Jun 30, 2011 14:57 GMT  ·  By

For decades, psychologists have been analyzing and judging human satisfaction based on a scale that was developed by famed psychologist Abraham Maslow. More than 60 years later, when the measure was finally put through the rigors of scientific criticism, it did not fare very well, a study show.

Maslow's measure, called the pyramid, or hierarchy, of human moods, has been a tool for experts for such a long time that everyone took it for granted. However, in a recent global study, scientists learned that not everything inscribed on the pyramid (see attached image) is true.

Experts at the University of Illinois, led by professor emeritus of psychology Dr. Ed Diener, looked at data collected from 123 countries in order to draw their conclusions. They found that indeed, for the most part, the hierarchy seemed to work as intended.

But some exceptions to the rule were also discovered. The team learned that the order in which human needs were met had no significant effect on a person's overall level of life happiness and satisfaction.

Maslow, who separated his pyramid in smaller areas, argued that fulfilling “higher” and “lower” needs would have different impacts on life satisfaction. That is to say, if a person were to achieve one of the higher goals, then they would be happier than when achieving a smaller one.

But this was proven to be incorrect. Furthermore, the fulfillment of basic life needs was determined to be the most important measure of happiness. This was made obvious by the people themselves, who filled out a questionnaire on the issue, PsychCentral reports.

When higher needs, such as social support, mastery, autonomy and respect were met, people were more like to report enjoying their lives more, as well as “having more positive feelings and less negative feelings,” Diener explains.

“Thus life satisfaction is not just an individual affair, but depends substantially also on the quality of life of one’s fellow citizens. Our findings suggest that Maslow’s theory is largely correct. In cultures all over the world the fulfillment of his proposed needs correlates with happiness,” he adds.

“However, an important departure from Maslow’s theory is that we found that a person can report having good social relationships and self-actualization even if their basic needs and safety needs are not completely fulfilled,” Diener goes on to say .

The data used in this research were collected from the Gallup World Poll, which was conducted between 2005 and 2010, and covered 155 nations around the world.

This poll included questions about money, food, feeling respected, being self-directed and the experience of positive or negative emotions, among others, and so researchers had an ample database to work with.