Needs-based Rules of Behavioral Development
Behavior is primarily the result of how well our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs for security and improvement have been satisfied.
1) Existence/Reality (grid) - the system we are a part of, interact with and depend upon. Instinct exists at this base level as our inborn drive to satisfy needs. Present moment and/or very short-term thinking dominates.
2) Experience (grid) - the interaction of sensory receptors with external reality providing base satisfied-unsatisfied/pleasure-pain info; retention and relation enables perception of the subjective here and now; habits begin to form at this stage of classical conditioning where short- to mid-term thinking dominate.
We are all driven to minimize pain and maximize pleasure. Pain is an internal signal of some physical, emotional and/or mental imbalance with external reality. It let’s us know that certain needs are not being satisfied. Pleasure is a bit trickier because if it’s not systemically and critically analyzed it easily leads to short-, mid- or long-term pain. So, if we are interested in minimizing our pain and that of others (future generations included), we must cautiously indulge our pleasure.
3) Meaning - natural mental-emotional by-product of an experience that’s stored and then related, via memory, to background experiences and is the root of our perception of change. A "value filter" is created at this stage which defines level of worth or quality (good/bad) via satisfaction of needs (pleasure/pain).
"It is not the environment nor external stimuli described in "objective" terms that influences our behavior but rather it is the meaning that each individual attaches to his or her experiences of the environment … [which] is a function of the totality of all previous experiences, something to which one cannot possibly have access." ~ Maturana & Varela
4) Logic - cognizance of inevitable change forces projection beyond the present moment causing the desire for needs to be satisfied (pleasure) and fear of needs not being satified (pain). Unsatisfied needs or pains are the root of insecurity, which is vitally significant in searching for strategies to achieve sustainability.
4.1) As individuals and group members, we have physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs (existence).
4.2) We have experiences that don’t satisfy our needs.
4.3) We may not have learned, via experience, what our needs truly are.
4.4) If we do know what our needs are, we may not have associated the proper meaning to them nor learned how to satisfy them or are unable to.
4.5) Yet, we strive to maximize pleasure and minimize pain by satisfying "perceived" needs.
4.5.1) If base physical needs aren’t satisfied first, mental-emotional needs will not be adequately satisfied.
4.5.2) Many physical resources are finite or non-renewable.
4.5.3) If we all are driven to satisfy our needs and many of those needs are based upon finite resources, then we require a process that balances and sustains the supply and demand. Without it, violent conflict is inevitable.
4.6) Pain is an internal signal that certain needs are not being satisfied.
4.7) Insecurity is a fear of pain.
4.7.1) Fear is an expectation of a painful future experience.
4.7.1.1) Expectations are projections based on the revealed patterns of past experience.
4.7.1.1.1) Patterns are the foundations of belief, trust and truth.
4.8) Insecurity, then, is a belief that certain needs won’t likely be satisfied.
5) Action - experience-driven effort to comfort logic (satisfy desire and reduce fear); this is the stage where intention seems to come about. Operant conditioning may play a role at this stage which prompts longer-term thinking.
6) Learning - heuristic approach to the system: trial and error reveals level of success in modifying our strategy to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. At this stage a knowledge filter develops and adds to needs-satisfaction repertoire by recognizing new or modified patterns.
7) Belief - learned pattern of success or failure in a certain process; perceived long-term stability of the pattern establishes trust or perceived truth.
As we learn about ourselves with respect to the system, patterns begin to emerge. The patterns are the guides for maximizing pleasure. Increased pattern recognition creates increased awareness of interdependence. Less separation means more pain, since other’s suffering is recognized as our own. This increases desire to help others.
8) Wisdom - physical-emotional-mental-spiritual balance and the ability to extend it outward.
9) Love - helping satisfy each others' needs as if they were our own; acting in each other’s best interests due to an understanding of our common and interdependent nature; extinguishes insecurity and minimizes pain because of the deep understanding and feeling of unity, which is ultimately realized in the experienced oneness of existence.
ADDITIONAL RULES
- Each moment represents our best attempt, given our current knowledge and skills, to satisfy our needs.
- These needs are the general motivation for everything we do.
- Vital limited resources, like land, water, air and energy, must be cared for and distributed effectively to accommodate everyone's needs for generations to come.
- Once survival needs are likely to be continuously met, we are ready to act upon satisfying deeper and broader needs for the mid- and long-term.
- The progressive satisfaction of needs provides an individual the luxury of time to consider, explore and understand a larger system and ways to realize greater satisfactions.
- Unsatisfied, basic needs increase the likelihood for violent behavior, elevated health care risks, etc., which translate to higher risks and costs for everyone over the long-term.
- The longer an individual's short-term needs go unsatisfied, the greater the risks for others. Risk is also often related to proximity - the closer someone is to an individual who hasn't satisfied their short-term needs, the greater the risk.
- Once we have satisfied and sustained our short-term needs, it is beneficial for us to help others satisfy their short-term needs because it minimizes our own risks.
- Individual desires and actions are externally influenced and tend to be motivated toward satisfying a socio-politico-economic system’s needs.
- A system’s needs, however, may vary from our individual needs, so it is necessary to critically evaluate each system. Does it take the full spectrum of individual needs into account? How can the needs be identified, described and satisfied? How can the system be modified to accommodate the individual’s needs?