Murray's system of needs

Last updated

In 1938, the American psychologist Henry Murray developed a system of needs as part of his theory of personality, which he named personology. Murray argued that everyone had a set of universal basic needs, with individual differences among these needs leading to the uniqueness of personality through varying dispositional tendencies for each need; in other words, a specific need is more important to some people than to others.

Contents

In his theory, Murray argues that needs and presses (another component of the theory) acted together to create an internal state of disequilibrium; the individual is then driven to engage in some sort of behavior to reduce the tension. Murray believed that the study of personality should look at the entire person over the course of their lifespan – that people needed to be analysed in terms of complex interactions and whole systems rather than individual parts – and an individual's behaviors, needs and their levels, etc. are all part of that understanding. Murray also argued that there was a biological (specifically, a neurological) basis for personality and behavior. [1] [2]

Needs

Murray defines a need as a drive that has the potential to prompt a behavior from the person. For example, the need for affiliation may drive a person to join a social organization. Needs are often influenced by environmental stimulus or "presses", another component of Murray's theory.

Individual differences in levels of needs lead to the uniqueness of a person's personality; in other words, specific needs may be more important to some people than to others. According to Murray, human needs are psychogenic in origin, function on an unconscious level, and can play a major role in defining personality. [1] Frustration of these psychogenic needs plays a central role in the origin of psychological pain. [3] He also believed that these needs could be measured by projective tests, specifically one he had developed, known as the thematic apperception test (TAT). Unlike Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Murray's needs are not based on a hierarchy; individuals may be high in one and low in the other, and multiple needs may be affected by a single action.

Murray differentiated each need as unique, but recognized commonalities among them, codified at least partially in his categorization system. Behaviors may meet more than one need: for instance, performing a difficult task for your fraternity may meet the needs of both achievement and affiliation. While each need is important in and of itself, he also believed that needs can support or conflict with one another, and can be interrelated. He coined the term "subsidation of needs" to describe when two or more needs are combined in order to satisfy a more powerful need, and the term "fusion of needs" to describe when a single action satisfies more than one need. [2] For example, the need for dominance may conflict the need with affiliation when overly controlling behavior drives away family, romantic partners, and friends. A need may be a purely internal state, but more often it is evoked by a press.

Presses

Murray argued that environmental factors play a role in how psychogenic needs are displayed in behavior. He used the term "presses" to describe external influences on motivation that may influence an individual's level of a need as well as their subsequent behavior. [1] [2] The "press" of an object is what it can do for or to the subject.

Any stimulus with the potential to affect the individual in a positive or negative way is referred to as "pressive", and everything else is referred to as inert. "Pressive Perception" is how the subject interprets a press as either a positive or negative stimulus. "Pressive Apperception" refers to the subjects anticipation that the stimulus will be perceived as either positive or negative. Murray notes that both Pressive Perception and Apperception are largely unconscious. Presses may have positive or negative effects, may be mobile (affecting the subject if they do nothing) or immobile (affecting the subject if they take an action), and may be an alpha press (real effects) or a beta press (merely perceived).

Needs by category

Murray divides needs into several binary categories: manifest (overt) or latent (covert), conscious or unconscious, and primary (viscerogenic) and secondary (psychogenic) needs. [1] Manifest needs are those that are allowed to be directly expressed, while latent needs are not outwardly acted on. [4] Conscious needs as those that a subject can self-report, while unconscious needs are all others. This is distinct from manifest versus latent in that a person may directly express a need they are unaware of, or not express a need they are aware of. The categorization most commonly referred to is the division between primary (viscerogenic) and secondary (psychogenic) needs.

Primary/viscerogenic needs

Primary needs are defined by Murray [1] as needs involving some biological process and arise in response to certain stimuli or events that drive the body towards a certain outcome ('positive' or 'negative').For example, dehydration would trigger a "need for water", which in turn drives a person to seek out and intake water. The first six primary needs (air, water, food, sentience, sex, and lactation) are considered "positive" needs, as they drive a person towards a certain object or action. The remaining seven (expiration, urination, defecation, and the four avoidance needs) are considered to be "negative" needs as they drive a person away from an object (or in some cases towards the expulsion of an object).

Primary/viscerogenic needs
Desired OutcomeNeedDirectional Force
IntakeAirPositive

Drive towards

an object

Water
Food
Sentience
OutputSex
Lactation
Expiration (CO2)Negative

Drive away from

an object

Urination
Defecation
RetractionNoxavoidance
Heatavoidance
Coldavoidance
Harmavoidance

Secondary/psychogenic needs

Secondary needs emerge from or are influenced by primary needs. Murray identified 17 secondary needs, each belonging to one of eight need domains: ambition, materialism, status, power, sadomasochism, social-conformance, affection, and information. Needs in each domain have similar themes underpinning them; for instance, the ambition domain contains all those needs which relate to achievement and recognition.

Domain obstructiveNeed for...Representative behavior
AmbitionSuperiorityTo seek validation for power (often split into Achievement and Recognition)
Achievement To accomplish difficult tasks, overcoming obstacles and becoming expert
RecognitionTo seek praise and commendation for accomplishments
ExhibitionTo impress others through one's actions and words, even if these are shocking. (Often combined with Recognition)
MaterialismAcquisitionTo gain possession over an object
ConservanceTo maintain the condition of an object
OrderTo make things clean, neat and tidy
RetentionTo keep possession over an object
ConstructionTo organize or build an object or objects
StatusInviolacyTo prevent harm to self-respect or "good-name"
InfavoidanceTo avoid failure and humiliation
DefendanceTo defend oneself against attack or blame, hiding any failure of the self.
CounteractionTo make up for failure by trying again, seeking pridefully to overcome obstacles.
SeclusionTo be isolated from others (opposite of Exhibition)
Power Dominance To control one's environment or the people in it through command or persuasion
Deference To admire a superior person; praising them, yielding to them, following their rules.
Autonomy To resist the influence of others and strive for independence
ContrarianceTo act unique, different from the norm
InfavoidanceTo avoid being humiliated or embarrassed.
SadomasochismAbasementTo surrender and submit to others, accept blame and punishment. To enjoy pain and misfortune
Aggression To forcefully overcome, control, punish, or harm someone
Social-ConformanceBlame avoidanceTo inhibit asocial behavior to avoid blame or ostracism
Affection Affiliation To be close and loyal to another person, pleasing them and winning their friendship and attention
Rejection To separate oneself from a negatively viewed object or person, excluding or abandoning it.
NurturanceTo help the helpless, feeding them and keeping them from danger
SuccoranceTo have one's needs satisfied by someone or something. Includes being loved, nursed, helped, forgiven and consoled
Play To have fun, laugh and relax, enjoy oneself
Information Cognizance To understand, be curious, ask questions, and acquire new knowledge
Exposition *To find and demonstrate relations between facts.

Applications

Personality testing

Murray's system of needs has influenced the creation of personality testing, including both objective and subjective measures. [2] A personality test is a questionnaire or other standardized instrument designed to reveal aspects of an individual's character or psychological makeup. Murray's system of needs directly influenced the development of a variety of personality measures, including the Personality Research Form and the Jackson Personality Inventory. [5]

Thematic apperception test

Henry Murray, along with Christiana Morgan, developed the thematic apperception test (TAT) as a tool to assess personality. The TAT is based on the assumption that human unconscious needs are directed towards an external stimulus. Murray and Morgan created the TAT to evaluate "press" and "need", which Murray emphasized in his theory of personality. The TAT is administered by an assessor, who chooses a subset of cards (generally concerning a particular theme, or those that they feel best suit the subject) out of the 32 available; Murray recommended selecting 20. [6] Each card features various ambiguous scenes which relate to interpersonal situations. The test-taker is asked to give a detailed explanation of what they see. For example, an explanation may include a narrative of what is happening and what may unfold, and what the characters in the scene are feeling or thinking. From this narrative, the assessor uses Murray's theoretical themes to infer personality characteristics. [2] [5]

Further research

Murray's theory of personality was the basis for several areas of further psychological research. Three of the needs he identified–the need for power, the need for affiliation, and the need for achievement–were later the subject of substantial study and considered especially significant; used to develop theories such as Maslow's hierarchy of needs, David McClelland's "Achievement Motivation Theory", aspects of Richard Boyatzis' competency-based models of management effectiveness, and more.

Murray's concept of the "press" and his emphasis on the importance of environmental events (and their subjective interpretation) were also highly significant to later psychological research. Behavioral psychology-pioneered by John B. Watson and B. F. Skinner-focused on environmental events, while cognitive psychology included a focus on subjective interpretation of events, based on another one of Murray's ideas (his categorization of presses as either Alpha or Beta). [7]

Criticisms

Although Murray's theory has had a substantial influence on personality testing and research, some critics say that his system of needs is too broad and rather subjective. One criticism of this hierarchy is that it lacks the objective criterion for needs. [8] It can also be said that some of the needs can conflict with each other like achievement and nurturance, which deal with opposing ideas of having to overcome obstacles, with achievement being active and nurturance being passive. [1] This could possibly be due to contrasting instructions from the experimenters. [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

Personality psychology is a branch of psychology that examines personality and its variation among individuals. It aims to show how people are individually different due to psychological forces. Its areas of focus include:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maslow's hierarchy of needs</span> Theory of developmental psychology

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is an idea in psychology proposed by American psychologist Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation" in the journal Psychological Review. Maslow subsequently extended the idea to include his observations of humans' innate curiosity. His theories parallel many other theories of human developmental psychology, some of which focus on describing the stages of growth in humans. The theory is a classification system intended to reflect the universal needs of society as its base, then proceeding to more acquired emotions. The hierarchy of needs is split between deficiency needs and growth needs, with two key themes involved within the theory being individualism and the prioritization of needs. While the theory is usually shown as a pyramid in illustrations, Maslow himself never created a pyramid to represent the hierarchy of needs. The hierarchy of needs is a psychological idea and an assessment tool, particularly in education, healthcare and social work. The hierarchy remains a popular framework, including sociology research, management training, and higher education.

Need for achievement is a person's desire for significant accomplishment, mastery of skills, control, or high standards. The psychometric device designed to measure need-for-achievement, N-Ach, was popularized by the psychologist David McClelland. A need for achievement figures as a secondary or psychogenic need in Henry Murray's system of needs.

Psychology is an academic and applied discipline involving the scientific study of human mental functions and behavior. Occasionally, in addition or opposition to employing the scientific method, it also relies on symbolic interpretation and critical analysis, although these traditions have tended to be less pronounced than in other social sciences, such as sociology. Psychologists study phenomena such as perception, cognition, emotion, personality, behavior, and interpersonal relationships. Some, especially depth psychologists, also study the unconscious mind.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abraham Maslow</span> American psychologist (1908–1970)

Abraham Harold Maslow was an American psychologist and eugenecist who created Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a theory of psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human needs in priority, culminating in self-actualization. Maslow was a psychology professor at Brandeis University, Brooklyn College, New School for Social Research, and Columbia University. He stressed the importance of focusing on the positive qualities in people, as opposed to treating them as a "bag of symptoms". A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Maslow as the tenth most cited psychologist of the 20th century.

Need for power (nPow) is a term that was popularized by renowned psychologist David McClelland in 1961. McClelland's thinking was influenced by the pioneering work of Henry Murray, who first identified underlying psychological human needs and motivational processes (1938). It was Murray who set out a taxonomy of needs, including needs for achievement, power, and affiliation—and placed these in the context of an integrated motivational model. McClelland was inspired by Murray's research, and he continued to further develop Murray's theory by focusing on this theory in regard to the human population. In McClelland's book The Achieving Society, nPow helps explain an individual's imperative to be in charge. According to his work there are two kinds of power, social and personal.

The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) is a projective psychological test developed during the 1930s by Henry A. Murray and Christiana D. Morgan at Harvard University. Proponents of the technique assert that subjects' responses, in the narratives they make up about ambiguous pictures of people, reveal their underlying motives, concerns, and the way they see the social world. Historically, the test has been among the most widely researched, taught, and used of such techniques.

In psychology, a projective test is a personality test designed to let a person respond to ambiguous stimuli, presumably revealing hidden emotions and internal conflicts projected by the person into the test. This is sometimes contrasted with a so-called "objective test" / "self-report test", which adopt a "structured" approach as responses are analyzed according to a presumed universal standard, and are limited to the content of the test. The responses to projective tests are content analyzed for meaning rather than being based on presuppositions about meaning, as is the case with objective tests. Projective tests have their origins in psychoanalysis, which argues that humans have conscious and unconscious attitudes and motivations that are beyond or hidden from conscious awareness.

Content theory is a subset of motivational theories that try to define what motivates people. Content theories of motivation often describe a system of needs that motivate peoples' actions. While process theories of motivation attempt to explain how and why our motivations affect our behaviors, content theories of motivation attempt to define what those motives or needs are. Content theory includes the work of David McClelland, Abraham Maslow and other psychologists.

The ERG theory is a theory of human need proposed by Clayton Alderfer, which developed Maslow's hierarchy of needs by categorizing needs relating to existence, relatedness and growth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Murray</span> American psychologist and academic (1893–1988)

Henry Alexander Murray was an American psychologist at Harvard University. From 1959 to 1962, he conducted a series of psychologically damaging and purposefully abusive experiments on minors and undergraduate students. One of those students was Ted Kaczynski, later known as the Unabomber.

Dependency need is "the vital, originally infantile needs for mothering, love, affection, shelter, protection, security, food, and warmth."

The theory of positive disintegration (TPD) is an idea of personality development developed by Polish psychologist Kazimierz Dąbrowski. Unlike mainstream psychology, the theory views psychological tension and anxiety as necessary for personal growth. These "disintegrative" processes are "positive", whereas people who fail to go through positive disintegration may stop at "primary integration", possessing individuality but nevertheless lacking an autonomous personality and remaining impressionable. Entering into disintegration and subsequent higher processes of development occurs through developmental potential, including over-excitability and hypersensitivity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Affect (psychology)</span> Experience of feeling or emotion

Affect, in psychology, is the underlying experience of feeling, emotion, attachment, or mood. It encompasses a wide range of emotional states and can be positive or negative. Affect is a fundamental aspect of human experience and plays a central role in many psychological theories and studies. It can be understood as a combination of three components: emotion, mood, and affectivity. In psychology, the term affect is often used interchangeably with several related terms and concepts, though each term may have slightly different nuances. These terms encompass: emotion, feeling, mood, emotional state, sentiment, affective state, emotional response, affective reactivity, disposition. Researchers and psychologists may employ specific terms based on their focus and the context of their work.

Developed by psychologist and University of Washington professor Allen L. Edwards, the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule (EPPS) is a forced choice, objective, non-projective personality inventory. The target audience in between the ages of 16-85 and takes about 45 minutes to complete. Edwards derived the test content from the human needs system theory proposed by Henry Alexander Murray, which measures the rating of individuals in fifteen normal needs or motives. The EPPS was designed to illustrate relative importance to the individual of several significant needs and motives. It is useful in counseling situations when responses are reviewed with the examinee.

Self-actualization, in Maslow's hierarchy of needs, is the highest personal aspirational human need in the hierarchy. It represents where one's potential is fully realized after more basic needs, such as for the body and the ego, have been fulfilled. Long received in psychological teaching as the peak of human needs, Maslow later added the category self-transcendence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christiana Morgan</span> American psychoanalyst (1897–1967)

Christiana Drummond Morgan was a lay psychologist, artist, and co-director of the renowned Harvard Psychological Clinic. She is best known for co-authoring the Thematic Apperception Test, one of the most widely used projective psychological tests. Morgan played a crucial yet often overlooked role in the development of 20th-century psychology, particularly through her collaboration with Carl Jung and her pioneering work in Jungian and feminist psychology. Her contributions gained renewed recognition with Claire Douglas’s 1993 biography, "Translate This Darkness," and subsequent scholarly interest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David McClelland</span> American psychologist (1917–1998)

David Clarence McClelland was an American psychologist, noted for his work on motivation Need Theory. He published a number of works between the 1950s and the 1990s and developed new scoring systems for the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) and its descendants. McClelland is credited with developing Achievement Motivation Theory, commonly referred to as "need for achievement" or n-achievement theory. A Review of General Psychology survey published in 2002, ranked McClelland as the 15th most cited psychologist of the 20th century.

Work motivation is a person's internal disposition toward work. To further this, an incentive is the anticipated reward or aversive event available in the environment. While motivation can often be used as a tool to help predict behavior, it varies greatly among individuals and must often be combined with ability and environmental factors to actually influence behavior and performance. Results from a 2012 study, which examined age-related differences in work motivation, suggest a "shift in people's motives" rather than a general decline in motivation with age. That is, it seemed that older employees were less motivated by extrinsically related features of a job, but more by intrinsically rewarding job features. Work motivation is strongly influenced by certain cultural characteristics. Between countries with comparable levels of economic development, collectivist countries tend to have higher levels of work motivation than do countries that tend toward individualism. Similarly measured, higher levels of work motivation can be found in countries that exhibit a long versus a short-term orientation. Also, while national income is not itself a strong predictor of work motivation, indicators that describe a nation's economic strength and stability, such as life expectancy, are. Work motivation decreases as a nation's long-term economic strength increases. Currently work motivation research has explored motivation that may not be consciously driven. This method goal setting is referred to as goal priming.

Employee recognition is the timely, informal or formal acknowledgement of a person's behavior, effort, or business result that supports the organization's goals and values, and exceeds their superior's normal expectations. Recognition has been held to be a constructive response and a judgment made about a person's contribution, reflecting not just work performance but also personal dedication and engagement on a regular or ad hoc basis, and expressed formally or informally, individually or collectively, privately or publicly, and monetarily or non-monetarily.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Murray, Henry A (1938). Explorations in Personality. Oxford University Press.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Flett, Gordon L (2014). Personality theory and research: an international perspective. Wiley Global Education.
  3. Shneidman ES (1996). The Suicidal Mind. Oxford University Press. ISBN   9780195118018.
  4. Rosenfeld, Paul; Culbertson, Amy L.; Magnusson, Paul (April 1992). "Human Needs: A Literature Review and Cognitive Life Span Model". Navy Personnel Research and Development Center.
  5. 1 2 Murray, Henry A (1943). Thematic apperception test. Harvard University Press.
  6. Cramer, P (2004). Storytelling, narrative, and the Thematic Apperception Test. New York: Guilford Press.
  7. Piotrowski, Nancy A (2010). Salem health: psychology & mental health. Salem Press.
  8. Cervone, Daniel; Vittorio Caprara, Gian (2000). Personality: Determinants, Dynamics, and Potentials. Cambridge University Press. p. 348. ISBN   0521587484.

Further reading