Changes and constancies in the importance of 57 situations and conditions in four stages of Army life are presented and interpreted following Maslow's analysis of the functioning of human needs. Ratings of importance were transformed to z-scores and plotted. Three patterns were observed. It is suggested that: (1) items remain stable because other prepotent needs are less-well-satisfied, (2) items decrease in importance because they are being met to some degree or they were overestimated initially, (3) items increase in importance because they have been satisfied over a long time and are initially underestimated. (Author)