Murray's theory of motivation
Murray's
Types of Needs
Murray identified needs as one of two
types:
1.
Primary Needs: Primary needs are basic needs that are
based upon biological demands, such as the need for oxygen, food, and water.
2.
Secondary Needs: Secondary needs are generally
psychological, such as the need for nurturing, independence, and achievement.
While these needs might not be fundamental for basic survival, they are
essential for psychological well-being.
List of Psychogenic Needs
The following is a partial list of 24
needs identified by Murray and his colleagues. According to Murray, all people
have these needs, but each individual tends to have a certain level of each
need. Each person's unique levels of needs plays a role in shaping his or her
individual personality.
Ambition Needs
The ambition needs are related to the
need for achievement and recognition. The need for achievement is often
expressed by succeeding, achieving goals, and overcoming obstacles. The need
for recognition is met by gaining social status and displaying achievements.
Sometimes the ambition needs even involve a need for exhibition, or the desire
to shock and thrill other people.
Materialistic Needs
The materialistic needs center on
acquisition, construction, order, and retention. These needs often involve
obtaining items, such as buying material objects that we desire. In other
instances, these needs compel us to create new things. Obtaining and creating
items are an important part of the materialistic needs, but keeping objects and
organizing them is also important.
Power Needs
The power needs tend to center on our own
independence as well as our need to control others. Murray believed that
autonomy was a powerful need involving the desire for independence and
resistance. Other key power needs that he identified include abasement
(confessing and apologizing), aggression (attacking or ridiculing others),
blame avoidance (following the rules and avoiding blame), deference (obeying
and cooperating with others), and dominance (controlling others).
Affection Needs
The affection needs are centered on our
desire to love and be loved. We have a need for
affiliation and seek out the company of other people. Nurturance, or taking
care of other people, is also important for psychological well-being. The need
for succorance involves being helped or protected by others. Murray also
suggested that play and having fun with other people was also a critical
affection need.
While most of the affection needs a
center on building relationships and connections, Murray also recognized that
rejection could also be a need. Sometimes, turning people away is an important
part of maintaining mental wellness. Unhealthy relationships can be a major
detriment to an individual's well-being, so sometimes knowing when to walk away
can be important.
Information Needs
The information needs center around both
gaining knowledge and sharing it with others. According to Murray, people have
an innate need to learn more about the world around them. He referred to
cognizance as the need seek knowledge and ask questions. In addition to gaining
knowledge, he also believed that people have a need for what he referred to as
exposition, or the desire to share what they have learned with other people.
Influences on Psychogenic Needs
Each need is important in and of itself,
but Murray also believed that needs can be interrelated, can support other
needs, and can conflict with other needs. For example, the need for dominance
may conflict with the need for affiliation when overly controlling behavior
drives away friends, family, and romantic partners. Murray also believed that
environmental factors play a role in how these psychogenic needs are displayed
in behavior. Murray called these environmental forces "presses."
Research on Psychogenic Needs
Other psychologists have subjected
Murray's psychogenic needs to considerable research. For example, research on
the need for achievement has revealed that people with a high need for
achievement tend to select more challenging tasks. Studies on the need for
affiliation have found that people who rate high on affiliation needs tend to
have larger social groups, spend more time in social interaction, and more
likely to suffer loneliness when faced with little social contact.
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