A quick-reference guide to the seven MOTIVES dimensions, their 14 high/low personality poles,
and the letters used in MOTIVES personality codes.
MOTIVES describes personality across seven dimensions: Materialistic, Offbeat, Thinking,
Interpersonal, Vital, Easygoing, and Sectarian. Each dimension has a lower-scoring
counter-orientation, giving 14 useful descriptive poles. A person's profile is represented by one
letter from each position.
High and low scores are not automatically "good" or "bad." Most traits can be expressed in more
constructive or less constructive ways. The descriptions below separate the underlying drive from
healthier and less healthy expressions of that drive.
The core description explains what the trait is trying to optimize. The three expression levels show
how the same basic orientation can look different depending on degree, judgment, context, and overall functioning.
Core: Seeks status, attractiveness, recognition, prestige, or other forms of external value.
Healthier expressionSocially effective, polished, ambitious, aware of presentation, able to use status strategically without depending on it.
Typical expressionPays attention to appearance, rank, popularity, desirability, luxury, and how others evaluate them.
Less healthy expressionBecomes overly dependent on admiration, comparison, image management, jealousy, or appearing more impressive than reality.
Illustrative examples: Jay Gatsby · Gordon Gekko · Frank Abagnale · Scarlett O'Hara
Core: Places relatively little importance on status, luxury, appearance, popularity, or external approval.
Healthier expressionIndependent of social comparison, comfortable with simplicity, difficult to manipulate through prestige or image.
Typical expressionMinimalist, non-showy, relatively unconcerned with popularity or fancy possessions.
Less healthy expressionMay neglect appearance, withdraw too far from mainstream life, or dismiss useful external feedback.
Illustrative examples: Henry David Thoreau · Diogenes · St. Francis of Assisi · Leo Tolstoy
Core: Seeks novelty, experimentation, unconventional ideas, change, exploration, and new ways of doing things.
Healthier expressionInnovative, curious, inventive, adventurous, able to discover better methods and challenge stale assumptions.
Typical expressionLikes experimenting, abstract ideas, unusual experiences, risk, and doing things differently.
Less healthy expressionCan chase novelty for its own sake, disregard useful conventions, or become excessively eccentric or risk-seeking.
Illustrative examples: Alan Turing · Nikola Tesla · Marie Curie · Leonardo da Vinci
Core: Prefers familiar, proven, customary, and predictable approaches over novelty and experimentation.
Healthier expressionReliable, grounded, consistent, comfortable preserving useful traditions and tested methods.
Typical expressionLess curious about novelty, less interested in standing out, more comfortable with familiar routines.
Less healthy expressionCan become rigidly risk-averse, resistant to beneficial change, or dismissive of unfamiliar ideas.
Illustrative examples: Stevens in The Remains of the Day · Harold Crick · Greg Focker · Larry Gopnik
Core: Seeks structure, planning, organization, procedure, analysis, and deliberate control over how things are done.
Healthier expressionOrganized, productive, methodical, consistent, analytical, good at finishing and maintaining complex systems.
Typical expressionMakes plans and lists, prefers order and procedure, dislikes operating without a structure.
Less healthy expressionCan become over-controlled, compulsive, inflexible, excessively rule-bound, or biased toward logic at the expense of context.
Illustrative examples: Jean-Luc Picard · Andy Dufresne · Henry Ford · Dwight D. Eisenhower
Core: Places relatively little emphasis on planning, order, systems, routines, and deliberate structure.
Healthier expressionFlexible, spontaneous, improvisational, able to adapt without overplanning.
Typical expressionUnplanned, informal, less systematic, more willing to figure things out as they go.
Less healthy expressionCan become chronically disorganized, messy, directionless, unreliable, or unable to maintain basic routines.
Illustrative examples: Jack Sparrow · Bridget Jones · Inspector Clouseau · Mr. Bean
Core: Prioritizes helping, caring for, accommodating, supporting, and protecting other people.
Healthier expressionGenerous, compassionate, supportive, community-minded, forgiving, able to strengthen other people.
Typical expressionOften puts others first, feels compelled to help, values empathy, warmth, nurturance, and cooperation.
Less healthy expressionMay have trouble saying no, become over-accommodating, self-sacrificing, enmeshed, or dependent on being needed.
Illustrative examples: Atticus Finch · Oskar Schindler · Harriet Tubman · Eleanor Roosevelt
Core: Feels relatively little internal pressure to accommodate, nurture, help, or prioritize other people's feelings.
Healthier expressionIndependent, boundaried, capable of making difficult decisions without excessive guilt or people-pleasing.
Typical expressionMore self-focused, less accommodating, less emotionally invested in helping others, more willing to say no.
Less healthy expressionCan become callous, exploitative, unhelpful, contemptuous, or indifferent to the welfare of others.
Illustrative examples: Ebenezer Scrooge · Miranda Priestly · Daniel Plainview · Nurse Ratched
Core: Experiences positive affect, enthusiasm, resilience, hope, energy, and a strong sense that life is worth engaging in.
Healthier expressionEnthusiastic, resilient, hopeful, energetic, emotionally steady, future-oriented, able to recover from setbacks.
Typical expressionLikes being alive, expects good things, feels energized by the future, tends to experience positive emotion.
Less healthy expressionAt extreme levels may underestimate danger, dismiss real problems, or maintain optimism beyond what evidence supports.
Illustrative examples: Rocky Balboa · Samwise Gamgee · Paddington Bear · Elizabeth Bennet
Core: Experiences more pessimism, distress, low positive affect, discouragement, or self-defeating emotional states.
Healthier expressionCan be realistic about suffering, sensitive to problems, reflective, and less prone to forced optimism.
Typical expressionMore negative or discouraged, less enthusiastic, more likely to expect bad outcomes or feel emotionally burdened.
Less healthy expressionCan become chronically hopeless, anxious, self-destructive, deeply pessimistic, or unable to experience life as worthwhile.
Illustrative examples: Holden Caulfield · Donnie Darko · Joel Barish · Susanna Kaysen
Core: Prioritizes calm, leisure, low urgency, rest, emotional ease, and conservation of effort.
Healthier expressionPeaceful, relaxed, difficult to rattle, good at de-escalating, able to enjoy life without constant striving.
Typical expressionTakes it easy, values leisure, dislikes unnecessary pressure, prefers a lower-stress life path.
Less healthy expressionCan become passive, chronically inactive, avoidant of effort, or so relaxation-focused that responsibilities suffer.
Illustrative examples: The Dude · Peter Gibbons · Jim Halpert · Cher Horowitz
Core: Places relatively little value on relaxation and tends toward urgency, tension, activation, or difficulty switching off.
Healthier expressionDriven, alert, responsive, persistent, able to maintain effort when relaxed people might disengage.
Typical expressionLess chill, more activated, more easily agitated, less interested in conserving energy.
Less healthy expressionCan become chronically tense, high-strung, irritable, restless, or unable to recover from sustained activation.
Illustrative examples: Howard Ratner · Tommy DeVito · Marty McFly · Annie Hall
Core: Prioritizes the strength, continuity, identity, security, and interests of one's own group, culture, or nation.
Healthier expressionLoyal, protective, willing to defend community, attentive to cohesion, continuity, and collective security.
Typical expressionMore nationalistic or traditional, more suspicious of outside influence, more comfortable with strong boundaries and leaders.
Less healthy expressionCan become xenophobic, exclusionary, authoritarian, hierarchy-obsessed, or hostile toward out-groups.
Illustrative examples: Francisco Franco · Marcus Garvey · Simón Bolívar · David Ben-Gurion
G
Low tribalism / universalism
Core: Places less emphasis on nationalism and more emphasis on cross-group cooperation, inclusion, universalism, and global welfare.
Healthier expressionCosmopolitan, cooperative across group boundaries, comfortable with diversity, oriented toward broad human welfare.
Typical expressionMore pro-immigration, internationalist, culturally inclusive, and less attached to national superiority.
Less healthy expressionCan undervalue local cohesion, overlook legitimate group-level security concerns, or dismiss the importance of cultural continuity.
Illustrative examples: Franklin D. Roosevelt · Kofi Annan · Amartya Sen · Pascal Lamy
