[ol]
[li]Curiosity. Do you have a thirst for knowledge?+2[/li][li]Acceptance. Do you have a hard time coping with criticism? -3[/li][li]Order. Does it upset you when things are out of place? -3[/li][li]Physical Activity: Is physical fitness very important to you? +1[/li][li]Honor: Are principles and loyalty very important to you? +2[/li][li]Power: Do you often seek leadership roles?-1[/li][li]Independence: Do you think you won’t be happy if you’re not independent and self-reliant?+3 [/li][li]Social contact: Do other people know you as a sociable and fun-loving person?-2[/li][li]Family: Does your family come first for you?-1[/li][li]Status: Are you impressed with people who own expensive things?-3[/li][li]Idealism: Compared with most people, are you more concerned with social causes? +3[/li][li]Vengeance: Is it very important for you to get even with those who insult or offend you? -2[/li][li]Romance: Is seeking and/or receiving love very important in your life? +2[/li]Here is an alternate question for people who are more inclined towards sex: Compared to your peers, do you spend much more time pursuing or having sex? -2
[li]Eating: Do you love to eat and often fantasize about food? +2[/li][li]Saving: Do you love to save for the future or hate to throw things away? +2[/li][li]Tranquility: Instead of noise and excitement, do you seek calm and tranquility? 0[/li][/ol]
- Curiosity. Do you have a thirst for knowledge? 3
- Acceptance. Do you have a hard time coping with criticism? -3
- Order. Does it upset you when things are out of place? 0
- Physical Activity: Is physical fitness very important to you? 0
- Honor: Are principles and loyalty very important to you? 3
- Power: Do you often seek leadership roles? 0 interest–but I do seek it by necessity of my imagination
- Independence: Do you think you won’t be happy if you’re not independent and self-reliant? 3
- Social contact: Do other people know you as a sociable and fun-loving person? 0
- Family: Does your family come first for you? 1 (3 when I have my own family)
- Status: Are you impressed with people who own expensive things? 0
- Idealism: Compared with most people, are you more concerned with social causes? 0
- Vengeance: Is it very important for you to get even with those who insult or offend you? 0
- Romance: Is seeking and/or receiving love very important in your life? 3
- Here is an alternate question for people who are more inclined towards sex: Compared to your peers, do you spend much more time pursuing or having sex? 0
- Eating: Do you love to eat and often fantasize about food? -1
- Saving: Do you love to save for the future or hate to throw things away? 1.5
- Tranquility: Instead of noise and excitement, do you seek calm and tranquility? 1
I really don’t see this as a particularly useful and accurate representation of motivation. It seems as arbitrary as the four bodily humors.
Richard Burton said the devil drives us.
He should know
Well not GD, but really any sort of splitting things up is entirely arbitrary. For instance, if you look up “how many plots there are in all of literature”, there’s eveything from 1 to 50. The short description of the one plot in all of history is of course:
Boy meets girl;
girl gets boy into pickle;
boy gets pickle into girl.
– Jack Woodford
I highly recommend Robert Byrnes’ Best Things Ever Said series, if anyone doesn’t have them.
For what it’s worth
+3 Curiosity. (Is this the Straight Doper’s primary stat 
)
+1 Acceptance.
-1 Order.
+1 Physical Activity:
+3 Honor:
+1 Power:
+1 Independence:
+2 Social contact:
+3 Family:
-2 Status:
-1 Idealism:
-3 Vengeance: (Unless you mess with my Family see +3 above)
+2 Romance:
+3 Eating:
+1 Saving:
+1 Tranquility: