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

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

July 23, 2009

Why Couples Quarrel

Nearly all couples tend to have the same quarrels over and over again. Some quarrel over money; others over keeping up appearances to impress the neighbors; and still others over household tidiness. Read More

July 21, 2009

Anxiety Sensitivity

Imagine: The Chicago Cubs are playing the California Angels for their first ever World Series championship. Each team has won three games, and the series now hangs on who wins the seventh and final game. The Cubs are on the field with the score tied 3-3 with two outs and bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth. The count to the batter is 3 balls and 2 strikes. Read More

July 16, 2009

The 16 Human Needs

Four generations of Harvard University psychologists – William James, William McDougall, Henry A. Read More

July 15, 2009

Why Lovers Cheat

Our research has delineated 16 basic human needs, two of which are relevant to predicting fidelity versus cheating in romantic and marital relationships: the need for romance, and the need for honor.

What I call the "Principle of Strong Needs" says that the number of desired gratification objects increases as does the strength of a person's need. Read More

July 3, 2009

Patriotism

Do ends justify means? 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.

Go to the Personality Basics page for more on Personality including:

Current Issue

Everyday Creativity

How to start living creatively and reap the benefits.

Subscribe to Who We Are

Books by Steven Reiss, Ph.D.

Personality Basics

Current Issue