Psychology 3051 Psychology 305B: Theories of Personality Lecture 4

Psychology 3052 Midterm: October 13th, 6:00 – 8:00 PM The exam is worth 20% of your final grade. The exam will include 30 multiple choice questions (1 point each) and several short answer questions (ranging in value from 2 – 8 points each). It will be scored out of 50. Please bring a pencil, eraser, pen, and your student ID to the exam. Note that hats (e.g., baseball caps) should not be worn during the exam.

Psychology 3053 Lecture 4 Questions That Will be Answered in Today’s Lecture Dispositional Perspective on Personality: Needs and Motives Approach 1. What are needs? 2. What are motives? 3. What is environmental press? 4. How are needs measured?

Psychology 3054 What are needs? “A need is a physiochemical force in the brain that organizes perception, intellection, and action in such a way as to transform an unsatisfying situation into a more satisfying one.” -- Murray, 1981 Noteworthy points about this definition: 1. “Physiochemical” 2.“Organizes perception, intellection, and action” 3.“As to transform an unsatisfying situation into a more satisfying one”

Psychology 3055 Murray divided needs into 2 broad categories: 1. Viscerogenic or primary needs: Basic biological needs; related to survival. E.g., n Coldavoidance, n Expiration, n Food, n Harmavoidance, n Heatavoidance, n Inspiration, n Noxavoidance, n Sentience, n Sex, n Water.

Psychology Psychogenic or secondary needs: Needs that arise or derive from primary needs; related to emotional satisfaction or psychological gratification rather than survival, per se. E.g., n Abasement, n Achievement, n Affiliation, n Aggression, n Autonomy, n Blamavoidance, n Deference, n Dominance, n Exhibition, n Infavoidance, n Inviolacy, n Social Recognition, n Understanding.

Psychology 3057 Murray believed that the viscerogenic and psychogenic needs that he identified are experienced by all people to varying degrees. He maintained that each person’s viscerogenic and psychogenic needs could be rank ordered from strongest to weakest, to create a “hierarchy of needs.” This hierarchy, he argued, could be used to define the individual’s personality.

Psychology 3058 Murray identified 4 possible interrelations among needs. 1.Fusion of needs: Occurs when two or more non-conflicting needs are satisfied by a single action pattern. E.g., A child who tackles her bully is satisfying: n Aggression and n Harmavoidance.

Psychology Subsidiation of needs: Occurs when one or more needs are activated to aid in the satisfaction of another need. E.g., A politician removes a spot from his suit because he doesn’t wish to make a bad impression, and thus diminish his chances of winning the approval and friendship of Mr. Smith, from whom he hopes to obtain slanderous facts relating to his political opponent, Ms. Doe. He plans to publish these facts to damage the reputation of Ms. Doe and thus assure his own election to office.

Psychology E.g., continued A politician removes a spot from his suit because he doesn’t wish to make a bad impression (n Inviolacy), and thus diminish his chances of winning the approval and friendship of Mr. Smith (n Affiliation), from whom he hopes to obtain slanderous facts relating to his political opponent, Ms. Doe. He plans to publish these facts to damage the reputation of Ms. Doe (n Aggression) and thus assure his own election to office (n Achievement).

Psychology Contrafaction of needs: Occurs when conflicting needs arise and are satisfied in alternating phases. E.g., An individual who is highly dominant at work but highly deferential at home with his family is alternating between phases characterized by: n Dominance and n Deference, respectively.

Psychology Conflict of needs: Occurs when conflicting needs arise simultaneously; the conflict ensures that both needs are only moderately satisfied. E.g., An individual who moderates her sexual conduct because she is concerned that her family will disapprove of her actions is experiencing a conflict between: n Sex and n Blamavoidance.

Psychology What are motives? According to Murray’s theory, motives: (a) are elicited by needs. (b)influence thought. (c) direct behaviour toward or away from specific objects, people, or goals.

Psychology Need (for food) Motive (hunger) Thought (thinking of last night’s dinner, fantasizing about a big meal, perceiving a rock as a loaf of bread) Behaviour (prepare a meal, go to a restaurant) E.g.,

Psychology What is environmental press? According to Murray’s theory, environmental press refers to any environmental or situational factor that influences people’s motives. Through its influence on motives, environmental press can alter thought and behaviour.

Psychology Need (for food) Motive (hunger) Thought (thinking of last night’s dinner, fantasizing about a big meal, perceiving a rock as a loaf of bread) Behaviour (prepare a meal, go to a restaurant) E.g., Environmental press (upcoming exam, exposure to a noxious stimulus)

Psychology Need (for food) Motive (hunger) Thought (I’ll eat after I finish reading this chapter, I’ll fail the exam if I don’t focus on studying right now) Behaviour (continue studying) E.g., Environmental press (upcoming exam)

Psychology How are needs measured? Several measures have been developed to assess needs. 1.Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)  Developed by Murray and Morgan in  Involves presenting participants with up to 20 black-and-white drawings that depict ambiguous situations.  Participants are told that they are completing a test of creative imagination.  Currently, the most widely used measure of needs.

Psychology  Instructions: “I am going to show you some pictures, one at a time, and your task will be to make up a story for each card. In your story, be sure to tell what has led up to the event shown in the picture, describe what is happening at the moment, what the characters are feeling and thinking, and give the outcome. Tell a complete story with a beginning, middle, and end. Do you understand? I will write your stories verbatim as you tell them. Here’s the first card.” -- Murray, 1943

Psychology  In developing the measure, Murray and Morgan assumed that people’s needs influence how they interpret and perceive external stimuli, particularly ambiguous stimuli.  The measure is referred to as a projective test because it is based on the assumption that people project their needs onto the stimuli that comprise the test.  Murray used the term “apperception” to describe the process of projecting needs onto external stimuli; apperception may be a conscious or unconscious process.

Psychology  The stories that a participant generates are analyzed to identify his or her dominant needs; this is accomplished by simply counting the number of references that the participant makes to specific needs in the stories.  The dominant needs that are identified are thought to be of central importance to the participant and to form the defining characteristics of his or her personality.

Psychology E.g.,

Psychology Interpretation 1 This is a picture of a woman who all of her life has been a very suspicious and conniving person. She’s looking in the mirror and she sees reflected behind her an image of what she will be as an old woman—still a suspicious, conniving sort of person. She can’t stand the thought that that’s what her life will eventually lead her to and she smashes the mirror and runs out of the house screaming and goes out of her mind and lives in an institution for the rest of her life. Dominant needs: n Abasement, n Dominance, ….

Psychology Interpretation 2 This woman has always emphasized beauty in her life. As a little girl she was praised for being pretty and as a young woman was able to attract lots of men with her beauty. While secretly feeling anxious and unworthy much of the time, her outer beauty helped to disguise these feelings from the world and, sometimes, from herself. Now that she is getting on in years and her children are leaving home, she is worried about the future. She looks in the mirror and imagines herself as an old hag—the worst possible person she could become, ugly and nasty—and wonders what the future holds for her. It is a difficult and depressing time for her. Dominant needs: n Abasement, n Defendance, n Exhibition ….

Psychology E.g. 2,

Psychology Interpretation 1 After years of abuse, this woman has done the unthinkable … she has shot her husband. She had wanted to leave him for several years, but she felt hopelessly trapped. He always told her that if she left, he would find her and kill her. Despite having taken her power back, she is grief-stricken. After all, she did love him at one time. She knows that she must now go to the police to report her crime. Although she does not know what their reaction will be, she hopes that they will understand that she had no alternatives. Dominant needs: n Abasement, n Change, n Defendance ….

Psychology Interpretation 2 This woman has just watched her husband die. He had been sick for some time and both he and she knew that the end was near. He was her first and only love—her sole mate. As he was dying, he told her of his never-ending love for her. Now that he is gone, she doesn’t know what she is going to do. She feels that she has lost the most important person in her life. Outside their bedroom, she is overcome by feelings of despair, ultimately falling to the ground and asking God to take her life too. Dominant needs: n Affiliation, n Nurturance, n Succorance ….

Psychology Personality Research Form (PRF)  Developed by Jackson in 1984; his goal was to provide a measure of needs that could be scored more objectively than the TAT.  A self-report measure comprised of 352 T/F items; the items assess a subset of 20 of the needs identified by Murray.  E.g., items used to assess n Achievement: I look more to the future than to the past or present. I enjoy situations that allow me to use my skill.

Psychology  Participants’ responses to the items are used to create personality profiles relating to the 20 needs. E.g., Jack is highly motivated by the needs for affiliation, harmavoidance, and nurturance. Jill is highly motivated by the needs for aggression, dominance, exhibition, and impulsivity.

Psychology Questions That Were Answered in Today’s Lecture Dispositional Perspective on Personality: Needs and Motives Approach 1. What are needs? 2. What are motives? 3. What is environmental press? 4. How are needs measured?