The Projection of Life-Needs (ServiceKey® Research Study) by Michael D. Barnett, M.S.

To what extent do Life Needs shape perception? The purpose of this study was to investigate whether individuals tend to project their basic Life Needs as measured by ServiceKey® onto neutral stimuli. The concept of projection has been part of psychology since the discipline’s inception. Sigmund Freud identified projection as an ego defense mechanism; his daughter, Anna Freud further developed the concept, which Benjafield (1996) defines thusly: Projection involves attributing one’s own unacknowledged wishes to someone else. This study employed a very broad definition of projection: a tendency to ascribe states related to one’s own Life Needs to neutral stimuli.

Projection is used in psychological testing. Projective tests attempt to access the unconscious mind by asking the subject to respond to a neutral stimulus; the idea is that the individual will project unconscious desires, motivations, thoughts, etc. onto the neutral stimulus as a movie is projected onto a blank screen. Perhaps the most well-known projective test is the Rorschach inkblot test, where an individual’s interpretation of inkblots is assumed to stem from internal states (Exner, 2003). Another popular projective test is the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), where an individual is shown a picture and generates a narrative about the stimulus that is assumed to mirror the individual’s unconscious experience (Teglasi, 2001). Projective tests are often criticized for poor psychometrics. The purpose of this study was not to develop or use a projective test but rather to explore whether individuals project their basic Life Needs onto neutral stimuli. This could be an important aspect in both selling and customer service that could impact how some individuals respond to customer indifference or misread the emotional tone of sales and service interactions.

ServiceKey® is rooted in the theoretical model known as the Barnett Integrated Model (BIM; Barnett, 2008a). BIM integrates several theories (cognitive, behavioral, etc.) to understand employee development in certain professions in this case, the service profession. BIM does contain an element of psychodynamic theory in that Level Three of Barnett’s Four Levels contends that there are four basic Life Needs that manifest themselves in terms of work styles. These are the need for approval, attention, control, and information. This theory would predict that individuals would project their Life Needs onto neutral stimuli. There were four hypotheses for this study:

H₁ : It was hypothesized that individuals with a higher need for attention (performers) would demonstrate a tendency to interpret neutral facial expressions as boredom.

H₂ : It was hypothesized that individuals with a higher need for control (commanders) would demonstrate a tendency to interpret neutral facial expressions as anger.

H₃ : It was hypothesized that individuals with a higher need for information (analyzers) would demonstrate a tendency to interpret neutral facial expressions as curiosity or information-seeking.

H₄ : It was hypothesized that individuals with a higher need for the two extroverted Life Needs, attention and control, would be more likely to guess (or not select the IDK RESPONSE) than individuals with the introverted Life Needs.

Methods

Participants
A database of ServiceKey® profiles (n = 1,230) were analyzed.

Measures
ServiceKey®. The four Level Three scales (Approval, Attention, Control, and Information) were used in this study. For information about ServiceKey®, see Barnett (2008b).

Stimulus items. ServiceKey® contains seven items that are not scored. Each of these items consists of a black-and-white photograph of a person with a neutral facial expression. Subjects are asked to respond to the statement: This person is by selecting one of four responses, each representing an emotional state, or I don’t know. Two experts reviewed the stimulus items and concluded that the facial expressions were neutral, the individuals portrayed in the photographs were demographically heterogeneous, and that the stimulus items appeared to be free from any biasing factors.

The individual responses to each item were translated into scale scores, which were called projective scales in order to distinguish them from the standard ServiceKey® scales. For example, 6 of the 7 stimulus items offer bored as a response. The Bored scale was created by scoring whether or not the individual selected the bored response on each item, yielding a range of 0-6. The projective scales generated were angry, bored, information-seeking, and unsure (the number of times the respondent selected I don’t know).

Results

Preliminary analyses were conducted to ensure that the data met the assumptions for the analyses to be used. Attention and boredom were positively associated (r = .072, p = .011), as were control and boredom (r = .080, p = .005). Attention and unsure were negatively associated (r = -.092, p = .001), as were control and unsure (r = -.079, p = .005). None of the other correlations were statistically significant.

In order to confirm the methodology of constructing the projective scales (see Measures above), secondary analyses were conducted. Each item response was recoded as a dichotomous variable (e.g., bored and not bored). Four t -tests were then conducted comparing the means of the two groups (e.g., those who interpreted the neutral facial expression as bored and those who interpreted it as not bored) on the four ServiceKey® Level Three scales. Similar results were obtained, supporting the methodological use of the correlation analysis.

Discussion

The positive association between attention and boredom supports H_1. The additional finding that control and boredom were positively associated is not unexpected as individuals with a higher need for attention (performers) and individuals with a higher need for control (commanders) are similar in that both tend to have extroverted personalities. These results suggest that individuals with a higher need for attention and/or a higher need for control tend to interpret neutral facial expressions as boredom. This may represent a projection of the individual feeling bored him- or herself or a projection of fears of being considered boring. It may also be that performers have a higher threshold for social interaction, being less aware of subtle shifts in dealings with others.

The lack of association between control and anger means that H₂ is rejected. Individuals with a higher need for control (commanders) did not demonstrate any tendency to interpret neutral facial expressions as angry. Similarly, the lack of association between information and information-seeking means that H₃ is rejected. Individuals with a higher need for information (analyzers) did not demonstrate any tendency toward interpreting neutral facial expressions as information-seeking. The negative association between attention and unsure and control and unsure supports H₄ . This suggests that individuals with a higher need for attention (performers) and/or control (commanders), both of which tend to be extroverted personalities, were either more confident in their ability to interpret facial expressions or were less willing to enter an unsure response. Indeed, this result may explain some of the other results: it is possible that individuals with a higher need for approval (empathizers) and/or information (analyzers), both of which tend to be introverted personalities, responded more cautiously to items, leading to less projection, whereas extroverted personalities were more likely to guess, leading to more projection; this may explain why only the attention and control scales correlated with the projective scales.

It must be emphasized that the results of this study should be interpreted with extreme caution. This study was intended to be an exploration of Life Needs and projection. The low number of faces (7) means that each of the scales used for projection only consisted of 5-7 dichotomous items. Also, although the correlations were found to be statistically significant, the actual strength of those correlations was very weak. Taken together, the results of this study suggest that there is a statistically significant but very slight tendency for individuals with a higher need for attention (performers) and/or control (commanders) to project their internal states or fears onto neutral stimuli. In practical terms, this tendency is probably insignificant; however, these results provide evidence that the Level Three scales of ServiceKey® are tapping into actual Life Needs.

References

Barnett, D. K. (2008). Four levels of customer service. (In press)
Barnett, M. D. (2008). ServiceKey® technical manual: A technical manual for the Barnett Assessment of Service Behaviors. Granbury, TX: PsyMetrics Global.
Benjafield, J. G. (1996). A history of psychology. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Exner, J. E., Jr. (2003). The Rorschach: A comprehensive system (4^th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Teglasi, H. (2001). Essentials of the TAT and other storytelling techniques assessment. New York: Wiley.
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