TABLE 7.1
Murray ’s Psychogenic Needs
Need Description
Abasement To surrender. To comply and accept punishment. To apologize, confess, atone.
Self-depreciation. Masochism.
Achievement To overcome obstacles. To exercise power. To strive to do something difficult as well and
as quickly as possible.
Affiliation To form friendships and associations. To greet, join, and live with others. To cooperate and
converse sociably with others. To love. To join groups.
Aggression To assault or injure another. To murder. To belittle, harm, blame, accuse, or maliciously
ridicule a person. To punish severely. Sadism.
Autonomy To resist influence or coercion. To defy an authority or seek freedom in a new place. To
strive for independence.
Blameavoidance To avoid blame, ostracism, or punishment by inhibiting asocial or unconventional impulses.
To be well behaved and obey the law.
Counteraction Proudly to refuse admission of defeat by restriving and retaliating. To select the hardest
tasks. To defend one ’s honor in action.
Defendance To defend oneself against blame or belittlement. To justify one ’s actions. To offer extenua-
tions, explanations, and excuses. To resist “probing. ”
Deference To admire and willingly follow a superior allied other. To cooperate with a leader. To serve
gladly.
Dominance To influence or control others. To persuade, prohibit, dictate. To lead and direct. To re-
strain. To organize the behavior of a group.
Exhibition To attract attention to one ’s person. To excite, amuse, stir, shock, thrill others. Self-
dramatization.
Harmavoidance To avoid pain, physical injury, illness, and death. To escape from a dangerous situation. To
take precautionary measures.
Infavoidance To avoid failure, shame, humiliation, ridicule. To refrain from attempting to do something
that is beyond one ’s powers. To conceal a disfigurement.
Nurturance To nourish, aid, or protect a helpless other. To express sympathy. To “mother ”a child.
Order To arrange, organize, put away objects. To be tidy and clean. To be scrupulously precise.
Play To relax, amuse oneself, seek diversion and entertainment. To “have fun, ”to play games.
To laugh, joke, and be merry. To avoid serious tension.
Rejection To shun, ignore, or exclude another. To remain aloof and indifferent. To be discriminating.Sentience To seek and enjoy sensuous impressions.Sex To form and further an erotic relationship. To have sexual intercourse.Succorance To seek aid, protection, or sympathy. To cry for help. To plead for mercy. To adhere to an
affectionate, nurturant parent. To be dependent.
Understanding To analyze experience, to abstract, to discriminate among concepts, to define relations, to
synthesize ideas.
Source: From Explorations in Personality , by Henry A. Murray. pp. 743 –750. © 1938, renewed 1966 by Henry A. Murray. By permission of
Oxford University Press, Inc.Important Trait Theorists 157