The 16 desires of life
Sex and death, pleasure and pain. What are the basic desires that motivate us to be who we are? New research suggests that the answer is not so simple.
Many psychology researchers claim that our basic desires can be boiled down to one or two powerful instincts. But new research from Ohio State University suggests that people are a bit more complex than that - sixteen times more complex in fact.
Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, Steven Reiss, has come up a hitlist of 16 motivators which he says drive our actions and define our personalities. The research suggests a redefinition of what is a 'normal' personality. Professor Reiss argues that workaholics and timid people are probably happy the way they are, and don't need to be 'fixed'.
After conducting studies with more than 6,000 people, Professor Reiss identified the desires as: power, independence, curiosity, acceptance, order, saving, honor, idealism, social contact, family, status, vengeance, romance, eating, physical exercise, and tranquility.
"These desires are what drive our everyday actions and make us who we are", Reiss said. "What makes individuals unique is the combination and ranking of these desires."
Professor Reiss said at least 14 of the 16 basic desires seem to have a genetic basis. Only the desires for idealism and acceptance don't appear to have a genetic component. "Most of the 16 desires are similar to those seen in animals, and seem to have some survival value," Reiss said. "This indicates they are genetic in origin."
To identify the desire list, the researchers generated a list of more than 300 statements of specific desires people might have. 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 factor analysis to group the responses into 15 fundamental desires. After testing about 3,500 more people a 16th desire (saving) emerged from the factor analysis.
A test was then developed to measure individual differences in these 16 desires and their real priorities. In determining people's desire for romance, for example, people are asked if they agree to statements such as "I want all the sex I can get." "That's a very different, very direct question (from asking if sex is important)," Professor Reiss said. "That's going to predict whether sex is going to play a more or less dominant role in a person's life. Sex may be pleasurable to everyone, but it isn't equally motivational. We want to find out what actually motivates people."
Reiss said the research suggests psychologists cannot boil down human experience to just one or two basic desires that we all share equally. He noted that 2 trillion different profiles can be assessed by the Reiss Profiles. "Every person has a unique desire profile," he said.