Henry Murray (1938) used the same general scheme of dynamic
control but changed the cast of characters considerably . Instead of de -
scribing primitive impulses, he endowed human beings with a range of
needs, some inborn, some acquired; and he proposed that the ego is astrong agent, not a figurehead, in most people, who use reason ratherthan defense to come up with solutions, compromises, plans, andschedules. Murray also proposed that the superego, the agent of moral -
ity within the individual, is not wholly unconscious and immutable. He
felt that maturation, or what we would today call moral development
(Kohlberg, 1971), was not only possible but the general rule.
Gordon AlIport, Murray’s contemporary at Harvard, developed two
theories of personality which he never clearly integrated. He is perhapsbest known for his work as a trait psychologist (1966), but he also de -
veloped a dynamic theory of personality (1955). He emphasized the
purposeful nature of human conduct and the significance of overarch-ing goals, or propriate strivings , that guide and organize life.
Abraham Maslow (1954) was also a motivational theorist; his major
thesis was that there are broad classes of needs that organize individuals’lives. The history of satisfaction of these needs determines the person’sprogress through a set sequence of motivations, ranging from the physi-cal through the social to the transcendental needs of the self-actualizingperson. In the writings of humanists like Maslow , the element of conflict,central to Freudian thought, is minimized and characterizes maladjustedindividuals rather than the natural human condition.
Developmental Sequences
In addition to their similar emphasis on the process of resolving andsatisfying needs, most dynamic personality theorists explicitly includetheories of human development. Some, like Freud, with his psycho -
sexual stages, or Maslow , with his motivational levels, deal with changes
in the nature of the motivational tendencies, the forces that are to bechanneled. Others concentrate on growth in the structures that orga -
nize the fundamental tendencies. Most of these theorists assert that
higher processes such as reason, empathy , and self-control allow mas -
tery of raw impulses in ever more sophisticated ways.
Jane Loevinger (1966) proposed a theory of what she called ego de -
velopment . She distinguished six stages each qualitatively different from
the others. The impulsive stage is characteristic only of infants and per -Ego Psychologies and Projective Methods 141