The Normal Personality

Professor Steven Reiss is the executive director of the World Society of Motivation Scientists and Professionals. He produced an influential scientific model of anxiety, called anxiety sensitivity (AS), that facilitated early identification of people at risk for various anxiety- and stress-related disorders. AS created new opportunities for ongoing large-scale NIH-funded research projects on prevention, military research on possible inoculation methods for post-traumatic stress disorder, and new psychological research on chronic pain and substance abuse. He constructed the Reiss Profile, an assessment instrument for determining what motivates someone, and published the first ever scientifically validated taxonomy of life motives (psychological needs). His motivation methods have been successfully used by major league professional teams, an Olympic gold medalist, a world champion team, and a growing clientele of human resource managers and executive job coaches.

'… In a time when children, and even household pets, swallow Prozac, Reiss revives a neglected diagnosis for worrywarts, wallflowers, daydreamers, pessimists, and eccentrics alike: normal. He broadens normality by outlining how abnormal behaviors can arise when life motives are obstructed or personal values contradicted. Reiss lists how various combinations of 16 basic desires lead to dilemmas that eventually bring people to counseling. He offers a way to manage personal problems, without cracking the medicine cabinet or the skeleton closet.' Science News

• 1. My wife thinks something is wrong with me; 2. The sixteen basic desires; 3. Intensity of basic motivation; 4. Normal personality types; 5. Overcoming personal troubles; 6. Six reasons for adolescent underachievement; 7. Self-hugging and personal blind spots; 8. Relationships; 9. Reinterpretation of Myers-Briggs personality types; 10. The sixteen principles of motivation; Appendix A. Dictionary of normal personality traits; Appendix B. Reiss Motivation Profile Estimator; Appendix C. The sixteen basic desires at a glance.