View source for Social:Murray's system of needs

{{Short description|Part of Henry Murray's theory of personality}}
In 1938, Henry Murray  developed a system of needs as part of his theory of personality, which he named ''personology''. He argued that everyone had 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. In his theory, Murray argues that needs and presses (another component of the theory) acted together to create an internal state of disequilibrium; the individual is then driven to engage in some sort of behavior to reduce the tension. Murray 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 – and an individual's behaviors, needs and their levels, etc. are all part of that understanding. Murray also argued that there was a biological (specifically neurological) basis for personality and behavior.<ref name=":0">{{cite book|last1=Murray|first1=Henry A|title=Explorations in Personality|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.202783|date=1938|publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{cite book|last1=Flett|first1=Gordon L|title=Personality theory and research: an international perspective|date=2014|publisher=Wiley Global Education}}</ref>

== Needs ==

Murray defines a need as a drive that has the potential to prompt a behavior from the person. For example, the need for affiliation may drive a person to join social organization. Needs are often influenced 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 may be more important to some than to others. According to Murray, human needs are psychogenic in origin, function on an unconscious level, and can play a major role in defining personality.<ref name=":0" /> Frustration of these psychogenic needs plays a central role in the origin of [[Medicine:Psychological pain|psychological pain]].<ref name="Shneidman_1996">{{cite book | author = Shneidman ES |  title = The Suicidal Mind | edition = | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = | year = 1996 | pages =  | isbn = 9780195118018| chapter =  | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rn4pf7-dca0C }}</ref> He also believed that these needs could be measured by projective tests, specifically one he had developed, known as the [[Social:Thematic apperception test|thematic apperception test]] (TAT). Unlike [[Social:Maslow's hierarchy of needs|Maslow's hierarchy of needs]], Murray's needs are not based on a 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 or 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.<ref name=":2" /> 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 a purely internal state, but more often it is evoked by a press.

== Presses ==

Murray argued environmental factors play a role in how psychogenic needs are displayed in behavior. He used the term "presses" to describe external influences on motivation that may influence an individual's level of a need as well as their subsequent behavior.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /> The "press" of an object is what it can do for or to the subject.

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

== Needs by category ==
Murray divides needs into several binary categories: manifest (overt) or latent (covert), conscious or unconscious, and primary (viscerogenic) and secondary (psychogenic) needs.<ref name=":0" /> Manifest needs are those that are allowed to be directly expressed, while latent needs are not outwardly acted on.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Rosenfeld|first1=Paul|last2=Culbertson|first2=Amy L.|last3=Magnusson|first3=Paul|title=Human Needs: A Literature Review and Cognitive Life Span Model|journal=Navy Personnel Research and Development Center|date=April 1992}}</ref> Conscious needs as those that a subject can self-report, while unconscious needs are all others. This is distinct from manifest versus latent in that a person may directly express a need they are unaware of, or not express a need they are aware of. The categorization most commonly referred to is the division between primary (viscerogenic) and secondary (psychogenic) needs.

=== Primary/viscerogenic needs ===
Primary needs are defined by Murray<ref name=":0" /> as needs involving some biological process and arise in response to certain stimuli or events that drive the body towards a certain outcome ('positive' or 'negative').For example, dehydration 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 or action. The remaining seven (expiration, urination, defecation, and the four avoidance needs) are considered to be "negative" needs as they drive a person away from an object (or in some cases towards the expulsion of an object). 
{| class="wikitable"
|+Primary/viscerogenic needs
!Desired Outcome
!Need
!Directional Force
|-
| rowspan="4" |'''Intake'''
|Air
| rowspan="6" |'''Positive'''
''Drive towards''

''an object''
|-
|Water
|-
|Food
|-
|Sentience
|-
| rowspan="5" |'''Output'''
|Sex
|-
|Lactation
|-
|Expiration (CO<sub>2</sub>)
| rowspan="7" |'''Negative'''
''Drive away from''

''an object''
|-
|Urination
|-
|Defecation
|-
| rowspan="4" |'''Retraction'''
|Noxavoidance
|-
|Heatavoidance
|-
|Coldavoidance
|-
|Harmavoidance
|}

=== Secondary/psychogenic needs ===
Secondary needs emerge from or are influenced by primary needs. Murray identified 17 secondary needs, each belonging to one of eight need domains: ambition, materialism, status, power, sadomasochism, social-conformance, affection, and information. Needs in each domain have similar themes underpinning them; for instance, the ambition domain contains all those needs which relate to achievement and recognition.
{| class="wikitable sortable" border="1" href="User talk:Graxevs"
!Domain obstructive
!Need for...
! href="controlling behavior" |Representative behavior
|-
| rowspan="4" |Ambition
|Superiority
|To seek validation for power (Often split into Achievement and Recognition)
|-
|Achievement
|To accomplish difficult tasks, overcoming obstacles and becoming expert
|-
|Recognition
|To seek praise and commendation for accomplishments
|-
|Exhibition
|To impress others through one's actions and words, even if these are shocking. (Often combined with Recognition)
|-
| rowspan="5" |Materialism
|Acquisition
|To gain possession over an object
|-Acquisition
|Conservance
|To maintain the condition of an object
|-
|Order
|To make things clean, neat and tidy
|-Order
|Retention
|To keep possession over an object
|-
|Construction
|To organize or build an object or objects
|-
|-To keep possession over objects
|-To organize or building something
|-
| rowspan="5" |Status
|Inviolacy
|To prevent harm to self-respect or "good-name" 
|-
|-Defense of status 
|Infavoidance
|To avoid failure and humiliation
|-To avoid failure and associated humiliation
|-
|Defendance
|To defend oneself against attack or blame, hiding any failure of the self.
|-
|Counteraction
|To make up for failure by trying again, seeking pridefully to overcome obstacles.
|-
|Seclusion
|To be isolated from others (opposite from Exhibition)
|-
| rowspan="5" |Power
|[[Dominance (ethology)|Dominance]]
| href="User talk:Graxevs" |To control one's environment or the people in it through command or persuasion
|-
|Deference
|To admire a superior person; praising them, yielding to them, following their rules.
|-
|[[Autonomy]]
|To resist the influence of others and strive for independence
|-
|Contrariance
|To act unique, different from the norm
|-
|Infavoidance
|To avoid being humiliated or embarrassed.
|-
| rowspan="2" |Sadomasochism
|Abasement
|To surrender and submit to others, accept blame and punishment. To enjoy pain and misfortune
|-
|[[Philosophy:Aggression|Aggression]]
|To forcefully overcome, control, punish, or harm someone
|-
|Social-Conformance
|Blame avoidance
|To inhibit asocial behavior to avoid blame or ostracism
|-
| rowspan="5" |Affection
|[[Social:Need for affiliation|Affiliation]]
|To be close and loyal to another person, pleasing them and winning their friendship and attention
|-
|[[Social:Social rejection|Rejection]]
|To separate oneself from a negatively viewed object or person, excluding or abandoning it.
|-
|Nurturance
|To help the helpless, feeding them and keeping them from danger
|-
|Succorance
|To have one's needs satisfied by someone or something. Includes being loved, nursed, helped, forgiven and consoled
|-
|[[Philosophy:Play (activity)|Play]]
|To have fun, laugh and relax, enjoy oneself
|-
| rowspan="2" |Information
|Cognizance
|To understand, be curious, ask questions, and acquire new knowledge
|-
|Exposition *
|To find and demonstrate relations between facts.
|}

==Applications==

===Personality testing===

Murray's system of needs has influenced the creation of personality testing, including both objective and subjective measures.<ref name=":2" /> A personality test is a questionnaire or other standardized instrument designed to reveal aspects of an individual's character or psychological makeup. Murray's system of needs directly influenced the development of a variety of personality measures, including the ''Personality Research Form'' and the ''Jackson Personality Inventory''.<ref name=":3">{{cite book|last1=Murray|first1=Henry A|title=Thematic apperception test.|date=1943|publisher=Harvard University Press}}</ref>

===Thematic apperception test===

Henry Murray, along with Christiana Morgan, developed the [[Social:Thematic apperception test|thematic apperception test]] (TAT) as a tool to assess personality. The TAT is based on the 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. The TAT is administered  by an  assessor, who chooses a subset of cards (generally concerning a particular theme, or those that they feel best suit the subject) out of the 32 available; Murray recommended selecting 20.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cramer|first1=P|title=Storytelling, narrative, and the Thematic Apperception Test.|date=2004|publisher=Guilford Press|location=New York}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" />

===Further research===

Murray's theory of personality was the basis for several areas of further psychological research. Three of the needs he identified–the [[Social:Need for power|need for power]], the [[Social:Need for affiliation|need for affiliation]], and the [[Social:Need for achievement|need for achievement]]–were later the subject of substantial study and considered especially significant; used to develop theories such as [[Social:Maslow's hierarchy of needs|Maslow's hierarchy of needs]], [[Biography:David McClelland|David McClelland]]'s "Achievement Motivation Theory", aspects of Richard Boyatzis' competency-based models of management effectiveness, and more.

Murray's concept of the "press" and his emphasis on the importance of environmental events (and their subjective interpretation) were also highly significant to later psychological research. Behavioral psychology-pioneered by [[Biography:John B. Watson|John B. Watson]] and [[Biography:B. F. Skinner|B. F. 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).<ref name=":1">{{cite book|title=Salem health: psychology & mental health|last1=Piotrowski|first1=Nancy A|date=2010|publisher=Salem Press}}</ref>

== Criticisms ==

Although Murray's theory has had a substantial influence on personality testing and research, some critics say that his system of needs is too broad and rather subjective. One criticism of this hierarchy is that it lacks the objective criterion for needs.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Personality: Determinants, Dynamics, and Potentials|last1=Cervone|first1=Daniel|last2=Vittorio Caprara|first2=Gian|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2000|isbn=0521587484|pages=348}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0" />  This could possibly be due to contrasting instructions from the experimenters.<ref name=":2" />

==See also==
*[[Social:Maslow's hierarchy of needs|Maslow's hierarchy of needs]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}
==Further reading==
* Murray, H. A. (1938). Explorations in personality. New York: Oxford University Press

==External links==
* http://allpsych.com/personalitysynopsis/murray.html



[[Category:Personality theories]]
[[Category:Interpersonal relationships]]
[[Category:Motivational theories]]

{{Sourceattribution|Murray's system of needs}}