Basic Needs

Choice Theory AKA Control Theory

William Glasser, M. D.

People are driven by six basic needs. All of our choices and behaviors are based upon the urgency for SURVIVAL, POWER, LOVE, BELONGING, FREEDOM, and FUN. Glasser asserts that 95% of all discipline problems are misguided efforts of children trying to achieve power.

By understanding the drives for SURVIVAL, POWER, LOVE, BELONGING, FREEDOM, and FUN in people, we become more conscious of the need for our world to be a quality world of our choosing.

The Ten Axioms of Choice Theory

• The only person whose behavior we can control is our own.
• All we can give another person is information
• All long-lasting psychological problems are relationship problems.
• The problem relationship is always part of our present life.
• What happened in the past has everything to do with what we are today, but we can only satisfy our basic needs right now and plan to continue satisfying them in the future.
• We can only satisfy our needs by satisfying the pictures in our Quality World.
• All we do is behave.
• All behaviors are Total Behaviors and are made up of four components: acting, thinking, feeling and physiology. All Total Behaviors are chosen, but we only have direct control over the acting and thinking components.
• We can only control our feeling and physiology indirectly through how we choose to act and think.
• All Total Behavior is designated by verbs and named by the part that is the most recognizable.Whoops that's ELEVEN?? - Glasser couldn't count!