Ch 11 Motives and Personality

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• Ch 11 Motives and Personality
• 1. The classic McClelland motives
• 2. McClelland implicit versus self-reported
  motives
• 3. Humanistic motivation theories
• Abraham Maslows hierarchy of needs
• Rogers focus on self-actualization and therapy

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Ch 11 Motives and Personality

• 1. Achievement
• 2. Power
• 3. Intimacy
• 4. Affiliation

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Ch 11 Motives and Personality

• Not a task too easy
• Not a task too difficult
• But rather one that could be mastered given
  sufficient effort
• Preference for moderate challenge
• Low nAch pref for easy or difficult tasks

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Ch 11 Motives and Personality

• Predicts more successful entrepreneurial activity
• More successful small businesses
• Predicts preference for innovation
• trying to do something better than before
• But more deliberation, involvement in academics
• E.g., more likely to speak to professor

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Ch 11 Motives and Personality

• But among women, gets expressed differently
• Some women value work nAch predicts same things
  as men - e.g., entrepreneurial activity
• Other women value family nAch predicts more
  investment in dating, courtship, physical
  appearance

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Ch 11 Motives and Personality

• More arguments with others
• More likely to be elected to political office
• More risk-taking
• More assertive in group discussions
• More prestige possessions
• Cars
• Credit cards
• Etc.

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Ch 11 Motives and Personality

• Among men, nPow
• More impulsive and aggressive behavior
• More sexual conquest
• More alcohol abuse
• Among women
• Less of this Don Juan pattern

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Ch 11 Motives and Personality

• Particularly where power goals are blocked (e.g.,
  low SES)
• More colds and flues
• Lower immune function
• Higher blood pressure

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Ch 11 Motives and Personality

• Winter
• More likely country would subsequently go to war
• Bush likely high in nPow
• High nPow they like the job (Carter did not)
• High nAff they care about others

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Ch 11 Motives and Personality

• nInt readiness for warm relations with others
• More time thinking about relationships
• Are more happy when around others
• Smile, laugh, and make more eye contact
• They dont want to party
• They want quality time with friends
• Rated as more sincere and loving by friends

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Ch 11 Motives and Personality

• Higher nInt
• More positive affect, well-being
• Especially among women

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Need for Affiliation

• Not mentioned in book
• Kind of an alternative to nInt (correlates r
  .32)
• Darker, more needy type of intimacy motivation
• 1. Negative social feedback (which presumably
  triggers need to belong)
• 2. Men who were unsuccessful in pledging
  fraternities (which again arouses need)

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Winter et al. (1998) Traits Motives

• They were young and IN LOVE. Hours would they
  SIT TOGETHER, TAKING IN THE SHINING BEAUTY OF THE
  SNOW AND ICE, TALKING SOFTLY. They EXCHANGED
  UNDERSTANDING GLANCES and PLANNED FOR THE FUTURE
  TOGETHER. Yet the air was full of the tensions
  of war, so they RETREATED INTO THEIR WORLD, where
  no one could come, where they could dream and
  plan, FEEL SAFE AND PROTECTED, and hope.

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Winter et al. (1998) Traits Motives

• The man is an agent of the NOTORIOUS secret
  police, and the woman is a member of a
  revolutionary gang. She originally joined after
  her mother (a FAMOUS leader) was FRAMED BY THE
  GOVERNMENT and IMPRISONED. Now she WANTS TO
  CARRY ON THE CAMPAIGN. The police have been
  CHECKING UP ON HER. The agent is eagerly waiting
  for the chance to PLANT A LISTENING DEVICE on her.

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McClelland et al. (1989) Implicit Explicit
Motives

• Two prominent explanations
• 1. TAT is crap (not reliable or valid)
• 2. People dont know own motives

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McClelland et al. (1989) Implicit Explicit
Motives

• Psychometric theory assumes so
• If both relevant to achievement (or power)
• Should be correlated
• However, this does not appear to be the case

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McClelland et al. (1989) Implicit Explicit
Motives

• nAch sAch, rs -.21 to .15
• nPow sPow rs .05 to .08
• nAff sAff rs -.08 to -.06

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McClelland et al. (1989) Implicit Explicit
Motives

• Proposal
• They are different constructs
• Both, however, valid in certain contexts

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McClelland et al. (1989) Implicit Explicit
Motives

• So much as activity directed
• nAch like working hard
• nPow like dominating others
• nAff like being with others
• The activities

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McClelland et al. (1989) Implicit Explicit
Motives

• Not activity directed
• sAch wanting to be successful (as an end)
• nPow wanting to be given status, recognition
• nAff wanting to be seen as socially skilled
• Rather than pleasurable in own right

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McClelland et al. (1989) Implicit Explicit
Motives

• When nAch matters
• When no incentives for performance, nAch matters
• When called an ability test or money for doing
  well, nAch doesnt matter
• In sum

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McClelland et al. (1989) Implicit Explicit
Motives

• What drives implicit motives
• More primitive limbic structures

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McClelland et al. (1989) Implicit Explicit
Motives

• Like Freud
• 1.
• Lack of correlation with SR
• 2.
• In limbic system
• In early development
• Pre-language
• 3.
• Pursuit of things they dont actually want

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McClelland et al. (1989) Implicit Explicit
Motives

• Unlike Freud
• 1.
• Rather implicit explicit different systems
• Responsive to different incentives
• 2.
• Rather nAch, nAff, nPow
• First 2 certainly not unacceptable motives

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Winter et al. (1998) Traits Motives

• E.g., you can have introverts who have high need
  for affiliation
• This cell is problematic though

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Winter et al. (1998) Traits Motives

• All possible cells

introvert
extrovert
Calvin Coolidge (comfortable alone doesnt care
for company)
Ronald Reagan (good at interpersonal, but not
invested in this)
Low nAff
Nixon (ill at ease, but needed company)
JFK (unconflicted pursuit of many relationship)
High nAff
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Ch 11 Motives and Personality

• Humanistic psychology
• In humanistic psychology
• Versus psychoanalysis
• Self-actualization

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Ch 11 Motives and Personality
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Ch 11 Motives and Personality

• Maslows hierarchy of needs
• 1.
• Immediate survival
• Food, water, sleep
• At this level, operating like an animal
• 2.
• Shelter, freedom from danger
• Must satisfy them before moving on
• These needs simply too pressing to ignore them
• Third-world countries would presumably be stuck
  at such levels
• Movies like Alien
• People revert to concerns with survival
• There is no time for self-actualization

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Ch 11 Motives and Personality

• Maslows hierarchy of needs
• 3.
• Need to belong to groups
• More psychological than physical
• Need to overcome loneliness, isolation
• 4.
• To see self as worthy
• To feel competent
• To be admired by others
• 5.
• Now person can focus on what they want self to
  become

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Ch 11 Motives and Personality

• Spontaneity
• Problem-focused
• Independent
• More frequent peak experiences
• Desire to help human race
• High creativity
• Not conformist

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Ch 11 Motives and Personality

• Innate tendency toward self-actualization
• Creates conditions of self-worth
• I will only like you if you do this
• Such conditions are toxic to self-actualization
• Put person in touch with the good inner self
• Doing so, person will grow quite naturally

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Ch 11 Motives and Personality

• 1. Genuine acceptance of person, despite faults
• 2. Unconditional positive regard
• I value you as a person, no matter what you say
  or do
• 3. Empathy
• Seeing things from clients point of view

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Focus on Rogers

• Clips Rogers talking about
• 1. Self-actualization
• 2. Effective counseling
• Non-directive to extreme
• He would listen, nod, and re-phrase
• He would answer questions with questions
• Interpretations rarely made

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Focus on Rogers

• Eliza website
• A computer program to mimic Rogers therapy
• Not great, but still fun
• Michael use text file link