Murray recognized that whether a need is activated depends on the situa-
tion, which he called the press . For example, your need for Order won ’t affect
your behavior without an appropriate press, such as a messy room. If you
have a strong need for Order, you probably make time to clean your room
even when it is only slightly disheveled. If you have a relatively weak need
for Order, you might wait until the room is too messy to move around in —
and even then the cleaning might be motivated more by a need to please
your roommates than to see things arranged neatly.
In addition to the TAT, Murray’ s principal legacy to the field of person-
ality is the research stimulated by his theory. Several of Murray ’s psychogenic
needs have been subjected to extensive research, often by his students who
went on to become important personality researchers in their own right.Among the more widely studied are the need for Power, the need for
Affiliation, and as presented in Chapter 8, the need for Achievement.
Henry Murray
1893 –1988
There is little in Henry
Murray ’s background and
early training to suggest thathe not only would settle onpersonality psychology as a
career but would also cometo be recognized as one ofits most influential theorists.
In his own words, “[my] record consisted of nothing
but items which correlated negatively …with the
records of the vast majority of professional psycholo-gists”(1967, p. 286). Murray attended one psychology
lecture as an undergraduate. He found it boring andwalked out. Murray earned his bachelor ’s degree in
history in 1915, followed by a medical degree from
Columbia in 1919. After working a few years inembryology, Murray went to Cambridge University inEngland, where he earned a doctorate in biochemistryin 1927.
How does a biochemist become an important
personality theorist? During the latter years of hisacademic training, Murray was exposed to andenthusiastically embraced the writings of Carl Jung. Hewas particularly impressed with Jung ’s description ofpsychological types. In 1925, while studying in
England, he arranged to meet with Jung in Vienna. Hisconversations with Jung persuaded Murray that hisreal interests were in the budding field of psychology.After working at the Harvard Psychological Clinic and
receiving formal psychoanalytic training, Murrayaccepted a position at Harvard, where he taught untilhis retirement in 1962.
Like most turns in his career, Murray was struck
by the improbability of becoming a lecturer inpsychology. Not only did he have a relatively weakbackground in psychology, he also was a stutterer.Nonetheless, Murray ’s academic career was long and
successful. Murray ’s commitment to psychology did
not end his professional diversity. He took a brief breakfrom academia in 1943 when he was recruited by the
Office of Strategic Services, a forerunner of the CentralIntelligence Agency. His job was to apply personalityin the selection of undercover agents. Murray alsobecame something of a literary scholar, although heconfessed once that “in school, [I] had received [my]
consistently worst marks in English ”(p. 286). He had a
particular passion for the writings of Herman Melvilleand became an authority on Melville ’s life. Murray
died in 1988 at the age of 95.Bettmann/CORBIS156 CHAPTER 7 The Trait Approach