words cause an avalanche of destructive behaviors – at school, cyber bullying, at work & as domestic violence, sometimes leading to suicide or murder.
Domestic violence usually starts with words, & then escalates.  In at least 3 cases a day in America, this pattern of violence ends in a death!
Many ACoAs experience the base level of verbal abuse all thru childhood, causing a life-time of slow self-destructiveness via self hate, in thoughts & actions.

As Rogers and Hammerstein said in South Pacific, “You have to be carefully taught” – to hate.  Cruel messages remain powerful because they were spoken by people who were supposedly safe, trustworthy & loving. So the words & their meaning were never challenged, simply accepted as core truths. Like the teenage boy who eventually killed himself because he believed his girlfriend who he trusted, when she kept saying : “You’ll be better off / You just have to do it / No more pushing it off /  No more waiting…..”   (More…)

♦ HATE
The Pyramid shows biased behaviors, growing in complexity from the bottom up. Behaviors at each level negatively impact individuals & groups, with increasingly more life-threatening consequences, each level supported by the ones below.
When actions at the lower levels are treated as acceptable then those at the next level seem “normal” & therefore acceptable, possibly leading to genocide. (“Human Rights“)

“Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.” Martin Luther King Jr.

♦ VIOLENCE
To understand the violence pyramid, we must first understand rape culture, where people experience a continuum of threatened violence, from sexual remarks to sexual touching, to rape itself. In any such culture both men and women assume that sexual violence is a fact of life, inevitable as death or taxes. Rape Culture

However, much of what many people accept as inevitable – especially women – is actually the outward expression of values & attitudes that  spiral down into progressively more abusive behavior, as seen in both pyramids.
As with all these tragic events, when anyone gets away with the attitudes & actions on the bottom tiers their ‘right’ to do so is reinforce, & so excuse those above. For this to change, the culture must change.  (More…..)

 ◆ SURVIVING & THRIVING
PHYSICAL: Look for safety when under threat. Pay attention to – and trust – your bodily sensations of stress. Find natural / nature environments that can soothe as well as expand your horizons.

SOCIAL: Get away from hateful & destructive relationships (avoid / hide), & only re-connect if the abuser gets help to change, or via an intermediary. Look for like-minded allies for support. Communicate your emotions without self-judgement, with safe people.

PERSONAL: Make use of trauma experiences as a way to learn about yourself – what your strengths are & where to make changes. Continue to express thoughts & emotions. Find or regain personal freedom from stressful people & situations. Learn when to bend as well as when to stand firm.

SPIRITUAL: Take time to mourn. Integrate your experiences into a broad & healthy world-view. Improve & strengthen beliefs, meaning, purpose & values. Stick to what’s real & true, & go beyond (transcend) by letting go of pain & resentment. (More…) (See all posts on RESILIENCE).

NEXT: Relationships

PREVIOUS: Reversed, #2

♦ TRUST
NOTE: this pyramid is constructed in relation to websites (Amazon, Facebook….) & its users – how safe is it, how much of our personal info to give….However, we can apply the same criteria to our personal relationships, whether family, friends, lovers, work mates…..

People must (should) have basic trust needs met before moving into deeper interactions (PMES intimacy).
HOWEVER, ACoAs have not been allowed to trust their gut & still small voice, & so often ignore red flag signals from others or situations which are available from the very beginning – continuing to form a connection with inappropriate PPT which, over time, is disappointing or causes us harm.

Establishing trust, in any category, should be gradual. As the relationship progresses, skepticism need to be overcome by proof that the ‘other’ is trustworthy, dependable, consistent…. .

Then comfort level can increase, & new demands / expectations can be made. The relationship should progress through the stages, built on progressive experience. Higher levels of commitment cannot be gained before the lower ones are proven.  (More…re. websites & users

♦ What’s BEST for RELATIONSHIPS : Passion or Dedication?
Robert Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love identifies 3 elements that combine in different ways for different types of relationships:
▪︎ Passion is associated with physical attraction & intense emotional arousal.
▪︎ Intimacy refers to a sense of emotional closeness, comfort, and support between two people
▪︎ Commitment is the choice to be dedicated to a relationship and make an effort to preserve it for the long-term

a. All 3 combined is called “Consummate Love”, but doesn’t last – for most couple – because over time Passion often diminishes or fizzles as the novelty wears out
b. A high level of Intimacy + Commitment, but lower level of Passion is “Companionate Love”, based on common interests, sharing & deep friendship

Research shows that (b) tends to be the stuff happy marriages are made of, AND – people who are very dedicated to their relationship can take a proactive approach to keeping passion alive, such as doing exciting things together, since increased adrenaline can heighten attraction. (More….)

♦ DATING
Healthy – Base needs: Physical attraction / chemistry, common interests, able to have fun, good communication, friendship
Middle: Respect, honesty, loyalty, reliance, physical affection, similar values, deepening friendship & communication, trust
Highest: Commitment, love, marriage, sex

♦ ORDER of FORMING Relationships
1. Rubin’s theory of love:
▪︎ Caring – valuing the other person needs as much as your own – but not more
▪︎ Attachment – the need to receive care, approval & physical contact
▪︎ Intimacy – sharing thoughts & emotions, desires, hopes, dreams

2. Hattfield’s version:
▪︎ Compassionate love – based on respect, attachment, trust, and its reciprocation
▪︎ Passionate love – based on intense emotions, sexual attraction & affection.

3. The relationship pyramid: It’s crucial to work from the bottom up, because if we consistently try to form relationships starting from the top, we could damage our heath…. :
…. Physically (STDs, unwanted pregnancy)
…. Emotionally (being used, ashamed/guilty, in fantasy)
…. Social (effect reputation, trouble at work, bad role model for siblings…)
So, following the healthier process helps prevent problems.

♦ LONG-TERM vs. SHORT-TERM RELATIONSHIPS  (More….)

 ♦ SEXUAL activity
This is from a Christian perspective, looking only at the top 3 categories:
🔆 Everything but – intercourse, before marriage. These are people who aren’t deeply connected to a religious community (an island) & since they’re much looser in their sexual options, can easily get often run into value conflicts with someone they date.

🌺 Kissing only, & holding hands, but no form of sexual activity. These people are driven & deeply spiritual, able to keep a balance between personal goals and keeping up a pleasant romantic relationship, without feeling feel too frustrated. They can maintain their innocence, which helps them to not cross the line.

😘 No dating til marriage. The belief is that God has somebody perfect in mind for you, & you’ll recognize them…. so in the mean time you’re just going to live for yourself & God until you meet the person you recognize as your soul mate. (More….)

NEXT: Parenting

PREVIOUS: REVERSED Pyramids #1

♦ RAISON d’ÉTRE
♦ FREEDOM

♦ 5 NEEDS for HAPPINESS
G. Filotto (the “SJW Hunter”) says that self-actualization comes first rather than last – underpinning & supporting all other possibilities for a successful life.

1. Know yourself (Oracle of Delphi, ancient Greece). It both means : Know who you are inside, AND Find the truth of things & how they relate to you  – on your own, in your own way, that suits your purpose, ideas & abilities – to deepen self-understanding

2. Someone to share yourself with. We all have a powerful built-in need to be loved & to love, to share our minds & hearts with someone else who we know can appreciate it, & who we can do the same for

3. A Mutual stimulus group, whether friend (supporters) or foe (challengers) = people who push us to be react, respond, improve, create, grow…. & where we can reciprocate – anything but stagnate

4. Freedom of action, to do what we personally want – when, how & with whom. This includes Having Money, but to truly achieve we need to have a handle on point #1 – a clear, realistic & healthy mind.

5. Give back to the world . If we achieve the first 4, we may still feel something’s missing. This void can be filled by using our specific talents to give back to the world – in whatever way – inspiration, help, guidance, pleasure, happiness, safety or comfort to others.

♦ REVERSES EDUCATION
The 6 components of Bloom’s Taxonomy  pyramid can also be put in other words: (previously learned) knowledge, then comprehension,  application, analysis & finally synthesis – to identify the differences between knowing, understanding, & applying information.
However, this version suggests there’s a scarcity of talent & imagination in students – only those who can plow thru the lower levels & reach the top – can be creative. This is not true.

FLIPPED LEARNING reverses the traditional instructional goals for what happens in & out of class, so that students becomes increasingly pro-active. This makes it easier for them to master the process of thinking & thus now to learn.

The FLIPPED classroom starts with creating, & eventually it gives us the info needed. Students watch short instructional videos at home, then use in-class time for discussions, exercises & projects (More…):
▪︎ Based on the class topic, students are given real-world problem to solve
▪︎ They create something that shows their understanding (video, podcast, website, wiki….)
▪︎ They participate in a discussion or debate (More….)

NOTE: Both reverse pyramids are suggested by Lorin Anderson – using creativity as the base  / or using ‘understanding’ as the base

♦ WRITING ARTICLES
Journalists know that 80% of web readers don’t go thru a whole story, only scanning headlines. Web readers dislike long-winded, flowery, promotional writing with boastful claims. They prefer facts – realistic, useful information.

So the key to getting a reader’s attention is simplicity, addressing ‘What? When? Where? Who? Why? How? ‘
The writer must place the most important elements of the story at the beginning, starting with the conclusion / outcome of the story, followed by the most important supporting information, & end with the background.  (More….)

♦ AA STRUCTURE
The AA 12-Step service structure is described as “the upside down triangle of AA“. Everything in AA begins at the group level. Every group is autonomous & is governed by it’s own group conscience. If there’s an issue outside the group that they would like to address, their General Service Representative or GSR will bring their concern to the District Committee.⬇️ (More…..)

NOTE: This arrangement applies to all 12-Step programs, such as Al-Anon, D.A., O.A., G.A……

♦ PETS
“No one goes into Animal welfare for the money. They do it for love. But when passion comes before self-care, the weight of the world takes it toll.”
Laura Young is the founder of NoSafeDistance.com (pyramid). She knows there’s a difference between being tired, even to the point of exhaustion, vs. the world-weary state of compassion fatigue….

Striking the balance between compassionate caring & trying to address the tidal wave of need that greets everyone who joins a cause, be it animal welfare, child welfare, addressing  race or gender related violence,or global climate change is quite another. (More ...)

NEXT: Relationships Pyramids

PREVIOUS: Maslow’s pyramid & Music

♦ RAISON d’ÉTRE

In  “Geopolicraticus”, N.J. Nelson objects to Maslow & Erickson’s stages of personality development as too simplistic, even misleading, They can contribute to the insidious assumption that if you’re not following their stages, there’s obviously something wrong with you for not developing naturally or normally.

Instead Nelson states that:
“…I don’t believe that a person can get out of bed in the morning without implicitly having formulated a philosophical judgment that life is worth living and therefore there is a reason to get out of bed, and not merely to lie there and do nothing.”

His inverted pyramid puts raison d’être at the foundation, so that the fulfillment of emotional & psychological drives can eventually build up to the final satisfaction of physical drives & needs. This doesn’t deny the crucial need for food, water, air….. but they don’t automatically provide a motivation for successfully getting going every day, especially in the face of life’s many stressors. (ALSO…..)

Similarly, Arjun Paul (Flipkart Stories, India) suggests in this reverse pyramid – a person’s entire existence balances on a single point. “Esteem is something that can be sought only after a person has satisfied himself.”

It seems obvious to him that in order to provide all our human & personality needs, first we must have a reason to get out of bed every morning.  “Why should we have to move through a hierarchy to achieve what is already in us? In our mind? Also, nothing in nature is linear, so why would our development as human beings be linear? ”

He places Maslow’s levels 1 & 2 as supports to the fundamental one, & continues: “It is safe to assume that reason & the will to live, coupled with forming connections, are what make us humans, & differentiate us from AIs – so far. So unless the higher needs are met with the utmost care & balance, the whole pyramid tips over on its side.“

♦ FREEDOM
Maslow’s original hierarchy only works if a person is free. This reverse pyramid is Ravi Agrawal’s theoretical model : Moving from the bottom up ⬆️, more & more people are involved in our life at each stage, while the restrictions to our freedom decrease ⬇️. This means we have more choices with more opportunity to decide what we want to do.

At the same time, what kind of impact a particular negative event will have in our life depends on which level it occurs in…. the broader the category (the bigger our life is), the more disruptive it can be.

1. Base NEEDS – Upbringing: Only a few people contribute at this level, & their actions have a profound impact on a person’s psyche & thought process

2. Subconscious – Whatever your needs are for functioning, must be met. If they’re not, the whole structure is thrown off balance

3. Personal – where your ethics & values come into play. … if the previous levels aren’t met, you might be willing to sacrifice them just to ensure you can fulfill them
Agrawal suggests Ethics & Values are formed by repeated sets of experiences. At this level, everything is transactional (interaction with others, especially influenced by the role as parent, child, or peer), & is judged by the face value of events. Doing things in a certain way (positively?) leads to improvement in one’s mental attitude

4. Association – This need is stronger than anything else, more than physical ones. Even with restricted access (limited connectivity), people still want to be a part of the group. Religion, nationality, professional organizations, gangs (in jail as well)…. are all associative groups we gravitate to, without questioning the drive

5. Forced (final level before freedom) – life situations causing real-world pressures, force us to act in ways that often sacrifice basic needs like food & sleep (get a degree, don’t get fired, feed your family….) in order to achieve a goal or passion
EXP: a business person rushing to a morning appointment without enough sleep or breakfast.

IMPLIED – FREEDOM to choose: Able to function optimally with less interference from the demands of others. (See Iceberg model of Competencies)

NEXT: Reversed #2

PREVIOUS: Transcendence & the brain

SITE: “What is Self-transcendence?” 6 EXP

MODERN
In “Renovating the Pyramid of Needs: Contemporary Extensions Built Upon Ancient Foundations” Kenrick, Griskevicious, Neuberg, & Schaller, (2010) modified Maslow’s pyramid to reflect a controversial, more ‘up-to-date’ approach, based on findings from neuroscience, developmental & evolutionary psychology —> which assumes that everything in human nature is in our genes, & can only be there if it helped our Paleolithic hunter-gatherer ancestors to survive & reproduce.

😴 These sciences claim that Maslow’s Pyramid is old-fashioned & needs revamping because it missed some very basic facts about human nature not well understood in his time, but have since been emphasized by ongoing research & theory. (Arizona State U.)

In the new pyramid, reproduction of our genes is considered one of humankind’s most fundamental drives. Self-actualization may be an important concept, but is no longer considered an evolutionary requirement, & so has been eliminated. Replacing it are 3 motives researchers believe Maslow did not account for: mate acquisition, mate retention, & parenting. Kenrick et al. pointed to universal human efforts to create & maintain family bonds, & the parental investment in raising young. (Explanation of each TREE ⬇️).

In addition to this dramatic change at the top, researchers add need- overlapping. This replaces Maslow’s initial idea that once a need is met it disappears & the individual moves on to the next level.
Kenrick et al. explained that this is not accurate. The reality is that even if a person had fulfilled a level & then gone on to the next – they may have to revert to earlier ones.

This is because there’s an ongoing interplay between our internal motivations & environmental situations, either by opportunities or threats, determining which needs capture our attention at any point in life. “Cognitive systems (the human mind) are biologically prepared to learn or have evolved a vigilance for stimuli relevant to fundamental goals. Neither the stimuli nor goals exist in isolation – the psychological system has co-evolved with features of the ecology.”

HOWEVER, other researchers – such as those in the emerging field of Existential psychology, & the subjective well-beingness of Positive Psychology – have called for retaining the emphasis on personal meaning & self-actualization.

▶︎ Lonnie Aarssen (Ontario, Ca) suggests that Kenrick’s version is also missing something important.
He offers a revision, where: ” …. the exalted pyramid cap represents gene transmission success – not a motivation as such, but the overarching functional (adaptive) consequence of all of the underlying needs / drives.”

He combines Kenrick’s levels 1-3 into the Survival Drive, 4-7 into the Sexual/ Familial Drives. Between them he proposes a “…. greater emphasis on a ‘narrative of the Self’, involving motivational elements that include & expand on the idea of self-actualization…. important requirements because they help people deal with – & mask – the human reality of impermanence (we all die.)

Different ‘sub-selves’, defined by pyramid goals, are activated by environmental cues. So we might expect activation of the ‘Legacy-Drive’ subself vs. the ‘Leisure-Drive subself to be based on local ecology and culture.
One recent study of responses to mortality salience provided an intriguing example of this: European Americans tended to focus on achieving symbolic immortality (legacy), while East Asians generally wanted to engage in & enjoy life (leisure).

There can also be a blurring or blending of the various drives. For example, Legacy functions (2) also feel good, which satisfy the Leisure Drive (3), and can gather resources or earn favor in one’s social group, reaping advantage for the Survival Drive (1).

OR combining all 4 levels: Accumulation of wealth ensures survival, but also earns status (legacy), allowing for conspicuous consumption (leisure), & can attract romance (sex). (More….)

Aarssen notes that the evolutionary roots of Survival & Sexual/Familial Drives (1 & 4) are supported by a large body of literature. However, Legacy & Leisure Drives (2 & 3) are mostly hypotheses yet to be tested with more research. The assumption is that they served our ancestors well by masking consciousness of our limited life-span, (a potentially incapacitating ‘curse’) – at least until we reach reproductive maturity, so we can pass on our genes.
He believes such research can lay the groundwork for a new view of the evolutionary roots of human nature & social life.

NEXT: Modern Pyramids #2

PREVIOUS: Personal Growth

SITE: HUMAN WELL-BEING

★ “Maslow 2.0” post by Turil Cronburg, 4/18/10
Fulfilling human needs can be thought of as the matter & energy requirements of each developmental stage, created by giving & receiving interactions. Each pyramid LEVEL ⬆️ of needs indicates what a person’s motivations & behaviors are generally like – the combination of personality traits.

😴 Physical : needs of one’s own body, 0-1
🧡 Emotional: of all members of one’s intimate group, 2-3
🔎 Intellectual: of members of one’s community, ie. society, 4-7
🔆 Spiritual : the broad spectrum of needs of all living things, Apex

Consciousness is complex because it’s based on what someone is most focused on at any given time, fed mainly by the various arts of  the cerebral cortex, the outer surface of the brain. At first, as a baby, we have only a very limited awareness of our environment, but it’s still real & valid. With growth, we can pay attention to more & more PPT (people, places, things).

★ Cronburg visualizes human development as FRACTAL diagrams ⬇️, in binary form, showing the complex process of consciousness-growth, starting with pre-birth.
It’s a combination of input & output interactions between the Self (red) and family & close friends (green), human society (light blue), & all the species of Earth (dark blue).  Article: “Is Consciousness Fractal?”

0 = fetus to birth : AWARE of self-input
1 = birth to 9 months : aware of self-output
10 = 9 months to age 2 : how others’ (family/friends) outputs meet internal needs
11 = 2-3 : how self & others’ outputs combine to create new things (connections, experiences)
100 = 3-7 : how self & others’ needs are met by society

101 = 7-13 : self-outputs + society’s needs, used to meet those of others
110 = 13-19 : others’ outputs + society’s, to meet self-needs
111 = 19-35 : how self, others & society’s outputs combine to make new things (community, projects, art….)

1000 = 35-60 : aware that the planet’s outputs meet self, others & society’s needs
1001 = 60-102 : aware of how one’s own outputs can meet the planet’s needs!

‘SATISFACTION with LIFE INDEX‘ by Adrian G. White,  (U of Leicester, Eng).
It was a collection of data from a metastudy, wanting to show life satisfaction in different nations, by directly asking how happy people feel, as well as considering social & economic factors.

Subjective measures of well-being correlated most strongly with health, wealth, & access to basic education.
In 2006, Denmark ranked #1, USA at #23, & Burundi the lowest

📌Edward Diener (U of ILL) helped create a Gallup poll survey on well-being, with 60,865 participants from 123 countries (2005-2010). Qs covered:
▪︎ Basic needs (food, shelter) /  safety / social needs (love, support) / respect / mastery / & autonomy.
▪︎ 3 measures of Well-being : life evaluation (a person’s view of his or her life as a whole) / / positive feelings (day-to-day instances of joy or pleasure) / / & negative feelings (everyday experiences of sorrow, anger, or stress).

Responses clearly indicated that Maslow’s basic list of needs does apply to everyone, regardless of culture. Diener commented that while our most basic needs tend to get the most attention when we don’t have them, we don’t need to fulfill them all before benefiting from higher level needs.”
EXP: Even when we’re hungry, we can still be happy being with friends (#4 over #1)

The human brain is a complex system with parallel processes running all the time, so that many different drives can be active at the same time.
However, it’s important to keep in mind that not all activities lead to well-being, which are called ‘pseudo-needs’. They’re unhealthy drives leading to behaviors which never bring mature, permanent satisfaction (addictions, people-pleasing, rescuing, isolating, being controlling….. ).

Diener’s study suggests that only when looking back on the quality of our lives do the basic needs become important indicators of well-being.
— Re. Troubles:  they come mainly from lack of esteem (3), lack of freedom (2), & lack of nourishment (1), in that order
— For everyday Satisfaction: interpersonal needs – such as love & respect (3 & 4) – are most important.
Healthy human needs work independently, & like vitamins, all are necessary…. “Since each of them correlates to certain aspects of happiness, all are important – all the time.”

Martin Seligman, (U of Penn) says governments should “focus away from monetary measures, especially in light of Diener & Tay’s findings – that income has little impact on day-to-day happiness, & is significant for well-being only in so far as it allows for basic needs to be met.”

NEXT: Maslow updates #2

PREVIOUS: Spiritual Transcendence (Part 2)

NOTE:  While the value & ‘legitimacy’ of the Maslow’s Pyramid in general & the Self-Actualizing level in particular are being debated by researchers, behavioral scientists, anthropologist & psychologists, (see evolutionary theories of Human Needs: “Renovating the Pyramid of Need“, and “Updated Maslow“), we can still use the original level #5 as a way to improve our life.

Self-development –To be actualized means living up to our true potential, & Maslow suggested ways to work towards this goal – not so different from current mental health ideas. It includes not taking things personally & being less defensive. Using our steadily guided by the True Self as a stable guide gives us the best chance of becoming & staying ‘in the zone’ .

Becoming self-actualized is not an end-state, but rather a life-long process. Maslow talked about it as ‘working to do well – the thing that one wants to do’. He also talked a lot about Transcenders’ ‘peak’ experiences, as ‘transient moments‘ of self-actualization. They’re times when we feel truly at peace & in harmony with our environment & the universe, marked by feelings of euphoria & deep joy.

Behaviors leading to self-actualization:
✩ Experience life as a child can, with full absorption & concentration
✩ Listen to your own feelings in evaluating experiences instead of the voice of tradition, authority or the majority
✩ Avoid pretense (‘game playing’) & be honest
✩ Try to identify your defenses & have the courage to give them up
✩Try new things instead of sticking to safe paths
✩ Be prepared to be unpopular if your views don’t agree with the majority
✩Take responsibility & work hard

• At every moment, each of us are trying to fill a fluctuating pile of PMES needs (physical, mental, emotional & spiritual)
• Some needs are currently more important (intense) than others
• Each of us will identify, experience, & rank current needs differently
• Conflicting needs cause “problems” inside & between people
• To promote personal & social harmony, it’s useful to identify our current primary needs, rank them, & then fill the most important ones as best we can.

♦ From the Conscious Aging Institute:
In Western societies, we tend to want much more of the lower level needs in order to be satisfied, compared to Eastern peoples. Therefore, Western egos & desires for more objects & status often slow our progress toward self-actualization & transcendence, even are inhibited by them altogether.

♦ The Peak Performance Center had some suggestions to counted this trend. Maslow believed that educators should respond to the potential an individual has for growing into a self actualized being.  He recommends ways education can switch from its usual person-stunting tactics to person-growing approaches. If we were taught to recognize our potential from our earliest years, we could achieve our dreams.

EDUCATORS can help / teach everyone:
• to see that our basic needs are satisfied, including safety, belonging & esteem
• to discover our vocation, calling, fate or destiny in life, especially focused on finding the right career & the right mate

• to accept ourselves as we really are, based on our inner nature. To be authentic, & hear the inner-feeling voice. From accurate awareness of our aptitudes & limitations we can know what our true potential is & what to build our life on

• that life is precious, that there’s joy to be experienced in life, & if we’re open to seeing the good & positive in all kinds of situations, it makes life worth living
• to refresh our consciousness, by appreciating beauty & all good things in nature & life in general

• to be good choosers, & given practice to make the best possible ones
• that controls are good, & complete abandon is bad. It takes healthy self-control to improve the quality of life in all areas (Cartoon: Chris Wildt)
• to transcend our cultural conditioning & become world citizens
• to transcend life’s trifling problems, & grapple with the serious ones, including injustice, pain, suffering & death.
(from “Psychology – Search for Understanding”, Simons, Irwin & Drinnien)

NEXT: 

PREVIOUS:Spiritual Transcendence #1

SITEs: Of 2 minds – Is the brain wired for faith? (Catholic focus)

REVIEW: Transcendence is identified as an emotional & mental connection with a Higher Power, or as experiencing cosmic unity

RESEARCH: For decades scientists studying the brain mainly focused on mental illness or physical injuries. Now advances in Neuroscience are beginning to identify  complex mental processes & brain activity. EXPs:
▪︎ Scans of normal vs Alzheimer’s brains —->
▪︎ The effect of child abuse & PTSD, which parts respond to music… where emotions, memory, facial recognition show up…. ALSO,
▪︎ Some spiritual moments are tightly linked to “fight-or-flight” regions related to survival impulses

Researchers are also finding a neuro-psychological basis for spirituality, & like any emotionally intense human experience, it involve multiple brain systems. EXP:
When Carmelite nuns were asked to remember their most intense mystical experience (bliss), neuro-imaging noted activity in their:
— RIGHT medial orbito-frontal cortex, middle temporal cortex, caudate, inferior & superior parietal lobules
— LEFT medial prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, inferior parietal lobule, insula, caudate, brainstem.

▪︎ Other studies found that when nuns meditated on a Bible verse – their language regions lit up, & for monks focusing on a sacred object, it was the visual areas.

▶︎ Scientists at Columbia & Yale believe there’s a universal, cognitive (mental) basis for spirituality – as opposed to cultural grounding. They chose to do a study that “sought to directly examine spiritual experiences, particularly when using a broader, modern definition that may be independent of religiousness.”

Participating psychiatrist Marc Potenza stated that finding “the neural bases of spiritual experiences may help us better understand their roles in resilience, & for recovery from mental health & addictions.”
In this study (published 2018) participants were given fMRI scans while listening to recordings based on their personal spiritual experiences. All of them showed changes in the parietal cortex, specifically less brain activity in the left inferior parietal lobule, which minimized sensation, attention, spatial orientation & language – differing from responses to other forms of relaxation.

This shift may explain how spiritual experiences can reduce or even eliminated altogether the barrier between oneself & others. It showed that transcendence is a real, measurable phenomenon, whether it involves communion with God (church), nature (trees), or humanity (at a music concert, sports stadium)….. Although we definitely need good boundaries for protection & to manage reality, removing the barrier every so often is also valuable.

▶︎ Brick Johnstone Ph.D (with the interdisciplinary faculty at U of Missouri) asks: “What is it about humans that allows us to experience Spiritual Transcendence?”
Their answer: “Spiritual experiences are based on the neuro-psychological process of “selflessness.” 

It’s known that the precuneus portion of the parietal lobes on both sides of the brain are involved in episodic memory, visuo-spatial processing, & aspects of consciousness. This area defines & focuses ‘self-orientation‘.
Proof: when a person looks at a picture of themself, the right parietal lobe (RPL) lights up, seen with the help of electrodes placed on the scalp.

IN CONTRAST
▪︎ Studies of Buddhist monks in meditation or Franciscan nuns deep in prayer – showed a minimization of their RPL.
▪︎ Andrew Newberg (U of PA) discovered that the frontal lobe, associated with focus & concentration, lights up at the same time as the parietal lobe, integrating sensory info, goes dim. (Meditation Scans)

▪︎ Reports of brain injuries at U of Chicago & of tumor patients in Italy showed that injury to the RPL is associated with increased reports of an altered state of consciousness. Therefore, when that part is suppressed, by injury or during religious rituals, we focus less on the Self as a separate entity, making it easier to notice things outside & beyond oneself.

This does not mean one must be brain-damaged to have such experiences, nor that there’s one spot in the brain that makes us believe in God. Rather, both religious practices & injuries/ disorders can minimize a focus on the self, increasing spiritual transcendence.
Research does not claim to know spiritual truths, but it does show how the brain allows for different kinds of spiritual experiences – what Christians call God, Buddhists Nirvana, & atheists being connected to the earth.

NEXT: MODERN Pyramid #1