Needs and Motives

1
Needs and Motives
2
Previous Motives

• Big Three of Neo-Socioanalytic Model
• Eros and Thanatos
• Inferiority Complex and Superiority Strivings
• Creativity drive
• Finding a secure and fulfilling relationship
• All of these concern motives

3
Motives

• Also called Needs or Drives
• Def
• An internal state that is less than satisfactory
• Murray A construct which stands for a brain
  region, a force which organizes perception,
  conation, and action in such a way as to
  transform in a certain direction an existing,
  unsatisfying situation
• McClelland Clusters of cognitions with
  affective overtones, organized around a
  preference or readiness for certain qualities of
  experience

4
The Nature of Motives

• Primary Needs
• food, water, air, sex, avoidance of pain
• come from our biology
• Secondary Needs
• need for power, affiliation, and achievement
• primarily come from our psychological make-up
• Presses
• External situations and stimuli that push us to
  act in specific ways
• E.g. culture and social norms
• Alpha Press real pressures in the environment
• Beta Press perceived pressures in the environment

5
Biology as a Model for Motives

• Biological needs require repeated satisfaction
• We need to eat every day to survive
• When the need gets strong enough, we will eat
• Once we finish eating, we can move onto other
  projects
• Specificity of needs
• need food, not sex
• Intensity of needs
• if need for food felt most, it will be the first
  project we attempt to satisfy
• Direction
• Either towards or away an object or situation

6
The Illusory Nature of Motives

• Behavior ? Motives
• a person may show abasement or affiliation
  behavioral trends in an effort to satisfy
  achievement motives
• People need not be aware of motives
• may act impulsively to a once-in-a-lifetime
  situation without thinking and still may be
  reflecting motives
• Therefore, assessment of motives is crucial

7
Motives Hidden and Unhidden

• Respondent measures
• specify the stimulus, the response, and the
  instrumental set
• E.g. Questionnaires such as the PRF and SAI
• Operant measures
• responses that the subject generates
  spontaneously that must be interpreted by the
  experimenter
• E.g. Projective tests such as the TAT and
  Rorschach
• Typically, these two types of measures are
  uncorrelated
• Can make both at the same time Semi-projective
  measures
• Multi-Motive Grid System

8
Motives Hidden and Unhidden

• Respondent measures
• Are conscious motives that reflect self-knowledge
  and social roles
• Predictive of short-term behavior
• Predictive of planned behavior
• Predictive in experimental settings
• Operant measures
• Are unconscious motives that reflect underlying
  biology and deeper cognitive processes
• Predictive of long-term behavior
• Predictive of spontaneous behavior
• Predictive in real-world settings
• Thus, both are useful to the research psychologist

9
Motives How Many?

• Long-term, in-depth analyses of many male
  subjects at Harvard University by Henry Murray
• Resulted in 27 Psychogenic Needs
• Abasement
• Achievement
• Affiliation
• Aggression
• Autonomy
• Deference
• Dominance/Power
• Exhibition
• Harm Avoidance
• Nurturance
• Order
• Play
• Understanding

10
Motives How Many Actually Studied?

• The quest for parsimony, usefulness, and a lack
  of dedicated disciples meant that the list has
  been reduced to a few motives of interest
• David C. McClelland responsible for carrying on
  the efforts of Murray, but no current champion
• Achievement (led to success and prosperity)
• Power (explained successful leadership)
• Affiliation (explained successful relationships)

11
nAchievement

• Def desire to do things well, to take pleasure
  in overcoming obstacles and do things better
• NOTE never intended to be predictive of school
  grades
• Diagnostic need individuals high in nAch want
  to understand exactly how good their performance
  is and how to improve it ? should predict
  sensible risk-taking

12
nAchievement

• Ring Toss Game

Probability of success curve
Probability of success
Low nAch
High nAch
Distance from peg
13
nAchievement Personal Outcomes

• Life success better happier with jobs, more pay
• Other domains
• College women with high and low nAch
• Career vs. family orientation
• high nAch and high family put a lot of effort
  into dating and other relationship activities
  than those lower in nAch
• High nAch and high career married later and had
  children later than those lower in nAch
• Thus, unconscious motives may be expressed in
  whatever domain you are consciously working to
  achieve in

14
nAchievement Societal Outcomes

• Economic outcomes and prevailing culture
• England from 1500-1800
• Popular literature coded for nAch
• Remained stable for 100 years, then fell, then
  rose sharply again
• Economic outcomes matched pattern of nAch in
  literature, but lagged by 50 years

15
nAchievement Societal Outcomes

• Childrens books and creativity
• US childrens readers coded from 1800-1950

Patent Index
Patents
nAch
1800
1950
16
nPower

• Def Desire to have impact on other people, to
  have prestige, position, and influence over
  others
• Studies of U.S. Presidents (using State of the
  Union and election-year speeches) have found this
  to be the most predictive of success in office

17
nPower Personal Outcomes

• Alcohol consumption (low socialized power)
• Prestige possessions
• Sports cars, size of car, guns, cell phones,
  credit cards, how much money carried around,
  names on dorm rooms
• Playing competitive sports
• Disciplining body
• Men exercise
• Women dieting
• organizations joined
• Also holding offices within those organizations
• Tell other people about sex lives
• Mens preference for submissive wife

18
nPower interacting with other characteristics

• Life success
• Naval Officer Study
• Compared officers selected for excellence to
  others
• Leadership Motive Pattern High nPow, low nAff,
  high Impulse control
• ATT
• Managers with LMP nearly twice as likely to be
  promoted over 16 years
• Womens careers
• Women with high nPow and high Extraversion
• More likely to have prestige jobs
• More likely to marry men with prestige jobs

19
nPower Societal Outcomes

• Popular literature analyzed for motive content
  every 15 years from 1780 to present
• Whenever nPow was higher than nAff, a war was
  predicted
• Only one false prediction of war
• Only two wars started without this motive pattern
• Spanish-American War
• Korean War
• Speeches of the Bush presidents, Tony Blair, and
  Saddam Hussein also reveal pattern of increasing
  nPow, decreasing nAff, and resulting wars

20
nAffilation

• Def to spend time with other people, to
  establish and maintain social relationships
• Negatively related to both nAch and nPow
• Why? Opposing interests to nPow
• Takes time away from nAch
• Concern with being well-liked and accepted

21
nAffilation Personal Outcomes

• Marriage success
• Important for husbands and wives to match on nAff
• High percentage of time spent with people during
  the day
• When alone, report wanting to be around others
  more often
• Lower blood pressure and better immune
  functioning when nAff is higher than other
  motives
• More likely to go on long walks with friends
• More likely to write letters
• Higher birth rate for high nAff couples

22
Person-Environment Fit

• Needs and Presses both demand certain behaviors
  to be satisfied
• If these are conflicting, individual experiences
  distress and indecision
• If they are aligned, individual experiences
  satisfaction and success
• Environments can be individual-society,
  individual-workplace, individual-individual
• The characteristics that make an individual
  successful in an environment will be reinforced
  by that environment
• Corresponsive Effect

23
Person-Environment Fit

• Needs and Presses both demand certain behaviors
  to be satisfied
• If these are conflicting, individual experiences
  distress and indecision
• If they are aligned, individual experiences
  satisfaction and success
• Environments can be individual-society,
  individual-workplace, individual-individual

24
Person-Environment Fit in Action Berkeley

• 4-yr study at Berkeley
• Environment
• Achievement oriented, competitive, and
  unsupportive
• Personality to fit
• High intelligence, low agreeableness, and lack of
  emotions
• Longitudinal development
• Students at Berkeley tend to become more
  disagreeable and less emotional over time

25
Person-Environment Fit in Action Harvard

• 4 year study at Harvard in 1960s
• Students assessed for all of Murrays needs using
  SAI
• University assessed for presses using CCI
• PE Fit was best predicted by elevated scores on
  motives related to being cultured, scientific,
  open to new experiences, self-understanding, and
  individuality
• Result
• Students increased on those same traits over time
• High PE Fit predicted better grades
• High PE Fit predicted honors graduation

26
Person-Environment Fit in Action Illinois

• 7 Fraternities and Sororities studied at
  University of Illinois over the course of the
  last year
• Best predictors of being socially integrated
• Lack of fear of responsibility
• Extraversion
• Agreeableness
• Emotional Stability
• Each of these increased

27
Conclusions

• Motive theory is an excellent and fun predictor
  of important life outcomes
• Murray created the taxonomy
• McClelland focused the efforts of researchers
• Little work is being done on this today because
  of the emergence of trait theory