Welcome to

The Science of Motivation®

The Reiss Motivation Profile: What Motivates You book by Professor Steven Reiss has been updated and is now available for purchase in a digital format. What’s new:

  • A discussion of the basic desire for Beauty, which was largely missing from the first edition

  • A summary of the 2022 re-norming of the test including the evidence for the need for separate norms for Generation Z

  • Recent research studies that provide further support for the reliability and validity of the RMP

  • An expanded explanation of the 14 principles of Reiss’s theory of motivation.

 

Welcome to

The Science of Motivation®

Learn to use the scientifically proven approach to understanding and predicting human behavior.

Discover Your Motives

Welcome to

The Science of Motivation®

Learn to use the scientifically proven approach to understanding and predicting human behavior.

Discover Your Motives

The Science of Motivation®

 

Deep down, what motivates you? What aspects of your life are most meaningful to you? 

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What accounts for the differences in personality among the people you know?

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Why do two people in a relationship have the same quarrels over and over again? 

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Do you experience a general feeling of well-being? Is the happiness you feel enduring?

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The 16 Basic Desires

Acceptance

The basic desire for Acceptance is the desire for positive self-regard.
Download The Basic Desires

RMP Success Stories

Brian Brittain
Consultant
Brittain Consulting
Canada

“My work is to help executives and their teams improve leadership effectiveness both individually and collectively. Based on the RMP, the first step is to help them better understand who they are and what is important to them. Once they understand this through witnessing their motives and behavioral pre-dispositions that fall out of those motives, this gives them more choice in how they apply themselves to leadership actions.”

Brian Brittain
Dave Laughlin, Ph.D.
Director of Assessment
Courtex Performance
USA

“As a consultant for collegiate and professional sports, I have used the RMP to help organizations evaluate prospects, improve communication between coaches and athletes, and create programs for my own clients. The RMP has been a great tool for enabling athletes to acquire the self-awareness necessary to improve their performance and for helping professional organizations gain insight into how to maximize an athlete’s potential.”

Dave Laughlin, Ph.D.
Elmer Lau
Training Director
Acorn Training
Singapore

“The RSMP is an amazing tool to gain deep insights into a student’s motivation. In profiling more than a thousand children, we consistently see the eureka moments when teachers begin to connect the behavior of their students to their RSMP profile. The RSMP provides precious information to help decide on strategies needed to guide underperforming students, and it also enables parents to build stronger relationships with their children.”

Elmer Lau
Kenneth Olson, Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor of Psychology
Fort Hays State University
USA

“I have used the RMP in both research and clinical settings. It is an innovative instrument that measures an important dimension of human personality. My published studies show the RMP to be a reliable and valid measure of motivation, and it is an invaluable tool for working with clients in psychotherapy. The RMP leads to new levels of understanding why people behave the way they do.”

Kenneth Olson, Ph.D.
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Understanding The Science of Motivation®

An Introduction to the Reiss Motivation Profile®

Deep down, what motivates you? What aspects of your life are most meaningful to you? What goals drive your behavior?

Professor Steven Reiss answered these questions in a unique way – scientifically. He asked thousands of people from different cultures and diverse backgrounds about their intrinsic motives. This research produced the Reiss Motivation Profile®, the first comprehensive, standardized measure of what motivates an individual.

Reiss’s theory of motivation has been applied to training leaders and reducing conflict in business, enabling athletes to achieve peak performance through understanding their tendencies under the stress of competition, assessing motivational reasons for academic underachievement, and identifying the value differences that underlie chronic conflicts in relationships.

Download E-book

Our Global Presence

Over 135,000 individuals from more than 150 countries on six continents have completed the Reiss Motivation Profile®. IDS Publishing Corporation is building an international network of partners who are licensed to train RMP Masters to administer the test in accordance with The Science of Motivation®. Currently, our 12 partnerships – highlighted below in orange – are located in Australia, Austria, Belgium, China, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. We continue to explore opportunities to increase our global presence.

Become A Master

Apply Here

About Professor Steven Reiss

Steven Reiss, Ph.D. was Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at The Ohio State University. He graduated from Dartmouth College, earned his doctorate in psychology from Yale University, and completed a clinical internship at Harvard Medical School. Prior to developing the Reiss Motivation Profile®, he created two other widely-used measures: the Anxiety Sensitivity Index, which assesses anxiety disorders and which has been translated into more than 20 languages, and the Reiss Screen for Maladaptive Behavior, the leading tool for identifying mental health issues in people with developmental disabilities. Reiss authored five books on the RMP, published 17 articles in prestigious scientific journals about the test’s reliability and validity, and gave invited talks in 13 countries on The Science of Motivation®.

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Our Testimonials

Bernardo A. Merizalde, M.D.
USA

“Professor Reiss is the only person, to my knowledge, who has put together the most comprehensive and evidence based model of intrinsic motivations. The creation of the Reiss Motivation Profile® is an extraordinary achievement, and it has helped my practice tremendously. Administering the RMP to individuals and couples is useful to me and illuminating to them, as it has led to insights and approaches to resolving conflicts.”

Mitchell Landgraf, MS, NCC, NCSC
USA

“The Reiss Motivation Profile® is a crucial ‘missing factor’ from traditional school and career counseling. Its insights invariably lead students to follow deeply-rewarding career paths. Further, the results empower students, parents, teachers, and school interventionists to implement effective solutions for learning and behavior issues. The RMP is the premier, scientific tool I use when working with students, assisting professional athletes and teams, or consulting with corporations.”

Dr. Ajai Singh
India

“As a practicing coach, I have been an ardent user of the Reiss Motivation Profile® for more than a decade. It has been an integral part of the assessments I use with both potential and ongoing clients. The RMP has helped all of my clients to understand their motivations beyond simple awareness. It has given them deep insights, thereby allowing them to take their lives to the next level.”

Lisa Moser, M.Ed., MT-BC
USA

 “The Reiss Motivation Profile® is well-founded in science: It is norm referenced and has strong reliability and validity. Our school searched for five years for a tool to assist our students, parents, teachers, and coaches. The RMP is valuable in discerning our students’ strengths, motives, and the underlying causes of the difficulties they face socially, emotionally, and academically. As a result, we can address our students’ needs with greater awareness.”

Marianne Ruggiero
USA

“We use the Reiss Motivation Profile® as a critical element in our formula for career success. Clients have used their results to focus and re-energize their activities and to dramatically increase their work/life satisfaction.”

Tom Sotis
USA

“As a coach of professional athletes, fighters, and special operatives whose lives depend on their performance, I start with this: Where there’s a Will, there’s a Way, but first there’s a Why, because the single most influencing factor of performance is one’s motivation, that from which all else emanates, and the RMP reveals it with remarkable accuracy.”

Chris Davey
Australia

“I use the RMP to profile individual employees and to create team synergies that drive individuals as a collective toward a healthier, stable, and more effective team culture. I thoroughly recommend the Reiss Motivation Profile® as an essential tool for any organization wanting to understand the proven science of motivation.” 

Ellen M. Diana, Ph.D.
USA

“I use the Reiss Motivation Profile® extensively in my psychological evaluations of adolescents. The instrument is invaluable in helping me to understand students' behavior both at home and in school, develop treatment plans that reflect their unique personality, and guide them to create realistic goals for their future. It goes beyond traditional self-report scales in assessing goal directed behavior."

About Us

IDS Publishing Corporation, owner of the copyright to the Reiss Motivation Profile®, was founded by Professor Steven Reiss. Maggi M. Reiss has served as IDS’s President since the company’s inception in 1988. Currently, the management team also includes Vice President Michael Reiss, Associate Kristen Reiss, and Social Media Director Iuliana Heckman. Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, USA, IDS Publishing Corporation has licensed 12 global partnerships covering 18 countries to train people in The Science of Motivation® and in the use of the RMP. Six additional trainers are licensed to certify RMP Masters in other countries. IDS Publishing Corporation is a United States government certified woman-owned business (WOSB) and a founding member of the Association of Test Publishers.

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About Us

IDS Publishing Corporation, owner of the copyright to the Reiss Motivation Profile®, was founded by Professor Steven Reiss. Maggi M. Reiss has served as IDS’s President since the company’s inception in 1988. Currently, the management team also includes Vice President Michael Reiss, Associate Kristen Reiss, and Social Media Director Iuliana Heckman. Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, USA, IDS Publishing Corporation has licensed 12 global partnerships covering 18 countries to train people in The Science of Motivation® and in the use of the RMP. Six additional trainers are licensed to certify RMP Masters in other countries. IDS Publishing Corporation is a United States government certified woman-owned business (WOSB) and a founding member of the Association of Test Publishers.

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