Murray's system of needs

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Murray's system of needs is a theory of motivation. In 1938 Henry Murray published Explorations in Personality, his system describing personality in terms of needs. For Murray, human nature involved 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. Frustration of these psychogenic (or psychological) needs plays a central role in the origin of psychological pain.

Murray differentiated each need as unique, but recognised commonalities among the needs. 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.

List of psychogenic needs

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

Domain	Need for…	Representative behavior
Ambition	Achievement	To accomplish difficult tasks, overcoming obstacles and becoming expert
Ambition	Recognition *	Describing accomplishments
Ambition	Exhibition	To impress others through one's actions and words, even if these are shocking.
Materialism	Acquisition	Obtaining things
Materialism	Order	To make things clean, neat and tidy
Materialism	Retention	Hoarding things
Materialism	Construction	Building something
Defense of status	Infavoidance	Concealing a handicap or a failing
Defense of status	Defendance	To defend oneself against attack or blame, hiding any failure of the self. Explain or excuse
Defense of status	Counteraction	To make up for failure by trying again, seeking pridefully to overcome obstacles.
Human power	Dominance	To control one's environment, controlling other people through command or persuasion
Human power	Deference	To admire a superior person, praising them and yielding to them and following their rules.
Human power	Autonomy	To break free from constraints, resisting coercion and dominating authority. To be irresponsible and independent
Human power	Contrariance	Being oppositional
Human power	Aggression	To forcefully overcome an opponent, controlling, taking revenge or punishing them
Human power	Abasement	To surrender and submit to others, accept blame and punishment. To enjoy pain and misfortune
Human power	Blame avoidance	Stifling blameworthy impulses
Human power	Harm avoidance	To escape or avoid pain, injury and death.
Human power	Infavoidance	To avoid being humiliated or embarrassed.
Affection between people	Affiliation	To be close and loyal to another person, pleasing them and winning their friendship and attention
Affection between people	Sex	To form relationships that lead to sexual intercourse.
Affection between people	Rejection	To separate oneself from a negatively viewed object or person, excluding or abandoning it.
Affection between people	Nurturance	To help the helpless, feeding them and keeping them from danger
Affection between people	Succorance	To have one's needs satisfied by someone or something. Includes being loved, nursed, helped, forgiven and consoled
Affection between people	Play	To have fun, laugh and relax, enjoying oneself
Exchange of information	Sentience	To seek out and enjoy sensual experiences.
Exchange of information	Cognizance	Understanding: To be curious, ask questions and find answers
Exchange of information	Exposition *	Delivering information to others

See also

• Maslow's hierarchy of needs

External links

• http://allpsych.com/personalitysynopsis/murray.html