Murray's system of needs

Explanation

For Murray, human nature involves a set of universal basic needs. Individual differences of these needs lead to the uniqueness of a person's personality due to varying amounts of each need. In other words, specific needs are more important to some than to others. He believed that the study of personality should look at the entire person over the course of their lifespan (Flett, 2008). According to Murray, human psychogenic needs function on an unconscious level, but they can play a major role in our personality (Cherry, 2015). According to Murray, personality can be determined in four major ways. These include constitutional determinants, group membership determinants, life role determinants, and situational determinants (Flett, 2008).

He defines a need as a "potentiality or readiness to respond in a certain way under certain given circumstances" (1938). Murray defines needs in two ways- primary and secondary. 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 a total of 17 needs—each belonging to one of five particular need categories. The five categories of needs that Murray identified are Ambition, Materialism, Power, Affection, and Information.

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 when two or more needs are combined in order to satisfy a more powerful need and fusion of needs when a single action satisfies more than one need (Flett, 2008). For example, the need for dominance may conflict the need with affiliation when overly controlling behavior drives away family, romantic partners, and friends. Environmental factors play a role in how these psychogenic needs are displayed in behavior.

List of psychogenic needs

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

Table of needs

(Cherry, 2015).

Personality testing

Murray's system of needs has influenced the creation of personality testing. 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, n.d.).

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 (Thematic Apperception Test, n.d.). Flett, 2008).

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).