and cognitive changes that accompany the moral development. The
form of thought necessary to articulate one’s own moral principle is farmore sophisticated than that required to say “I want it!” Sensitivity toothers’ feelings or to one’s own unspoken fears or desires is also a far cryfrom the raw lust or rage that can characterize individuals at the lowerego levels. Progressive levels of ego development, then, are character -
ized by increasing complexity , differentiation, and integration of thoughts,
feelings, and actions.
Dynamic Dispositions
Dynamic theorists often prefer to speak of needs or motives rather thanof traits. Motives and needs are dynamic in the sense that they drivebehavior, urging us on to do whatever is necessary to achieve certaingoals. Some needs, like the need for oxygen, are universal; others, likethe need for achievement, characterize only some people or vary in thedegree to which they are important to individuals. Motivational psy-chologists are concerned with the universal ways in which needs are ex-perienced, acquired, and expressed, whereas personality theorists aregenerally interested in identifying the needs or motives that typify orcharacterize an individual, usually in contrast to others. Thus, we saythat Smith is high in the need for achievement whereas Jones is low inneed for achievement but high in the need for affiliation.
If this description of needs sounds familiar, it is because it is very
similar to the definition previously offered for traits. We showed in Ta-ble 6 (Chapter 3) that the Murray needs measured by Douglas Jackson’sPRF can be classified within the FFM. Some theorists, such as J. P .Guilford (1959), regard motives as a class of traits. The only real prob -
lem with this conceptualization is that it suggests that there is a clear
boundary between motivational traits and other traits. In fact, the dis -
tinction between motivational and temperamental traits, or between
adaptive and expressive traits (Allport, 1937), is in many respects artifi -
cial. Traits as we measure them seem to form syndromes of motives,
moods, expressive and adaptive behavior, and attitudes. A hostile man,for example, may be high in the need for aggression, often experiencethe emotion of anger, have a gruff tone of voice, use direct attack as away of solving problems, and believe that people will always do theirbest to cause him trouble; a woman high in openness to aesthetics mayEgo Psychologies and Projective Methods 143