WORKING WITH MORIS ADERMAN’S PSYCHOGENIC PERSONALITY QUESTIONNAIRE (‘NEED-PRESS’)

WORKSHOPS ON ADULT DEVELOPMENT AT THE INTERDEVELOPMENTAL INSTITUTE (IDM)
Understanding the psychological dimension of adult development-Need Press (NP) is foundational to individual and team coaching, coaching supervision, leadership development, human resources, and consulting as knowledge of social-emotional and cognitive development. For professionals in these fields, grasping how adults manage their unique constellation of psychological needs and the internal and external pressures they experience is essential for supporting a client’s development, growth, effective collaboration, and also, organizational transformation.
This NP course is designed for coaches, coaching supervisors, leadership developers, HR professionals, and consultants who seek to deepen their ability to assess, give feedback on, and work with clients’ psychological profiles. Participants will learn how the NP dimension, which is based on Henry Murray’s research as embodied in Moris Aderman’s Need-Press Questionnaire (part of Otto Laske’s Constructive Developmental Framework, CDF) reveals the behavioral “glue” that connects the strands of social-emotional (ED) and cognitive (CD) development. Through practical tools such as the NP Questionnaire (www.needpress.com), participants will gain insight into how individuals manage their needs, respond to internal and external pressures, learn how to interpret and give feedback on, NP data, recognize psychogenic obstacles to development, and support clients in achieving greater self-management and effectiveness in complex environments.
This course equips practitioners to assess and address psychogenic obstacles-such as energy sinks, distortions in workplace integrity, and gaps between aspiration and reality using the Need Press Inventory (NPI) from www.needpress.com.
Description:
Objective: To equip learners with a grounded understanding of Henry Murray’s theory of psychogenic needs and Otto Laske’s integration of Need Press (NP) into the Constructive Developmental Framework (CDF). Participants will learn to assess and interpret the interplay between individuals’ internal needs (subjective aspirations) and external pressures (organizational, cultural, or self-imposed demands) through the NP Questionnaire. The objective extends beyond theoretical mastery to practical application: acquiring the ability to recognize and address psychogenic obstacles in real time, such as gaps between ideal and actual press, energy sinks, or distortions in workplace integrity.
Methodology: Grounded in Henry Murray’s identification of 27 18? psychogenic needs and Otto Laske’s integration of Need Press (NP) into the Constructive Developmental Framework (CDF), this course uses the Need Press Inventory to examine how individuals navigate internal aspirations and external pressures, linking self-conduct, task approach, and emotional intelligence to organizational behavior and development. This methodology equips practitioners to recognize psychogenic conflicts (e.g., aspiration-reality mismatches) while addressing systemic pressures (e.g., organizational culture misalignment). By synthesizing NP profiles with ED/CD data and the Three Houses framework, professionals foster resilience, role clarity, and developmental coherence in complex environments. In addition, the various meta-analytic scores developed by Dr. Otto Laske that elevate insights into the developmental trajectory of a client and how it may be impacted or impact in turn a client’s Need Press profile. Otto Laske’s contribution to adult development and organizational assessment resides in his process to take behavioral data – such as that produced by the Need-Press (NP) Questionnaire – and translate them into meta-level developmental insights, i.e. Energy Sink, Frustration Index, and Attunement. Laske’s work with these data as “fragments of a deeper systemic pattern” offer additional snapshots of an individual’s behavioral tendencies.
Activities engaged in by participants: After studying Otto Laske’s integration of Henry Murray’s psychogenic needs theory within the Constructive Developmental Framework (CDF) – including Laske’s ‘Measuring Hidden Dimensions’ (https://www.pabst-science-publishers.com/start-news-detail/measuring-hidden-dimensions-the-art-and-science-of-fully-engaging-adults.html) and the Need Press Inventory (NPI) (www.needpress.com) – participants analyze real-world case studies and anonymized NP profiles derived from previous workplace assessments. They examine gaps between ideal press (individual aspirations) and actual press (environmental demands), identifying energy sinks, distortions in workplace integrity, and self- management challenges.
Activities of the instructor: The instructor acts as teacher, coach, and mentor, guiding participants through NP concepts (Murray’s needs, Laske’s CDF integration, Need Press Inventory), fostering collaborative analysis of case studies, and connecting psychological patterns to organizational contexts for practical application in coaching, leadership, and consulting.
Prerequisites: none
Start Date: Signup of minimally 5 participants
Number of Participants: Maximum of 12 participants
Workshop Duration: Five 1-hr sessions over 8 weeks (2-3 months)
Materials: NP Workbook, Workshop Materials, and Templates for Case Studies, and Scoring
Certification: Interdevelopmental Institute Certificate (IDM) of Coaching and Consulting
Inquiries to: Dr. Ursula Clidiere, clidiere@fastmail.fm
Detailed Course Curriculum:
- A (psycho) Historical Perspective- Piaget meets Freud
- Need/Press Profile
- Applied versus Potential Capability
- Current Applied Capability
- Definition of Capacity Profile in the Sense of Current Applied Capability
- Need/Press Questionnaire
- Competence vs. Capability
- Psychogenic Variables
- Needs/Press Domains
- NP Profile Dimensions
- Definition of Needs
- Definition of Press[ure]
- Needs Scores
- Ideal Press Scores
- Actual Press Scores
- Variables of Self Conduct
- Variables of Task Approach
- Variables of Interpersonal Perspective
- Need/Press Scoring
- Score Ranges
- Energy Sink & Frustration Index
- Attunement and Distortion Index
- NP Effectiveness Index
- Ideal vs. Actual Press
- Working with the NP Profiles
- The Importance of Link with ED and CD
- Linking Need Press and Mental Health
- Extreme Outcomes
- Need Press Score Tables