ABSTRACT

It was pointed out that when the satisfaction of need is said to be the basic or internal goal of the social services, the concept of need is being used in such a way as to assume a distinction between needs and wants. Needs are taken to be desires or wants which a person would be willing to pay a hypothetical price to have satisfied. One major feature which needs and wants have in common is that they are complex concepts, having in fact a triadic logical structure. Some theorists have suggested that the difference between needs and wants should be sought in defining wanting as a psychological state, but needing as a kind of objective, publicly ascertainable fact about a person. Needs and wants are not to be distinguished in terms of one being a psychological state and the other not, but rather by the desirability characterisations or neds involved.