In 1938 Henry Murray

Henry Murray

Henry Alexander Murray was an American psychologist who taught for over 30 years at Harvard University. He was Director of the Harvard Psychological Clinic in the School of Arts and Sciences after 1930 and colluded with Stanley Cobb, Bullard Professor of Neuropathology at the Medical School to...

 published his system of needs in Explorations in Personality in order to describe personality. He states that humans have all basic needs and that everyone has unique varying dispositional tendencies towards a level for each need. In other words, a specific need is more important to some than to others.

Murray places each need on its own but also states that needs can be interrelated in some ways. Some behaviors meet several needs at once. An example of this is performing a difficult task for your fraternity. This meets the needs of achievement and affiliation.

List of psychological needs

This is a (partial) list of Murray's needs.

Domain	Need for...	Representative behavior
Ambition	Achievement Motivation Motivation is the driving force by which humans achieve their goals. Motivation is said to be intrinsic or extrinsic. The term is generally used for humans but it can also be used to describe the causes for animal behavior as well. This article refers to human motivation...	Overcoming obstacles
	Recognition	Describing accomplishments
	Exhibition	Attempting to shock or thrill others
Materialism	Acquisition	Obtaining things
	Order	Making things neat and orderly
	Retention	Hoarding things
	Construction	Building something
Defense of status	Infavoidance	Concealing a handicap or a failing
	Defendance	Giving an explanation or excuse
	Counteraction	Retaliating for something
Human power	Dominance	Directing others' behavior
	Deference	Cooperating with or obeying someone
	Autonomy Autonomy Autonomy is a concept found in moral, political and bioethical philosophy. Within these contexts, it is the capacity of a rational individual to make an informed, un-coerced decision...	Standing up to authority
	Contrariance	Being oppositional
	Aggression Aggression In psychology, as well as other social and behavioral sciences, aggression refers to behavior between members of the same species that is intended to cause humiliation, pain, or harm. Ferguson and Beaver defined aggressive behavior as "Behavior which is intended to increase the social dominance of...	Attacking or belittling others
	Abasement	Apologizing or confessing
	Blame avoidance	Stifling blameworthy impulses
Affection between people	Affiliation Affectional bond In psychology, an affectional bond is a type of attachment behavior one individual has for another individual, typically a caregiver for her or his child, in which the two partners tend to remain in proximity to one another...	Spending time with others
	Rejection Social rejection Social rejection occurs when an individual is deliberately excluded from a social relationship or social interaction. The topic includes both interpersonal rejection and romantic rejection. A person can be rejected on an individual basis or by an entire group of people...	Snubbing others
	Nurturance	Taking care of someone
	Succorance	Being helped by another
	Play Play (activity) Play is a term employed in ethology and psychology to describe to a range of voluntary, intrinsically motivated activities normally associated with pleasure and enjoyment...	Seeking diversion through others
Exchange of information	Cognizance	Asking questions of others
	Exposition	Delivering information to others