The Hierarchy of Needs – What We Can Learn from The Walking Dead

Have you ever wondered what motivates people and how they prioritize what is important? Are there certain needs that are similar for the majority of people or is it always based on the individual and their life experiences? Would we make the same decision in a post-apocalyptic scenario as we do today in our relatively comfortable setting? And when the heck does The Walking Dead have to do with any of it? Well, let me tell you…

As many of you may know I have quite the obsession with The Walking Dead (Team Daryl!). (If you don’t believe me check out my post about it here.)  I also have an obsession with learning and education (I know, boring right?). But honestly, if I could afford it, I’d probably be a career student. Since I can’t afford it I try to seek out every opportunity I can to learn something new or challenge myself (blogging for instance!). Combine these two crazy obsessions of mine and you get why I was so excited to find Society, Science, Survival: Lessons From AMC’s The Walking Dead; an eight-week online course through University of California – Irvine. Even more exciting, the course was free so even I could afford to participate! Winning! So far I’ve finished up the first module which covered Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs and how the characters in The Walking Dead exhibit this theory.

For those of you who (like I was) are unfamiliar with Maslow’s theory, it basically states that all people are motivated by certain needs and those needs are at five different hierarchical levels: basic needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs. The theory also conveys that people generally must meet lower level needs (food, water, safety, etc.) before they move on to attempting to satisfy higher level needs like love or personal growth. (If you’re interested in more details check out Simply Psychology).

To me that sounds legit – basically that’s like getting your priorities straight. For example, I think it is safe to say that most people would agree that feeding yourself and your family is a bigger priority than finding a partner or fitting in with co-workers right? For those of you who have seen even a few episode of The Walking Dead, you can see how this theory correlates with the show. Now into season four, the main characters have established a hierarchy and learned to work together to meet basic needs. Now you see several friendships, relationships and emotional attachments at the core of what is motivating the individuals.

So I pose this question to you, if faced with a post-apocalyptic scenario, do you think that Maslow’s theory would prove accurate? How would you rank the factors that motivate you to survive?

(For those of you wondering, this is not a sponsored post, I have received zero compensation, I simply find this crap interesting.)