M1 needs and motives Flashcards
3 similarities between TT and NM approaches
1) both believe there’s a basic set of dispositional elements that make up personality
2) focus on individual differences in personality (people can be low, med, or high on each dimension)
3) think disposition causes behavior
difference between TT and NM
TT addresses what people do and how they behave (descriptive)
NM addresses why people do what they do (explanatory)
who is considered the father of the NM approach
henry murray
how did henry murray conduct his studies? idiographic or nomothetic? who and what type of questions?
idiographic
studied less than 50 harvard males
asked very in depth questions about their life history while using lights, cameras, and sensors
who was henry murray inspired by?
carl jung
what paper did henry murray write? what 2 things did he introduce in that paper?
“explorations in personality”
1) personology: a scientific study of a whole person (their life history)
2) introduced new terms so professionals in different fields could discuss the same topics
henry murray’s definition of a need (3 parts)
1) grounded in the brain
2) causal role in perception, thought, and behavior
3) work via a tension-reduction principle
what are murray’s 2 types of needs
1) viscerogenic - primary, biological, physical satisfaction (operate according to bodily events)
2) psychogenic - secondary, psychological, mental satisfaction (operate according to deficit-reduction model)
4 points about psychogenic needs
1) strength of a psychogenic need can change based on the situation
2) they are the most important determinants of personality
3) everyone has all 27 but the strength of each varies within each person
4) strength of the need determines its importance in predicting behavior
what is press
tendency of the environment/environmental factors to facilitate or prevent the expression of a need
what are the two types of press
alpha: objective - would activate the need for anyone in that situation/environment (ex. parents lock you in your room and tell you that you can’t see your friends)
beta: perceived/subjective - would only activate the need for some people in that environment (ex. parents tell you it’s too snowy/dangerous to drive so you can’t go see your friends)
2 problems with measuring needs
1) murray believed needs were unconscious –> can’t do self report
2) limited value of observation and rating methods (needs are often latent and don’t openly manifest in behavior; there is not a 1-1 correspondence between a need and a behavior)
murray’s solution to measuring needs
projective tests (thematic apperception test)
people write a story about an ambiguous stimulus –> project their needs onto the characters
rationale behind the TAT (3 points)
1) it’s a projective test –> participant projects what’s inside of them onto the characters
2) the researcher interprets the story
3) it’s subjective - the researcher projects onto the stimulus and the story (this is problematic)
Murray discussed needs; who came up with a motives approach?
McClelland
what problem of murray’s need approach does McClelland’s motive construct address
subjective interpretation of projective tests
McClelland’s definition of a motive? where are they grounded?
a desire to satisfy a need in order to feel emotion
he believed motives were grounded in learned emotional experiences (not like murray’s needs which are grounded in the brain)
2 points of McClelland’s approach (how did he come up with his theory and scoring system?)
1) used bottom-up experiments to determine motive content (data –> theory)
- activated the need group (Tx group) by priming with need-related content
- compared need group and ctrl group’s TAT stories
- any dif between the groups’ stories must be from need activation –> each dif = 1 point
2) assess real participants’ motives with the scoring system
McClelland’s big 3 motives
achievement, affiliation, power
achievement motive - definition, TAT content, what it’s related to
desire to do things well/efficiently
character accomplishes something great
like moderately difficult tasks, like immediate feedback, persistent, business success, cheating, future tense, restless/likes travel
power motive - definition, TAT content, related to
desire to impact others
character feels stronger/more influential than others
active/forceful/influential behavior in small group settings, holding elected office, good leaders, accumulate prestigious items, arguing, writing letters to the newspaper, precocious/exploitative sexual activity (men only)
affiliation motive - definition, TAT content, related to
desire to establish, maintain, restore relations
character strives to improve or mend relations with someone else
more time in social activities, initiating contact/friendships, people pleaser, more non-business calls, write more letters, want to be liked
affiliative presidents
HW bush, W bush, JFK
achievement presidents
carter, clinton, nixon, hoover
