Module 7: Humanist and Motivational Perspectives Flashcards
Motives are…
psychological entities that shape our behaviour to help us meet our goals
What precedes and generates motives?
Fundamental needs
How do we distinguish between needs and motives in two ways?
- Needs precede motives
- Needs are states that do not by themselves impact behaviour
Murray conceptualized motives as ____________ meaning that…
implicit; motives affect behaviour outside of our conscious awareness
Murray proposed ____ motives but 3 in particular have been highlighted:
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NAch
NAff
NPow
What is high NAch (need for achievement) associated with?
Drive to accomplish things independently
Pushing for excellence and wanting to continuously improve
Preference to engage in moderately challenging tasks
Longer persistence toward goals and more effort
Participating in competitive sports
Occupations that require autonomy (i.e., entrepreneurial types of employment)
What is high NAff (need for affiliation) associated with?
Drive to establish and maintain relationships
Tendency to engage in prosocial interpersonal behaviours
One meta-analysis found that women score higher on measures of NAff than men. The authors offered 2 potential explanations for this:
- Based on social-psychological and feminist perspectives the difference may be due to gender socialization
- Increasing levels of progesterone among women preceding increasing NAff levels
What is high NPow (need for power) associated with?
Drive to have an impact on people
More likely to post pictures of themselves and boast about themselves
Tend to be good at negotiation
Higher cortisol levels in the face of losing
Analysis of children’s stories and presidential addresses are two ways to measure…
implicit motives
McLelland coded NAch levels in children’s stories from 1925 and found…
the coded NAch levels in children’s stories from 1925 predicted economic growth (i.e., electricity production) in the 25 years between 1925 and 1950
In his work, David Winter has found that high NAch speeches are associated with presidencies featuring…
high activity but limited lasting change or achievements
In his work, David Winter has found that high NPow speeches are associated with presidencies that…
history remembers as “great” and perhaps relatedly involve the initiation of wars
This theory is a very broad framework for explaining and understanding human motivation and personality (i.e., a meta-theory) and includes 5 “mini theories”
Self-determination theory (SDT)
Basic Psychological Needs Theory (BPNT)
One of the SDT’s mini theories that states that people have a set of evolved psychological needs that are essential for functioning and well-being
Briefly describe the 3 psychological needs proposed by the BPNT
- Competence
- Regular mastery
- Opportunity to apply skills and be challenged - Relatedness
- Connections to individuals
- Sense of belonging - Autonomy
- Sense of choice
- Sense of control over actions
Describe 2 ways that the BPNT and the “big three” implicit motives are different from one another
- Research on the “big three” motives generally focuses on variations among people whereas the 3 psychological needs put forth by the BPNT argues that all 3 needs are essential
- The needs in BPNT are explicit rather than implicit like the “big three” motives meaning that people can consciously report on them
One of SDT’s basic tenets is that when basic needs are fulfilled people will be…
most engaged and motivated
Intrinsic goals involve affiliation, community connection, and personal growth whereas extrinsic goals are a bit more ______________
materialistic
_________ goals are associated with improved well-being while having success with ____________ goals are not
intrinsic; extrinsic
One study showed that by briefly activating extrinsic goals (i.e., money) people were less willing to…
ask for help and less helpful to experimenters and confederates
In his model, Murray distinguished between two different types of needs:
- Primary (or viscerogenic) needs
- Secondary (or psychogenic) needs
What type of needs, according to Murray, are satisfied by physical means?
Primary/viscerogenic needs
What type of needs, according to Murray, are satisfied by mental or emotional means?
Secondary/psychogenic needs
What term did Murray use to refer to need-relevant aspects of the environment? Also provide an example
Environmental press
i.e., a person’s NAff won’t affect that person’s behaviour without an appropriate environmental press (such as the presence of friendly people)
What term did Murray use to describe the notion that there is a so-called real environment (aka objective reality)?
Environmental alpha press
What term did Murray use to describe the notion that there is a perceived environment?
Environmental beta press
If we want to know about a person’s primary motives, we might ask them to engage in apperception which is the act of…
interpreting the environment and perceiving the meaning of what is going on in a situation
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
A technique for assessing needs and motives
Ambiguous stimulus is interpreted
The assessment of state levels of needs can be useful in determining…
aspects of a situation that bring about changes in specific needs
The TAT has been found to be sensitive to changes in state levels of various motives.
TRUE or FALSE
True
The assessment of _______ levels of needs is the most frequent goal of personality psychologists
trait
Muli-Motive Goal
A new form of assessing motives which combines features of the TAT with features of self-report
What are 2 critiques of the TAT?
- Low test-retest reliability
- Very low correlations between TAT measures of certain needs and questionnaire measures of the same needs
The major differences between men and women high in NAch occur in 2 areas:
- Life outcomes predicted
- Childhood experiences (i.e., among women high NAch is associated with a stressful or difficult early family life whereas the early lives of men are characterized by support and care)
Carol Dweck proposed a developmental theory of achievement motivation which suggests that…
the most adaptive belief system is that abilities are not fixed but that they are malleable and can be developed
According to Carol Dweck, people who believe that their abilities are fixed or predetermined will have a ______ NAch
low
The largest and most consistent sex difference among those high in NPow:
High NPow men but not women perform a wide variety of impulsive and aggressive behaviours
Since impulsive behaviours are less likely if an individual has responsibility training, David Winter proposed that…
socialization experiences not biological sex per se, determine whether NPow will be expressed in maladaptive behaviours
What is the other motivational tradition that is more rooted in clinical psychology?
The Humanistic Tradition
What is a primary difference between the humanistic tradition and the “big three” motives?
Motives are conscious rather than implicit and unconscious
What are 3 characteristics of the humanistic tradition?
- Life meaning is found in the choices that a person makes
- Human need for growth
- Motivation does not come from a specific deficit but rather from a need to grow and become who one is meant to become
Although Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow both focused on the idea of self-actualization, they differed in their focus of it:
Rogers focused on the ways to foster and attain self-actualization
Maslow focused on the characteristics of self-actualizing people
What was Carl Rogers’ general approach to self-actualization?
Person-centered approach
According to Carl Rogers what is “positive regard”?
An inborn need - all children are born wanting to be loved and accepted
According to Carl Rogers’ what are “conditions of worth”?
Requirements set forth by others for earning their positive regard
According to Carl Rogers’, what is “conditional positive regard”?
Positive regard, when it must be EARNED by meeting certain conditions
Children who experience many conditions of worth…
Lose touch with their own desires and wants
Please others
Moving away from self-actualization
Dependent on others for positive regard
How can one avoid the consequences that are associated with experiencing many conditions of worth?
Unconditional positive regard
It has been argued (given the correlation found) that ___________________ __________________ may be more important for self-actualizing than IQ, or mere cognitive intelligence
emotional intelligence
