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HENRY MURRAY’S PERSONOLOGY:Need, Levels of Analysis, Thema

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Personality Psychology ­ PSY 405
VU
Lesson 30
HENRY MURRAY'S PERSONOLOGY
The term Personology was used by Murray which refers to understanding of an individual in its full
complexity.
1- Personality is an abstraction formulated by a theorist.
2- It refers to series of events that ideally span over life time.
3-It reflects novel, unique, recurrent and enduring patterns of behaviors.
4- Personality is located in brain.
5-Personality functions are reduce conflicts, satisfy individual needs and to make plans for attainment of
future goals.
Example: (A producer)
1-His or her personality is an abstraction.
2- It refers to series of events that ideally span over life time from childhood to adulthood.
3-It reflects novel, unique , recurrent and enduring patterns of behaviors.-his education and training.
4- Personality is located in brain -imagination, perception.
5-Personality functions are reduce conflicts, satisfy individual needs and to make plans for attainment of
future goals­ to be incharge of entire productions of VU-TV.
Core Concepts
1-Definition of Personality
2-Proceedings and Serials
3-Serial Programs and Schedules
4-Ability and Achievement
5-The Dynamics of Personality
·
Need
·
Press
·
Tension Reduction
·
Thema
·
Need Integrate
·
Unity-Thema
1-Need:
2- Types of Needs
i)
Primary and Secondary
ii)
Overt needs and Covert needs
iii)
Focal needs and Diffuse needs
iv)
Proactive needs and Reactive needs.
v)
Process activity, Modal needs, and Effect needs
3- Interrelation of Needs
4- Levels of Analysis
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Personality Psychology ­ PSY 405
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5-Tension Reduction
6-Thema
7-Need Integrate
8-Vector-Value Scheme
9- Genetic-Maturational Determinants
10-Learning
11-Uniqueness
12-Unconscious Processes
13-The Socialization Process
14- Characteristic Research And Research Methods
i)
1-Intensive Study of Small Numbers of Normal Subjects
ii)
2-The Diagnostic Council
iii)
3-Instruments of Personality Measurement
iv)
4-Representative Studies
v)
5-Current Research
vi)
6-McClelland and Social Motives
Summary
Evaluation
Biographical Sketch
He was born in New York in 1893. He graduated from Havard and enrolled in embryological research,
Then he conducted biochemical research in at Cambridge which secured his place in Ph.D in Biochemistry.
Then he turned to Psychology because he by sheer chance had an opportunity to read Jung's book
Psychological Types. He requested Jung to allow him to visit him and he had an opportunity to spend three
weeks with him. Then he met Christiana Morgan and married her and then it was a total commitment and
love relationship with Psychology. He died in 1988 at the 95.
Definition of Personality
He gave a number of definitions of personality at different times but in all the definitions he seems to give
adequate weight to history of the person, to abstract nature of personality and the physiological processes
underlying the psychological.
Proceedings and Serials
Proceedings refer to subject ­object or subject ­ subject interactions of sufficient duration to include the
significant elements of any given behavioral sequence.
The serial refer to a single unit or formulation of behavior taking place over a longer period of time such as
marriage, friendship or a career in business.
Serial Programs and Schedules
These are orderly arrangements of sub-goals that are stretch into future say for months or years
Example
An individual say Ambreen wants to become a doctor ( its her goal) now her goal requires years of study
and special training so she develops a set of sub-goals each of which will play a part in bringing her closer
to getting a medical degree.
The Schedules refer to devices for reducing conflict among competing needs and if one is efficient in
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constructing Schedules one can reduce the number and intensity of one's conflicts.
Ability and Achievement
These are of central importance for the individual. In almost all of his research he has appraised subjects in
terms of ability, achievements and leadership.
Murray focuses on unconscious forces and childhood events as determinants of behavior. This acceptance
formed the base on which he erected his own system of personality.
In a later revision of his theory, Murray (1959) stressed the more positive establishments of the personality.
A person needs to be creative and imaginative, to compose and construct if he or she is to remain
psychologically healthy. Creative imagination may be the strongest feature of a personality and the one that
is often given the least opportunity to express itself.
5- The Dynamics of Personality
It is in the representation of human striving, seeking, desiring, wishing, and willing that Murray's
contributions to psychological theory have been most distinctive. One might fairly say that his position is
primarily a motivational psychology. This focusing upon the motivational process is perfectly congruent
with Murray's conviction that the study of a person's directional tendencies holds the key to understanding
human behavior: "the most important thing to discover about an individual. . . is the superordinate
directionality (or directionalities) of his activities, whether mental, verbal, or physical" (Murray 1951 b, p.
276).
In considering Murray's theory of motivation a discussion of such related concepts as press, tension
reduction, thema, need integrate, unity-thema.
1-Need
A need is a construct (a convenient fiction or hypothetical concept) which stands for a force. . . in the brain
region, a force which organizes perception, apperception, interjection, conation and action in such a way as
to transform in a certain direction an existing, unsatisfying situation. A need is sometimes provoked
directly by internal processes of a certain kind. . . but, more frequently (when in a state of readiness) by the
occurrence of one of a few commonly effective presses [environmental forces]. . . . Thus, it manifests itself
by leading the organism to search for or to avoid encountering or, when encountered, to attend and respond
to certain kinds of press. . . . Each need is characteristically accompanied by a particular feeling or emotion
and tends to use certain modes . . . to further its trend. It may be weak or intense, momentary or enduring.
But usually it persists and gives rise to a certain course of overt behavior (or fantasy), which. . . changes the
initiating circumstance in such a way as to bring about an end situation which stills (appeases or satisfies)
the organism. (Murray, 1938, pp. 123-124)
Murray used the intensive study of 11 small number of subjects to arrive at a tentative list of twenty needs.
Although this list has been subjected to considerable modification and elaboration, the original twenty
needs remain highly representative. These variables were presented in Explorations in personality (1938)
with an outline of pertinent facts concerning each need, including questionnaire items for measuring the
need, accompanying emotions, and illustrations of the need.
Types of Needs
Different Types of Needs
1-Primary and Secondary
First of all, there is the distinction between primary and secondary needs. The primary, or viscerogenic,
needs are linked to characteristic organic events and typically refer to physical satisfactions. Illustrative of
these are the needs for air, water, food, sex, lactation, urination, and defecation. The secondary, or
psychogenic, needs are presumably derived from the primary needs and are characterized by a lack of
focal connection with any specific organic processes or physical satisfactions. Illustrative of these are the
needs for acquisition, construction, achievement, recognition, exhibition, dominance, autonomy, and
deference.
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2-Overt needs and Covert Needs
Second, we have the distinction between overt needs and covert needs, that is, manifest needs and latent
needs. Here Murray was differentiating between those needs that are permitted more or less direct and
immediate expression and those that are generally restrained, inhibited, or repressed. One might say that
overt needs typically express themselves in motor behavior while covert needs usually belong to the world
of fantasy or dreams. The existence of covert needs is in large part the outcome of the development of
internalized, structures (superego) that define proper or acceptable conduct. Certain needs cannot be given
free expression without violating the conventions or standards that have been taken over from society by
means of the parents, and these needs often operate at a covert level.
3-Focal needs and Diffuse needs
Third, there are focal needs and diffuse needs. Some needs are closely Iinked to limited classes of
environmental objects whereas others are so generalized as to be applicable in almost any environmental
setting. Murray pointed out that unless there is some unusual fixation a need is always subject to change in
the objects toward which it is directed and the manner in which these are approached. That is, the sphere of
environmental events to which the need is relevant may be broadened or narrowed, and the instrumental
acts linked to the need may be increased or decreased. If the need is firmly attached to an unsuitable object,
this is called a fixation and is customarily considered pathological. However, as Murray indicated, the
inability of the need to show any enduring object preference, jumping from object to object, may be just as
pathological as a fixation.
4-Proactive needs and Reactive Needs
Fourth, there are proactive needs and reactive needs. The proactive need is one that is largely determined
from within, one that becomes "spontaneously kinetic" as the result of something in the person rather than
something in the environment. Reactive needs, on the other hand, are activated as a result of, or in response
to, some environmental event. The distinction here is largely that between a response elicited by
appropriate stimulation and a response produced in the absence of any important stimulus variation. Murray
used these concepts also to describe interaction between two or more persons where usually one individual
can be identified as the proactor (initiates the interaction, asks the questions, in general provides the
stimulus to which the other must respond) and another individual can be identified as the reactor (reacts to
the stimuli provided by the proactor).
5-Process activity, Modal needs, and Effect needs
Fifth, there is the distinction between process activity, modal needs, and effect needs. American
psychologists with their conventional emphasis upon function and utility have consistently emphasized
effect needs-needs that lead to some desired state or end result. Murray, however, has insisted upon the
equal importance of process activity and modal needs-tendencies to perform certain acts for the sake of the
performance itself. The random uncoordinated, nonfunctional operation of various processes (vision,
hearing, thought, speech, and so forth) that occurs from birth on is called process activity. This is "sheer
function pleasure," doing for the sake of doing. Modal needs, on the other hand, involve doing something
with a certain degree of excellence or Quality. It is still the activity that is sought and enjoyed, but it is now
rewarding only when it is performed with a certain degree of perfection.
3- Interrelation of Needs
It is evident that needs do not operate in complete isolation from each other, and in situations where two or
more needs are aroused simultaneously and motivate incompatible responses, it is the prepotent need (such
as pain, hunger, thirst) that ordinarily will be translated into action as prepotent needs cannot be postponed.
A minimal satisfaction of such needs is necessary before other needs can operate. In his investigation of
personality Murray habitually employed a set of concepts to represent conflict involving important needs.
Thus, it is customary in his research to secure estimates for each subject of the intensity of conflict in
certain key areas, for example, autonomy versus compliance, achievement versus pleasure.
Under certain circumstances multiple needs may be gratified by a single course of action. In instances
where the outcome of different needs is behaviorally the same, Murray spoke of fusion of needs. Another
important kind of relation among needs is referred to by the concept of subsidiation. A subsidiary need is
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Personality Psychology ­ PSY 405
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one that operates in the service of another; for instance, the individual may show aggressive needs, but
these may be serving only to facilitate acquisitive needs. In any instance where the operation of one need is
merely instrumental to the gratification of another, we speak of the first need as subsidiary to the second.
Tracing chains of subsidiation can be of great value in revealing the dominant or root motives of the
individual.
4- Levels of Analysis
It is important to recognize that Murray's need represents a generalized construct. He drew a distinction
between need and aim where aim represents the specific goal adopted by the person as an expression of the
need. Murray (1951b) used the example of a general need for dominance and a specific aim of being
elected the mayor of a city.
Murray also employed Freud's concept of cathexis to refer to the power of an object to evoke a positive or
negative need in a person. He claimed that "a personality is largely revealed in the objects that it cathects. .
. . In this fashion a reasonably adequate portrait of the social personality may be composed" (1938, p. 106).
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Table of Contents:
  1. THE NATURE OF PERSONALITY THEORY:Objectives of Personality Psychology
  2. PERSONALITY MEASUREMENT:Observational Procedures, Rating Scales
  3. MAIN PERSPECTIVES:Psychometrics, observation, Behavioral Coding Systems
  4. SIGMUND FREUD: A PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY
  5. INSTINCT: WHAT MOTIVATES HUMAN BEHAVIOR?, The Oral Stage
  6. PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF SIGMUND FREUD:The Ego, Free association
  7. THEORY OF CARL JUNG:Biographical Sketch, Principles of Opposites, The Persona
  8. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES:Childhood, Young Adulthood, Middle Ages
  9. ALFRED ADLER:Biographical Sketch, Individual Psychology, Feeling of Inferiority
  10. INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY:Fictional Finalism, Social Interest, Mistaken Styles of Life
  11. KAREN HORNEY:Adjustment to Basic Anxiety, Adjustment Techniques
  12. ADJUSTMENT TO BASIC ANXIETY:Moving Towards People, Moving Against People
  13. ERIK ERIKSON:Anatomy and Destiny, Ego Psychology, Goal of Psychotherapy
  14. ERIK ERIKSON:Human Development, Goal of Psychotherapy
  15. SULLIVAN’S INTERPERSONAL THEORY:Core Concepts, The Self-System
  16. SULLIVAN’S INTERPERSONAL THEORY:Cognitive Process, Tension
  17. CONSTITUTIONAL PSYCHOLOGY:The Structure of Physique, Evaluation
  18. SHELDON’S SOMATOTYPE THEORY:The Structure of Physique
  19. MASLOW’S THEORY:Self-Actualizers Aren't Angels, Biographical Sketch
  20. MASLOW’S THEORY:Basic Concepts of Humanistic Psychology, Problem Centering
  21. ROGERS PERSON CENTERED APPROACH:Humanistic, Actualizing tendency
  22. ROGERS PERSON CENTERED APPROACH:Fully functioning person
  23. ROGERS PERSON CENTERED APPROACH:Client Centered Therapy,
  24. KELLY’S COGNITIVE THEORY OF PERSONALITY THEORY:Biographical Sketch
  25. CORE CONCEPTS OF GEORGE KELLY’S COGNITIVE THEORY OF PERSONALITY
  26. GORDON ALLPORT: A TRAIT THEORY OF PERSONALITY:Personality as a
  27. GORDON ALLPORT: A TRAIT THEORY OF PERSONALITY:Secondary Traits
  28. FACTOR ANALYTIC TRAIT THEORY:Factor Analysis, The Nature of Personality
  29. FACTOR ANALYTIC TRAIT THEORY:The Specification Equation, Research Methods
  30. HENRY MURRAY’S PERSONOLOGY:Need, Levels of Analysis, Thema
  31. HENRY MURRAY’S PERSONOLOGY (CONTINUED)
  32. ALBERT BANDURA’S SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY:BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
  33. ALBERT BANDURA’S SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY:Reciprocal Determinism
  34. THE STIMULUS RESPONSE THEORY OF DOLLARD AND MILLER:Core Concepts
  35. THE STIMULUS RESPONSE THEORY OF DOLLARD AND MILLER:Innate Equipment
  36. SKINNER’S THEORY OF PERSONALITY:Biographical Sketch, Books
  37. SKINNER’S THEORY OF PERSONALITY:Positive Reinforcement, Generalization
  38. ALBERT ELLIS THEORY OF PERSONALITY:Biographical Sketch, Social Factors
  39. THE GRAND PERFECT THEORY OF PERSONALITY:Genes and Biology
  40. PERSPECTIVES OR DOMAINS OF PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY:Dispositional
  41. PERSPECTIVES OR DOMAINS OF PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY
  42. PERSPECTIVES OR DOMAINS OF PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY:Need
  43. THE GRAND THEORY OF PERSONALITY:Psychosexual Stages of Development
  44. PERSONALITY APPRAISAL:Issues in Personality Assessment
  45. PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY: NEW DIRECTIONS IN THE DISCIPLINE