Basic desires that motivate our actions

Steven Reiss explains in Who am I?: The 16 Basic Desires That Motivate Our Actions and Define Our Personality how the following 16 basic desires shape and guide nearly all human behavior:

• Acceptance, the need for approval
• Curiosity, the need to learn
• Eating, the need for food
• Family, the need to raise children
• Honor, the need to be loyal to the traditional values of one’s clan/ethnic group
• Idealism, the need for social justice
• Independence, the need for individuality
• Order, the need for organized, stable, predictable environments
• Physical activity, the need for exercise
• Power, the need for influence of will
• Romance, the need for sex
• Saving, the need to collect
• Social contact, the need for friends (peer relationships)
• Status, the need for social standing/importance
• Tranquility, the need to be safe
• Vengeance, the need to strike back/to win