Motivational psychology is one of the most multifaceted areas of psychological research. Motives are defined and described differently in science. For Schmalt & Heckhausen (1990), a motive is an externally unrecognizable motivation that activates human behavior and steers it toward a specific goal. Rheinberg & Vollmeyer (2012) compare motives to specifically colored glasses, which make very specific aspects of situations stand out and highlight them as important. Since the beginning of motive research, there has also been the question of which methods can be used to capture (i.e., measure) individual differences in people's motive structure.

The Reiss Motivation Profile® is an instrument for making a person's individual motivational structure visible. Unlike "conventional" personality tests, which mainly describe how a person behaves, the Reiss Motivation Profile® goes one step further and provides a look beneath the surface of human behavior patterns. The Reiss Motivation Profile® elicits which motives in our lives drive our actions - the motors of our behavior, so to speak.