Review of General Psychology

2004, Vol. 8, No. 3, 179 193

Copyright 2004 by the Educational Publishing Foundation

1089-2680/04/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/1089-2680.8.3.179

Multifaceted Nature of Intrinsic Motivation:

The Theory of 16 Basic Desires
Steven Reiss
The Ohio State University
R. W. White (1959) proposed that certain motives, such as curiosity, autonomy, and
play (called intrinsic motives, or IMs), have common characteristics that distinguish
them from drives. The evidence that mastery is common to IMs is anecdotal, not
scientific. The assertion that intrinsic enjoyment is common to IMs exaggerates the
significance of pleasure in human motivation and expresses the hedonistic fallacy of
confusing consequence for cause. Nothing has been shown scientifically to be common
to IMs that differentiates them from drives. An empirically testable theory of 16 basic
desires is put forth based on psychometric research and subsequent behavior validation.
The desires are largely unrelated to each other and may have different evolutionary
histories.

Motives are reasons people hold for initiating

and performing voluntary behavior. They indicate the meaning of human behavior, and they
may reveal a persons values. Motives often
affect a persons perception, cognition, emotion, and behavior. A person who is highly
motivated to gain social status, for example,
may be observant of marks of social distinction,
may think often about issues pertaining to
wealth, may especially enjoy the feeling of selfimportance, and may behave in ways associated
with upper-class status.1 By defining motives as
reasons, we do not imply that motives are primarily cognitive, any more than establishing a
motive for a crime in a court of law requires
conscious premeditation. A person can have a
reason to behave, and thus a motive, without
necessarily being aware of it.
Aristotle (330 BCE/1953) divided motives into
ends versus means on the basis of the individuals purpose for performing the behavior. Ends
are indicated when a person engages in a behavior for no apparent reason other than that is
what the person desires to do. Examples include
a child playing ball for physical exercise and a
student reading a book out of curiosity. In each
of these examples, the goal is desired for its

own sake. In contrast, means are indicated when

a person performs an act for its instrumental
value. Examples include a professional athlete
who plays ball for a salary and a student who
studies to improve a grade. In each of these
examples, the goal (salary, grade) is desired
because it produces something else. A person
might seek a salary, for example, as a means of
enhancing social status, or high grades as a
means of pleasing a parent.
An analysis of a persons behavior may identify a series of instrumental acts followed by
one or more end goals that complete the behavior chain. For example, a person may take
a second job for the extra salary (instrumental
motive), desire the extra salary to purchase
health care (instrumental motive), and desire the
health care to benefit his or her family (end
goal). This example of a simple behavior chain
shows three behaviors, two motivated by instrumental goals and a third motivated by an end
goal. Logically, only goals that are desired for
their own sake can serve as the end of a
purposeful explanation of a series of human
acts.
The number of instrumental motives is, for
all practical purposes, unlimited. Only imagination limits how many different ways individuals

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Steven Reiss, Department of Psychology, Ohio
State University, 321 McCampbell Hall, 1581 Dodd Drive,
Columbus, OH 43210-1296. E-mail: [email protected]

179

1
This example is based partially on empirical findings of
a correlation between motivation for status and motivation
for wealth (see Reiss & Havercamp, 1998).

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can pursue the end goal of, say, power. Generally, there seems to be little or no point to listing
instrumental motives, because no matter how
comprehensive a list happens to be, somebody
can probably imagine an additional instrumental motive that was overlooked and could be
added. In contrast, the number of ends is limited
by human nature. A central issue for psychology should be to identify and classify the end
purposes of human behavior, because ends indicate the ultimate goals of much of what people do.
Two theoretical perspectives have been advanced concerning end goals. Multifaceted theory holds that the various end goals are largely
unrelated to each other, perhaps to the point
where they are genetically distinct sources of
motivation with different evolutionary histories.
Multifaceted theorists include philosophers who
have suggested lists of the most fundamental
motives of human nature (e.g., Spinoza, 1675/
1949), psychologists who have put forth evolutionary theories of motivation (e.g., McDougall,
1926), and psychologists who have suggested
theories of human needs (e.g., Murray, 1938).
In contrast, unitary or global theorists hold
that end goals can be profitably reduced to a
small number of categories based on common
characteristics. Unitary theorists seek the underlying psychological principles that are expressed by diverse motivational events. The ancient Greek philosophers, for example, reduced
end goals into categories expressing the needs
of the body, mind, and soul (e.g., Plato, 375
BCE/1966). Hedonists distinguished between
end goals associated with pleasure enhancement
and those related to pain reduction (Russell,
1945). Freud (1916/1963) reduced motives to
sexual and aggressive instincts.
Today, some social psychologists classify
end goals into two global categories, called
drives and intrinsic motives (IMs). The distinction has been influential1,921 scholarly publications on intrinsic motivation (IM) appeared
during the period of January 1967 to May 2002
(source: PsycINFO). IM has been investigated
in social psychology (e.g., Ryan & Deci, 2000),
developmental psychology (e.g., Harter, 1981),
clinical psychology (e.g., Eisenberger & Cameron, 1996), organizational psychology (e.g.,
Houkes, Janssen, de Jonge, & Nijhuis, 2001),
and educational psychology (e.g., Kohn, 1993).

In this article, I examine how various end

goals relate to each other. I consider the meaning of the concept of IM and ask, What, if
anything, justifies classifying end goals into a
unitary, global category of intrinsic motivation?
In discussing this issue, I do not consider the
phenomenon of undermining effects, in
which extrinsic rewards decrease intrinsic motivation. These effects have been discussed in
detail in numerous prior publications (Deci,
Koestner, & Ryan, 1999; Eisenberger & Cameron, 1996; Reiss & Sushinsky, 1975). I propose a theory of end goals, called the theory
of 16 basic desires, and summarize evidence
showing the multifaceted nature of end motives.
I begin the discussion by considering the behaviorist concept of drive, because IM was developed to show the limitations of this concept.

Drive Theory
Thorndikes (1911) law of effect reduced human motivation to categories of reward and
punishment. This law holds that responses are
strengthened when they lead to satisfaction and
weakened when they lead to punishment. Psychologists studying learning soon realized
Thorndikes law is a tautology, or a proposition
that is circular (true by definition). The following statements, for example, are circular with
respect to each other: Rewards strengthen behavior and Any event that strengthens behavior is a reward.
The concept of drive was introduced to escape from the circularity of the law of effect
(Brown, 1961). Instead of identifying reward as
any stimulus or satisfying event that strengthens
behavior, drive theorists defined it as a reduction in a state of deprivation. The statements
Drive reduction strengthens behavior and
Drive reduction occurs when a state of deprivation is lessened are not circular with respect
to each other.
Hull (1943) recognized four types of drives:
hunger, thirst, sex, and escape from pain. In
many animal learning experiments, investigators have induced drives by depriving animals
of an important need prior to the experiment.
The deprivation of food, for example, establishes food as a powerful reward, increasing the
animals motivation to learn responses that produce food (Skinner, 1938). Much of animal

MULTIFACETED NATURE OF INTRINSIC MOTIVATION

learning theory is based on the results of psychological studies with food-deprived or waterdeprived animals.2

Unitary IM Theory
The unitary construct of IM was put forth as
an alternative to drive theory. The initial insight
was that many of the motives not explained well
by drive theorymotives such as exploration
(curiosity), autonomy, and play have common properties. To a large extent, unitary IM
theory initially represented an attempt to show
the essential differences between drives and
what psychodynamic theorists have called ego
motives.
In the past, the distinction between drives and
IMs has been thought to have a physiological
basis, at least according to some published remarks. The general idea was that drives such as
hunger and thirst arise from tissue needs involving peripheral components of the nervous
system, whereas IMs arise from psychological
or cognitive processes involving primarily central neural activity. Deci (1975), for example,
wrote that the primary effects of IM are in the
tissues of the central nervous system rather than
in the non-nervous system tissues (p. 61). This
physiological paradigm for distinguishing
drives from IMs always lacked scientific support; indeed, we now know that it is physiological nonsense. Motives such as hunger and
thirst, for example, involve significant central
nervous system or cognitive activity (Berntson
& Cacioppo, 2000). Both the behaviorist concept of drive and the concept of IM as nondrive
have no precise physiological meaning and
originally were put forth at a time when little
was known about the physiology of motivation.

Mastery
Whites (1959) article on competence motivation (mastery) was arguably the start of the
current era of scholarship on IM. White (1959)
asserted that exploration, manipulation, and
play are not drives originating from states of
deprivation partially because they are not related to visceral needs comparable to hunger,
thirst, or sex (p. 301). Exploration and play
cannot be regarded as leading to any kind of
consummatory response (p. 301). He further

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argued that motives that are not drives have

very vital common properties (p. 318). In
particular, such motives are concerned with effective interactions with the environment, under
the general heading of competence (p. 317).
Whites motive for competence has been variously called effectance motivation, competence
motivation, and mastery. Deci (1975) later embraced Whites hypothesis that competence motivation is a common property of nondrives,
defining IM as behavior which a person engages in to feel competent and self-determining (p. 61).
White appreciated the need to validate his
idea of effectance motivation. He wrote, No
doubt it will at first seem arbitrary to propose a
single motivational conception in connection
with so many diverse kinds of behavior. What
do we gain by attributing motivational unity to
such a diverse array of activities? (White,
1959, p. 318). He cited both Piaget (1952) and
anecdotal observations to support his hypothesis that effectance motivation is common to
exploration, manipulation, and play.
White speculated on the development of effectance motivation. He suggested that in both
infants and young children,
it seems sensible to conceive of effectance motivation
as undifferentiated. Later in life it becomes profitable
to distinguish various motives such as cognizance,
construction, mastery, and achievement. It is my view
that all such motives have a root in effectance motivation. (White, 1959, p. 323)

Some of the appeal of Whites (1959) theory

is suggested by the behavior of young animals
and children. Young lion cubs, for example,
sometimes seem to be bursting with energy
they get into mischief, play with the other cubs,
explore their environment, and have a tendency
to wander away from the group. In other words,
they express self-assertive energy as play, exploration, manipulation, a desire for physical
2
Inducing drive prior to experiments lessens the influence of individual differences in motivation (trait motives),
which I later argue is the key to understanding and predicting much of human behavior. If John has a much stronger
appetite than Sam, for example, this may be evident under
many circumstances but less so when both John and Sam
are significantly deprived of food and extremely hungry.
The typical behaviorist animal learning experiment was
poorly suited for observing the effects of individual differences in motivation (Reiss & Havercamp, 1996).

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exercise, and a desire for autonomy. They create

a strong impression that these behaviors are
linked by a common motive of self-assertion.
Anecdotal observations, however, do not
constitute scientific evidence. As far as I could
determine, no researcher has presented scientific tests of the hypothesis that mastery is the
aim of exploration, autonomy, and play. White
(1959) cited as evidence for his hypothesis anecdotal examples of children at play and his
interpretations of what those children were really aiming for with their behavior. Although
his interpretations were reasonable and perhaps
even insightful, they did not rise to the standards of scientific evidence. Part of the difficulty with Whites hypothesis is the lack of
quantification and measurement, which are two
pillars of a scientific approach. As Harter (1981)
put it, The global nature of this construct [effectance motivation] has made it difficult to
operationalize. Whites formulation does not
readily lend itself to an empirical test (p. 301).
White (1959) did not develop a measure of
competence motivation. He did not assess correlations between competence motivation and
various IMs, showing that they are significantly
higher than correlations between competence
motivation and drives. White did not propose
specific studies to test his concept. He did not
say what might falsify his theory. He developed
some interesting ideas, but he did not put forth
scientific support for those ideas.
Kagan (1972) recognized the need to develop
measures of effectance motivation. He suggested that they be developed on the basis of
principles similar to those used in the Thematic
Apperception Test (TAT; Murray, 1943). No
such measure, however, has been validated. The
validity of the TAT, moreover, has been called
into question (Zubin, Eron, & Schumer, 1965).
Today, few researchers use the TAT or other
storytelling techniques to measure motivation.
Whites (1959) argument that mastery is a
common element of the IMs is based on a very
broad interpretation of competence motivation.
He defined competence motivation so broadly
that it includes nearly all motives. One could
argue, for example, that drives also express a
desire to interact effectively with the environment. In hunger, for example, people want to
become effective hunters to find food. Some
people spend a considerable amount of energy

to become sexually effective in attracting others. By putting forth a sufficiently general definition of competence motivation, it seems possible to argue that nearly any collection of diverse motives may have common elements.
The hypothesis that effectance motivation is
undifferentiated at birth and later differentiates
into the various IMs has not been tested. Nobody has observed the predicted process of differentiation of mastery motivation. Nobody has
conducted measurements of effectance motivation in an undifferentiated state and in its predicted differentiated form, showing that the
former is linked to the latter.
In conclusion, children show a need to feel
competent and master their environments. This
need, called mastery, is important in childhood
development and in human behavior generally.
The relationship between mastery and other ego
motives, however, is not well understood. Researchers need to develop methods to explore
more fully Whites hypothesis that mastery is
the aim of important ego motives such as exploration, manipulation, and autonomy.

Intrinsic Pleasures
Intrinsic pleasure is another common characteristic of IMs, according to unitary theorists.
This viewpoint holds that people are motivated
to engage in activities they expect to experience
as pleasurable. When the pleasures are inherent
to the behavior or activity itselfsuch as drawing for its own sakeIM is imputed (Ryan &
Deci, 2000; Weiner, 1995). When the pleasures
are external to the behavior or activitysuch as
drawing for a good player award extrinsic
motivation is imputed. As Deci and Ryan
(1985) put it, When people are intrinsically
motivated, they experience interest and enjoyment, they feel competent and self-determining,
they perceive the locus of causality for their
behavior to be internal, and in some instances,
they experience flow (p. 34). Weiner (1995)
defined IM as a source of motivation arising
from the enjoyment of an activity.
Are IMs pleasurable? IM theorists may
have erred in embracing hedonism, the philosophy that pleasure motivates behavior. Over the
centuries, scholars have shown a number of
significant limitations of pleasure theories. Applied to the concept of intrinsic pleasures, for

MULTIFACETED NATURE OF INTRINSIC MOTIVATION

example, we may question whether IM theorists

have exaggerated the extent to which certain
activities really are pleasurable.
IM theorists arguably have exaggerated the
motivational significance of intellectual pleasures. They have held that everybody is born
with the potential to enjoy learning (e.g., Kohn,
1993). When students do not enjoy learning, as
in the example of high school underachievers,
IM theorists blame ineffective teaching, boring
curricula, and the widespread use of extrinsic
incentives such as grades (Kohn, 1993). To
motivate students in school, unitary IM theorists
advise teachers to find ways to make learning
fun (Lepper & Cordova, 1992) and to tap into
students natural curiosity.
IM theorists have presented little scientific
evidence to support the hypothesis that everybody is born with the potential to enjoy learning. Anecdotal examples of adolescents and
adults show that many people react to intellectual activities as if they were unpleasant. People
often sustain thought on a problem for no more
than brief periods of time; the overwhelming
majority of adults do not read books; documentaries are among the least popular forms of film;
and even many academics reduce intellectual
activity soon after they earn a tenured teaching
position. These examples are arguably signs
that intellectual activity is naturally unpleasant
under many circumstances or if engaged in for
more than a few minutes at a time.
IM theorists may have put forth a misleading,
almost romanticized description of the inquiry
process. The inquiry process is not always pleasurable and often involves significant negative
emotions. Many scientists have written about
the agony of the creative inquiry process and the
emotional ups and downs of research.
Whereas IM theorists have said that the psychological aim of inquiry is intellectual pleasure, the multifaceted theory I propose later in
this article implies that aims of inquiry are
learning and knowledge. Under my viewpoint,
highly curious people desire knowledge and
understanding so strongly they pursue the inquiry process even when they must endure anxieties, severe criticism, devastating failures, and
other frustrations. Knowledge is the end goal of
curiosity, but thinking, exploration, and problem solving are not necessarily pleasurable.
Thinking can be frustrating, exploration can

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arouse fear (James, 1890/1950), and problem

solving can be frustrating.
In conclusion, one problem with the concept
of intrinsic pleasures is that it implies that intrinsically motivated behavior is more enjoyable than it seems to be. Intrinsic pleasure may
not be a common characteristic of IMs because
sometimes IMs are not necessarily pleasurable.
Does intrinsic pleasure motivate much behavior? Even when the performance of an
intrinsically motivated behavior is enjoyable,
we cannot assume that the behavior was motivated by the anticipation of such pleasure. Pleasure can be a consequence of behavior rather
than a motivating cause.
According to philosophical critiques of hedonism (e.g., Russell, 1945), pleasure is a consequence of gratification of a motive other than
pleasure seeking. Please consider Csikszentmihalyis (1990) hypothesis that intrinsically motivated people climb mountains in order to experience a special kind of pleasure called flow.
Reiss (2000a) suggested that flow is a consequence of satiating the desire for physical activity, not an intrinsic property of climbing.
Csikszentmihalyi (2000) replied that people
who have never climbed before may not know
the joys of climbing but that after a person
learns that climbing is pleasurable, that individual subsequently climbs in order to experience
such pleasures. If I feel happy after hiking in
the mountains, argued Csikszentmihalyi
(2000), chances are I will want to experience
that happiness again and take another hike (p.
1163). Pleasures are both causes and consequences of behavior, according to Csikszentmihalyi (2000).
Not so. If I am physically tired, for example,
I will not enjoy climbing mountains. The enjoyment does not arise from the act of climbing per
se, only from the act of climbing while satiating
the motive for physical exercise. The pleasure is
not inherent to the activity but is a nonmotivational byproduct of satiating the desire for physical activity.
Suppose that Mary is a curious person who
reads, learns, and then experiences pleasure.
Suppose that Susan is an active person who
climbs a mountain and then experiences pleasure. In predicting and explaining the behavior
of these two people, we need to know that one
person is motivated by curiosity and the other is

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motivated by fitness. We add nothing significant

by invoking unitary IM theory and arguing that
it was anticipated pleasure or flow that motivated each.

Individual Differences
Unitary theory seems inconsistent with individual differences regarding different IMs. If
competence motivation is the developmental origin of both autonomy and curiosity, people
with above average competence motivation also
should develop above average autonomy and
curiosity, and so trait autonomy and trait curiosity should be significantly correlated. Highly
autonomous people should be highly curious.
These implications of unitary IM theory are
unsupported by scientific evidence. In factor
studies of the Reiss Profile psychometric instrument (Reiss & Havercamp, 1998), moreover,
the correlation between factors assessing trait
autonomy (independence) and trait curiosity
was virtually nil (r .05, N 1,154). Because
highly autonomous people are not necessarily
highly curious, how can autonomy and curiosity
be about the same thing (mastery)?

Conclusion
White (1959) put forth the thesis that IMs
such as curiosity, autonomy, and play have
common characteristics justifying a single
name (p. 317), meaning a single category of
motivation. No common characteristics have
been shown scientifically. Neither competence
motivation nor intrinsic pleasure has been
shown to distinguish IMs from drives. Whites
hypothesis lacks adequate scientific support and
seems inconsistent with individual differences.
White himself admitted that his hypothesis was
speculative in that the IMs appear to be too
diverse to have significant common
characteristics.

Multifaceted Nature of End Goals

Throughout history many scholars have expressed a multifaceted theory of end motivation
(doing something for its own sake). Aristotle,
for example, identified 12 end motives: confidence, pleasure, saving, magnificence, honor,
ambition, patience, sincerity, conversation, so-

cial contact, modesty, and righteousness. Descartes (1637/1958), on the other hand, listed six
passions of the soul. He wrote, There are
only six [intrinsic motives] which are simple
and primitive, viz., wonder, love, hatred, desire,
joy and sadness. All others are composed of
these six (Descartes, 1637/1958, p. 291).
James (1890/1950) and McDougall (1926) recognized between 8 and 20 instincts.3 When
psychodynamic psychology gained influence,
Murray (1938) reinterpreted McDougalls list
of instincts into a list of 20 basic psychological
needs.4 Maslow (1943) also put forth a theory
of diverse human motives.
Some psychologists have taken strong exception to efforts to develop lists of end motives.
Critics have argued that 8 to 20 fundamental
motives are too many to be studied profitably
(Freeman, Anderson, Azer, Girolami, & Scotti,
1998). Biologists study scores of enzymes, and
chemists study 115 elements. Because we do
not say that biologists study too many enzymes or that chemists study too many elements, why should we think that 8 to 20 basic
motives are too many for psychologists to
study? Scientific rules permit psychologists to
study as many fundamental motives as can be
identified. We do not want to invent a motive
for every behavior, of course, but we also do not
want to proceed according to invalid, preconceived notions of how many motives there are.
Evolutionary theory suggests a multifaceted
model of IMs. When we consider the various
IMs, they seem relevant to different survival
needs, suggesting possibly distinct motives controlled by different genes. Efficacy, for example, motivates building nests and other forms of
shelter, which have the survival value of pro3
In the JamesMcDougall theory, a human instinct is an
automatically occurring desire or motive, not a rigid pattern
of unlearned behavior. The idea is that people do not deliberately choose their psychological needs. As Aristotle
(330 BCE/1953) put it, people choose means, not ends.
Aristotle was making a valid point in logic (if an individual
attempted to choose an end, the option chosen would be
instrumental to the criteria on which the choice was based).
In contrast, James and McDougall were reporting anecdotal
observations of human behavior.
4
Henry A. Murray (1938) acknowledged the origin of his
famous list of needs when he wrote, This classification of
needs is not very different from lists constructed by McDougall, Garnett, and a number of other writers (p. 84).

MULTIFACETED NATURE OF INTRINSIC MOTIVATION

tecting animals from harsh environmental elements. Autonomythe desire for freedom
motivates animals to leave the nest when they
come of age, spreading the search for food over
a larger geographical area. These considerations
suggest at least a possibility of separate evolutionary histories, which supports the idea that
IMs are multifaceted.

Factorial Studies of End Motivation

Since 1995, I have been developing a list of
diverse IMs, variously called the theory of 16
basic desires or sensitivity theory. My graduate
students and I have been gathering evidence
showing the reliability, factorial validity, and
behavioral validity of this list. By validating a
variety of largely unrelated end motives (what
people seek for its own sake), my colleagues
and I have sought to show that end motivation
is, in fact, multifaceted.
Reiss and Havercamp (1996, 1998) defined
basic or fundamental motives to have three features: (a) end purposes (IMs), (b) universal motivators, and (c) psychological importance. The
criterion of psychological importance is intended to focus multifaceted theory on behaviors that historically have been central to psychological personality theory. Eating, for example, is considered to be psychologically
important because aspects of culture, many everyday activities, and some clinical disorders
are concerned with food and food preparation;
on the other hand, thirst is not considered to be
a fundamental motivator because it does not
account for a significant amount of everyday
behavior of interest to psychologists. Without
the criterion of psychological significance, there
may be scores of basic motives additional to
those considered in this article, including one
for each biological need.
We began our effort to identify the basic
motives of human behavior by developing a list
of every motive we could imagine. We consulted a variety of reference sources and asked
colleagues for suggestions. We obtained ideas
from Murrays (1938) theory of needs, motivational studies, psychopathology articles and
books, and psychiatric classification manuals.
We pared down our initial list of items by
eliminating redundancies and motives that have
relatively little psychological significance. As a

185

result of this process, an initial list of nearly 500

items was reduced to 328 items.
Reiss and Havercamp (1998) asked research
participants to rate how important each of the
motives we identified was in determining their
behavior. Initially, we conducted four factor
studies (three exploratory studies and one confirmatory study), each with a different sample of
participants. The combined total of 2,554 people included people of diverse ages (12 to 76)
and stations in life (e.g., high school students,
college students, military people, fast food
workers, seminary students, human service providers, nursing home residents). The results of
an initial confirmatory factor study supported a
15-factor solution. On the basis of these results,
we constructed a self-report instrument, called
the Reiss Profile of Fundamental Goals and
Motivational Sensitivities. The initial version of
the instrument assessed 15 fundamental
motives.
We developed a scale to assess saving, or the
desire to collect, which was added as a 16th
factor because we became convinced that collecting is an end motive we had overlooked. In
a study of 512 adults solicited from sources in
urban and rural Ohio, Havercamp (1998) confirmed the 16-factor solution (the original 15
factors plus saving) to the revised 128-item
Reiss Profile instrument.
In conclusion, when people were asked to
self-report their motives, they reported 16 factor-distinct categories of psychologically significant end motives (IMs). Any effort to reduce
this list to only a few categories would result in
the loss of significant information, and this
should produce a vastly inferior system (compared with the full 16 basic desires) for analyzing and predicting peoples behavior.
Reliability of factors. Testretest reliabilities for the Reiss Profile have been reported
(Havercamp & Reiss, 2003; Reiss & Havercamp, 1998), with mean correlations of .83
(range .80 to .96) for 2-week reliability and
.80 (range .69 to .88) for 4-week reliability.
These testretest reliabilities exceed those reported for some personality tests such as the
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory2
(Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, &
Kaemmer, 1989). They support the hypothesis
that the Reiss Profile assesses trait motives.
Reiss and Havercamp (1998) reported Cron-

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bachs alpha coefficients of internal reliability

for each of 15 scales (all except saving). The
median alpha value was .86 (range .70 to .92),
suggesting good internal reliability for the Reiss
Profile scales.
Social desirability. Havercamp and Reiss
(2003) assessed the social desirability of the
Reiss Profile with a sample of 171 undergraduate student volunteers, who completed both the
Reiss Profile and the MarloweCrowne Social
Desirability Scale (MCSDS; Crowne & Marlowe, 1960). The correlations computed between the MCSDS and each of the Reiss Profile
scales ranged in absolute value from .01 to .39
(Mdn .09, M .16). For sake of comparison,
Jackson (1984) reported correlations between
the Personality Research Form (PRF) and social
desirability scales ranging from .01 to .44
(Mdn .20, M .22). These results show that
the Reiss Profile self-reports are minimally affected by social desirability.
Universal values. Additional support for the
multifaceted model comes from research on values. Factorial studies of values should produce
results similar to factorial studies of end goals
because, as a matter of logic, all end goals are
values, and ultimate values are potentially motivating, or reasons to instigate behavior. (Because
ends and values are logically related ideas, for
centuries motivation was studied under the topic
of ethicsfor example, Aristotles lecture notes
on motivation were published in his book Nichomachean Ethics; Aristotle, 330 BCE/1953.)
These considerations imply that empirically
derived lists of basic desires and universal human values should be similar. In a series of
studies analyzing survey data from 97 samples
from 44 countries, Schwartz (1994) identified 10 universal values. All 10 of Schwartzs
universal values correspond to basic motives in
Reisss system. Schwartzs value of power, for
example, falls under Reisss motive called
power. Additional matches are Schwartzs
value of achievement and Reisss motive of
power; Schwartzs hedonism and Reisss social
contact are similar because each includes funloving behavior; Schwartzs excitement is the
opposite of Reisss tranquility (the same motive
but assessed from different ends of a continuum); Schwartzs self-directing falls under
Reisss motive of independence; Schwartzs
value universalism is Reisss motive of ideal-

ism; Schwartzs benevolence falls under Reisss

motives of family and social contact;
Schwartzs tradition falls under Reisss honor;
the value of conformity as defined by Schwartz
falls under Reisss motive for vengeance; and
Schwartzs value of security falls under Reisss
motive of order. The two bodies of research,
thus, produced significantly similar results,
showing the multifaceted nature of ultimate values or IMs.

Theory of 16 Basic Desires

Reisss theory of 16 basic desires, which is
summarized in Table 1, is put forth as a multifaceted model of IM, alternative to the unitary
models of IM. Hypothesis 1 is that each of
the 16 basic desires is a trait motive. With the
possible exceptions of the motives of idealism
and acceptance, the 16 basic desires motivate
animals as well as people (Hypothesis 2). Theoretically, the 16 basic desires are considered to
be genetically distinct with different evolutionary histories (Hypothesis 3). The satiation of
each basic desire produces an intrinsically valued feeling of joy, a different joy for each basic
desire (Hypothesis 4). Loosely speaking, people
behave as if they are trying to maximize their
experiences of the 16 intrinsic joys.
Although everybody embraces the 16 basic
desires, individuals prioritize them differently
(Hypothesis 5). Generally, the most important
basic desires for explaining a persons behavior
are those that are unusually strong or unusually
weak compared with appropriate norms. For
example, some people devote much of their
time to satiating their desire for curiosity, others
seek power, and still others are out for revenge.
Those basic desires that are neither strong nor
weak compared with appropriate norms are generally less important in explaining a persons
behavior. The satiation of a basic desire is always temporary; soon after we satisfy a basic
desire, the motive reasserts itself and needs to
be satisfied again. After we socialize, for example, the desire for social contact may reassert
itself within hours.
Each basic desire is theoretically regarded as
a continuum of potential motivation anchored
by opposite values (Hypothesis 6). As shown in
Figure 1, the theory of 16 basic desires holds
that individuals are motivated to aim for a point

MULTIFACETED NATURE OF INTRINSIC MOTIVATION

187

Table 1
Reisss 16 Motives
Motive name

Motive

Animal behavior
Dominant animal eats more food

Efficacy

Curiosity

Desire to influence (including leadership;

related to mastery)
Desire for knowledge

Wonder

Independence

Desire to be autonomous

Status

Desire for social standing (including

desire for attention)
Desire for peer companionship (desire to
play)
Desire to get even (including desire to
compete, to win)
Desire to obey a traditional moral code

Animal learns to find food more

efficiently and learns to avoid
prey
Motivates animal to leave nest,
searching for food over larger
area
Attention in nest leads to better
feedings
Safety in numbers for animals in
wild
Animal fights when threatened
Animal runs back to herd when
stared at by prey
Unclear: Do animals show true
altruism?
Strong animals eat more and are
less vulnerable to prey
Reproduction essential for
species survival
Protection of young facilitates
survival
Cleanliness rituals promote
health
Nutrition essential for survival

Loyalty

Power

Social contact
Vengeance
Honor
Idealism
Physical
exercise
Romance

Desire to improve society (including

altruism, justice)
Desire to exercise muscles
Desire for sex (including courting)

Family

Desire to raise own children

Order
Eating

Desire to organize (including desire for

ritual)
Desire to eat

Acceptance
Tranquility
Saving

Desire for approval

Desire to avoid anxiety, fear
Desire to collect, value of frugality

of moderation (called a set point or sensitivity)in other words, people generally are motivated to experience what Aristotle called a
moderate mean. Most people aim for a moderate degree of power, a moderate degree of status, a moderate degree of knowledge, and so on
for each basic desire. Individual differences,
however, are significant (Hypothesis 5). In Figure 1, for example, Henry aims for a lower
degree of social contact than does Jake. When

Figure 1.

Unclear: animal self-concept?

Animal runs away from danger
Animal hoards food and other
materials

Intrinsic feeling

Freedom

Self-importance
Fun
Vindication

Compassion
Vitality
Lust
Love
Stability
Satiation (avoidance
of hunger)
Self-confidence
Safe, relaxed
Ownership

the amount of social contact Henry or Jake

experience is less than they desire, they are
motivated to socialize. When the amount of
social contact they experience is about what
they desire, they are temporarily satiated. When
the amount of social contact is more than they
desire, they are motivated to be alone to balance
out their experiences.
Suppose that Henry and Jake attend a party
that lasts 3 hours. Henry enjoys the party at first

The basic desire for social contact as a continuum of end motivation.

188

REISS

but then feels uncomfortable because he is experiencing much more social activity than he
desires. Jake, on the other hand, still wants more
fun when the party ends. After the party, Henry
goes home and spends the next morning alone
to balance his experience toward a low average
amount of social contact, whereas Jake goes to
the nearest bar to keep the party rolling.
The theory of 16 basic desires holds that what
is motivating are discrepancies between the
amount of an intrinsic satisfier that is desired
and the amount that was recently experienced
(Hypothesis 7). When a person experiences
more power than he or she desires, the individual is motivated to be submissive for a period of
time to balance experience toward the desired
rate. When a person experiences less power
than he or she desires, the individual is motivated to be domineering for a period of time.
Thus, a person who generally has a powerful
personality may at times be motivated to be
submissive, and a person with a submissive
personality may at times be motivated to be
dominant.
According to the theory of 16 basic desires,
vengeful people are motivated to experience
high degrees of vindication, competition, contentiousness, conflict, and aggression, whereas
peacemakers are motivated to experience low
degrees of these experiences. When a vengeful
person experiences a period of timesay, a few
daysthat is conflict free, the individual is motivated to get into arguments, fights, and competitions. The longer the period of time that is
conflict free, the stronger becomes the motivation to pick a fight with somebody. If the individual goes too far and provokes more of a
fight than he or she had anticipated, the person
becomes motivated by peacemaking behavior to
balance experience back toward the individuals
Aristotlean mean (de Waal, 1989). On the other
hand, peacemakers are generally conflict
avoidant and motivated to experience a below
average degree of strife. When peacemakers
experience even ordinary amounts of everyday
strife and conflict, they become motivated to
make peace. Their tolerance for strife is much
below that of the average individual.
As was noted previously, basic desires organize our attention, cognitions, feelings, and behavior into a coherent action or whole (Hypothesis 8). We pay attention to stimuli that are

relevant to the satisfaction of our desires, and

we tend to ignore stimuli that do not satisfy our
desires. A person with a strong desire for vengeance, for example, is attentive to possible
insults or provocations, whereas a person with a
weak desire for vengeance may not even notice
an insult. A person with a strong desire for order
pays attention to how neat and clean a room is
and notices when things are out of place. In
contrast, a person with a weak desire for order
may not even notice when dirty dishes are in the
sink or the house is a mess.

Validation of 16 Basic Desires

In science we choose the competing theory
that potentially explains the most data. Multifaceted theory seems to have significant generality of application: Reiss (2000b) has shown
how it is at least theoretically possible to hold
that human relationships, careers, family life,
sports, and spirituality are organized to satiate
the 16 basic desires. The 16 basic desires also
have been applied to psychopathology (Reiss &
Havercamp, 1996) and to mental retardation
(Dykens & Rosner, 1999; Wiltz & Reiss, 2003).
Reisss model of 16 basic desires was developed in the tradition of comprehensive personality theories, but unlike previous global personality theories, Reisss model is testable.
Is self-report a valid basis to determine that
motives are multifaceted? Do people validly
self-report their motives? Are they just talking? Validation research on the 16 basic desires has produced significant evidence that
what people say motivates them is consistent
with how they behave in the real world.
Convergent validity. The convergent validity of the Reiss Profile is the extent to which
individual factors correlate with other scales
intended to measure the same or similar constructs. Havercamp and Reiss (2003) showed
that the Reiss Profile power and order scales
correlated .55 and .60, respectively, with the
dominance and order scales of the PRF. This is
noteworthy because the PRF scales have been
validated against the Strong Vocational Interest
Blank. For college student populations, the PRF
scale for dominance predicts social behavior
(Jaccard, 1974) and participation in student activities (Pierce & Schwartz, 1971). Further, the
Reiss Profile scale for tranquility has been cor-

MULTIFACETED NATURE OF INTRINSIC MOTIVATION

related with the ReissEpsteinGursky Anxiety

Sensitivity Index (Peterson & Reiss, 1992) because of significant overlapping item content
(Havercamp & Reiss, 2003).
Validated profiles. A series of studies were
conducted to evaluate how the 16 motives are
related to behavior. Because motivation has diverse applications, these studies evaluated issues as varied as spirituality, sports, and choice
of club or college major.
In a study of religious motivation, Reiss
(2000c) tested 558 adults who had identified
themselves as very, somewhat, or not religious.
How religious a person identified himself to be
(called religiosity) was associated with above
average (high) Reiss Profile motivational scores
for honor and family and with below average
(low) scores for vengeance and independence
(autonomy). The study showed that religiosity
is a valid predictor of how people self-report
their 16 basic desires.
The finding that religiosity is associated with
high honor suggests that people choose a religion partially out of a desire to be loyal to ones
parents and heritage. People overwhelmingly
choose the religion of their parents. The finding
that low vengeance is associated with religiosity
may reflect the Christian value of kindness and
turning the other cheek. Family values also
drive people to religion, suggesting that religion
provides a psychological means of strengthening family life.
The finding that religiosity is associated with
a desire for low independence (low autonomy)
is particularly interesting. Many religious writings encourage opening ones heart to God.
Under the theory of 16 basic desires, this message expresses a desire for psychological support, which plays a central role in the universal
human need to moderate the psychological
sense of autonomy (existence as an independent
being). The results of testing with the Reiss
Profile in fact showed that the more religious a
person was, the greater was the individuals
motivational score for psychological support
(low independence). The results implied that
people embrace images of supportive and attentive deities not because they fear death but
primarily because images of these gods moderate feelings of autonomy, which many people
experience as aversive when the feelings are too
strong.

189

Although turning to god images for psychological support is sometimes misunderstood as a

weakness of religious people (hence, the criticism that people use God as a psychological
crutch), the results of testing with the Reiss
Profile showed that, at least for the sample of
people tested, the religious desire for psychological support was unrelated to any desire for
weakness. Although religious people had a low
score for independence (probably reflecting the
desire for support from God), they had an average score for power (implying they do not
seek submission to secular leaders). Hence,
many religious people find appealing the message that opening oneself to God is a sign of
strength. The Bible, for example, teaches that
submission to God can produce such strength
that the faithful will be able to toss mountains
into the sea.
Since antiquity, religious leaders have taught
that autonomy needs to be moderated; in Buddhism, for example, the ultimate aim is to become One with the Nirvana. The theory of 16
basic desires recognizes a human need to moderate autonomy to an individually determined
sensitivity level, so that too much autonomy
relative to the sensitivity point is experienced as
aversive. In unitary IM theory, however, autonomy is explicitly regarded as a joy and implicitly regarded as an infinite joy. As we have seen,
the results of studies of spirituality support multifaceted theory.
If the 16 basic desires are truly fundamental
to human behavior, however, they should be
able to explain not only deeply meaningful activities such as religion but also recreational
activities such as sports. Reiss, Wiltz, and Sherman (2001) administered the Reiss Profile to
415 college students who had participated in
zero, one, or two or more varsity sports at the
high school or college level. How many sports
the student participated in, called athleticism,
was found to be associated with motivational
traits for physical exercise, social contact, family, vengeance, power, and low curiosity. As
was expected, the single most important correlate of sports participation was the intrinsic enjoyment of physical exercise. The difference in
the strength of the motive for physical exercise
between students who had played zero versus
two or more varsity sports was about a full
standard deviation. Although the association be-

190

REISS

tween intrinsic enjoyment of physical exercise

and athletic participation may strike some as
obvious, actually it is inconsistent with unitary
IM theory, which has held that mastery is the
primary intrinsic motivation shown by athletic
participation (Deci & Ryan, 1985).
Havercamp and Reiss (2003) showed motivational profiles for eight interest groups, providing additional evidence linking the 16 basic
desires to real-world behavior. The groups were
college students who joined fraternities and sororities at a state university, philosophy majors,
Reserve Officers Training Corps students, volunteers, culinary students, dieters, seminarians,
and varsity athletes.
P. Kavanaugh (personal communication, December 2002) tested on the Reiss Profile a group
of 49 high school sophomores who were doing
poorly in school. They scored low for curiosity,
honor, and idealism and moderately high for
vengeance and social contact. This pattern of
results suggests that the students were easily
frustrated by intellectual effort and that they
were psychologically disconnected from their
parents (low honor) and community (low idealism) but were connected to peers (high social
contact). How these students self-reported their
motives was consistent with what was known
about their behavior in terms of their low
achievement and high rate of disciplinary
problems.

Correlation Matrix
Evidence that the 16 basic desires are largely
unrelated to each other supports multifaceted
theory. Havercamp (1998) calculated the average correlations among the 16 factors of the
Reiss Profile at about .15. More than 81% of the
values in the intercorrelation matrix had an absolute value of less than .20, indicating that the
scales were largely unrelated. The most strongly
related scales are power and status (r .58),
vengeance and status (r .54), and honor and
idealism (r .48). These results support a multifaceted approach to end motivation and argue
against unitary theories.

Conclusion
Since antiquity, scholars have debated
whether human motives can be reduced to a few

global categories. Ancient Greek philosophers,

for example, distinguished between motives associated with the body (such as hunger and
thirst) and those associated with the intellect
(such as curiosity, morality, and friendship). In
the early part of the 20th century, Freud (1916/
1963) argued that all motives are ultimately
about sex. Hedonists, on the other hand, reduced all motives to pleasure seeking versus
pain avoidance.
The concept of IM can be viewed as a modern example of the effort in motivational reductionism. IM theorists divide motives into two
global categories: drives (also called extrinsic
motivation) and intrinsic motivation. Drives are
about biological survival needs, whereas IMs
pertain to what some have called ego motives.
Hunger, thirst, and pain avoidance are paradigm
examples of drives, whereas curiosity, autonomy, and play are paradigm examples of IMs.
White (1959) put forth the thesis of commonalities among IMs; specifically, he argued that
IMs are about competence (mastery). In advancing his idea of competence motivation,
White explicitly acknowledged that his thesis
seems implausible because he was asserting
commonalities among a diverse collection of
motives. Although many embraced Whites
ideas because they seemed to broaden the study
of motivation to include ego motives, White
offered no scientific evidence to support his
theory of competence motivation he developed no measure, conducted no studies to test
his idea, and did not suggest any specific studies
that might confirm or falsify his hypothesis. In
the 50 years since White wrote his article, no
scientific evidence has emerged directly showing that competence motivation is the underlying theme of diverse ego motives such as play,
curiosity, and autonomy. Further, no scientific
evidence has been put forth directly supporting
Whites hypothesis that IMs have a common
origin: There is no direct scientific evidence for
the hypothesis that people are born with undifferentiated competence motivation that later is
manifested as the motives of mastery, autonomy, play, and curiosity. Further, the distinction
between drive motivation arising from the organs or periphery and intrinsic motivation arising from the central nervous system or brain is
physiological nonsense.

MULTIFACETED NATURE OF INTRINSIC MOTIVATION

The hypothesis that intrinsic enjoyment is

common to IMs also remains unproved. Arguably, this hypothesis implies significant similarities between global IM theory and the flawed
philosophy of hedonism. It is unclear whether
intrinsic enjoyment is a unitary phenomenon:
Ancient Greek philosophers, for example, argued that pleasures differ in kind (Aristotle, 330
BCE/1953), implying that pleasure theory cannot
support unitary or global theories of motivation.
Further, logicians have identified errors in pleasure theory, noting that pleasure theorists sometimes confuse consequence for cause. Pleasure
is often not intrinsic to an activity; it occurs as
a consequence of satiating motives (Russell,
1945). Whether pleasure is experienced depends on a persons motivation; for example,
mountain climbing can be pleasant when one
desires physical exercise but unpleasant when
one is tired and desires rest. Thus, it is not
mountain climbing per se that is pleasurable but
the potential the activity holds for satiating motives, such as the motive for physical activity or
the motive for achievement. Logicians say that
pleasure is usually a nonmotivational byproduct
of satiating motives, not the aim of the motive
(Russell, 1945).
A number of empirical considerations argue
against unitary theory and in favor of multifaceted theories. Human individuality may be too
diverse to be described adequately in terms of
global categories such as IM and extrinsic motivation. Many people who are strongly motivated toward play are not necessarily strongly
motivated by intellectual curiosity or autonomy.
If curiosity and autonomy both are motivational
because of a universal desire for competence,
why are some people motivated much more by
curiosity than autonomy or vice versa? It is
unclear how observations of such individual
differences can be made consistent with the
theory that play, curiosity, and autonomy are
really about the same motive, a desire for
competence.
Reiss and Havercamps research on 16 fundamental desires provides additional evidence
of the multifaceted nature of end motivation.
This theory provides a comprehensive analysis
of individual differences in trait motives. A
series of factorial studies have confirmed the
16-factor model (Reiss & Havercamp, 1998);
similarly, values (logically, values express end

191

motives) also have been shown to be multifaceted (Schwartz, 1994). Competence is only one
of the values people holdit is not the common
root of diverse values. People also value ends
such as status, social contact, revenge, physical
activity, and autonomy.
Evidence for multifaceted theory extends significantly beyond the initial factorial studies
suggesting 15 and 16 factor solutions for basic
motivation. All 16 basic motives have been
validated against criterion behavior outside laboratories and experiments (see Havercamp &
Reiss, 2003). Concurrent validity and social desirability studies also support the multifaceted
model.
The sensitivity model holds that 16 genetically distinct desires (IMs) combine to determine many psychologically significant motives.
The model supports numerous predictions about
behavior and provides standardized measures
(such as the Reiss Profile self-report version)
needed to test the validity of the predictions.
Future research is indicated to study this model
and the role of the 16 basic desires in human
behavior. This theory, if valid, shows the multifaceted nature of human IMs. Researchers
studying unitary IM theory need to show they
can predict behavior as well as or better than
Reisss model by reducing the 16 motives to
one or two categories. In contrast, multifaceted
theorists need to continue to show that behavior
is better predicted and explained with a comprehensive, multifaceted list of IMs than is possible with a reductionism approach.

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Revision received January 23, 2003
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