An International Perspective
Gordon L. Flett
Prepared by
Brenda Baird, University of Ottawa
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Chapter 6 Overview
• Henry Murray and Psychological Needs
• The Assessment of Psychological Needs
• Alternative Measures of Psychological
Needs
• Specific Psychological Needs
• Contemporary Theory and Research on
Motivation
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Henry Murray and Psychological
Needs
Murray from a Psychoanalytic Perspective
• Murray used the term personology to describe his study of human lives and individual differences in personality
• Murray described a habit system as automatic, unconscious behaviors shaped by the id, ego, and superego
• Murray emphasized positive instincts related to motivation and needs
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Henry Murray and Psychological
Needs
Murray from a Psychoanalytic Perspective
• Murray believed the study of personality should examine the entire person across the lifespan
• Murray’s multiform method involved gathering information from many observers across various situations
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Henry Murray and Psychological
Needs
The Importance of the Situation: Press
• Murray emphasized the impact of the situation on behavior which he referred to as press:
1.
Alpha press refers to the actual, objective reality
2.
Beta press refers to one’s subjective perceived, reality
• Murray referred to a single episode involving the interaction of internal and external factors as a thema
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Henry Murray and Psychological
Needs
Interdependence of Personality from a Cultural
Perspective
• Murray’s broad definition of environment included the physical, biological, and social dimensions
• Murray and Kluckhohn (1953) identified four types of determinants in personality development:
1.
Constitutional determinants
2.
Group membership determinants
3.
Life role determinants
4.
Situational determinants
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Henry Murray and Psychological
Needs
Murray as a Motivational Theorist: Needs
• Murray focused on needs, motives and drives as the forces that direct behavior
• Murray described needs as internal, abstract constructs that can be inferred through behaviour
• Murray (1938) coined the term regnanacy to emphasize a biological correlate for a psychological need
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Henry Murray and Psychological
Needs
Murray as a Motivational Theorist: Needs
• For Murray, an action can satisfy more than one need in a process he called fusion of needs
• Subsidation of needs occurs when several needs are recruited to satisfy a more powerful need
• Murray (1951) described ordination as a process of schedules implemented to reduce conflict in the face of opposing goals
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Henry Murray and Psychological
Needs
Murray as a Motivational Theorist: Needs
• Murray distinguished among several types of needs:
1. Focal and diffuse
2. Proactive and active
3. Manifest and. latent
4. Conscious and unconscious
• Unconscious needs form a dissociated collective in what Murray referred to as the alter ego
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Henry Murray and Psychological
Needs
Types of Needs
• Murray distinguished between the physical primary and the psychological secondary needs
• Murray identified 13 viscerogenic (primary) needs which included the need for sex
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Henry Murray and Psychological
Needs
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Henry Murray and Psychological
Needs
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Henry Murray and Psychological
Needs
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Henry Murray and Psychological
Needs
The Personal Needs of Henry Murray
• Murray is described as neurotic with a high need for intimacy and uniqueness
• Snyder and Fromkin (1980) asserted a cultural role for the need for uniqueness
• Tafarodi, Marshall, and Katsura (2004) found differences in the expression of uniqueness in Japanese and Canadian students that reflected motivational differences
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Henry Murray and Psychological
Needs
Murray and the Unabomber
• The Unabomber was a Harvard student that participated in Murray’s (1959) controversial study
• Murray’s study violated several ethical principles concerning informed consent and associated risks
• The Unabomber was obsessed with a distrust of technology and authority figures’ control over people
• Murray’s study has been linked to the
Unabomber's subsequent behaviour but cannot be confirmed
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Henry Murray and Psychological
Needs
Evaluation of Murray’s Theory
• Murray sparked research in discovering individual differences in motivation
• Murray emphasized the role of situational factors
• Murray co-developed the Thematic
Apperception Test
• Critics state his theory is too broad and subjective
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The Assessment of Psychological
Needs
The Thematic Apperception Test
• The TAT is a projective test that is based on the assumption that unconscious internal needs are directed toward an external stimulus
• The TAT presents respondents with a series of black and white pictures representing various scenes that reflect each of Murray's theoretical needs
• Respondents generate stories that are believed to reflect their own unconscious needs
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The Assessment of Psychological
Needs
The Thematic Apperception Test
• Concerns with the psychometric properties include low test-retest reliabilities and validity
• Others note that different instructions across presentations may contribute to the low reliability estimates
• TAT shows clinical utility in psychopathology, and in assessment of differences in relationship variables as outlined in object relations theory
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Alternative Measures of
Psychological Needs
The Edwards Personality Preference
Schedule
• EPPS (Edwards, 1959) is widely used in clinical settings
• Consists of 135 statements that tap 15 needs
• Critics argue that the ipsative scoring procedure leads to biased responding and low validity measures
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Alternative Measures of
Psychological Needs
The Adjective Check List
• The ACL (Gough & Heilbrun, 1965) consists of 300 adjectives that respondents select to describe a personality
• Measures the same needs as the EPPS but unique scales allow for a measure of extreme responding
• Needs identified by the ACL converge with traits identified by components of the five – factor model
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Alternative Measures of
Psychological Needs
The Personality Research Form (PRF)
• The PRF (Jackson, 1974) consists of 20 scales that tap various needs outlined by
Murray
• Two validity scales also assess social desirability and infrequent responses
• Attention to item selection and test construction reduces the impact of social desirability
• PRF responses show a six-factor solution that is replicated in French and English
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Specific Psychological Needs
Achievement Motivation
• McClelland(1961) states the TAT is an implicit measure that does not require a conscious reflection of motives
• Self-report is an explicit measure that does require a conscious reflection of motives
• Implicit measures are viewed as better indicators of motives than explicit measures and may reflect different systems as seen in the lack of correlation between the two tests
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Specific Psychological Needs
High versus Low Achievement Motivation: A
TAT Illustration
• Differences in achievement motivation can be observed using the TAT as indicated in the scenario depicting a boy playing a violin
(see text p. 230)
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Specific Psychological Needs
Achievement Motivation from a Societal
Perspective
• Differences in achievement motivation are observed between individualistic and collectivist cultures
• Spence (1985) suggested that mainstream theories of achievement motivation may be limited to individualistic cultures
• The expression of achievement motivation can also vary across cultures
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Specific Psychological Needs
Affiliation Motivation
• Byrne, McDonald, and Mikawa (1963) found that level of affiliation was associated with approach and avoidance behaviours
• Current research centers on the need to be with people referred to as intimacy motivation
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Specific Psychological Needs
Affiliation Motivation
• Hill (1987) designed the Interpersonal
Orientation Scale and determined four motives that direct affiliation:
1. Attention
2. Positive stimulation
3. Social comparison
4. Emotional Support
• Festinger in his (1954) similarity hypothesis stated that we engage in social comparison for assurance
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Specific Psychological Needs
The Need for Power
• Winter (1973) defined power as the need to impact on others and the world
• Efectance is a related term that refers to impacting on people, places, and objects
• Power is associated with aggression, gambling, and heavy drinking
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Specific Psychological Needs
The Need for Power
• Research shows no gender differences in the need for power, but power motives may be linked to testosterone levels
• Winter (2002) found no relation between power and political success based on an analysis of written content (e.g., Presidential speeches)
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Contemporary Theory and
Research on Motivation
Personal Strivings
• Personal striving are units of behavior that are directed toward personal goals and reflect personality traits
• Emmons and McAdams’ (1991) investigation of individual differences in personal strivings distinguished three types of people:
1. High in Intimacy motivation
2. High in Power motivation
3. High in Achievement motivation
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Contemporary Theory and
Research on Motivation
Personal Projects
• Little (2005) defined personal projects as a mid-level process-oriented construct that directs our daily tasks toward current goals
• Personality traits and overall levels of life satisfaction are reflected in our approach to personal projects
• Cross-sectional research confirms personal projects change with age throughout the lifespan
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