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How did you understand me so quickly?
Personality Assessment, Version 3.0
Human Development, Version 3.0
School, Version 3.1
Sports, Version 3.2
Relationships, Version 3.0
MD/DD, Version 3.4
Breakthrough development. Four generations of senior
professors at Harvard University – William James, William
McDougall, Henry Murray, Gordon Allport, and David McClelland –
taught that strivings (psychological needs) motivate the development
of personality traits and make us individuals. At nearby Brandeis
University, Abraham Maslow expressed this idea in a developmental context.
Henry Murray developed a story telling technique, the Thematic
Apperception Test (TAT), to assess psychological needs. A number of
scholarly reviewers, however, have concluded that the TAT does not
meet scientific standards for reliability and validity. Psychologists
need reliable and valid instruments to assess strivings and needs,
which are the forces driving behavior and personality development.
The Reiss Profile is a comprehensive, standardized, objectively
validated instrument that assesses 16 basic psychological needs.
Everybody embraces all 16 basic needs, but to different extents. How
an individual prioritizes the 16 basic needs accurately predicts how
that person will behave at work, at school, in romantic
relationships, in parent-child relationships, in athletic situations,
in health situations, with regard to religion, and when shopping or
watching television.
The 16 basic psychological needs were determined empirically and are
extensively validated. They are:
Acceptance, the need for approval
Curiosity, the need to think
Eating, the need for food
Family, the need to raise children
Honor, the need to be loyal to the traditional values of one's
clan/ethnic group
Idealism, the need for social justice
Independence, the need for individuality
Order, the need for organized, stable, predictable environments
Physical Activity, the need for exercise
Power, the need for influence of will
*Romance, the need for sex
Saving, the need to collect
Social Contact, the need for friends (peer relationships)
Status, the need for social standing/importance
Tranquility, the need to be safe
Vengeance, the need to strike back
* for certain uses, a need for beauty scale is substituted for a
romance scale.
Based on studies with more than 10,000 ordinary people, nearly all
motives reduce to some combination of these 16 needs.
Practical. The Reiss Profile questionnaire can be administered
in about 12 minutes via paper and pencil, personal computer, or
Internet (see www.reissprofile.com after April 1, 2005.) With the
paper and pencil version, you give the questionnaire to the client,
and then you score the questionnaire by entering the data into a
personal computer program. The printout includes a graphic display of
standardized scores for each of 16 psychological needs/strivings and
plain-English interpretive paragraphs (usually 2-8 pages in length).
The paragraphs link the person's needs/strivings to values,
personality traits, motives, strengths, potential problems, behavior,
and biases in judging others.
Human Development/Self-discovery: The Reiss Profile helps
people understand what they need to be happy and to live fulfilling,
meaningful lives. Many people who have taken the Reiss Profile were
enthusiastic about their results. When the Reiss Profile was used
with Myers Briggs (more than one thousand tested), people
overwhelmingly perceived the two instruments as complementary. People
who are tested on both instruments like to select the results they
find most meaningful.
Business Coaching. Since the problems people have at work are
problems of "normal" people, you need an instrument focused
on "normal people," not some instrument developed years ago
to diagnose mental illness. Translated into eight languages, the
Reiss Profile is becoming a popular coaching instrument. The results
help clients clarify their personal goals, solve problems, and plan
life-work balance. Since the results are stated in plain language (no
technical jargon), business clients can understand, appreciate, and
use them.
Hiring Decisions. The Reiss Profile accurately assesses many
traits relevant to hiring decisions, such as trustworthiness, work
ethic, organizer, leader, competitor, and so on. It is virtually
impossible to fake good because the participant does not think in
terms of motivations, does not know how the test is scored, and is
clueless as to what are high, average, or low scores on each scale.
Depending on the job, an employer might be looking for a certain
trait (orderliness) or its psychological opposite (spontaneity),
which further complicates the task of faking good. Even experts on
the instrument have not been able to fake good with any consistency.
Corporate Teams. You should not marry someone just because
he/she believes in marriage. Similarly, you should not try to form
teams with people who believe in teamwork, but rather with people who
are compatible and get along naturally. Shared values produce team
cohesiveness, whereas conflicted values lead to divisiveness and
hidden agendas. The Reiss Profile is used to identify shared versus
conflicted values among members of a team so that trainers can build
on the former and weaken the latter.
Underachievement. By definition, underachievement is a
motivational issue. Underachievers have one of these six results on
the Reiss Profile, or any combination of these six results. (1)
Students with low need for curiosity have little intrinsic need for
cognition and may be action-oriented. They underachieve in school
because thinking deeply frustrates them, so they don't pay attention
in class. (2) Students with little achievement motivation score low
on the Reiss Profile need for power scale. They underachieve because
they have other priorities, so they don't apply themselves in school.
(3) Students with high need for acceptance are highly sensitive to
failure and criticism. They underachieve because they hold back
effort, and they hold back effort because they do not expect to do
well. (Failure hurts less when you don't try.) (4) Students with low
need for honor act out of self-interest. They underachieve because
they shirk duties (e.g., homework) when nobody is watching. Students
with low honor are impressed with people who get away with things.
They are irresponsible people. (5) Students with low need for order
like spontaneity. They underachieve because they go in too many
different directions at once. They also are disorganized. (6)
Students with high vengeance are looking for a fight. They
underachieve when getting into trouble distracts them from their studies.
Sports Motivation. The Reiss Sports Profile is used to recruit
athletes, motivate sports participation, and provide information
relevant to important coaching decisions. The results of the Reiss
Sports Profile show: (1) the person's most powerful motives for
participation in sports or exercise programs. (2) The cognitions that
best motivate each person toward physical activity. (3) What the
athlete is likely to do under pressure. The instrument predicts, for
example, that athletes with low need for order play better on game
day than in practice. Athletes with low need for honor cheat under
pressure. Plus much more (Reiss, Wiltz, and Sherman, 2000).
Marriage Counseling. The Reiss Profile accurately and quickly
assesses compatibility, fidelity, and the incompatible psychological
needs driving marital conflicts. The Reiss Profiles for one couple,
for example, showed that the husband had a strong need for sex (high
romance) and only weakly valued fidelity (low honor), whereas the
wife had a weak need for sex (low romance) and highly valued fidelity
(high honor). Is it any wonder they ended up in counseling?
Aggression. On the Reiss Profile, people with high scores for
vengeance seek to strike back at people who offend them. They
enthusiastically endorse statements saying they will not take bull
from anyone. They may be angry, oppositional, or aggressive. They may
be looking to pick a fight. Or they pay show appropriate competitive
behavior without physical aggression.
Many vengeful people do not act aggressively even when they are
angry. Morals often inhibit aggression. On the Reiss Profile,
students with a high or even average need for honor try to inhibit
aggressive tendencies when fighting is unethical. People with a high
need for vengeance and a high need for honor may be competitive
people, but not physically aggressive people when aggression is wrong.
On the Reiss Profile, bullies show a high need for vengeance,
indicating they may be looking for a fight, and a high need for
tranquility, suggesting fear of being injured. Thus, bullies are
aggressive only against weaker/smaller people who cannot hurt them.
Cowardly, they fear people their own size.
Anxiety. The Reiss Profile assesses sensitivity to anxiety,
which has been shown to predict prospectively panic attacks (450
studies). In many studies the ASI was shown to outperform
significantly measures of trait anxiety as a predictor of future
levels of anxiety.
Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities. The MR/DD
version of the Reiss Profile is sold separately. (Click Reiss Profile
MR/DD, main panel.) The MR/DD instrument has been used to promote
self-determination because it encourages direct care staff to pay
attention to what the consumer wants. The instrument is helpul in
matching housemates/roommates. The instrument also has a role in
encouraging the assessment of curiosity in the context of mental retardation.
COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS
Internet Administration. At the time of this posting, we were
making arrangements for Internet administration of the test and
reporting of results. This service is scheduled for spring, 2005. See www.reissprofile.com
for more details.
Reiss Profile Scoring System (RPSS) Version 3.0 series. The
RPSS software runs on Windows personal computers and is installed
using drive D. You need an Adobe Acrobat Reader to print results.
(This can be downloaded free.) The software calculates a standard
score for each psychological need; prints a table of the results; and
prints several interpretive paragraphs for each strong or weak
striving. (We do not interpret "average" strivings). Also,
you can administer the test directly on a personal computer.
Reiss Profile Test Manual. Theory, reliability, validity, and
standardization information are summarized in this detailed manual.
Who Am I: The 16 Basic Desires that Motivate Our Actions and
Determine Our Personalities. This is an easy to read book
explaining the theory of 16 basic strivings. The chapters show what
is and is not included in a basic striving; how strivings influence
romantic and family relationships; and introduce the concept of
value-based happiness.
Reiss's Dictionary of Normal Personality Traits. This is a
listing of nearly every personality trait in a Thesaurus showing what
may have motivated the person to develop that trait.
Order Form
International Order Form Attachment
REFERENCES
Educated Public
Reiss, S. (2000). Who am I: The 16 basic desires that motivate our
actions and define our personalities. New York: Tarcher/Putnam.
288 pp. (translated into Chinese, Danish, Japanese, Spanish, and Swedish.)
Reiss, S. (2001, Feb.). Secrets of happiness. Psychology Today,
50-56.
Theoretical Articles
Reiss, S. (2004) Multifaceted nature of intrinsic motivation: The
theory of 16 basic desires. Review of General Psychology, 8, 179-193.
Reiss, S. (2000). Human individuality, happiness, and flow. American
Psychologist, 55, 1161-62.
Reiss, S., & Sushinsky, L. W. (1975). Overjustification,
competing responses, and the acquisition of intrinsic interest. Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, 31, 1116-1125.
Reiss, S. (1997). Trait anxiety: It's not what you think it is. Journal
of Anxiety Disorders, 11, 201-214.
Psychometric Articles
Havercamp, S. M., & Reiss, S. (2003). A comprehensive assessment
of human striving: Reliability and validity of the Reiss Profile. Journal
of Personality Assessment, 81, 123-132.
Havercamp, S. M. (1998). The Reiss profile of motivation
sensitivity: reliability, validity, and social desirability. Doctoral
dissertation. Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University.
Olson, K. R., & Weber, D. A. (submitted manuscript, see
kolsen@fhsu.edu). Relations between big five and fundamental motives.
Reiss, S., & Havercamp, S.M. (1998). Toward a comprehensive
assessment of fundamental motivation. Psychological Assessment, 10,
97-106.
Reiss, S., & Havercamp, S.M. (in press). Motivation in
developmental context: Test of Maslow's theory of self-determination. Journal
of Humanistic Psychology.
Lecavalier, L., & Havercamp, S. M. (2004). Are caregivers'
reports of motivation valid? Reliability and validity of the Reiss
Profile MR/DD. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 48,
217-224.
Application: Athletics
Reiss, S., Wiltz, J., & Sherman, M. (2001). Trait motivational
correlates of athleticism. Personality and Individual Differences, 30,
1139-1145.
Application: Product Evaluation
Reiss, S., & Wiltz, J. (2004). Why people watch reality TV. Media
Psychology, 6, 363-278,
Application: Health Psychology
Reiss, S. (in preparation). Why people become organ donors.
Application: Romantic Relationships
Engel, G., Olson, K.R., & Patrick, C. (2002). The personality of
love: Fundamental motives and traits related to components of love. Personality
and Individual Differences, 32, 839-853.
Application: Spirituality
Reiss, S. (2004). The 16 strivings for God. Zygon, 39, 303-320.
Reiss, S. (2005 spring, in press). Human individuality and the divide
between science and religion. Zygon.
Reiss, S. (2000). Why people turn to religion: A motivational
analysis. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 39, 47-52.
Application: Mental Retardation
Dykkens, E.M., & Rosner, B. A. (1999). Redefining behavioral
phenotypes: Personality-motivation in Williams and Prader-Willi
syndromes. American Journal of Mental Retardation, 104, 158-169.
Lecavalier, L., & Tasse, M.J. (2002). Sensitivity theory of
motivation and psychopathology: An exploratory study. American
Journal of Mental Retardation, 107, 105-115.
Reiss, S., & Reiss, M.M. (2004). Curiosity and mental
retardation: Beyond IQ. Mental Retardation, 42, 77-81.
Wiltz, J., & Reiss, S. (2003). Compatibility of housemates with
mental retardation. American Journal of Mental Retardation, 108,173-180.
Reiss, S. (2001). A sensitivity theory of end motivation:
Implications for mental retardation (pp. 373-392). In H. Switzkey
(Ed.), Personality and Motivational Differences in Persons with
Mental Retardation. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Reiss, S. (2000). A mindful approach to mental retardation. Journal
of Social Issues, 56, 65-79.
Reiss, S., & Havercamp, S.M. (1999). Sensitivity, functional
analysis, and behavior genetics: A response to Freeman et al. American
Journal of Mental Retardation, 104, 289-293.
Reiss, S., & Havercamp, S.M. (1997). The sensitivity theory of
aberrant motivation: Why functional analysis is not enough. American
Journal of Mental Retardation, 101, 553-566.
Psychopathology
Reiss, S., & Havercamp, S. M. (1996). The sensitivity theory of
human motivation: Implications for psychopathology, Behavior
Research and Therapy, 34, 621-632.
McNally, R. J. (2002). Anxiety sensitivity and panic disorder. Biological
Psychiatry, 52, 936-948.
Reiss, S. (1999). The sensitivity theory of aberrant motivation (pp.
35-58). In S. Taylor (Ed.), Anxiety Sensitivity: Theory, Research,
and Treatment. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Reiss, S., Silverman, W., & Weems, W. (2001). Anxiety sensitivity
in children. In M.W. Vasey amd M.R. Dadds (Eds). The Developmental
Psychopathology of Anxiety (pp. 92-111). New York: Oxford
University Press.
Reiss, S. (1997). Trait anxiety: It's not what you think it is. Journal
of Anxiety Disorders, 11, 201-214.
Maller, R. G., & Reiss, S., (1992). Anxiety sensitivity in 1984
and panic attacks in 1987. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 6, 241-247.
Reiss, S. (1991). Expectancy model of fear, anxiety, and panic. Clinical
Psychology Review, 11, 141-153.
Reiss, S. (1988). Interoceptive theory of fear of anxiety. Behavior
Therapy, 19, 84-85.
Maller, R.G., & Reiss, S. (1987). A behavioral validation of the
Anxiety Sensitivity Index. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 1, 265-272.
Reiss, S. (1987). Theoretical perspectives on the fear of anxiety. Clinical
Psychology Review, 7, 585-596.
Reiss, S., Peterson, R.A., Gursky, D.M., & McNally, R.J. (1986).
Anxiety sensitivity, anxiety frequency, and the prediction of
fearfulness. Behavior Research and Therapy, 24, 1-8.
Reiss, S., & McNally, R.J. (1985). Expectancy model of fear. In
S. Reiss and R.R. Bootzin, R.R. Theoretical Issues in Behavior Therapy.
New York: Academic Press.
Schmidt, N., Lerew, D., and Jackson, R. (1997). The role of anxiety
sensitivity in the pathogenesis of panic. Journal of Abnormal
Psychology, 106, 355-364.
Silverman, W.K. , Flesig, W., Rabian, B., & Peterson, R. (1991).
Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index. Journal of Clinical Child
Psychology, 20, 162-168.
Weems, C.F., Haywood, C., Killen, J., Taylor, C. (2002). A
longitudinal investigation of anxiety sensitivity in adolescence. Journal
of Abnormal Psychology, 111, 471-477.
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About the Author
Steven Reiss, Ph.D., : is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Yale
University. According to the Social Science Citation Index, his
research ranks in the upper 1 percent of academic psychologists in
terms of influence. |
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