Sociolinguistics

What are social needs Features types and examples

Social needs

The social needs of the human being are all these inescapable interactions to ensure the subject’s well-being in a social environment and context. These needs are subject to a psychological approach and, together with other needs, make up the spectrum of survival and well-being that men and women need for a full life.

Examples of social needs are friendship, love, affection, leisure, a sense of belonging, affection or respect. The human being is considered a social being, therefore, it can be said that a life without any kind of social interaction could result in negative aspects in human behavior.

Social needs manifest at different levels of interaction and community; satisfying them brings man to a state where he can more easily advance his aspirations.

The needs of human beings never disappear and are inherent to their condition of being alive.

The development of society and new social conventions have created new needs that go far beyond mere survival and sustenance. Man must now satisfy new insufficiencies to ensure his well-being, individually or collectively.

The attenuation of social needs facilitates the confrontation and overcoming of a subject who faces problems of an individual or collective nature, offering the security of counting on the support of colleagues who facilitate the conflictive transit in modern societies.

Meeting social needs can absolve a subject of problems like depression, anxiety, and loneliness.

Social needs in Maslow’s pyramid

In the field of psychology, the study and characterization of social needs arise in multiple theories, being Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, or simply Maslow’s pyramid, one of the most popular and accessible to explain these phenomena.

In it, Maslow establishes a series of levels of needs whose attenuation or satisfaction is subordinated to the satisfaction of previous levels.

Social needs are in the middle of the pyramid, above physiological needs (inherent in our physical condition) and security needs (our ability and guarantee of survival as beings).

For Maslow, social or affiliation needs reside in ensuring constant interaction between the different groups or levels of community present in society and in the resulting aspects that can have an impact on the physical and mental prosperity of each subject.

Currently, social isolation is not considered a healthy option for human development.

Under these concepts, social needs are categorized as affiliation needs in relation to similar ones, mainly seeking positive stimuli that reaffirm the trust and security of each subject in the face of their environment.

Types of social needs

Basically, there are three types of social needs: family affection, friendly and formal relationships, and romantic relationships.

According to Maslow’s pyramid, the inclusion of these three categories in social needs does not overlap in terms of importance.

Human interaction at all levels is essential to ensure a state of sanity that allows it to continue mitigating higher needs, also called meta-needs, more related to their own abilities to perform their tasks.

The main characteristics of the three levels of social needs will be detailed below:

1- Recognition and family affection

The family is the first form of community and it is in it that the first notions of social interaction are cultivated.

Every child sees his parents as the first role models in terms of social stimuli and responses; therefore, it is in them that they look for the first signs of recognition and affective reciprocity.

In this way, the family works as a support that allows the proper development of human beings in their early stages and will condition the way they develop socially in the future.

The family has such a strong support in a man’s life that, even in adulthood, it is still a refuge to look for support and affection.

The family lays the foundations for the first personal reflections and is the best recipient in the search for answers during the first scenarios of uncertainty that arise in life.

If the family is a dysfunctional structure, the subject’s social formation can be negatively conditioned.

2- Friendships and formal relationships

This level of interaction seems much more horizontal, as the authoritarian character that may exist in the family nucleus disappears.

Friendly relationships allow for better insight into the contemporary social environment, as well as impulses to generate a higher level of empathy.

The subject who frequently undergoes interaction with peers finds it much easier to deal with the obstacles that other aspects of life in society, such as education or work, may present.

Interaction with other like-minded people allows an individual to recognize that they are not alone and that they can find support, in addition to providing it, in those with whom they share most in common.

Friendly relationships have one quality: they must be cultivated, so that affection and respect are always at the forefront.

The fast pace of life in much of the world and the proliferation of individual interests can lead to the deterioration of this type of relationship with some rapidity, generating negative results for its participants.

This category also includes relationships with a certain character of formality, such as interactions resulting from a work or educational environment that, when carried out properly, allow nurturing the development and well-being of human beings.

3- Romantic relationships and sexual intimacy

Intimacy, affection and mutual recognition in an intrinsic environment are essential for human beings on their way through life in society.

In modern society, the closest affective relationships can be considered the key point for a subject to be able to face the rest of the aspects of his life in a better way.

It has been determined that the absence of affection and sexual intimacy in human beings can have negative results for their physical and mental well-being.

This can be considered the most closed and emotionally genuine form of social interaction, which is why it is considered a social need that must be carefully mitigated.

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