The three shades of blue that underline the words in our logo highlight a key concept in Professor Steven Reiss’s theory of motivation – the concept of intensity of a motive.
While previous motivational theorists spoke in general terms of motivation and personality, Professor Reiss was the first to devise a conceptual platform that connects motives to specific traits. According to Professor Reiss, intensity of motivation is central to understanding the development of personality traits.
In the theory of 16 basic desires, each desire is viewed as a continuum of motivation, and each individual is postulated to have an optimal level of happiness with regard to the continuum. For the motive of Social Contact, for example, the continuum ranges from wanting to be alone all of the time to wanting to socialize for all of one’s waking hours. To achieve an optimal level of social contact, the individual develops habits to regulate his experiences toward his desired amount of socialization with peers.
Professor Reiss assumed that it is relatively easy to satisfy average desires because society is geared to meet our average needs. In the example of the motive for Social Contact, a person with an average striving for this basic desire does not need to develop special habits to regulate his experiences toward an average amount of socialization. Individuals with either a strong or a weak desire for Social Contact, however, must acquire habits that will help them to satisfy their extreme needs. Someone who wants to spend a lot of time with peers will need to develop such habits as hosting frequent parties and actively participating in several clubs – habits that become associated with the personality traits of friendly and outgoing. Someone who wants to spend a lot of time alone will need to develop such habits as declining party invitations and engaging in solitary hobbies – habits that become associated with the personality traits of serious and private.
In the new logo, the color scale is intended to emphasize the critical role of intensity of motivation in the theory of 16 basic desires. The light blue shade represents a weak intensity for a motive; the medium blue color represents an average intensity; and the dark blue shade represents a strong intensity for a motive.
The new logo serves as a reminder of Professor Reiss’s original contribution to the field of motivation – the concept of motivation as a continuum along which individuals differ in the intensity to which they experience each of the 16 basic desires. It is this conceptual framework that allows us to make connections between motives and specific personality traits.