Who We Are

New Ways of Thinking About People

Steven Reiss is Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at The Ohio State University. See full bio

November 20, 2009

The Myths of Intrinsic-Extrinsic Motivation

What happens when a person is offered an incentive to do something the individual would have done anyway, without incentive? Back in 1975 Edward Deci, Mark Lepper, and their colleagues proposed that rewards undermine intrinsic motivation. In contrast, Len Sushinsky and I argued that the effects of rewards depend on how you use them. Read More

November 15, 2009

Hedonism (Sensuality) Doesn't Exist

Some psychologists have talked about pleasure seeking or hedonism as a personality trait. I believe, however, that the construct of 'pleasure seeking' is invalid. Nobody seeks sensual pleasure. Here's why.

The phenomenon of satiation disproves the construct of hedonism (sensuality). Suppose, for example, that a theorist defined sensuality to include pleasure from eating and sex. Read More

November 12, 2009

Fed Bail Out of Michigan Football

Although the University of Michigan Wolverine football team is in last place in the Big Ten, fans should stop worrying. Athletic Director Bill Martin has placed a call to the White House and arranged for a bailout. Here are the details: Read More

November 1, 2009

Intrinsic Motivation is Multifaceted

I have challenged the global ideas of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. I believe there are 16 intrinsic motives or needs, and no extrinsic motives. Since nothing is common to all 16 needs, intrinsic motivation is fundamentally multifaceted. Read More

October 17, 2009

Human Needs and Intellectual Disabilities

Working with children with intellectual disabilities (ID), Edward Zigler and his colleagues studied five motives in detail: dependency, fear of strangers, expectancy of success, outerdirectedness, and competence motivation (Zigler, Bennet-Givens, & Hodapp 1999). Read More

September 14, 2009

The Athletic Personality

Some authorities have suggested that there is no athletic personality, but they may be mistaken. In terms of the 16 human needs, we find a definite personality pattern characteristic of athletes. Read More

September 10, 2009

A New Sports Psychology

Peter Boltersdorf, a sports and business consultant in Germany, applied the 16 human needs to competitive athletics. Peter's first consult was with the minor league professional soccer team in Mainz, which was struggling in mid-season, largely because of poor performance from a star player. Read More

August 9, 2009

Pavlov’s Stock Market

The laws of Pavlovian learning are similar to the laws governing the learning of expectations in humans. In this analogy "conditioned stimuli" are market indicators, and "unconditioned stimuli" are changes in market directions.

Right now, a number of indicators point to rising stock prices. Read More

August 4, 2009

Myers Briggs: The Message is Tolerance

Have you noticed the huge disconnect between human relations professionals and the academic community in regard to personality assessment? Human relations professionals use the Myers Briggs personality assessment, which the academic community has criticized as being "pseudoscientific." What is going on here? Why is an instrument negatively evaluated by academia so popular?
Read More

July 30, 2009

Why Couples Stop Talking

Many married people complain that their partner is reluctant to share feelings, or talk about the relationship in an emotionally supportive and close manner. Often such problems can be understood in terms of an incompatibility in the need for independence. Read More

Books by Steven Reiss, Ph.D.

The Normal Personality: A New Way of Thinking About People

Personality Basics

Questions of personality have vexed mankind from the dawn of personhood: can people change? How do others perceive me? What is the difference between normal and pathological behavior? One's personality is so pervasive and all-important that it presents a clinical paradox of sorts: it is hard to assess our own personality, impossible to overlook that of others.

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Books by Steven Reiss, Ph.D.

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