Maslow Security-Insecurity Scale | How Secure Do You Feel Inside?

1. What Is Maslow's Safety Need?

According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, safety is one of the basic psychological needs of human beings, second only to physiological needs. It includes not only physical safety and economic security, but also emotional stability, psychological certainty, and social acceptance.

A person with a sufficient sense of safety usually shows the following characteristics:

• Can face uncertainty in life without excessive anxiety
• Feels accepted and trusted in relationships, without fear of abandonment
• Has a basic sense of control over finances and does not excessively worry about the future
• Can express true feelings without fear of being judged or rejected
• Can stay relatively relaxed and adaptable in unfamiliar environments

2. The Four Assessment Dimensions of This Scale

This scale is designed around four core dimensions of the sense of safety, with 16 questions in total:

• Physical Safety Perception: Your basic feelings about your physical safety and the safety of your living environment. This includes your sense of safety in daily life and your level of alertness to potential dangers.
• Economic Stability Perception: How at ease you are about your current and future financial situation. This involves income stability, savings adequacy, and the ability to handle unexpected events.
• Emotional Safety Experience: The degree to which you feel accepted and cherished in intimate relationships. This concerns trust, dependence, and the freedom of emotional expression.
• Social Recognition Perception: Your sense of belonging and recognition in social groups. This includes the degree of acceptance in your work environment, social circle, and the wider society.

3. Common Signs of Insufficient Security

Insufficient security may affect an individual's life in different ways:

• Over-control tendency: trying to control every detail to reduce uncertainty
• Risk avoidance: backing off even from good opportunities for fear of failure
• People-pleasing: pleasing others to ensure you are not excluded
• Hoarding: excessive accumulation, materially or emotionally, to guard against 'scarcity'
• Hypervigilance: strong reactions even to tiny changes

4. Test Purpose and Target Audience

This scale is suitable for people who want to understand their level of security, and is especially suited to:

• People who often feel anxious and worry about the future
• People who easily feel insecure or fear abandonment in relationships
• People going through a career transition or a period of life change
• People who want to improve parent-child relationships or the quality of intimate relationships
• Professionals such as counselors and educators

5. Scoring Method and Result Interpretation

Each question is scored 1-5, from 'very untrue of me' to 'very true of me'. The system will separately calculate your security scores across the four dimensions, and based on the total score and the characteristics of the dimensions, provide an analysis of your overall level of security and personalized improvement suggestions.

Please note: the sense of safety is a dynamically changing state; this assessment reflects your level of security at the current stage, which can be improved through conscious adjustment and practice.