Motivation | Why?

Motivation

Motivation refers to the initiation, direction, intensity and persistence of behavior (Geen, 1995). Motivation is having the desire and willingness to do something. Ever wonder why some people seem to be very successful and highly motivated? Where do they get they energy, drive and direction from?

Motivation is an area of psychology that has got a great deal of attention in the recent years. The reason for this is because everyone wants to be motivated, everyone wants to be successful. I know I want to, and I also know that at least one other person wants to – you!

Some “why?” questions:

• Why do you go to work each day?
• Why did Cain kill Abel?
• Why do you eat?
• Why are you reading this?
• Why do you want to grow?
• Why do cats eat mice?
• Why did you choose to wear those shoes today?

Obviously, each of these questions has an answer, a motive for engaging in those behaviors. Motivation is a need, want, interest, or desire that propels you do take certain actions in a certain direction.

The mechanism of motivation can be encountered by many names – habit, belief, desire, instinct, interest, compulsion, drive – but no matter what its label is, it is this motivation that prompts you to take action. The word motivation comes from the verb “to move.”

In some books, you may find motivation defined as “the study of goal-directed behavior”.

There are several distinct theories of motivation. Some include basic biological forces, while others seem to transcend concrete explanation.

The five major theories of motivation

A. Instinct Theories

Many of the different theories of motivation are similar, except for the amount of emphasis they place on either biology or environment. Most include some level of both (some nature, some nurture). However, there is one theory that completely emphasizes biology, and that is the Instinct Theory.

The Instinct Theory states that motivation is the result of biological and genetic programming. Is says that all beings within a species are programmed for the same motivations.

At the very core of this perspective stands the motivation to survive. Every living creature is biologically programmed to survive and all of our motivations stem from biological programming. Thus, all our actions are instincts.

For example, a human mother will stay awake with her crying infant all night long trying to provide comfort. Why do you think he’s doing that? Instinct theory suggests that she is programmed to behave in this manner and it is not due to learning or conditioning, models, or anything else other than pure biology.

This perspective is very much like the kind that was offered in a strongly controversial article that stated: “Parents don’t matter that much in the development of their children.”

William McDougal (1908), was an influential theorist who viewed instincts as behavior patterns that are unlearned, uniform in expression and universal in a species.

For example: within a species of bird, all the members may build identical nests and work in the same ways. This holds true even for those birds of that species born and raised in captivity and isolation, and thus could not have learned the appropriate nest building behavior from experienced role model birds.

McDougal carried this a step further and stated that humans are the same and have instincts for behaviors as: parenting, submission, jealousy, mating, and more.

The problems of this perspective

Theorists have never been able to agree on a list of instincts. Many instincts are not universal and seem to be more dependent on individual differences (e. g. jealousy). Not all humans exhibit the same jealously levels, behaviors, et cetera.

B. Sociobiological Perspective (Sociobiology)

Sociobiology is the study of genetic and evolutionary bases of behavior in all organisms (including humans). This view has its roots in the instinct theory, but it is not purely an instinct theory.

The major viewpoint that sociobiology states is that natural selection favors social behaviors that maximize reproductive success. So, the primary force of motivation for living organisms (including humans) is to pass on our genes from one generation to the next.

This theory (inspired by Charles Darwin) argues that in the last 15 million years the human species has evolved socially as well as physically through the process of natural selection.

Instinct theory argued that people try to survive, and that any quality that increases survival will eventually become genetically based. However, sociobiology has changed this view slightly by arguing that the organism’s fundamental goal is not mere survival, or even the survival of its offspring. Rather, the fittest individual is the one that succeeds in passing the maximum number of genes on to the next generation. For example, why do animals go to all the trouble of breeding and raising offspring? Because having children is an extremely effective mean of ensuring the survival of one’s genes in a future generation. Caring for offspring may seem self-sacrificing, but these actions are prompted by the gene’s selfish tendency to seek survival at all costs. Even if the parent perishes protecting its young, its genes will continue to flourish in its offspring.

To Darwin, the fittest animal is the one that can survive longest. To Hamilton, the fittest animal is the one that maximizes the survival of its genes in future generations.

Motives such as competition, aggression, sexual activity, and dominance can be explained by this perspective. This perspective can also explain differences in men and women’s mating preferences. For example:

In one study an attractive man or woman (the researchers’ accomplice) asked strangers of the opposite sex one of the following questions: “I have been noticing you around campus. I find you very attractive.” The accomplice then asked one of the following questions, depending on the group the subject had been assigned to: (a) “Would you go out with me tonight”; (b) “Would you come over to my apartment tonight?” (c) “Would you go to bed with me tonight?” The Results: None of the women agreed to the third request compared to the 75% hit rate for men.

Another example:

Studies have shown that women are more likely to engage in extramarital affairs during ovulation, when they are more likely to get pregnant (the studies did not state or even insinuate that the women were making conscious efforts to get pregnant from a male other than their spouse or boyfriend, only that women were indeed more likely to be ovulating during the time they decided to have the extramarital affairs).

Although this perspective may seem selfish, it can explain seemingly altruistic behaviors:

A Blackbird will risk death to signal the flock that a hawk (a predator) is nearby? In so doing, the Blackbird increases its chance of getting killed, but also increases the chances of the other Blackbirds surviving and, therefore, increasing the odds that more genes will be passed on. An organism will risk its own life to keep the possibility of passing on familial genes alive. Others of the same genetic strain will survive and keep the gene pool going even if that particular bird does not.

This selfish perspective has the potential to produce remarkably unselfish behavior.

C. Drive Theories

A Drive is an internal state of tension that motivates an organism to engage in tension-reducing activities.

Most organisms seem to try and maintain Homeostasis (a state of physiological equilibrium).

For example, we have a homeostatic temperature of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. If this temperature begins to waiver enough you have a number of possible autonomic responses: if the temperature increases, you perspire, if temperature decreases, you shiver.

When you experience a drive, you are motivated to reduce this state of tension and pursue actions that will lead to a drive reduction (reduce the state of tension).

Example – hunger leads to physical discomfort (internal tension – drive), which leads to the motivation to get food, which leads to eating, which leads to a reduction in physical tension (drive reduction), which finally leads to the restoration of equilibrium.

The problems of this perspective

Homeostasis seems irrelevant to some human motives – what is the “thirst for knowledge”?

Motivation may exist without a drive arousal. For example, humans do not eat only when they are hungry. Don’t believe me? Have you ever got out for a nice dinner, ate enough to be full, but then still decided to have that great chocolate desert anyway? I thought so.

D. Incentive Theory

An incentive may be defined as an external goal that has the capacity to motivate your behavior. This does not mean that it will always motivate your behavior, only that it can.

This creates a situation from which you can see a difference with previous theories:

Drive theory acts by an internal state pushing you in a specific direction. However, incentive theory acts when an external stimulus pulls you in a certain direction.

This is directly related to Skinner. Here you can see a move, away from biological influence toward the environment and its influence on behavior. You go to work every day not because you were biologically programmed to work there, but rather because there is something external that is rewarding to you. Is it the money? Is it passion for that kind of work? Is it the desire to gain a higher ranking in the society? Regardless which one of those is your motivation, the idea of the Incentive Theory is that the motivation is something external, not internal.

E. Malsow’s Need Hierarchy

This Humanistic perspective is a blend of biological and social needs and represents a sweeping overview of human motivation. Because Maslow believed that all needs vary in strength, he arranged them in a pyramidal form to indicate which have more strength.

The most basic needs (like shelter and food) are vital to daily survival, and are at the bottom, while needs that are less important to staying alive are higher on the pyramid.The Need Hierarchy is a systematic arrangement of needs according to their priority, which assumes that basic needs must be met before less basic needs are aroused.

You must meet one need before you can move on to the next.

The need levels:

1. Physiological. These include the need for food, water, and other vital components of life. If these needs are not met, the organism can’t survive. That’s why these needs are the most basic and important.

2. Safety and security. These needs refer more to the long term survival than day to day needs. Humans tend to seek out order and have a desire to live in a world that is not filled with chaos and danger. As a result, they seek out stable lives with careers, homes, insurance, etc.

3. Belongingness and love. After obtaining a safe environment to live and establishing some long term plans, people seek out love and affection from family members, friends, and lovers.

4. Esteem. At this level, people become concerned with self-esteem which may be based on achievements that they earn, recognition from others for jobs they do, etc.

5. Cognitive. Needs at this level are based on acquiring knowledge and understanding of the world, people, behavior, etc. If you are in college to learn (not simply to get a degree) then you are attempting to fulfill your cognitive needs.

6. Aesthetic. Aesthetic needs include beauty and order in life. Getting your life in order may provide a sense of comfort that people often lack. In addition, spending time finding and observing beauty in the world becomes an option and a desire as people do not have to struggle and fight to stay alive. Remember the episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in which people from our century who had been frozen are found and thawed? These people could not understand that money was no longer important, that starvation had been abolished on Earth, and that people now had the opportunity and will to better themselves through learning about art, music, etc. Picard was preaching the aesthetic level of Maslow’s hierarchy.

7. Self-actualization. This is the highest and most difficult level to reach. In fact, according to Maslow, very few people actually reach this level. Self-actualization is the need to fulfill one’s own potential. As Maslow stated, “What a man can be, he must be.” Interestingly, Maslow indicated that people will be frustrated if they can’t pursue their true loves and talents. For example, if a person has a talent for painting, but they become a doctor, they will be forever frustrated because the need for self-actualization will be hindered.

According to Maslow, nobody has ever reached the peak of his pyramid. We all strive for it and some of us may even get close, but no one has achieved full self-actualization. Self-actualization means a complete understanding of who you are, a sense of completeness, of being the best person you could possibly be.

To have achieved this goal is to stop living, for what is there to strive for if you have learned everything about yourself, if you have experienced all that you can, and if there is no way left for you to grow emotionally, intellectually, or spiritually.

This post may be a harder read than the usual ones, but it is necessary in understanding the motivational engine that propels you to do what you do.