Précis_(Summary)_of_Professor_Steven_Reiss__Motivational_Theory

Précis (Summary) of Professor Steven Reiss: Motivational Theory Q. The task this week: write précis of a recent theory on motivation (post 1990), with the name of the theorist, and the publication(s) the theory comes from. Understand the theory's place in the terrain of the debate' (I.e. what school of thought or tradition is it from'). Professor main concern on motivation in business is that there are 16 basic desires that are the concerns about motivation with our actions that also define our personality. This theory of Reiss whom accomplished a study involving more than 60,000 people and identified their desires, the desires which nearly all meaning full are power, independence, curiosity, acceptance, order, saving, honor, idealism, social contact, family, status, vengeance, romance, eating, physical exercise, and self-possession. The desires that Reiss has discovered are what drive the everyday actions. These desires are what make individual unique. Reiss said that 14 of the basic desires are inherited. For example "Most of these desires are similar to those seen in animals, and seem to have some survival value," Reiss said. "This indicates they are genetic in origin”. Reiss said our educational system is built on the premise that all children are naturally curious (curiosity is one of the 16 basic desires) and have the same potential desire for learning. But Reiss found that people can differ quite a bit in their maximum potential to enjoy learning. These desires are what drive every person’s daily actions and therefore maintains a combination to the ranking. Two basic desires for people are pleasure, pain and survival. Reiss and Susan a former graduate generated a list 300 statements which linked into people’s desires. Subjects in their studies were asked how much they agreed or disagreed with statements such as "I love learning new skills," "I must avoid pain" and "I would rather lose my life than lose my honour." After testing more than 2,500 people, the researchers used a mathematical technique called factor analysis that grouped the responses into 15 primary desires that people want to be secure with in life in order to be motivated. After testing about 3,500 more people a 16th desire (saving) emerged from the dynamic analysis. This shows that human desires do not lead to one or two natural desires for the hierarchy of needs, everyone has its personal unique profile of needs and desires which leads on to their own motivation for example sex, money, clothes and etc. Reiss, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at Ohio State University, has spent five years developing and testing a new theory of human motivation. The result of his research is published in the new book Who Am I' The 16 Basic Desires That Motivate Our Action and Define Our Personalities (Tarcher/Putnam, 2000).