For example, physiological needs must be met before one can work on acquiring safety needs and so on. .
The complexity of the communicative act is directly associated with each category of needs within Maslow's theory. The higher up on the pyramid of needs, the more cognition in communication is going to be necessary to acquire the needs. Physiological needs will require the least amount of cognition by the message sender to be met, while self actualization requires the most cognition by the sender to be attained.
According to Maslow physiological needs are the most basic needs which are met by humans. No other needs can be met without the physiological needs being met. These needs include, but are not limited to air, water, food, and sleep. The way in which these needs are met is most often through communication. .
A look at examples of when these needs are not met display communicative responses in order to appease the needs. Consider a man on a airplane enjoying the tasty bag a peanuts given to him by the flight attendant. The lady sitting next to him is quietly reading a novel when she is tapped furiously on the shoulder by the man. When she turns to look at him, she notices that his hands are wrapped around the front of his neck, and he is extremely squeamish in his seat.
The man in this case was deprived of his physiological need of oxygen for his body to operate properly, for he was choking on a peanut. The way in which he attained his need for oxygen was through communication. He sent a nonverbal kinetic message to the lady by tapping her on the shoulder, which triggered the desired response of her turning to look at him. He then put his hands around his neck, a international communicative symbol for the words "I am choking". The act triggered the response by the lady who responded by giving the man the him lick, appeasing the man's physiological need for air.
Many other physiological needs are met through communication.
Abraham Maslow, Douglas McGregor, and Rensis Likert were three theorists that were highly involved in this new theory. Maslow believed in a hierarchy of needs. The hierarchy is based on people's needs for food, shelter, and personal well-being. Maslow believed that until a person can reach their full potential that their hierarchy of needs must be fulfilled. ...
