The ingredients of happiness

June 30, 2011

If you took Psych 101, you know about Maslow’s hierarchy of of needs. It’s been around since forever (OK, not forever, since the 1940s).

New research from the University of Illinois has found, though, that we don’t need to fulfill the needs at the base of the pyramid first before fulfilling needs and finding happiness in upper levels of the pyramid. The research comes from Gallup surveys conducted in 155 countries from 2005 to 2010 and indeed revealed that fulfililing diverse needs leads to satisfaction, but found that we can, for example, fulfill self-actualization and social needs even if some basic needs are not completely fulfilled.

(My basic needs for food were more than pleasantly fulfilled yesterday with this funnel cake — even with the ice cream toppled over. Although I’m sure these nutella cheesecake layer bars from The Moonlight Baker would also do just as well — yummers!).

Filed under: Random Swellness,Swellbeing

Tags: happiness, needs, self-actualization, social relationships