The purpose of the Intrinsic Motivation Assessment Guide & Evaluation (IMAGE) is to lead you in a discovery of a unique design for your life that can help you focus on endeavors that are consistent with the purpose for your life and at the same time give you a greater sense of fulfillment. IMAGE shows you a distinct pattern of seven motivations that intrinsically reside within you. These motivations interact in unique patterns to guide the way you respond to people, situations and problems in the world. These motivational patterns will also determine the roles you will adopt as a result of this response. The seven motivations are: proclaiming, helping, researching, exhorting, giving, managing, and comforting. These intrinsic motivations strongly affect the way you interact with your friends and family, the roles you are most comfortable with in group situations, which jobs you will like or dislike, even the way you handle your money or make life decisions!

When you complete the IMAGE questionnaire, you will receive a printout entitled IMAGE Report of Results. This report will list the seven motivations in the order of their strength in your life according to the responses you made on your questionnaire. The motivation listed first compels you the strongest, and the one listed seventh compels you the least. Be aware, though, they will all influence you to some extent. The IMAGE Report of Results will register a score assigned to each motivation based on your answers to the questionnaire. This is a scaled score ranging from 50 to 100. The motivation you responded to most favorably receives an assigned value of 100. This one motivates your life most strongly of all the motivations. You will be provided with a detailed description of this motivation. The evaluation continues to assign a proportional ranking below 100 to the other six motivations corresponding with your responses to the questionnaire and the relationship of each score to your top score.

It is possible that in your evaluation your second-highest motivation may be nearly equal in strength to your pilot motivation. These two motivations would then together form a pilot doublet. If this occurs, the report will highlight this feature and explain it in detail.

The report will produce an IMAGE Motivational Profile that graphically represents the order of preference for each motivation in your life as a pie chart. The larger the section of the chart, the more you favored this motivation in answering the questionnaire. The colored rectangles on the left will also identify the order of preference, with 1 representing the most preferred and 7 representing the least preferred. Not pictured in the diagram to the right but included in the report is an ordered list and a numerical analysis identifying the appropriate motivation names and their scaled scores.

Important Caution

It is very important to understand that the results of your survey can in NO WAY be used to compare your overall motivational strength with that of someone else. For example, your top-ranked intrinsic motivation might be "Giving" with a score of 100. Another person may have "Giving" as a third-ranked motivation with a score of 80. This does NOT mean that the motivation of "Giving" is 25 percent stronger in you as it is in that person. The scores ONLY have meaning in comparison to the rest of the scores on YOUR OWN evaluation report. They are not meant for comparison with anyone else's scores.

Each of the seven motivations has some level of impact in determining your unique motivational makeup. The patterns of your motivations will definitely affect the way you respond to people, situations and problems in the world. Your patterns will also determine the roles you will adopt as a result. However, it is important to note that everyone is capable of exhibiting any of the seven motivations in order to function adequately in that realm. For instance, if "Helping" was a person's weakest motivation, that would NOT mean that person would be incapable of helping someone else when such help is needed and appropriate.

There are three patterns that that can help a person understand their IMAGE Motivational Profile.

Pattern 1. Pilot Motivation

Your pilot motivation is the first motivation in your profile. This motivation has a score of 100 and is the one you favored the most in answering the questionnaire. Your pilot motivation will in most cases be the strongest influence on the role you will adopt as you respond to people, situations and problems in the world. This motivation will strongly guide the way in which you function in all other motivational areas. The impact strength of your pilot motivation corresponds directly to the distinctive preference you exhibited for this motivation in

answering the questionnaire (very clear, clear, somewhat clear, or unclear).

Pattern 2. Proactive Motivations

As you move from left to right in your IMAGE Motivational Profile, the first three motivations we call proactive motivations. The combination of these motivations will for the most part influence the roles you will adopt as you respond to people, situations and problems in the world. These are the motivations you lead with, your strengths. They have the greatest impact on determining your unique motivational makeup. You should give special attention in this report to the definitions and descriptions of the proactive motivations. Motivations that lie to the right

of these three (the fourth through seventh motivations) constitute reactive motivations. These motivations influence you only occasionally, usually in response to duty or obedience, rather than continually and intrinsically compelling you as a strength.

Pattern 3. Primary Pattern

A primary pattern is formed by the clarity of preference between the proactive motivations. The nature of this primary pattern will determine the way in which your proactive motivations interact with each other. There are four distinct primary patterns: pilot-dominant, proactive-doublet, proactive-blend, and no pattern.

A pilot-dominant pattern occurs when your preference for your pilot motivation was so much stronger than the other proactive motivations that it impacts your motivational makeup on its own, with very little effect from the other motivations. It "rings" strongly in your life like a bell. When you have this type of pattern, you can primarily concentrate on understanding the definition and description of your pilot motivation.

A proactive-doublet pattern occurs when your preference for you pilot motivation and your second motivation are nearly equal in strength. When this occurs, the two greatly interact with each other, and they combine to influence your response to people, situations and problems in the world. When this pattern occurs, you should concentrate on understanding the definition and description of both of these motivations and determine on your own which of the two is your stronger preference and how they combine in your life.

A proactive-blend pattern occurs when your pilot motivation and your second and third motivation are nearly equal in strength of preference. When this occurs, it is harder to discern which is the true pilot motivation. The role you will adopt as you respond to people, situations and problems in the world may well be a response to a combination of the three. When you have this type of pattern, you should concentrate on understanding the definition and description of each of these three motivations and how they would impact each other. However, try also to determine on your own which of the three is your strongest preference.

A no pattern indication occurs when the first four or more of your motivations are nearly equal in scores. When you have this indication, the IMAGE process was unable to determine a motivational pattern in the way you answered the questionnaire. This does NOT mean you have no pattern, but rather that the tool was not able to detect it. This can occur for several reasons. Three common reasons are: 1) you have limited experience responding to your motivations, 2) you tended to answer all the questions on the assessment "sometimes", 3) presently

your personal situation gives you an unclear picture of yourself. In any of these cases, you should discuss this with your assessment counselor. You will need to study the definition and description of all of the motivations and try to determine on your own which best describes you.


Research has revealed seven motivations intrinsically residing within the human spirit that interact in unique patterns to guide the way each individual responds to people, situations and problems in the world. These motivational patterns will also determine the roles individuals will adopt as a result of this response.

Some of the most thorough recent research and application of this theory has been conducted over the last two decades by Dr. Bill Millard. His work traces its roots back to research first done with adolescents and later expanded to encompass adults as well. During this time he has assessed thousands of individuals and has enabled them to discover their own pattern of the seven different intrinsic motivations working within them in a special way to make them unique. The concept of intrinsic motivation can be traced back as far as classical Greek philosophy. Millard, however, organized his classification of intrinsic motivations identified in IMAGE to seven which he patterned after seven identified in the first century writings of the scholar and philosopher Paul of Tarsus, a keen observer of human nature.

IMAGE was developed as an important part of the process to identify the strength of each of the seven motivations in an individual. These results can be used to enable people to 1) better understand themselves, 2) plan for their lives, 3) improve relationship skills, 4) identify roles with which they will be most comfortable when they are in group situations, 5) evaluate career decisions, and 6) act more effectively in service to the world.

Based on their historical context, plus testing of thousands of individuals, the seven intrinsic motivations can best be labeled and defined as follows:

Definition: These are persons who have the inward motivation to publicly speak out from internal convictions concerning what is perceived as right and wrong.

Profile: Proclaimers are willing to publicly speak out concerning their convictions in a frank and persuasive manner. They readily discern the moral character and motives in others. They vigorously defend what they believe is true. They actively seek to determine right and wrong. They base their authority strictly on a chosen system of morality. They have strong feelings concerning wrong actions in others and are insistent in their desire to see outward actions accompany inward convictions. They have a distinct ability to envision the type of future to which opposing paths of right and wrong will lead.

Definition: These are persons who have the inward motivation to detect legitimate needs others have and to find practical ways to provide for these needs.

Profile: Helpers are on the lookout to find and meet practical physical needs as quickly as possible. They are untiring in their efforts. They will cut corners to avoid delays. They often find themselves over-extended from an inability to say no to requests for help. They tend to focus on short-range goals. They are frustrated with time limits. They are willing to give extra service beyond what was expected.

Definition: These are persons who have the inward motivation to carefully research truth and to clearly present it to others in such a way that it will be easy to learn.

Profile: Researchers believe research and teaching are the most basic of motivations—the place from which everything else in life should begin. They are careful students of truth. They are concerned with accuracy, context and appropriateness of words. They test and validate knowledge taught by others before accepting it. They are able to systematically instruct others in a way that makes it clear and easy to learn.

Definition: These are persons who have the inward motivation to encourage others through counsel and to outline practical steps of actions others should take to overcome problems.

Profile: Exhorters desire to visualize specific achievement and prescribe steps of action. They avoid impractical information and teaching. They look for unspoken thoughts in others. They use human experience and illustrations to amplify their ideas. They enjoy working with individuals as much as with groups. They concentrate on the positive. They are impatient to see results.

Definition: These are persons who have the inward motivation to financially invest in and support other worthwhile projects and to wisely use and invest money to provide for such support.

Profile: Financers desire to quietly invest in or support worthwhile projects rather than actively take part in their operations. They use resources they obtain unexpectedly to support worthy projects without taking portions for themselves first. They are alert to find valid needs others might overlook. They support best without being pressured. They give the highest quality they can. They desire to feel a part of any project they support.

Definition: These are persons who have the inward motivation to organize and coordinate the activities and efforts of others and to set goals for them to meet in these activities and efforts.

Profile: Managers are able to see the overall picture and clarify long-range goals. They excel at organizing a task, or group knowing what responsibilities can be delegated. They are readily aware of resources available to complete a task. They usually assume leadership in situations where none exists. They are willing to endure negative reaction from workers in order to accomplish a task. They find in seeing all the parts of a project come together. They desire to quickly move on to the next challenge when one is completed.

Definition: These are persons who have the inward motivation to identify with the emotions of others and to provide comfort to those who are in emotional distress.

Profile: Comforters are able to feel joy or distress in an individual or group. They have strong empathy for people who are in distress, desiring to remove hurts and bring healing. They are more concerned with emotional distress than physical distress. They usually avoid firmness unless they clearly see how it will benefit a situation. They decidedly avoid words or actions that will hurt others. They have a strong sense of the level of sincerity in others and tend to close their spirits to those who are insincere and insensitive.

Click on 10 POINTS OF CONTRAST to view a table depicting ten contrasting qualities pertaining to the seven motivations defined above.

A copy of the publication Understanding Your Intrinsic Motivations, which gives more detailed descriptions of the seven motivations, can be downloaded by clicking HERE. If you do not have Adobe® Acrobat® Reader® click on:

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