Oh God; the Motivational Speaker!!
turtoni
Motivation is the activation or energization of goal-oriented
behavior. Motivation may be internal or external. The term is
generally used for humans but, theoretically, it can also be used to
describe the causes for animal behavior as well. This article refers
to human motivation. According to various theories, motivation may be
rooted in the basic need to minimize physical pain and maximize
pleasure, or it may include specific needs such as eating and resting,
or a desired object, hobby, goal, state of being, ideal, or it may be
attributed to less-apparent reasons such as altruism, morality, or
avoiding mortality.
Intrinsic motivation
Intrinsic motivation comes from rewards inherent to a task or activity
itself - the enjoyment of a puzzle or the love of playing.[1] This
form of motivation has been studied by social and educational
psychologists since the early 1970s. Research has found that it is
usually associated with high educational achievement and enjoyment by
students. Intrinsic motivation has been explained by Fritz Heider's
attribution theory, Bandura's work on self-efficacy [2], and Ryan and
Deci's cognitive evaluation theory. Students are likely to be
intrinsically motivated if they:
attribute their educational results to internal factors that they can
control (e.g. the amount of effort they put in),
believe they can be effective agents in reaching desired goals (i.e.
the results are not determined by luck),
are interested in mastering a topic, rather than just rote-learning to
achieve good grades.
see also Intrinsic motivation and the 16 basic desires theory below.
[edit] Extrinsic motivation
Extrinsic motivation comes from outside of the performer. Money is the
most obvious example, but coercion and threat of punishment are also
common extrinsic motivations.
In sports, the crowd may cheer on the performer, which may motivate
him or her to do well. Trophies are also extrinsic incentives.
Competition is in general extrinsic because it encourages the
performer to win and beat others, not to enjoy the intrinsic rewards
of the activity.
Social psychological research has indicated that extrinsic rewards can
lead to overjustification and a subsequent reduction in intrinsic
motivation.
Extrinsic incentives sometimes can weaken the motivation as well. In
one classic study done by Green & Lepper, children who were lavishly
rewarded for drawing with felt-tip pens later showed little interest
in playing with the pens again.
Self-control
See also: Self motivation
The self-control of motivation is increasingly understood as a subset
of emotional intelligence; a person may be highly intelligent
according to a more conservative definition (as measured by many
intelligence tests), yet unmotivated to dedicate this intelligence to
certain tasks. Yale School of Management professor Victor Vroom's
"expectancy theory" provides an account of when people will decide
whether to exert self control to pursue a particular goal.
Drives and desires can be described as a deficiency or need that
activates behaviour that is aimed at a goal or an incentive. These are
thought to originate within the individual and may not require
external stimuli to encourage the behaviour. Basic drives could be
sparked by deficiencies such as hunger, which motivates a person to
seek food; whereas more subtle drives might be the desire for praise
and approval, which motivates a person to behave in a manner pleasing
to others.
By contrast, the role of extrinsic rewards and stimuli can be seen in
the example of training animals by giving them treats when they
perform a trick correctly. The treat motivates the animals to perform
the trick consistently, even later when the treat is removed from the
process.
Motivational theories
The incentive theory of motivation
A reward, tangible or intangible, is presented after the occurrence of
an action (i.e. behavior) with the intent to cause the behavior to
occur again. This is done by associating positive meaning to the
behavior. Studies show that if the person receives the reward
immediately, the effect would be greater, and decreases as duration
lengthens. Repetitive action-reward combination can cause the action
to become habit. Motivation comes from two sources: oneself, and other
people. These two sources are called intrinsic motivation and
extrinsic motivation, respectively.
Applying proper motivational techniques can be much harder than it
seems. Steven Kerr notes that when creating a reward system, it can be
easy to reward A, while hoping for B, and in the process, reap harmful
effects that can jeopardize your goals.[3]
A reinforcer is different from reward, in that reinforcement is
intended to create a measured increase in the rate of a desirable
behavior following the addition of something to the environment.
Drive-reduction theories
Main article: Drive theory
There are a number of drive theories. The Drive Reduction Theory grows
out of the concept that we have certain biological drives, such as
hunger. As time passes the strength of the drive increases if it is
not satisfied (in this case by eating). Upon satisfying a drive the
drive's strength is reduced. The theory is based on diverse ideas from
the theories of Freud to the ideas of feedback control systems, such
as a thermostat.
Drive theory has some intuitive or folk validity. For instance when
preparing food, the drive model appears to be compatible with
sensations of rising hunger as the food is prepared, and, after the
food has been consumed, a decrease in subjective hunger. There are
several problems, however, that leave the validity of drive reduction
open for debate. The first problem is that it does not explain how
secondary reinforcers reduce drive. For example, money satisfies no
biological or psychological needs, but a pay check appears to reduce
drive through second-order conditioning. Secondly, a drive, such as
hunger, is viewed as having a "desire" to eat, making the drive a
homuncular being - a feature criticized as simply moving the
fundamental problem behind this "small man" and his desires.
In addition, it is clear that drive reduction theory cannot be a
complete theory of behavior, or a hungry human could not prepare a
meal without eating the food before they finished cooking it. The
ability of drive theory to cope with all kinds of behavior, from not
satisfying a drive (by adding on other traits such as restraint), or
adding additional drives for "tasty" food, which combine with drives
for "food" in order to explain cooking render it hard to test.
Cognitive dissonance theory
Main article: Cognitive dissonance
Suggested by Leon Festinger, this occurs when an individual
experiences some degree of discomfort resulting from an
incompatibility between two cognitions. For example, a consumer may
seek to reassure himself regarding a purchase, feeling, in retrospect,
that another decision may have been preferable.
Another example of cognitive dissonance is when a belief and a
behavior are in conflict. A person may wish to be healthy, believes
smoking is bad for one's health, and yet continues to smoke.
Need theories
Need hierarchy theory
Main article: Maslow's hierarchy of needs
Abraham Maslow's theory is one of the most widely discussed theories
of motivation.
The theory can be summarized as follows:
Human beings have wants and desires which influence their behavior.
Only unsatisfied needs influence behavior, satisfied needs do not.
Since needs are many, they are arranged in order of importance, from
the basic to the complex.
The person advances to the next level of needs only after the lower
level need is at least minimally satisfied.
The further the progress up the hierarchy, the more individuality,
humanness and psychological health a person will show.
The needs, listed from basic (lowest-earliest) to most complex
(highest-latest) are as follows:
Safety
Physiology
Self-esteem
Belongingness
Self actualization
Herzberg’s two-factor theory
Main article: Frederick Herzberg
Frederick Herzberg's two-factor theory, aka intrinsic/extrinsic
motivation, concludes that certain factors in the workplace result in
job satisfaction, but if absent, lead to dissatisfaction.
The factors that motivate people can change over their lifetime, but
"respect for me as a person" is one of the top motivating factors at
any stage of life.
He distinguished between:
Motivators; (e.g. challenging work, recognition, responsibility) which
give positive satisfaction, and
Hygiene factors; (e.g. status, job security, salary and fringe
benefits) that do not motivate if present, but, if absent, result in
demotivation.
The name Hygiene factors is used because, like hygiene, the presence
will not make you healthier, but absence can cause health
deterioration.
The theory is sometimes called the "Motivator-Hygiene Theory."
Alderfer’s ERG theory
Main article: Clayton Alderfer
Clayton Alderfer, expanding on Maslow's hierarchy of needs, created
the ERG theory (existence, relatedness and growth). Physiological and
safety, the lower order needs, are placed in the existence category,
while love and self esteem needs are placed in the relatedness
category. The growth category contains our self-actualization and self-
esteem needs.
Self-determination theory
Self-determination theory, developed by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan,
focuses on the importance of intrinsic motivation in driving human
behavior. Like Maslow's hierarchical theory and others that built on
it, SDT posits a natural tendency toward growth and development.
Unlike these other theories, however, SDT does not include any sort of
"autopilot" for achievement, but instead requires active encouragement
from the environment. The primary factors that encourage motivation
and development are autonomy, competence feedback, and relatedness.[4]
Broad theories
The latest approach in Achievement Motivation is an integrative
perspective as lined out in the "Onion-Ring-Model of Achievement
Motivation" by Heinz Schuler, George C. Thornton III, Andreas Frintrup
and Rose Mueller-Hanson. It is based on the premise that performance
motivation results from way broad components of personality are
directed towards performance. As a result, it includes a range of
dimensions that are relevant to success at work but which are not
conventionally regarded as being part of performance motivation.
Especially it integrates formerly separated approaches as Need for
Achievement with e.g. social motives like Dominance. The Achievement
Motivation Inventory AMI (Schuler, Thornton, Frintrup & Mueller-
Hanson, 2003) is based on this theory and assesses three factors (17
separated scales) relevant to vocational and professional success.
Cognitive theories
Goal theory
Goal theory is based on the notion that individuals sometimes have a
drive to reach a clearly defined end state. Often, this end state is a
reward in itself. A goal's efficiency is affected by three features:
proximity, difficulty and specificity. An ideal goal should present a
situation where the time between the initiation of behavior and the
end state is close. This explains why some children are more motivated
to learn how to ride a bike than mastering algebra. A goal should be
moderate, not too hard or too easy to complete. In both cases, most
people are not optimally motivated, as many want a challenge (which
assumes some kind of insecurity of success). At the same time people
want to feel that there is a substantial probability that they will
succeed. Specificity concerns the description of the goal in their
class. The goal should be objectively defined and intelligible for the
individual. A classic example of a poorly specified goal is to get the
highest possible grade. Most children have no idea how much effort
they need to reach that goal. [5]
Douglas Vermeeren, has done extensive research into why many people
fail to get to their goals. The failure is directly attributed to
motivating factors. Vermeeren states that unless an individual can
clearly identify their motivating factor or their significant and
meaningful reasons why they wish to attain the goal, they will never
have the power to attain it.
Models of behavior change
Social-cognitive models of behavior change include the constructs of
motivation and volition. Motivation is seen as a process that leads to
the forming of behavioral intentions. Volition is seen as a process
that leads from intention to actual behavior. In other words,
motivation and volition refer to goal setting and goal pursuit,
respectively. Both processes require self-regulatory efforts. Several
self-regulatory constructs are needed to operate in orchestration to
attain goals. An example of such a motivational and volitional
construct is perceived self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is supposed to
facilitate the forming of behavioral intentions, the development of
action plans, and the initiation of action. It can support the
translation of intentions into action.
See also:
Health Action Process Approach
I-Change Model
Unconscious motivation
Some psychologists believe that a significant portion of human
behavior is energized and directed by unconscious motives. According
to Maslow, "Psychoanalysis has often demonstrated that the
relationship between a conscious desire and the ultimate unconscious
aim that underlies it need not be at all direct [6]." In other words,
stated motives do not always match those inferred by skilled
observers. For example, it is possible that a person can be accident-
prone because he has an unconscious desire to hurt himself and not
because he is careless or ignorant of the safety rules. Similarly,
some overweight people are not hungry at all for food but for fighting
and kissing. Eating is merely a defensive reaction to lack of
attention. Some workers damage more equipment than others do because
they harbor unconscious feelings of aggression toward authority
figures.
Psychotherapists point out that some behavior is so automatic that the
reasons for it are not available in the individual's conscious mind.
Compulsive cigarette smoking is an example. Sometimes maintaining self-
esteem is so important and the motive for an activity is so
threatening that it is simply not recognized and, in fact, may be
disguised or repressed. Rationalization, or "explaining away", is one
such disguise, or defense mechanism, as it is called. Another is
projecting or attributing one's own faults to others. "I feel I am to
blame", becomes "It is her fault; she is selfish". Repression of
powerful but socially unacceptable motives may result in outward
behavior that is the opposite of the repressed tendencies. An example
of this would be the employee who hates his boss but overworks himself
on the job to show that he holds him in high regard.
Unconscious motives add to the hazards of interpreting human behavior
and, to the extent that they are present, complicate the life of the
administrator. On the other hand, knowledge that unconscious motives
exist can lead to a more careful assessment of behavioral problems.
Although few contemporary psychologists deny the existence of
unconscious factors, many do believe that these are activated only in
times of anxiety and stress, and that in the ordinary course of
events, human behavior — from the subject's point of view — is
rationally purposeful.
Intrinsic motivation and the 16 basic desires theory
Starting from studies involving more than 6,000 people, Professor
Steven Reiss has proposed a theory that find 16 basic desires that
guide nearly all human behavior. [7] [8]
The desires are:
Acceptance, the need for approval
Curiosity, the need to think
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
In this model, people differ in these basic desires. These basic
desires represent intrinsic desires that directly motivate a person's
behavior, and not aimed at indirectly satisfying other desires. People
may also be motivated by non-basic desires, but in this case this does
not relate to deep motivation, or only as a means to achieve other
basic desires.
Controlling motivation
The control of motivation is only understood to a limited extent.
There are many different approaches of motivation training, but many
of these are considered pseudoscientific by critics. To understand how
to control motivation it is first necessary to understand why many
people lack motivation.
Early programming
Modern imaging has provided solid empirical support for the
psychological theory that emotional programming is largely defined in
childhood. Harold Chugani, Medical Director of the PET Clinic at the
Children's Hospital of Michigan and professor of pediatrics, neurology
and radiology at Wayne State University School of Medicine, has found
that children's brains are much more capable of consuming new
information (linked to emotions) than those of adults. Brain activity
in cortical regions is about twice as high in children as in adults
from the third to the ninth year of life. After that period, it
declines constantly to the low levels of adulthood. Brain volume, on
the other hand, is already at about 95% of adult levels in the ninth
year of life.
Organization
Besides the very direct approaches to motivation, beginning in early
life, there are solutions which are more abstract but perhaps
nevertheless more practical for self-motivation. Virtually every
motivation guidebook includes at least one chapter about the proper
organization of one's tasks and goals. It is usually suggested that it
is critical to maintain a list of tasks, with a distinction between
those which are completed and those which are not, thereby moving some
of the required motivation for their completion from the tasks
themselves into a "meta-task", namely the processing of the tasks in
the task list, which can become a routine. The viewing of the list of
completed tasks may also be considered motivating, as it can create a
satisfying sense of accomplishment.
Most electronic to-do lists have this basic functionality, although
the distinction between completed and non-completed tasks is not
always clear (completed tasks are sometimes simply deleted, instead of
kept in a separate list).
Other forms of information organization may also be motivational, such
as the use of mind maps to organize one's ideas, and thereby "train"
the neural network that is the human brain to focus on the given task.
Simpler forms of idea notation such as simple bullet-point style lists
may also be sufficient, or even more useful to less visually oriented
persons.
Employee Motivation
Workers in any organization need something to keep them working. Most
times the salary of the employee is enough to keep him or her working
for an organization. However, sometimes just working for salary is not
enough for employees to stay at an organization. An employee must be
motivated to work for a company or organization. If no motivation is
present in an employee, then that employee’s quality of work or all
work in general will deteriorate.
Keeping an employee working at full potential is the ultimate goal of
employee motivation. There are many methods to help keep employees
motivated. Some traditional ways or motivating workers are placing
them in competition with each other. Friendly competition is a great
way to generate motivation among employees. This gives a chance for
employees to flex their working skills in a competition against their
peers. This not only will motivate employees with a result of greater
production. But the competition with recorded results will give the
employer and idea of who is being most productive.
Drugs
Some authors, especially in the transhumanist movement, have suggested
the use of "smart drugs", also known as nootropics, as "motivation-
enhancers". The effects of many of these drugs on the brain are
emphatically not well understood, and their legal status often makes
open experimentation difficult.
Applications
Education
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Motivation is of particular interest to Educational psychologists
because of the crucial role it plays in student learning. However, the
specific kind of motivation that is studied in the specialized setting
of education differs qualitatively from the more general forms of
motivation studied by psychologists in other fields.
Motivation in education can have several effects on how students learn
and how they behave towards subject matter[9]. It can:
Direct behavior toward particular goals
Lead to increased effort and energy
Increase initiation of, and persistence in, activities
Enhance cognitive processing
Determine what consequences are reinforcing
Lead to improved performance.
Because students are not always internally motivated, they sometimes
need situated motivation, which is found in environmental conditions
that the teacher creates.
There are two kinds of motivation:
Intrinsic motivation occurs when people are internally motivated to do
something because it either brings them pleasure, they think it is
important, or they feel that what they are learning is significant.
Extrinsic motivation comes into play when a student is compelled to do
something or act a certain way because of factors external to him or
her (like money or good grades).
Note also that there is already questioning and expansion about this
dichotomy on motivation, e.g., Self-Determination Theory.
Motivation has been found to be a pivotal area in treating Autism
Spectrum Disorders, as in Pivotal Response Therapy.
Motivation is also an important element in the concept of Andragogy
(what motivates the adult learner).
Sudbury Model schools' approach to motivation
Sudbury Model schools adduce that the cure to the problem of
procrastination, of learning in general, and particularly of
scientific illiteracy is to remove once and for all what they call the
underlying disease: compulsion in schools. They contend that human
nature in a free society recoils from every attempt to force it into a
mold; that the more requirements we pile onto children at school, the
surer we are to drive them away from the material we are trying to
force down their throats; that after all the drive and motivation of
infants to master the world around them is legendary. They assert that
schools must keep that drive alive by doing what some of them do:
nurturing it on the freedom it needs to thrive.[10]
Sudbury Model schools do not perform and do not offer evaluations,
assessments, transcripts, or recommendations, asserting that they do
not rate people, and that school is not a judge; comparing students to
each other, or to some standard that has been set is for them a
violation of the student's right to privacy and to self-determination.
Students decide for themselves how to measure their progress as self-
starting learners as a process of self-evaluation: real life-long
learning and the proper educational evaluation for the 21st Century,
they adduce.[11] According to Sudbury Model schools, this policy does
not cause harm to their students as they move on to life outside the
school. However, they admit it makes the process more difficult, but
that such hardship is part of the students learning to make their own
way, set their own standards and meet their own goals. The no-grading
and no-rating policy helps to create an atmosphere free of competition
among students or battles for adult approval, and encourages a
positive co-operative environment amongst the student body.[12]
Business
At lower levels of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, such as Physiological
needs, money is a motivator, however it tends to have a motivating
effect on staff that lasts only for a short period (in accordance with
Herzberg's two-factor model of motivation). At higher levels of the
hierarchy, praise, respect, recognition, empowerment and a sense of
belonging are far more powerful motivators than money, as both Abraham
Maslow's theory of motivation and Douglas McGregor's Theory X and
theory Y (pertaining to the theory of leadership) demonstrate.
Maslow has money at the lowest level of the hierarchy and shows other
needs are better motivators to staff. McGregor places money in his
Theory X category and feels it is a poor motivator. Praise and
recognition are placed in the Theory Y category and are considered
stronger motivators than money.
Motivated employees always look for better ways to do a job.
Motivated employees are more quality oriented.
Motivated workers are more productive.
The average workplace is about midway between the extremes of high
threat and high opportunity. Motivation by threat is a dead-end
strategy, and naturally staff are more attracted to the opportunity
side of the motivation curve than the threat side. Motivation is a
powerful tool in the work environment that can lead to employees
working at their most efficient levels of production. [13]
Nonetheless, Steinmertz also discusses three common character types of
subordinates: ascendant, indifferent, and ambivalent whom all react
and interact uniquely, and must be treated, managed, and motivated
accordingly. An effective leader must understand how to manage all
characters, and more importantly the manager must utilize avenues that
allow room for employees to work, grow, and find answers independently.
[14]
The assumptions of Maslow and Herzberg were challenged by a classic
study[15] at Vauxhall Motors' UK manufacturing plant. This introduced
the concept of orientation to work and distinguished three main
orientations: instrumental (where work is a means to an end),
bureaucratic (where work is a source of status, security and immediate
reward) and solidaristic (which prioritises group loyalty).
Other theories which expanded and extended those of Maslow and
Herzberg included Kurt Lewin's Force Field Theory, Edwin Locke's Goal
Theory and Victor Vroom's Expectancy theory. These tend to stress
cultural differences and the fact that individuals tend to be
motivated by different factors at different times.[16]
According to the system of scientific management developed by
Frederick Winslow Taylor, a worker's motivation is solely determined
by pay, and therefore management need not consider psychological or
social aspects of work. In essence, scientific management bases human
motivation wholly on extrinsic rewards and discards the idea of
intrinsic rewards.
In contrast, David McClelland believed that workers could not be
motivated by the mere need for money — in fact, extrinsic motivation
(e.g., money) could extinguish intrinsic motivation such as
achievement motivation, though money could be used as an indicator of
success for various motives, e.g., keeping score. In keeping with this
view, his consulting firm, McBer & Company, had as its first motto "To
make everyone productive, happy, and free." For McClelland,
satisfaction lay in aligning a person's life with their fundamental
motivations.
Elton Mayo found out that the social contacts a worker has at the
workplace are very important and that boredom and repetitiveness of
tasks lead to reduced motivation. Mayo believed that workers could be
motivated by acknowledging their social needs and making them feel
important. As a result, employees were given freedom to make decisions
on the job and greater attention was paid to informal work groups.
Mayo named the model the Hawthorne effect. His model has been judged
as placing undue reliance on social contacts at work situations for
motivating employees.[17]
In Essentials of Organizational Behavior, Robbins and Judge examine
recognition programs as motivators, and identify five principles that
contribute to the success of an employee incentive program:[18]
Recognition of employees' individual differences, and clear
identification of behavior deemed worthy of recognition
Allowing employees to participate
Linking rewards to performance
Rewarding of nominators
Visibility of the recognition process
Online communities
Motivation to participate and contribute represents one of the most
important element in the success of online communities (and virtual
communities).
See more at: Online participation
turtoni
relationship between a conscious desire and the ultimate unconscious aim
tooly
Tur...you're 'Immorting' out on us. Interesting threads, but time is
of the essence. Perhaps personal comment and then a 'link'...or a
summation and a link etc.
For the above, I've always wagered that 'Sex and Self Esteem' are the
two proponderants of mental health [or not] (given no biological
malfunction).
Why are jails filled with males for example? We express bad behaviors
as 'release of inner' pressures built upon a lack of proper access to
the two mentioned items IMHO. Making it with a whore doesn't help,
for the 'esteem' part remains damaged [can be harmed even more]. So,
it takes some sort of 'recognition' that we personally can identify
with that affirms to some degree, a sense of worth. I'm a believer
that most of what males do is sublimation.
Overwhelmed with reductionist science, that 'self worth' is becoming
harder and harder to come by methinks. [but I didn't have time to read
all your lengthy copied disseration].
Zurab57
I dare to admit that motivation is not always final go, but action
itself as was "struggle" for Marx the aim in the life.
turtoni
Are you frustrated? Likely we all are to some degree but at what point
does it become a motivational force? The outward subjects of the
motivation, as this snippet suggests, are a kind of side effect..