Survey on human motivation using a Likert scale Research Paper

Survey on human motivation using a Likert scale - Research Paper Example Many researchers are driven to conceptualize a procedure to take account of and record data related to human motivation in order to develop a theory on why a human is motivated to conduct in a specific activity. McClelland and colleagues (McClelland, Atkinson, Clark, & Lowell, 1953) designed a preliminary experiment to measure motivation in human participants, which was guided by the early works of Henry Murray, who was active in the development of a theory in motivation during the 1930s through the 1960s. Murray (1938) divided human needs into a primary and secondary group. Primary needs were explained as deriving from a biological origin, such as the need for food, water, air, and sex, and the reluctance to experience pain. Murray believed that secondary needs derive from either a biological base or the psychological realm. Examples of secondary needs are achievement, recognition, acquisition, dominance, affiliation, autonomy, and aggression. Murray was led to believe that intense needs are presented with greater frequency over time. This leads to a greater frequency in the intensity of the behavior. Through his work, Murray learned that secondary needs are the driving force behind the personality of an individual. The degree to which primary and secondary needs impact the individual depends on the combination of personality and behavior. During his tenure at the Harvard Psychological Clinic in the 1930s, Murray, with the help of peer Christiana & Morgan, created the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). The TAT is a projective test that is used to assess and encourage personal accounts or descriptions about familial or social interactions. The TAT can help recognize prevailing emotions, responses and disagreements through the 31 provided pictures (Murray, 1938). Each picture can elicit a range of responses from the individual, as the examiner asks for a story about the events taking place in the picture. McClelland (1953)