Murray's system of needs

In 1938, Henry Murray published Explorations in Personality, a book which described his system for describing personality in terms of needs. For Murray, human nature involved a set of universal basic needs, with individual differences on these needs leading to the uniqueness of personality through varying dispositional tendencies for each need. In other words, specific needs are more important to some than to others. He was a strong believer in a biological (specifically neurological) basis to personality and behavior. He also believed that the study of personality should look at the entire person over the course of their lifespan - that people needed to be analysed in terms of complex interactions and whole systems rather than individual parts

Needs

For Murray, human nature involves a set of universal basic needs. A need is defined as the "potentiality or readiness to respond in a certain way under certain given circumstances"; in other words, some drive which has the potential to prompt a behavior from the person. Needs are often prompted by environmental stimulus or 'presses', another component of Murray's theory.

Individual differences in levels of needs lead to the uniqueness of a person's personality; in other words, specific needs are more important to some than to others. According to Murray, human psychogenic needs function on an unconscious level, but can play a major role in our personality (Cherry, 2015). Frustration of these psychogenic (or psychological) needs plays a central role in the origin of psychological pain. He also believed that these needs could be measured by projective tests- specifically one he had developed known as the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). Unlike Maslow's, Murray's needs are not based on a linear hierarchy; individuals may be high in one and low in the other, and multiple needs may be affected by a single action.

Murray differentiated each need as unique, but recognized commonalities among them, codified at least partially in his categorization system. Behaviors may meet more than one need: for instance, performing a difficult task for your fraternity may meet the needs of both achievement and affiliation. While each need is important in and of itself, he also believed that needs can support other needs, conflict with one another, and can be interrelated. He coined the term 'subsidation of needs' to describe when two or more needs are combined in order to satisfy a more powerful need, and the term 'fusion of needs' to describe when a single action satisfies more than one need. For example, the need for dominance may conflict the need with affiliation when overly controlling behavior drives away family, romantic partners, and friends. A need may be an purely internal state (this is more often the case for the Viscerogenic needs), but more often it is evoked by a press.

Presses

Environmental factors play a role in how these psychogenic needs are displayed in behavior. Murray gives such factors their own name; presses. Presses are forces which stem from situations or events in the environment. The 'press' of an object is what it can do for or to the subject.

Any stimulus with the potential to effect the individual in a positive or negative way is referred to as 'pressive'- everything else is refereed to as inert. 'Pressive Perception' is how the subject interprets a press as either positive or negative stimulus, while 'Pressive Apperception' is how subjects anticipate that the stimulus will be perceived as either positive or negative-Murray notes that both processes are largely unconscious. Presses may have positive or negative effects, be mobile (may effect the subject if they do nothing) or immobile (will only effect the subject if they take an action), and be an alpha press (real effects) or a beta press (merely perceived).

Categorization of Murray's Needs

Murray divides needs into two categories- primary (viscerogenic) needs and secondary (psychogenic) needs. Primary needs involve physical or biological patterns of satisfaction and are comprised of 13 basic needs that drive an individual towards or away from a certain object or outcome. Secondary needs, as described by Murray, emerge from or are influenced by the primary needs in some way. A total of 17 secondary needs have been identified, emerge from or are influenced by the primary needs in some way. Primary needs are any biological need, such as food, water, and oxygen and secondary needs as needs that are generally psychological- such as nurturing, achievement, and independence. Murray identified 17 secondary needs, each belonging to one of five particular need categories-Ambition, Materialism, Power, Affection, and Information. Needs in each category have similar themes behind them; for instance, the Ambition category contains all those needs which relate to achievement and recognition.

Needs may be categorized by two further dimensions; Manifest (Overt) or Latent (Covert), and Conscious or Unconscious. Manifest (sometimes called overt) needs are those that are allowed to be directly expressed, while latent (sometimes called covert) needs are the ones the individual does not outwardly act on (Human Needs:A Literature Review and Cognitive Life Span Mode:). Conscious needs as those that a subject can self-report, while Unconscious needs are all others. This is distinct from manifest vs latent in that a person may directly express a need they are unaware of, or not express a need they are aware of.

List of Needs

This is a (partial) list of Murray's needs.

Domain obstructive	Need for…	Representative behavior
Ambition	Superiority	To seek validation for power (Often split into Achievement and Recognition)
Ambition	Achievement	To accomplish difficult tasks, overcoming obstacles and becoming expert
Ambition	Recognition	To seek praise and commendation for accomplishments
Ambition	Exhibition	To impress others through one's actions and words, even if these are shocking. (Often combined with Recognition)
Materialism	Acquisition	To gain possession over an object
Materialism	Conservance	To maintain the condition of an object
Materialism	Order	To make things clean, neat and tidy
Materialism	Retention	To keep possession over an object
Materialism	Construction	To organize or build an object or objects
Defense of status	Inviolacy	To prevent harm to self-respect or "good-name"
Defense of status	Infavoidance	To avoid failure and humiliation
Defense of status	Defendance	To defend oneself against attack or blame, hiding any failure of the self.
Defense of status	Counteraction	To make up for failure by trying again, seeking pridefully to overcome obstacles.
Defense of status	Seclusion	To be isolated from others (opposite from Exhibition)
Human power	Dominance	To control one's environment or the people in it through command or persuasion
Human power	Deference	To admire a superior person; praising them, yielding to them, following their rules.
Human power	Autonomy	To resist the influence of others and strive for independence
Human power	Contrariance	To act unique, different from the norm
Human power	Infavoidance	To avoid being humiliated or embarrassed.
Sado-Masochistic	Abasement	To surrender and submit to others, accept blame and punishment. To enjoy pain and misfortune
Sado-Masochistic	Aggression	To forcefully overcome, control, punish, or harm someone
Social-Conformance	Blame avoidance	To inhibit asocial behavior to avoid blame or ostracism
Affection between people	Affiliation	To be close and loyal to another person, pleasing them and winning their friendship and attention
Affection between people	Rejection	To separate oneself from a negatively viewed object or person, excluding or abandoning it.
Affection between people	Nurturance	To help the helpless, feeding them and keeping them from danger
Affection between people	Succorance	To have one's needs satisfied by someone or something. Includes being loved, nursed, helped, forgiven and consoled
Affection between people	Play	To have fun, laugh and relax, enjoy oneself
Exchange of information	Cognizance	To understand, be curious, ask questions, and acquire new knowledge
Exchange of information	Exposition *	To find and demonstrate relations between facts.

Primary/Viscerogenic Needs

The primary needs are defined by Murray as needs involving some biological process and arise in response to certain stimulus or events that drive the body towards a certain outcome, and are divided into 'positive' and 'negative'. For example, a lack of hydration would trigger a "need for water", which in turn drives a person to seek out and intake water. The first six primary needs; Air, Water, Food, Sentience, Sex, and Lactation, are considered 'positive' needs, as they drive a person towards a certain object our action. The remaining seven; Expiration, Urination, Defecation, and the four avoidance needs, are considered the 'negative' needs, as they drive a person away from an object (or in some cases towards the expulsion of an object).

Primary/Viscerogenic Needs

Desired Outcome	Need	Directional Force
Intake	Air	Positive Drive towards an object
	Water
	Food
	Sentience
Output	Sex
	Lactation
	Expiration (CO2)	Negative Drive away from an object
	Urination
	Defecation
Retraction	Noxavoidance
	Heatavoidance
	Coldavoidance
	Harmavoidance

Positive/Adient

Push/Force/Drive you towards an object

• Air
• Water
• Food
• Sentience
• Secretion
  • Sex
  • Lactation

Negative/Abient

Push/Force/Drive you away from an object

• Excretion
  • Expiration
  • Urination
  • Defecation
• Nox-avoidance
• Heat-avoidance
• Cold-avoidance
• Harm-avoidance

Secondary/Psychogenic Needs

Secondary needs are derived from the primary needs. They are not considered fundamental or biological in nature, though some could be considered innate

Inanimate Object Needs

• Acquisition (gain possession over objects)
• Conservance (maintain the condition of objects)
• Order (arrange objects in a tidy manor)
• Retention (keep possession over objects)
• Construction (organize and build object)

Ambition/Will-to-Power/Accomplishment Needs

• Superiority (Seeking validation for power) (Broken into achievement and recognition)
  • Achievement (striving to overcome obstacles and exercize power)
  • Recognition (Seeking praise and commendation)
    • Exhibition (Attracting the attention of others) (Often combined with Recognition)

Defending Status/Avoiding Humiliation Needs

• Inviolacy (prevent harm to self-respect or "good-name"
  • Infavoidance (avoiding failure and humiliation)
  • Defendance (defense against blame or belittlement)
  • Counteraction (overcome failure or defeat by retaliation, defend one's honor through achievement)
    • Seclusion (isolation from others)(opposite of Exhibition)

Human Power Needs

• Dominance (influence or have control over others)
• Deference (admire and follow a superior ally)
• Similance (empathize, imitate or emulate others)
• Autonomy (resist the influence and strive for independence)
• Contrarience (act unique, differently from the norm)

Sado-Masochistic Needs

• Aggression (assault, injure, or murder someone)
• Abasement (surrender to, comply and accept punishment)

Social-Conformance Needs

• Blamavoidance (inhibit asocial behavior to avoid blame or ostracism)

Affection Needs

• Affiliation (form friendships and associations with others)
• Rejection (ignore or exclude an other)
• Nurturance (nourish, aid, or protect an other)
• Succorance (seek aid, protection or sympathy)
• Play (relax and amuse oneself) (added with hesitation)

Complementary Needs

• Cognizance (cognition, ask questions and acquire new knowledge)
• Exposition (point and demonstrate, relate facts)

Applications

Personality testing

Murray's system of needs has influenced the creation of personality testing, including both objective and subjective measures (From Catalog to Classification: Murray's Needs and the Five-Factor Model Paul T. Costa, Jr. and Robert R. McCrae). A personality test is a questionnaire or other standardized instrument designed to reveal aspects of an individual's character or psychological makeup. The first personality tests were developed in the 1920s and were intended to ease the process of personnel selection, particularly in the armed forces. The Personality Research Form and the Jackson Personality Inventory are two personality tests that Murray's system of needs directly influenced.

Thematic apperception test

Henry Murray, along with Christina Morgan, developed the thematic apperception test (TAT) as a tool to assess personality. The Thematic Apperception Test is a test that is based on the main assumption that human unconscious needs are directed towards an external stimulus. Murray and Morgan created the TAT to evaluate "press" and "need", which Murray emphasized in his theory of personality.

While implementing TAT, the assessor chooses a subset of a particular subject out of 30 cards. Each card features various ambiguous scenes which relate to interpersonal situations. The test-taker is asked to give a detailed explanation of what they see. For example, an explanation may include a narrative of what is happening and what may unfold, and what the characters in the scene are feeling or thinking. From this narrative, the assessor uses Murray's theoretical themes to infer personality characteristics

Future Research

Murray's concept of the 'press' and his emphasis on the importance of environmental events (and their subjective interpretation) was highly significant to later psychological research. Behavioral psychology (pioneered by Watson and Skinner) focused on environmental events, while cognitive psychology included a focus on subjective interpretation of events, based on another one of Murray's ideas (his categorization of presses as either Alpha or Beta ).

Criticisms

Although Murray's theory has had a substantial influence on further personality testing and research, critics say that his system of needs is too broad and rather subjective. When evaluating the Thematic Apperception Test, critics have claimed that the test has a low test-retest reliability and validity. This could possibly be due to contrasting instructions from the experimenters (Flett, 2008). One criticism of the this hierarchy is that it lacks the objective criterion for the needs (Cervone & Vittorio Caprara, 2000). It can also be said that some of the needs can conflict with each other like achievement and nurturance, which deal with opposing ideas of having to obstacles with achievement being active and nurturance being passive.

See also

• Maslow's hierarchy of needs

References

• Cherry, K. (2015, January 1). Murray's Theory of Psychogenic Needs. Retrieved May 4, 2015, from http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/psychogenic.htm
• Explorations in personality. (n.d.). Retrieved May 4, 2015, from http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1938-15040-000
• Flett, G. (2008). Personality Theory and Research- An International Perspective.
• Murray, H. A. (1938). Explorations in Personality. New York: Oxford University Press
• Thematic Apperception Test. (n.d.). Retrieved May 4, 2015, from http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1944-01759-000

Further reading

• Murray, H. A. (1938). Explorations in personality. New York: Oxford University Press

External links

• http://allpsych.com/personalitysynopsis/murray.html