If my macbook's memory pressure goes red with just Safari and Word open, is it just a memory issue?

Hello all,
I'd really appreciate any input on this issue. I'm not especially expert with regard to computer systems and software, so I ask that you please bear with me; I'll try to provide the best information I can. What has been happening with my computer is that it has been freezing and crashing, even with only Safari and Microsoft Word open. More information about the system as well as what I've done so far is below.
I have a mid-2012 13-inch Macbook Pro with a 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 processor, 4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 memory (two 2 GB cards), and an Intel HD Graphics 4000 card. I am running I have approximately 280 gigs free on my 500 GB Apple HDD. I am running OS X 10.9.3 (13D65), Kernel version Darwin 13.2.0.
In March or April of this year, my computer started seriously slowing down and freezing and crashing. (I think that this was around the time I upgraded to Mavericks, but am not 100% positive.) Since it is my only computer and I'm a PhD student, it took me until May to seriously address the issue. I ran Apple hardware diagnostics and the disk utility (verified the disk; verified & repaired the permissions), and tried uninstalling programs I thought might be causing issues, but nothing improved. Since it didn't appear to be a hardware issue, I decided to do a clean install of Mavericks with a full software update [and didn't use a time machine backup like I'd done in the past; I only backed up files and bookmarks this time and installed new versions of all my programs]. Although my computer ran better for a few weeks, it started slowing down again, and lately has been crashing on a near-daily basis.
After reading through the fora, I re-ran disk utility (disks check out fine; one permission -- for Safari -- seems to refuse to be repaired), re-ran Apple Hardware test twice (no issues found), and have been running the Activity Monitor [I put it in my dock with the bars showing CPU usage]. Today, when my computer started seriously slowing while I had only two programs open (Safari & Microsoft Word), the Activity Monitor icon on the dock showed all four bars at max.
I managed to get a few screencaps of the Activity Monitor:
So, this suggests to me that either (a) I have insufficient RAM to run Mavericks and run basic computer programs, or (b) there is some other issue.
Do you all have any recommendations as to the best way to proceed? I don't have a lot of cash, so I can't really spend money unless it is really warranted. Would it be worth running OnyX first? Or is this a pretty clear indication that I need new RAM? Alternately, are there any other issues that seem likely (an undetected hard drive problem, etc.)?
Thank you!

Hi Melophage,
Thank you. Although it is possible something was running in the background, in Force Quit, the only applications visible were Finder, Microsoft Word, and Safari.
I ran Etrecheck and have included the output here:
EtreCheck version: 1.9.12 (48)
Report generated July 25, 2014 at 2:17:04 PM EDT
Hardware Information:
    MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012) (Verified)
    MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro9,2
    1 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2 cores
    4 GB RAM
Video Information:
    Intel HD Graphics 4000 - VRAM: (null)
        Color LCD 1280 x 800
System Software:
    OS X 10.9.3 (13D65) - Uptime: 1 day 2:16:0
Disk Information:
    APPLE HDD HTS547550A9E384 disk0 : (500.11 GB)
        EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
        Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 399.25 GB (220.13 GB free)
        Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB
        BOOTCAMP (disk0s4) /Volumes/BOOTCAMP: 100 GB (58.85 GB free)
    HL-DT-ST DVDRW  GS31N 
USB Information:
    Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
    Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
    Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub
        Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
    Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
Thunderbolt Information:
    Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus
Gatekeeper:
    Mac App Store and identified developers
Kernel Extensions:
    [not loaded]    com.millisecond.driver.InquisitParallelPort (2285 - SDK 10.8) Support
    [not loaded]    edu.sissa.iokit.ioLabResponseBox (2.0 - SDK 10.6) Support
Problem System Launch Daemons:
    [failed]    com.apple.installd.plist
    [failed]    com.apple.wdhelper.plist
Launch Daemons:
    [loaded]    com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support
    [running]    com.daz3d.content_management_service.plist Support
    [loaded]    com.google.keystone.daemon.plist Support
    [loaded]    com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist Support
    [loaded]    com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist Support
    [loaded]    net.cloudpath.HelperTool.plist Support
Launch Agents:
    [loaded]    com.google.keystone.agent.plist Support
    [loaded]    com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist Support
User Login Items:
    iTunesHelper
    RescueTime
    Dropbox
    Activity Monitor
Internet Plug-ins:
    FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 14.0.0.145 - SDK 10.6 Support
    Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9
    Flash Player: Version: 14.0.0.145 - SDK 10.6 Support
    QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
    o1dbrowserplugin: Version: 5.4.2.18903 Support
    SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.4.3 - SDK 10.6 Support
    googletalkbrowserplugin: Version: 5.4.2.18903 Support
    Silverlight: Version: 5.1.30317.0 - SDK 10.6 Support
    MeetingJoinPlugin: Version: (null) - SDK 10.6 Support
    JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 7 Update 55 Check version
Safari Extensions:
    Ebates: Version: 3.0.2.5
    Save to Pocket: Version: 1.9.1
    PriceBlink: Version: 4.1
    Evernote Web Clipper: Version: 6.1.3
    Hukkster: Version: 1.1
    Add To Amazon Wish List: Version: 1.8
    Instapaper: Version: 1.2.1
    Coupons at Checkout: Version: 1.1
Audio Plug-ins:
    BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9
    AirPlay: Version: 2.0 - SDK 10.9
    AppleAVBAudio: Version: 203.2 - SDK 10.9
    iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9
iTunes Plug-ins:
    Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.4 - SDK 10.9
3rd Party Preference Panes:
    Flash Player  Support
    Java  Support
Time Machine:
    Time Machine not configured!
Top Processes by CPU:
        23%    firefox
         4%    WindowServer
         0%    fontd
         0%    Activity Monitor
         0%    sysmond
Top Processes by Memory:
    818 MB    firefox
    111 MB    com.apple.IconServicesAgent
    102 MB    Finder
    98 MB    Microsoft Word
    94 MB    mds_stores
Virtual Memory Information:
    311 MB    Free RAM
    1.49 GB    Active RAM
    1.22 GB    Inactive RAM
    895 MB    Wired RAM
    3.49 GB    Page-ins
    159 MB    Page-outs
[Looking at the output, I would like to point out that Daz 3D is newer than the issues I've been having; I just recently installed it for a research project.]
Does anything stand out to you? Thanks!

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