Targeting Needs Theory

• Targeting is a motivational theory which rests on the concept that all humans are motivated by certain common needs.

• Maslom, a human psychologist, set up a hierarchy of five levels of basic needs. In the exact order,

1. Physiological Needs

2. Safety Needs

3. Belonging- Love Needs

4. Needs for Esteem

5. Needs for Self- Actualization

Physiological Needs

• Are biological needs. They consist of needs for oxygen, food, water, and a moderately constant body temperature.

• These are the strongest kinds of needs because if a person was deprived of all kinds of needs, the physiological ones would come first in the person’s search for satisfaction.

Safety Needs

• Needs for security become active right after physiological needs have been fulfilled.

• Safety needs have to do with a man’s yearning for a predictable, orderly world in which injustice and inconsistency are under control.

• Safety needs include:

1. Personal security from crime

2. Security against company lay-offs

3. Health and well-being

4. Safety net against accidents/illness and the adverse impacts.

Needs of Love, Affection and Belongingness

• These needs become very important after the needs for physiological and safety are satisfied.

• People seek to overcome feelings of loneliness and alienation.

• This involves giving and receiving love, affection and the sense of belonging.

Needs for Esteem

• The needs for esteem become dominant when the first three classes of needs are satisfied.

• This involves self-esteem and for the esteem a person gets from others.

• Humans tend to have a need for a stable, firmly based, high level of

self-respect, and respect from others. • When these needs are not fulfilled, a

person can feel inferior, weak, helpless and worthless

Needs for Self-Actualization• These needs are needed only after the

first four are satisfied.• Self-actualizing people have peak

experiences which are profound moments of love, understanding, happiness…etc.

• Maslow had said, “Even if all these needs are satisfied, we may still often expect that a new discontent and restlessness will soon develop, unless the individual is doing what he is fitted for. A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be happy. What a man can be, he must be. This need we may call self-actualization.”7

Targeting Considerations• Is selecting an appropriate approach for a target

audience.

• Clearly identify who are the appropriate decision makers.

• The argumentative structure must be understood.

• Have a clear argumentative goal. There are two adherence goals a critical thinker can aim for.

1. Belief Adherence: Attempt to get the target audience to accept the idea of the claim and nothing more.

2. Action Adherence: Asks the audience to go beyond mere belief and make a commitment to the claim. It is the most difficult type of adherence to achieve because it usually requires the audience to take some behavioral action, such as persuading the target audience to vote for or against something, sign a petition, write a legislator, take existing steps to transform the claim from an idea into a reality.

• Know time and format constraints.

• The critical thinker must select a one-sided or a two-sided presentation.

Clarity and Significance• Clarity: Each argument should be examined

to be sure it is clear to the audience. You should not repeat the obvious to the audience which will result in boredom but you should not leave out what is necessary for understanding.

• Significance: Audiences select on the basis of significance. Lack of significance is grounds for rejection of a stand on a claim. The significance problem can be established in two ways;

1. Personal Harm- Something that is actually affecting someone at this moment.

2. Potential Harm- This problem may not be directly affecting you now, but it has the potential to do so in the near future

Inherency and Consistency• Inherency: When an advocate

demonstrates inherency, they go beyond showing that a problem exists. Inherency deals with barriers that are either attitudinal or structural.

1. Attitudinal- Deals with a mental set of attitudes that prevents the status quo from solving the problem.

2. Structural- Deals with physical barriers in the status quo that must be removed in order for the status quo to deal with the problem.

• Consistency: This is particularly important for the con side. If you show that a proposal is inconsistent with accepted facts, values, or truths, it will win the support of the audience in a very powerful way.