Have you every wondered how do needs and wants change over time?
For a significant portion of our lives, we define ourselves as students. We start at primary school, work our way to middle school and eventually college.
During this time, we go through a lot, and lots of things change. These changes can affect our needs and wants as a human.
But how does our own needs and wants change over time as students? There are a few factors that play a significant role in this.
The main factors are our friends, the relationship with our parents, who we meet and everything that changes in the world around us.
As you can probably imagine, when we are kids going to primary school (approx. age five), our lives look a lot different than when we finish college (approx. age eighteen).
In college, the people we meet, the places we visit, and the things we read can influence our needs and wants as humans.
But what is the reason for this? What are our needs and wants? If you want to know the answers to these questions, then please read on!
This post is all about how do needs and wants change over time.
Time Changes Our Needs and Wants, But How?
It can be beneficial to know what we mean when we say how do needs and wants change over time, to understand this.
The two words are often combined, but people don’t fully understand the difference between them. Therefore I want to describe both words quickly.
Distinction between needs and wants:
NEEDS  |
|---|
Needs are things that we require to live a healthy life. |
These are things like food, water, housing, clothing, money and connection with people etc. |
Needs are often limited. |
WANTS  |
|---|
Wants are things we like to have. They aren’t necessary to keep us alive, but they make us happy. |
These can be things like wanting a particular brand of shoes or going on a holiday (to release stress) etc. |
Wants can be unlimited. Our wants often vary from person to person. |
Mokokoma Mokhoana
"Needs are imposed by nature. Wants are sold by society".
Before we describe what factors influence our needs and wants, we want to mention that these are just a few factors of many.
We mention the following because they are known to be one of the largest. They all fall under the psychological category known as social or society impacts.
Friends
From kiddo-hood
To Teenage-hood
To Adult-hood
Making friends is something that starts at a young age. Our earliest friends are often kids from the neighbourhood or the kids we meet at school.
When we are younger, we need this contact with other kids to learn how to become social beings and to understand what is socially acceptable.
Kids are clear with what they like and don’t like. We don’t realise this, but the need for other kids to teach us this greatly influences our characters later on in life.
Apart from needing this social contact, we also want to have friends at a younger age. We want to play with them at school, and we want to bring them home to play with our favourite toys.
At primary school, we often look for friends of the same sex. In psychology, we believe this is due to society making a difference between boy and girl toys and interests.
(Satoshi Kanazawa, Evolutionary psychologist). For example, boys play with cars, and girls want to play with dolls.
DevelopmentWhile we evolve as students, our needs and wants change in relation to our friends. As described above, as young kids, our needs are to learn how to interact socially, and we want to play with kids with the same interests.
Once we get older, we have learnt this skill, which may result in outgrowing our old friends. When we get older, we need friends that make us feel like we belong somewhere to prevent loneliness, anxiety, and depression.
In social psychology, this is an essential topic as it shapes our behaviour.
Apart from our needs, our wants change as well. We start wanting to fit into a particular group. Especially as teenagers, this plays a significant role in our behaviour.
Low self-esteem can cause a want to fit into a specific group because that group holds a certain status. If we get accepted into the group, it does not necessarily mean that it fulfils our need to belong.
The chances are that we feel even more lonely when the value of the group differs from our values.
At a later age, though, the want to fit in can reduce. We start to realise that it is not the group that makes us happy it is a person who listens to us, who is there for us when we need them to be.
Someone that is loyal and trusting. We want and need true friendships that last a lifetime.
One note that is important to mention here is that we are social beings. Our need to connect with others will always be there. However, what we want, need and value in a relationship changes over time.
Relationship with our parents
Just like with friendships, our relationship with our parents changes over the years too. When we are younger, our parents often play a more significant role in our lives than when we get older (this can differ culturally, see next bullet point).
For example, we need our parents to bring us to school, give us food, talk to teachers when something is wrong, etc.
We want our parents to be around as they make us feel safe. When we are younger, our parents are, in most cases, a constant factor in our lives. (This being said, on average, unfortunately, not everyone has this relationship with their parents).
Development
How do our needs and wants change over time? During college, we naturally start to distance ourselves from our parents. In psychology, we explain this due to different circumstances. A few examples are the need and want to be independent.
Most importantly, another factor can be feeling unwanted pressure caused by parents who try to relive life through their children, therefore creating a toxic environment.
Distancing ourselves from our parents can be emotionally and psychologically challenging. Our parents have been present in our lives and have determined what path we walked thus far for most kids.
Once we get to college, we need and want to break free from this to find our true selves. Who we want to be and become is a big question for us. We often start seeking answers through peers and within ourselves instead of going to our parents.
How do different cultures influence us?
Every culture is different. When we are younger, we don’t realise this. We grow up in a culture and follow specific believes and values.
We want to make our parents happy and to do so, we need to learn how to behave in a way that is culturally accepted.
Development
Again this depends on the specific culture, their beliefs, habits and expectations. For example, in England, we feel the need to go out and have fun with friends.
We don’t want to ask our parents for permission and stop doing so. In some cultures asking parents for permission at an older age is very normal and expected.
Moreover, as the world has become more and more multicultural, this can cause problems. For example, students watch other students behave differently, having different wants and needs.
This can result in rebellious behaviour towards their culture. How much this will take shape depends on many factors. A few of these factors are friends, what they get exposed to, our psychological state etc.
Our world view increases
Image (Source)
When we are younger, our worlds are small. We go where our parents go, we make a few friends at school and hang out in our neighbourhood.
Once we get older, we start to see the world. We travel, read, meet many different people etc. Getting exposed to these other things naturally changes our needs and wants.
At a young age, our needs and wants are like those mentioned above.
However, once our worldly view expands and we get a better perspective of who we want to be and what we need to do to become this person, our needs and wants change.
So, how do our needs and wants change over time? Examples are needing a job to earn money, wanting to have a romantic relationship, needing to take care of our parents instead of the other way around etc.
How is Morality Defined and Determined by This?
Morality easily explained has to do with what we believe is good and bad behaviour. As you can imagine, after reading the above, our morality may change over time.
Again this has to do with the above factors. Like what we go through as students, who we meet, what changes we see in the world etc.
Like a typical learning curve, as humans, we adapt to changes. So, naturally, our needs, wants and morality change. If this doesn’t happen or our needs and wants aren’t met, the balance is off.
Hence, what will create psychological problems like feelings of unhappiness and anxiety. If you truly understand this, you can retain this balance.
Tony Robbins
“The more you understand what somebody wants, needs, and fears, the more you can figure out how to add value”.
Conclusion
In conclusion, yes, many different aspects of our lives determine what we need and want, especially during our time as students.
We start going to school at around four years old and leave at approximately twenty-three years old with a college degree. What makes us students for about nineteen years.
We grow up and become different people. We naturally start wanting and needing other things. These various aspects all influence us psychologically in their own ways.
We hope you enjoyed the article and that you now have a better understanding of How do Needs and Wants change over time as a Student.
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Source: Images by RawPixel.
