The impetus to reach beyond objective measures and encompass more subjective factors was in part precipitated by the birth of humanistic psychology in the latter half of the 1950’s. Maslow’s (1954) Hierarchy of Needs examined five levels of human maintenance and existence. He felt that at the most basic level people needed air, water, food, shelter and safety. Once people had achieved this, they
needed to be loved, to belong, have personal self-respect and, ultimately to be self-actualised. However, Maslow felt that few people reach a state of selfactualisation because most fail to have the previous needs fulfilled.