MindMap-BookSummary-NormalPersonality

MindMap-BookSummary-NormalPersonality

• About Normal Personality
  • Book-Normal Personality
  • Author-Steven Reiss
  • ISBN-978-052-0521707442
  • Chapters: 10
  • Pages: 213
  • myRating: 5 Stars
• Chapters
  • 1 My Wife Thinks Something Is Wrong with Me 9
  • 2 The Sixteen Basic Desires 20
  • 3 Intensity of Basic Motivation 37
  • 4 Normal Personality Types 56
  • 5 Overcoming Personal Troubles 72
  • 6 Six Reasons for Adolescent Underachievement 85
  • 7 Self-Hugging and Personal Blind Spots 99
  • 8 Relationships 110
  • 9 Reinterpretation of Myers-Briggs Personality Types 126
  • 10 The Sixteen Principles of Motivation 143
• 16 Desires:
  • 1. Acceptance, the desire to avoid criticism and rejection
  • 2. Curiosity, the desire for cognition
  • 3. Eating, the desire for food
  • 4. Family, the desire to raise one’s own children
  • 5. Honor, the desire to behave morally
  • 6. Idealism, the desire for social justice
  • 7. Independence, the desire for self-reliance
  • 8. Order, the desire for structure
  • 9. Physical Activity, the desire to move one’s muscles
  • 10.Power, the desire for influence of will
  • 11.Romance, the desire for sex
  • 12.Saving, the desire to collect
  • 13.Social Contact, the desire for friendship
  • 14.Status, the desire for prestige
  • 15.Tranquility, the desire for inner peace
  • 16.Vengeance, the desire to get even
• 7 Personality Types:
  • Workaholic
    • Conventional wisdom: Unconsciously motivated to escape from personal troubles.
    • Motivation analysis: Consciously motivated by a strong need for achievement.
  • Competitor
    • Psychodynamics: Unconsciously motivated by sibling rivalry or insecurity about a parent’s love.
    • Motivation analysis: Consciously motivated by a strong intrinsic need to win.
  • Humanitarian
    • Psychodynamics: Unconsciously motivated by self-destructiveness and guilt.
    • Motivation analysis: Consciously motivated by an intrinsic valuation of social justice.
  • Thinker
    • Psychodynamics: Unconsciously motivated by sublimated sexual energy.
    • Motivation analysis: Consciously motivated by a strong intrinsic valuation of knowledge and ideas.
  • Romantic
    • Psychodynamics: Unconsciously uses sex to compensate for the love parents had withheld during childhood.

      Motivation analysis: Consciously motivated by an intrinsic valuation of sex.

  • Loner
    • Behaviorism: Lacks social skills.

      Psychodynamics: Multiple causes: abnormal development, schizoid personality traits, distrust of others, unconscious hostility, fear of rejection.

      Motivation analysis: Consciously motivated by an intrinsic valuation of solitude.

  • Ascetic
    • Psychodynamics: Unconsciously motivated by self-destructiveness.
    • Motivation analysis: Consciously motivated by extreme valuation of personal honor.
• 6 Reasons for Adolescent Under Achievement
  • 1. Lack of Curiosity-low RSMP score on Curiosity, the desire for cognition/learning
  • 2. Lack of ambition-low RSMP score on Power, the desire for influence of will
  • 3. Looking for trouble-high RSMP score on Vengeance, the desire to get even
  • 4. Fear of failure-high RSMP score on Acceptance, the desire to avoid criticism and rejection
  • 5. Expedience-low RSMP score on Honor, the desire to behave morally
  • 6. Spontaneity-low RSMP score on Order, the desire for structure
• 6 Reasons for Adolescent Under Achievement
  • 1. Lack of Curiosity
    • low RSMP score for “curiosity”

      Difference between intelligence and intellectual curiosity

      intelligence is an indicator of one’s ability to solve problems

      intellectual curiosity is an indicator of one’s motivation (or need) to think.

      incurious students with low grades in high school showed levels of intellectual curiosity significantly below the norm

      incurious students disliked thinking

      incurious students had a general lack of intellectual curiosity, as opposed to a lack of curiosity in particular subjects.

      incurious students did poorly in science, for example, because they quickly became frustrated when asked to concentrate and sustain their thoughts on anything.

      incurious people dislike having to think

      incurious people have the potential to value knowledge they can put to use

      incurious students may be interested in relevant knowledge but not theoretical ideas

      incurious students naturally dislike intellectual activities that require them to learn about anything they cannot put to use in their current life.

  • 2. Lack of ambition
    • low RSMP scores for “power” indicate sub-average ambition
    • unambitious students lack will and initiative and are viewed by others as laid-back or nondirective
    • unambitious students resist trying to influence other people
    • unambitious students are onlookers who watch events unfold without trying to influence what happens
    • lack of ambition is unrelated to a lack of self-confidence
    • unambitious students do not lack ambition because they are insecure
    • unambitious students lack ambition because they dislike expressions of will
    • unambitious students underachieve because they do not apply themselves
    • unambitious students set modest goals and avoid challenging courses
    • unambitious students dislike hard work
    • unambitious students may be willing to work at a moderate pace but no harder
    • unambitious students place higher value on leisure and lower value on achieving
    • unambitious students quits when pushed to work hard
    • students who lack ambition may have a tendency to underachieve throughout life
  • 3. Looking for trouble
    • high RSMP scores for “vengeance” are looking for trouble

      troublemakers are out to prove themselves by fighting peers who challenge or frustrate them

      troublemakers can get themselves into so much trouble it distracts them from their school work, leading to grades significantly below their capability.

      combativeness is an important cause of underachievement throughout life

      combative adults fight so many battles with others they become distracted from what they need to do to get ahead

      students with a high need for vengeance are attentive to issues of insult, competition, and conflict

      troublemakers are quick to take offense and to fight back

      troublemakers are impressed with peers who win fights

      combativeness is normal when it is expressed as a burning desire for competition and winning or when it motivates self-defense

      combativeness may be abnormal, when it is expressed as persistent violence, brutality, or poorly managed anger,

      combativeness may be abnormal when it is one part of a specific pattern of symptoms recognized as a mental disorder

      Parents and counselors should help combative students find socially appropriate outlets for their competitive nature.

      careers including sports, military life, and business reward competitiveness

      competitive students may need to learn the difference between socially appropriate competition versus inappropriate or excessive confrontation or aggression

      competitive students may need to be taught the potentially severe damage to reputation or status that can result from inappropriate confrontations and outbursts

      highly competitive students may benefit from anger management training

  • 4. Fear of failure
    • high RSMP scores on the basic desire for “acceptance” indicate an above average fear of failure and a lack of self-confidence

      students who fear failure worry about not doing well on tests and may show test anxiety or give inconsistent effort

      students who fear failure may try hard on easy tasks but not on challenging tasks

      students who fear failure may become known for poor effort or for inconsistent effort

      students who fear failure respond poorly to criticism

      criticism may cause them to quit or at least perform poorly

      parents/teachers-don’t be judgmental, be supportive and non critical

      parents-always encourage your children

      increase self confidence

      develop a higher self-esteem

      work on fighting insecurities

      concentrate on your strengths, not weaknesses

  • 5. Expedience
    • below-average RSMP scores for “honor”

      expedient individuals take advantage of opportunities without regard for the consequences for others

      expedient students placed lower-than-average value on morality and character

      expedient students see nothing wrong in breaking promises when better opportunities come along

      opportunism can lead to personal gains in the short run, but in the long run expedient people can pay a heavy price when others realize their opportunism.

      expedient individuals may be loyal to others only to the extent that others are loyal to them

      expedient individuals lack of loyalty to their superiors is perhaps the most important reason expedient adults have a tendency to “fall from grace” and, thus, underachieve.

      expedient students can be disloyal, irresponsible, and untrustworthy

      expedient students underachieve when they shirk their homework and other school responsibilities

      expedient students students need to learn that their teachers and parents are not going to let them get away with anything

      expedient students need to be taught that people who cheat are very likely to get caught eventually

      expedient students may need strict ethical limits

      expedient students will play by the rules when it is to their advantage to do so

  • 6. Spontaneity
    • below-average RSMP scores for “order”

      spontaneous people underachieve primarily because they have too many balls in the air

      spontaneous people do not complete what they begin

      spontaneous people tend to start a new task before they finish work on the old task

      spontaneous people lack attention to detail and general lack of planning and organization skills

      spontaneous people are careless

      teaching them organization or planning skills is largely unhelpful because they are disorganized by choice, not by a lack of skills

      spontaneous people value their ability to adjust to events as they arise, they have little use for plans

      spontaneous people with a low need for order can be creative

      spontaneous people need to be taught to stay focused on a single course of action at a time

      spontaneous people need to learn to complete one task before moving on to the next

      spontaneous people also may need to learn how others perceive them

      spontaneous people they are impressing teachers by working on multiple projects, when in reality the teachers are thinking they are too scattered to do any one job well.

      a weak need for order motivates students to be spontaneous and disorganized.

• Relationship Principles:
  • Principle 1. We naturally bond to people whose values and pursuits are similar to ours.

    Principle 2. We naturally separate from people whose values and pursuits are very different from ours.

    Principle 3. The problem in troubled marriages is with the match, not the individuals.

    Principle 4. Conflicts of intrinsically held values are very difficult to resolve.

    Principle 5. Perpetual marriage quarrels are motivated by conflicts of intrinsically held values (which are caused by significant differences in the intensities of basic desires).

    Principle 6. Better to marry the right person to begin with than to need counselors to teach you how to get along with somebody else.

• Self Hugging and Blind Spots
  • Self-hugging is a natural tendency to think that our values are best, not just for us, but potentially for everyone. When people learn that a particular lifestyle makes them happy, they think they have learned something about human nature, when in reality they have only learned something about themselves. Sociable people think, “Socializing is fun,” when they should think, “Socializing is fun for me.” Intellectuals assume, “It is human nature to enjoy learning,” when they should conclude, “I enjoy learning.” Self-reliant psychologists assert, “Autonomy is a sign of human growth,” when they should assert, “Autonomy is important for my growth.” Self-hugging explains why couples tend to have the same quarrels over and over again.
• Causes of Relationship Problems:
  • Incompatibility of Basic Desires

    Incompatibility of the Sexes

    Reiss Relationship Profile

    Compatible Couples

    Troubled Marriages

    Matched (0)

    Nearly matched (2)

    • Strong Physical Activity
    • Strong Status

    Nearly mismatched (4)

    • Family
    • Idealism
    • Saving
    • Social Contact

    Mismatched (2)

    • Honor
    • Romance

    Husband had a strong basic desire for romance and a  weak basic desire for honor, a combination that motivates cheating

    Wife showed a  weak basic desire for romance and a  strong basic desire for honor, a combination that motivates fidelity

    He wants a  sex life she does not want to  give him; he sees nothing wrong with cheating while she thinks cheating is a character flaw.

    His mistake, he thinks, was getting caught.

• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
  • EXTROVERSION (E) VERSUS INTROVERSION (I)
  • SENSING (S) VERSUS INTUITING (N)
  • THINKING (T) VERSUS FEELING (F)
  • JUDGING (J) VERSUS PERCEIVING (P)
• The Sixteen Principles of Motivation
  • Principle I. Basic desires, also called psychological needs, predict behavior in natural environments.

    Principle II. Motivation is the assertion of deeply held values, not the discharge of psychic energy.

    Principle III. We can distinguish between means and ends. Only ends can explain personality and behavior

    Principle IV. Human motivation is multifaceted and cannot be reduced to just two or three kinds. Sixteen basic desires (psychological needs) drive the human psyche

    Principle V. Basic desires have two significant characteristics, called intrinsically valued goal and satiating intensity. The intrinsically valued goal is the aim of a basic desire. The satiating intensity is the desired amount, frequency, or intensity of the intrinsically valued goal.

    Principle VI. Each of the sixteen basic desires can be considered as a continuum of motivation. The points on these continua represent different intensities of motivation. A “sensitivity” or “Aristotelian mean” or “satiating intensity” is the desired point of temporary balance (satiation).

    Principle VII. The sixteen basic desires make us individuals. Everybody embraces the sixteen basic desires, but to different extents. The satiating intensities with which an individual experiences the sixteen basic desires reveal his/her normal personality traits

    Principle VIII. Strong satiating intensities motivate interest in multiple gratification objects.

    Principle IX. Self-report often is a valid method for learning somebody’s basic desires and psychological needs.

    Principle X. People should learn how to make smart choices that gratify basic desires.

    Principle XI. Analyses of childhood feelings and experiences are often of little help in resolving an adolescent’s or adult’s personal problems.

    Principle XII. We have a natural tendency to assume that our values are best, not just for us, but potentially for everyone. Such “self-hugging” motivates (1) personal blind spots; (2) intolerance of people with different values; and (3) a tendency to confuse individuality with abnormality

    Principle XIII. People bond to those with similar values and separate from those with opposite values. (

    Principle XIV. People pay attention to stimuli relevant to their basic desires and tend to ignore stimuli irrelevant to their basic desires

    Principle XV. Positive and negative emotions signal the temporary satiation or frustration of an intrinsically desired goal.

    Principle XVI. The sixteen basic desires potentially motivate vicarious experiences, including preferences for plays, movies, and stories.

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  • Rigel Arcayan
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