Topic 4: The motivational approach to individual differences Flashcards
Henry Murray
Needs
while personality theory in psychology was becoming dominated by trait theory, Murray developed a theory of personality called personology, based on “need” and “press”
personology = in order to study personality, we have to look at the whole person and his life story (over a long period)
Murray’s system of needs
- believed all people have the same basic needs, but vary in dispositional tendency toward some particular level of each need (e.g. some have high achievement)
- Murray created a theory of personality organized in terms of a. needs, b. press, and c. motives
- believed that everyone has needs that describe their personality and behavior
- needs and motives can: interact, contradict and be expressed with one another
a. needs
-humans have universal basic needs, with individual differences on these needs leading to the uniqueness of personality
-need: an internal directional force that direct peoples behavior- the strongest needs direct peoples behavior
need determines how people seek out/respond to objects or situations in the environment
need: lack of something that’s necessary for the well-being
the strength of the need determine the intensity of the action- enthusiasm, vigor, thoroughness etc.
can determine priorities
biological needs (food, water, air, pain avoidance), others derive from biological needs or our psychological make-up, like power, achievement, intimacy
the needs are directive: you either want something (you approach), or you don’t (avoid)
need are also directive in that they’re particular: when you’re thirsty, you just dont need, you need water
the strongest need at any point is what is shown in behavior
2 types of needs
- primary needs: based on our biological nature (food, water) when we haven’t had food in a while, need grows stronger, act to get food
- secondary needs: psychological make-up, like power, achievement and intimacy
Murray: personality is driven by secondary needs: achievement, dominance, affiliation and nurturance
manifest and latent needs
manifest: can be seen as actions and behavior
latent: are not being displayed. these are the ones we are interested in.
can me measured by TAT: thematic apperception test: look at a picture, create a story (what is happening, which states are the persons in etc.)
b. motives
needs operate through motives, and then leads to actions (behavior)
motives: cognitions with affective overtones, organized around preferred experiences and goals
motives are emotionally toned goals
2 types of motives
approach: you want success
avoidance: you want to avoid failure
- never trying can be a way to obtain this, but succeeding can also prevent it
measuring motives
- can be hard to measure, because people don’t always show their needs openly
- Murray and Morgan: people’s needs projected into a person’s fantasy, used Thematic Apperception Test
2 ways to study people’s motives
- how people respond to particular events
- collect evidence of a dispositional motive
motive vs trait view
self-attributed motives: all the motives could relate to the Big Five Factor Model, except from neuroticism
others think that motives and traits are two distinct patterns
theory: motives are desires and traits express these desires- so traits and motives interact to produce behavior
c. press
- press is an external influence
e. g. seeing someone getting married, may motivate you to be in a close relationship - it’s an external condition that creates a desire to obtain or avoid something
e. g. need for food create motive to eat, you eat a boring sandwich and satisfy your need. then you see a delicious pizza (press), and suddenly you’re not as satisfied as before, creating a motive to eat again, not by need but by a press.
motive dispositions
these are motives that vary in people, some naturally have a stronger motive much of the time for something, like some have a constant need for achievement
-these motive dispositions begin to form a picture of a person’s personality
-people’s needs vary over time and situations, but if one has a high dispositional need for achievement, this will affect behavior more often, because the achievement need will always be high in this person
McClelland
- based his work on Murray
- also included the “motivation” part
- behavior reflects a set of underlying needs; when needs become intense-they influence behavior (achievement, power, affiliation and intimacy)
- an individual’s specific need are acquired over time and are shaped by one’s life experiences
- assessment: McClelland used the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) as a tool to measure the individual needs of different people
Need theory:
1. Need for achievement (Murray)
-its the desire to do things well, to feel pleasure when overcoming obstacles and when reaching goals
high in achievement: strong need to succeed
- might choose a middle task, because it says the most about their ability
- greater persistence in failure, better task performance, better school performance
low in achievement: prefer tasks that are either very easy or very hard, because there is not much achievement pressure in easy tasks, and doing poorly on a hard task does not reflect badly on a person
- Need for power
David Winter
- is a motive to have impact on other people and to feel strong compared to others
- expressed as forceful, vigorous action, evoking strong emotional response in others
- concern of status
- high: seek out positions of authority, influence and surround themselves with symbols of power
want to control the image they reflect to the world, appear authoritative
form friendships with others that are not especially popular, because they will not compete for power, e.g. men with high need of power choose wives that are dependent and less likely to have a career.
are extra frustrated by failure, and angry when people wo’t bow to their demands
beat female partners more often
- Need for affiliation
-the need to spend time with others and be in social relationships, and to interact with others
concerns over acceptance and active attempts to establish/maintain positive relations with others
social interactions are the goal, not the means to an end
high: want to be seen as agreeable, if the group pressures them to go along with the group
- want to be accepted and liked, and get nervous if they think others are judging them
- spend more time engaging in social activities than people lower in this motive, and prefer interaction partners who are warm, compared to reserved
- active participation in social events
- seen as leaders in discussion groups
