The concept of a hierarchy of needs was presented by American psychologist Abraham Maslow in 1943, and developed further during his career. The idea states that we have at least five sets of basic need categories: physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization. These can be arranged in a hierarchy, in which the most basic and pressing are addressed before ‘higher’ needs in the hierarchy.

Source:  Maslow, A.H. (1943). “A theory of human motivation”. Psychological Review. 50 (4): 370–96.