What does the word recognition mean? To begin, it is important to define what recognition is. According to the RAE dictionary, among the definitions of recognize you can find: admit or accept something as legitimate, admit something as true, admit or accept that someone or something has a certain quality or condition. Thus, it can be said that Recognition occurs when one feels valued and competent for one’s actions and qualities..
Examples of recognition
First of all, it is worth giving some examples:
- Alfonso has passed in all the subjects of the course.
- Juan has built the model alone.
- Álvaro was promoted in the company he works for.
- José has won the award for best writer of the year.
What is there in common between them? They were all recognized for their deeds. Now that we understand what recognition is, let’s delve a little deeper.
Within Psychology, there is an author called , this American psychologist created the “Maslow Pyramid” that proposes a hierarchy of human needs. We will see each of the levels and how Maslow defines esteem needs.
- Physiological needs. To better understand his pyramid, let’s start at the base. At the base of Maslow’s pyramid are physiological needs, that is, all human beings need to breathe, eat and rest.
- Security needs. If we go up to the next level of the pyramid, we will find security needs, these refer to the human being’s need to feel physical, resource, health and family security.
- Membership needs. In the middle of the pyramid is the need for affiliation, this means that human beings feel the need to belong to a group of friends, to receive affection and sexual intimacy.
- Recognition needs. At the next level of the pyramid we find the need for recognition. What is the need for esteem and recognition? This need refers to the esteem one feels for oneself. The high esteem that a human being feels is associated with feelings such as confidence, independence, importance, achievements, appreciation and dignity. At this level, the person’s motivation is highly related to what one feels in relation to oneself and the validation of other people, that is, recognition.
- Self-actualization needs. And finally, regarding the levels of , the last level is , this level is a little different, since the person has a higher psychological need, it is compatible with the idea of personal growth, the need to “be” and feel self-realized.
It must be understood that in Maslow’s theory the next level of the pyramid is only reached when the previous level has been conquered.
If we further develop the topic on the level of “need for recognition” mentioned above, we will see that human beings can have:
- that is, what one thinks about oneself is positive and one manages to recognize one’s qualities and abilities.
- having an inferior thought about oneself, allowing what others think to have more value, in this case, there is a constant need to receive attention and approval from the other. And it is precisely from there that issues of low self-esteem develop, since the individual ends up feeling inferior and begins to experience feelings such as exaggerated reactions, anxiety, lack of ability to see the positive side of situations, guilt, indecision, feelings of helplessness, among others.
Need for recognition and social networks
When we bring the topic to the present, we can identify some routine situations in which the need for recognition occurs frequently, such as on social networks.
Some individuals who have social networks often worry about the content they are going to upload on their networks, there is a certain amount of care with their “posts.” The existence of so many applications to improve the quality of a photo or video is not a mere coincidence, and the objective is unique, it is to be recognized, whether for beauty, creativity, funnyness or for any other reason. Generally, these people They are looking to be seen, there is a need for approval, to be valued and to be accepted.
Why do people seek recognition?
The need for recognition is something that all human beings need. From a very early age, a child needs the approval of his parents, understanding here in this case the family environment, because from the most youthful stages of our life is when we learn about respect and affection, which are values that make us feel recognized.
Furthermore, once our qualities and abilities are recognized, these allow us to develop our self-esteem and self-confidence.
The individual who has self-confidence is capable of knowing his abilities and limitations.So, you feel safe to move forward and be in control of your own life.
When is the need for approval excessive?
And, last but not least, you have to know how to evaluate when that search for recognition is unhealthy. An example is when a person becomes obsessed with recognition, both in terms of his physique and his behavior and actions. It is important to say that if we recognize that we are not managing to change our attitudes in relation to certain situations, we should go to a professional who can guide us.
As we have seen, the need for recognition exists in the process of human development and it is important to achieve a balance on the issue, learning to deal with emotions, having a critical sense, realizing when we are allowing others to be responsible for the value they give to themselves and knowing how to recognize the qualities they possess.