motivation
behaviour
Motive, a force acting on or within a person in order to initiate behavior. Motivation is derived from the Latin motivus ("a moving cause"), and refers to the activating properties of the processes involved in psychological motivation.
To explain observed changes in behavior, psychologists study motivational forces. So, we can explain the observation that a person is more likely to open the fridge door to look for food when the number of hours since the last meal increases by using the concept of motivation. According to the example above, motivation cannot be measured directly, but rather can be inferred from behavioral changes in response to external or internal stimuli. Motivation is also primarily a performance variable. It is temporary when motivation changes. Due to a change in motivation, a person who is highly motivated to perform a particular task may later lose interest in that task.
Debates in motivational study
Nomothetics vs. ideography
Regardless of how motivation is studied, certain fundamental debates have characterized the positions taken by researchers. A debate of this type concerns the question of whether researchers should study groups of individuals and draw general conclusions (referred to as the nomothetic approach) or look at the behaviors that differentiate individuals (referred to as the idiographic approach). Despite the fact that both approaches have contributed to our understanding of motivational processes, the nomothetic approach has dominated motivational research.
Innate versus acquired processes
Second, there is the question of whether motivational processes are innate (genetically programmed) or acquired (learned). There has been a swing between one extreme and the other since the 1890s, and then back again to the middle. Early motivational theories were predominantly instinctual. During the 1920s, the instinctive approach fell out of favor and was replaced by the idea that all behaviors were learned. Since the 1960s, and up until the present day, research has indicated that both positions are correct. In some species, motives do appear to be largely innate, as in the courting behavior of the three-spined stickleback, a small fish native to the Northern Hemisphere (see below Biological approaches to motivation: Genetic contributions). Learning seems to be more closely related to other motives, such as achievement motivation. Some motive states, such as extreme shyness, appear to result from an innate predisposition combined with a particular environment where learning interacts with the predisposition.
Internal needs versus external goals
The issue of whether motivation is primarily driven by internal needs or external goals has also dominated debates on motivational processes. The difference between push and pull motives is described by this dimension. According to research, some motives are internal (push motives), while others are external (pull motives)
Mechanistic versus cognitive processes
Research has tended to view motivational processes as either mechanistic or cognitive. The first assumption assumes that motivational processes are automatic; that is, the organism, human or otherwise, does not need to understand what it is doing for them to work. This view has gained considerable popularity. In a mechanistic approach, neither conscious awareness nor intent are assumed to be involved. Mechanistic researchers are often interested in studying internal need states and genetically programmed behaviors. In the second and newer approach, which has been emphasized by researchers more focused on external motives and acquired motivations, cognition has been emphasized as a factor in motivation. The cognitive approach holds that the way in which information is interpreted influences motives. Cognitive motivational theories assume that active processing of information influences future motivation. The complexity of motivational processes leads most theorists to assume that some motive states are largely mechanical, while others are largely cognitive.
Historical overview
Philosophers’ contributions
Philosophers and physiologists have had a significant influence on motivational thought throughout history. As an example, the concept of free will as proposed by Aristotle and others was widely accepted philosophically until it was overwhelmingly rejected in favor of determinism. Psychologists use the term determinism to discuss the idea that every behavior stems from some antecedent event. Motivation is often cited as an antecedent for particular behavior. When one sees a woman hurriedly eating a sandwich while constantly looking at her watch, one might assume she is late for an appointment rather than ravenously hungry. In spite of the eventual explanation that would help us to understand her behavior, we do not assume that she is acting randomly. In reality, we assume that she does so because of some motive. Motives can be categorized into primary, or unlearned, motives, which are common to both animals and humans, and secondary, or learned, motives, which can vary from animal to animal and person to person. Hunger, thirst, sex, avoiding pain, and perhaps aggression and fear are some of the primary motivators. Humans are typically studied for secondary motives such as achievement, power motivation, and many other special motives.
Motives are also sometimes classified as "pushes" and "pulls." Push motives are those associated with internal changes that trigger specific states of motivation. Pull motives represent external goals that influence our behavior toward them. Motivating situations are usually a combination of push and pull. In part, hunger may be caused by changes in blood sugar or fat stores, but motivation to eat is also heavily affected by what foods are available. It is true that some foods are more desirable than others, and their appeal impacts our behavior. A person's behavior is thus often a combination of internal pushes and external pulls.
The study of motivation
Physiological, psychological, and philosophical perspectives
Numerous methods have been used to study motivation. Physiological analyses include electrical and chemical stimulation of the brain, recording electrical brain-wave activity with the electroencephalograph, and lesion techniques, where a portion of the brain is destroyed and subsequent changes in motivation are noted. Physiological studies conducted on animals other than humans have demonstrated the importance of certain brain structures in the regulation of basic motives such as hunger, thirst, sex, aggression, and fear.
An individual's motivation can also be analyzed psychologically. In these analyses, the goal is to understand why people behave in certain ways and to draw general conclusions from individual cases. According to studies of individuals, for example, both men and women proceed through distinct stages of arousal prior to and during sexual intercourse. This is applicable to people in general.
Other people's presence can also influence an individual's motivation. Psychologists have been studying how the presence of others in a given situation influences motivation. In the classroom, for example, students and teachers behave in predictable ways. However, these behaviors are often quite different from those of students and teachers outside of the classroom. The studies of conformity, obedience, and helping behaviors (which benefit others without being rewarded) have received considerable attention in this field.
Lastly, motivation can also be approached from a more philosophical perspective. In other words, motivation analyses are understood, at least in part, by analyzing the philosophy of the theorist. Some motivational theorists consider motivation an aversive state: one to be avoided. As a result, Sigmund Freud's theory of motivation could be applied within this framework; his notion that blocked sexual energy could be displaced into acceptable behavior implies that accumulation of sexual energy (motivation) is aversive. Motivation is regarded as a much more positive experience by other theorists. Therefore, motivation can produce behaviors that increase future motivation. Self-actualization was developed by Abraham H. Maslow, an American psychologist (see Self-actualization below).
Learning influences behavior according to Aristotle's theory that the mind is a blank slate at birth, which is shaped by experience. During the 17th century, René Descartes proposed the idea of mind-body dualism, which stated that human behavior could be explained as originating both from an intelligent, free soul and from automatic, nonrational processes within the body. Instinct was developed as an alternative to Aristotle's emphasis on learning as the single most important concept in controlling behavior based on the hypothesis that nonrational and mechanistic processes of the body can motivate behavior under some circumstances. Descartes' mechanistic dualism can be seen as a distant forerunner of the study of genetic components of motivation, while his philosophical notion of rational choices can be seen as a precursor to the study of modern cognitive approaches to motivation.
As exemplified by John Locke, British empiricist philosophers contributed to the development of modern motivational theory. Locke's emphasis on sensory experience can be seen as underlying the modern emphasis on external stimulation as motivation. We value goals based on the sensory experience associated with them, according to many psychologists. The motivating properties of a food, such as taste, smell, or texture, can cause a person to drive across the city to eat it. Food that smelled and tasted like cardboard would not motivate future trips across the city for it. Locke also stressed the importance of association. Locke proposes that one idea can be linked to another to create a more complex idea. How nonmotivating experiences become motivating is explained by the concept of association. Several times a nonmotivating stimulus is paired with a highly motivating object, the formerly neutral stimulus begins to motivate behavior similar to the original stimulus. Studies have shown that under certain circumstances, phobias and other motives can be acquired through such associations. The associative mechanism is an example of Pavlovian classical conditioning. The Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov trained dogs to associate food with the sound of a bell; the dogs learned to salivate at the sound of a bell.) Money may be the most commonly associated stimulus in Western society that is recognized for its motivational properties. Money often becomes highly motivating by itself because it is paired with many powerful motivators.
Physiologists’ contributions
Physiological discoveries have contributed to motivational research as well. As a result of the discovery of separate nerve fibers for sensory and motor information, first suggested by the Greek physician Galen and separately confirmed by the English anatomist Sir Charles Bell in 1811 and the French physiologist François Magendie in 1822, the stimulus-response approach to motivation developed, which is now the basis of the field.
Initially discovered by the Italian physician and physicist Luigi Galvani's experiments with frogs in the 1770s and '80s, and then directly studied by the German physiologist Emil Du Bois-Reymond with a galvanometer in 1848–49, electrical nature of nerve impulses revealed nerves do not act as conduits by which animal spirits flow through the body, as was commonly believed, but rather carry signals from one part of the body to another. The psychologist Georg E. Müller developed the concept of specific nerve energies, which explained that the electrical signals passing along the nerves were specific and coded messages. Hermann von Helmholtz measured the speed of nerve impulses and found that it is about 100 miles per hour (160 kilometers per hour). Discoveries made it clear that the nervous system could be studied and that its role in motivating behavior could be examined.
Franz Josef Gall, a German physician in the early 1800s, influenced at least in part the study of how functions are distributed within the nervous system, especially the brain. Even though phrenology has been thoroughly discredited, it indirectly contributed to the localization of motivational systems in such brain regions as the hypothalamus.
Behaviourism
Since the late 19th century, motivational theory has evolved several stages based on philosophical and physiological contributions. At the end of the 1800s, Descartes' dualism was often used to distinguish between human and animal motivations. The behavioral theory we know today was created by psychologists such as William James and William McDougall, who started emphasizing instinctive behavior at the end of the 19th century and deemphasizing, and sometimes eliminating, the mentalistic concept of will. John B. Watson, an American psychologist, rejected instinct and will theories and emphasized the importance of learning in behavior. Following its popularization, S-R psychology became the foundation for behaviorism. The group viewed behavior as a reaction to change in the environment.nment. In the 1920s, instinct as proposed by theorists like James and McDougall had been widely criticized and had fallen out of favor. Behaviorism dominated thinking of motivational theorists until a new concept of motivation, drive, was born, congenial to behaviourism's S-R approach. DrThe concept of drive was first proposed by American psychologist Robert S. Woodworth, but developed most fully by Clark Hull, an American psychologist who conceived motivation as being a response to changes in body needs, which were then met by obtaining particular items in
Until the 1960s, motivational research was dominated by behaviorism, but dissenting voices were heard as early as the 1920s. Scientists like the American psychologist Edward C. Tolman and the German psychologist Wolfgang Köhler asserted that both humans and animals process information more actively and rejected the mechanistic S-R psychology. As a result of these early cognitive psychologists, other researchers have examined motivation resulting from expectation of future events, choice among alternatives, and attributions about outcomes. In other words, with the advent of cognitive explanations of motivated behavior, it became possible to argue that some behaviors were purposeful. The cognitive approach has proven useful in the analysis of several types of motivation, including achievement behaviour, dissonance motivation, and self-actualization (see below Cognitive motivation).
Motivational research has evolved from large, all-encompassing theories to smaller, more discrete theories describing particular motives or aspects of motivation under specific conditions. Motivational explanations fall into three categories: biological, behavioristic, and cognitive.
Motivation from a biological perspective
Biological microtheories of motivation include arousal mechanisms, genetic contributions, and biological monitoring systems.
Genetic contributions
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, James and McDougall proposed that some motivated behaviors are caused by innate programs in the nervous system. Early instinct approaches lost popularity during the 1920s because their proponents were unable to distinguish instinctive from learned behaviors and realized that labeling observed behaviors as instinctive would not explain their occurrence. Nevertheless, a group of biologists in Europe who were interested in the evolution of animal behavior maintained the concept and investigated its genetic basis. Nobel Prizes were awarded to three of these researchers in 1973 (the Austrians Karl von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz, and the Dutchman Nikolaas Tinbergen). A subject of study called ethology, early ethologists studied animal behavior in its natural habitat. Ethologists argue that behavior's evolutionary significance is best understood by developing a taxonomy of that species' behavior, based on observation in nature. Additionally, they suggest that the significance of a behavior can often be better understood when viewed in the context of an animal's behavior overall. A naturalistic observation and field study are the most common techniques used by ethologists.
Some animal behaviors are automatically and mechanically released when certain conditions are met, according to ethologists. A fixed-action pattern has several salient characteristics: it is unique to the species under study, it occurs consistently from encounter to encounter, and it does not seem to be influenced by experience. These genetically programmed behaviors are also usually triggered by highly specific stimuli, such as a specific color, shape, or sound. Known as social releasers, key stimuli can be provided by conspecific organisms (members of the same species).
Research has examined the courtship behavior of three-spined sticklebacks, a small fish, as an example of genetically programmed behavior. During the breeding season, sticklebacks defend the streambed against intruders. As shown by the reddish coloration of the ventral (under) surface of the intruding male, this aggressive behavior involves a series of fixed-action patterns. Due to the distended ventral surface of the female stickleback, caused by carrying eggs, female sticklebacks are not attacked by male sticklebacks in the territory.
The vast majority of ethological studies have been conducted on nonhuman animals, but some ethological researchers have applied the same types of analysis to human behavior. Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt, an Austrian ethologist, is among the most significant of them. In a book entitled Love and Hate: The Natural History of Behavior Patterns, he summarized many years of cross-cultural research on human genetic behaviour patterns. Interestingly, research on the facial expressions associated with emotion has provided some support for the existence of innate motivations in humans.
Motivation as arousal
The James-Lange theory
Another biological way to study motivation is to study mechanisms that alter the organism's arousal level. The equivalence between changes in arousal, emotion, and motivation has been stressed in earlier research on this topic. The observable manifestations of changes in arousal levels are emotional expressions and the motivation of behavior. Early arousal theories suggested that one's perception of emotion depends on how the body responds to an arousing situation. As a result of two researchers, William James and Carl Lange, who independently proposed it in 1884 and 1885, this theory became known as the James-Lange theory of emotion. For example, the theory suggests that being involved in a dangerous event such as an auto accident causes bodily changes, such as increased breathing and heart rate, and increased adrenaline release. These changes are detected by the brain and the emotion appropriate to the situation is experienced. In the example of the automobile accident, fear might be experienced as a result of these bodily changes.
The Cannon-Bard theory
Walter B. Cannon, a Harvard physiologist, questioned the James-Lange theory on the basis of a number of observations; he noted that the feedback from bodily changes can be eliminated without eliminating emotion; that the bodily changes associated with many quite different emotional states are similar, making it unlikely that these changes serve to produce particular emotions; that the organs supposedly providing the feedback to the brain concerning these bodily changes are not very sensitive; and that these bodily changes occur too slowly to account for experienced emotions.
Cannon and a colleague, Philip Bard, proposed an alternative arousal theory, subsequently known as the Cannon-Bard theory. According to this approach, the experience of an event, such as the automobile accident mentioned earlier, leads to the simultaneous determination of emotion and changes to the body. The brain, upon receiving information from the senses, interprets an event as emotional while at the same time preparing the body to deal with the new situation. Thus, emotional responses and changes in the body are proposed to be preparations for dealing with a potentially dangerous emergency situation.
The Schachter-Singer model
An experiment conducted by Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer in 1962 revealed that elements of both the James-Lange and Cannon-Bard theories contribute to the experience of emotion. The cognitive-physiological theory of emotion proposed that bodily changes, as well as cognitive labels, are necessary to fully experience emotion. The bodily changes are attributed to the situations we encounter, whereas the cognitive label refers to the interpretation our brains make about those situations. In this view, anger results from perceiving bodily changes (increased heart rate, breathing, adrenaline production) and interpreting the situation as one in which anger is appropriate or expected. Despite its modest evidence, the Schachter-Singer model of emotional arousal has proven popular. According to other researchers, bodily changes are not necessary for the experience of emotional arousal and cognition is sufficient.
The inverted-U function
It is often described as an inverted-U function (also known as Yerkes-Dodson law) that relates changes in arousal to motivation. As arousal level increases, performance improves, but only to a certain point, after which it deteriorates. It is believed that some arousal is necessary for efficient performance, but too much arousal causes anxiety or stress, which lead to poor performance.
In searching for a biological mechanism that could alter the level of arousal of humans, neuroscientists discovered a group of neurons (nerve cells) in the brain stem termed the reticular activating system or reticular formation. Arousal is controlled by these neurons, which are located along the center of the brain stem from the medulla to the thalamus. Additionally, they are believed to function in relation to the attention factor of an individual.
Sleep processes and stress reactions
Both sleep processes and stress reactions have been improved through research on arousal mechanisms of motivation. In the case of sleep, arousal levels generally seem lower than during waking; however, during one stage of sleep arousal levels appear highly similar to those in the waking state. Sleep itself may be considered a motivational state. The biological motivation to sleep can become so overpowering that individuals can fall asleep while driving an automobile or while engaged in dangerous tasks.
Five stages of sleep have been defined using the electroencephalograph (EEG). The EEG records the electrical activity of neurons in the outermost portion of the brain known as the cerebral cortex.
According to EEG-based findings, everyone cycles through five stages during sleep. A complete cycle averages approximately 90 minutes. The two most interesting stages of sleep from a motivational point of view are stages 4 and 5. Stage 4 represents the deepest sleep in that the brain-wave activity as measured by the EEG is farthest from the activity seen when a person is awake. The brain-wave pattern is characterized by delta waves, which are large, irregular, and slow; breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure are also reduced. Because the overall activity of the individual in stage 4 is greatly reduced, it has been suggested by some researchers that stage 4 (and perhaps also stage 3) sleep serves a restorative function. However, a potential problem with such an explanation is that stage 4 sleep drops dramatically after age 30 and may be entirely absent in some people aged 50 or over who nevertheless appear to be perfectly healthy. Additionally, studies have shown that in the typical individual physical exhaustion does not lead to increases in stage 4 sleep as might be expected if it were serving a restorative function. The purpose of stage 4 sleep remains unknown.
Stage 5 sleep is also known as rapid eye movement (REM) sleep because during this stage the eyes begin to move rapidly under the eyelids. Interest in stage 5 sleep has been considerable since it was discovered that most, if not all, dreaming occurs during this stage. During stage 5 sleep the EEG pattern of brain-wave activity appears very similar to the brain-wave activity of an awake, alert person. Breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure rise from the low levels observed during stage 4 and can fluctuate rapidly. In addition to eye movements, fast, small, and irregular brain waves, and autonomic changes indicative of an aroused state, individuals in stage 5 sleep display a large loss in skeletal muscle tone that amounts to a temporary paralysis. Researchers have suggested that the muscle paralysis prevents the “acting out” of our dreams.
Another aspect of arousal processes concerns the high levels of arousal leading to a triggering of the stress reaction. The stress reaction can be triggered by a challenge to the physical integrity of the body, or it can occur as a result of some psychological challenge. Furthermore, the body appears to react in a similar fashion regardless of whether the demands made upon it are physical or psychological. Hans Selye, a Viennese-born Canadian medical researcher, showed that stressors trigger a chain of processes that begins with what is called the alarm reaction, may proceed to a second stage called the stage of resistance, and, if the stressor has still not been removed, may lead to a final stage called exhaustion.
The alarm reaction occurs when a stressor is first detected and activates a brain structure called the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus, in turn, stimulates the sympathetic nervous system and also produces a substance called corticotropin-releasing hormone that activates the pituitary to produce adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). Both ACTH and activation of the sympathetic nervous system stimulate the adrenal glands. ACTH stimulates the adrenals to produce hydrocortisone, or cortisol, an anti-inflammatory substance, while the sympathetic nervous system stimulates the centre portion of the adrenals to produce epinephrine and norepinephrine (adrenaline and noradrenaline). All these hormones are secreted into the bloodstream and have the effect of mobilizing the body to deal with the stressor. This initial mobilization is a whole-body response and leads to increases in heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration and other responses associated with high arousal. The person so aroused is, in effect, in a high state of readiness. The alarm reaction often succeeds in changing the situation so that the stressor is no longer present, as would be the case, for example, if one were to run away from a physical threat.
In the second stage, the stage of resistance, localized responses within appropriate areas of the body replace the whole-body response of the alarm reaction, and blood levels of hydrocortisone, epinephrine, and norepinephrine return to just slightly above normal levels. During this stage the ability to fight off the stressor is high and may remain so for considerable periods of time.
If these localized responses to a stressor prove to be inadequate, eventually the third stage of stress, that of exhaustion, will be triggered, during which hormonal levels rise once more and the whole body becomes mobilized again. Selye proposed that if the stressor is not quickly defeated during this last stage, the individual can become withdrawn, maladjusted, and even die.
This three-part mechanism for coping with a stressor is called the general adaptation syndrome and appears to have evolved primarily to deal with systemic stressors. As noted earlier, however, this same set of processes is also triggered by psychological stressors and is often inappropriate to the situation. For example, the stress of an important upcoming test can trigger the alarm reaction, yet it is not apparent how increased levels of hydrocortisone, epinephrine, and norepinephrine would facilitate removing the stress-provoking test. Psychosomatic illness may result from overstimulation of the stress response, a process in which psychological stressors cause physical changes in the body. An excessive stress response, particularly the alarm response, can lead to physical deterioration.
Stress and illness have been the most thoroughly examined factors related to life changes and illness. In the field of psychoanalysis, Adolph Meyer, born in Switzerland, was a pioneer. Life-change scales measure the number and severity of various life events, such as the death of a spouse, divorce, retirement, change in living conditions, and so on. These scales have consistently been associated with an increased risk of future illness, albeit the relationship is not especially strong. Stress is likely to rise as a result of the life changes, increasing the risk of illness as a result.
There has also been some research conducted on ways to reduce the negative effects of stressors. The ability to better cope with stress can be attributed to a personality characteristic called hardiness. High-scoring hardy individuals have high levels of commitment to the things they do, a strong desire to control the events around them, and a willingness to accept challenges. The presence of these characteristics may protect individuals from the effects of stress associated with major life changes. Hardiness, especially combined with exercise, relieves stress resulting from physiological and psychological causes. The effects of life changes can be reduced as well by factors unrelated to hardiness, such as social support, optimism, and humour when faced with difficulty.
Biological monitoring systems
When it comes to basic motives like hunger, thirst, and sex, a biological approach emphasizing regulatory mechanisms has dominated research thinking. According to this theory, the nervous system monitors energy levels, fluid balance, and hormone production (in the case of sex) and alters motivation when these levels deviate too much from an ideal level.
Hunger
Why we eat when we do appears to be the result of two distinct mechanisms. The first mechanism, known as short-term regulation, attempts to take in enough energy to balance out what is being expended. This short-term mechanism is generally assumed to be responsible for determining the time between meals and the size of meals. If the short-term mechanism is unable to provide adequate energy replenishment, a second mechanism, the long-term regulation, is employed to store energy for possible later use. Energy for long-term use is stored in the form of fat within the fat cells of the body. Short-term regulation processes have generally been assumed to monitor the blood glucose (blood sugar) level and to initiate eating when this level falls below some predetermined optimum. Long-term regulation processes appear to monitor fat levels and to initiate eating when fat stores fall below some optimal level.
The short-term regulation of hunger motivation has been explained using two basic ideas. In the local theory of hunger, food is initiated by signals from the gastrointestinal tract, specifically the stomach. Pangs of hunger are believed to be caused by stomach contractions. According to considerable research, such an analysis is insufficient to explain hunger motivation. It is known, for example, that a large portion of the stomach can be removed without losing appetite motivation. Severing the vagus nerve, which stops stomach contractions, does not eliminate hunger.
Scientists began looking for the hunger-initiating mechanism in the brain after it became apparent that the local theory of hunger was incomplete. Researchers quickly discovered that the hypothalamus, a small brain structure located below the thalamus, regulates eating. In animals with damage to the ventromedial (lower, middle) area of the hypothalamus, a condition known as hyperphagia occurs in which they overeat and gain enormous amounts of weight. A damage to another area, the lateral hypothalamus (located on the sides of the hypothalamus), causes a complete lack of eating and drinking, also known as aphagia. These two areas are thought to control hunger motivation in part by activating and deactivating it as glucose levels in the blood change. In addition, these two hypothalamic areas are thought to contain specialized cells (glucoreceptors) that monitor blood glucose levels. However, this belief was undermined when the brain could not be definitively identified as a site for these glucoreceptors. Research suggests that these glucoreceptors may reside in the liver, where glucose is first received and from where it sends signals about glucose content to these hypothalamic areas.
It is unknown how long-term hunger motivation is regulated, but it has been suggested that each individual has a genetically predetermined body-weight set point that determines how much energy is stored away as fat within fat cells. According to this theory, hunger motivates individuals to stay close to this set point, even though the fat level maintained may not be what an individual desires nor what society dictates as beautiful or healthy. A system like this would explain why many people have trouble maintaining weight loss.
Thirst
Sexual behavior and thirst motivation are governed by similar mechanisms. Fluid loss from within special brain cells, such as osmoreceptors, and fluid loss from outside the cells, such as bleeding, may initiate thirst. Therefore, thirst may be caused by mechanisms that maintain fluid integrity both inside and around the cells of the body. The hypothalamus is also responsible for thirst motivation.
Sexual motivation
Sexual motivation in animals is more tightly regulated than in humans. A female of most species does not engage in sexual behavior until cyclic hormonal changes produce estrus. Generally speaking, a male is sexually ready, but is prevented from engaging in sexual behavior by the female until estrus occurs. The anterior part of the hypothalamus is destroyed in female mammals when they lose their estrous cycle. Male rats' sexual behavior is also reduced or eliminated when their anterior hypothalamus is destroyed. As hormone replacement therapy fails to restore sexual behaviors reduced by anterior hypothalamic damage, it has been proposed that this region contains receptors sensitive to circulating sex hormones. If the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) is damaged, it can also arrest estrus in females and sexual activity in males, but hormone replacement therapy can restore these functions, suggesting that VMH is involved in sexual behavior when hormonal conditions are appropriate.
Behavioristic approaches to motivation
A behavioristic approach explores how motives are learned and how internal drives and external motivations interact with learning to produce behavior. Researchers using the biological approach have taken a somewhat more global perspective in studying motivation than learning theorists. Motivation is one component of several that combine to cause behaviour, according to these researchers. According to one major theory, learning and motivation are multiplicatively determining behavior. Behaviorists emphasize three concepts in particular: drive, learned motives, and incentives.
Drive
Despite Freud's psychoanalytic theory of behavior being in many ways a drive theory, the term drive was first used by an American psychologist in 1918. Drive and homeostasis are closely related concepts. Drive was assumed to occur when internal conditions changed enough to detect and initiate the motivational changes that resulted in drive. Thus it was assumed that some tissue need within the body would instigate drive, which would, in turn, instigate behaviours aimed at reducing the drive. According to this sort of analysis, energy depletion would lead to a hunger drive, which would in turn lead to food-seeking behaviours. Drive, then, would serve to energize appropriate behaviours, either innate or learned, which would effect a lowering of the need state of the individual.
Clark Hull developed the most comprehensive theoretical model of drive in the 1940s. Hull proposed that drive is general in nature and that various motives such as hunger, thirst, and sex may increase an individual's drive level. Based on the theory that drive initiates behavior, an increase in drive level is expected to result in an increase in activity. Based on Hull's model, drive is directed by what he called drive stimuli. Different internal stimuli were thought to be appropriate for different motive states, directing an individual's behavior accordingly. For example, a hungry person might go to the refrigerator to obtain food because stimuli associated with hunger have been associated with responses of obtaining food from the refrigerator in the past.
Hull also suggested that learning itself is dependent on adequate motivation. When followed by drive or drive-stimulus reduction, responses were believed to be strengthened. Learning would not take place if drive or drive stimuli were not reduced.
Despite Hull's drive theory generating a great deal of research, his model of motivation was not more effective than others in explaining human behavior. Studies have shown that increases in activity when subjects are deprived depend on the species they belong to and how they are tested. Certain species rarely become more active when deprived, and activity changes that occur when one type of apparatus is used (e.g., a running wheel) do not occur when another type is used (e.g., a stabilimeter cage for measuring caged animal activity). Moreover, drive stimuli, the proposed directional mechanism in Hull's model, have proven very difficult to detect, and it is unknown if their presence, if they exist, is crucial to the direction of behavior under normal circumstances. Furthermore, several studies have shown that learning can occur under conditions that would seem to preclude any reduction in drive or drive stimuli. These studies pose a problem because Hull's model linked learning to a reduction in drive. While explicit theories of drive have not been able to explain motivation better than other approaches, the drive concept, in general, seems to have some validity if only because people often describe themselves as driven when expressing their subjective feelings. Particularly, the drive concept appears to apply to feelings related to human sexual motivation. However, the drive theory does not have wide acceptance as a motivational theory.
Learned motives
Learning has made a significant contribution to the study of motivation by emphasizing the ability of people to learn new motives. New motives can be acquired through three different learning techniques: classical, instrumental, and observational.
Classical conditioning
In classical conditioning, also known as Pavlovian conditioning, a neutral stimulus paired with a stimulus elicits a response. Learning situations like this can alter motivated behavior. Pavlov discovered that dogs would exhibit neurotic behavior if they were required to make finer and finer distinctions between stimuli in a classical conditioning experiment. During the experiment, the dogs became restless, avoided the experiment room, and bit the apparatus occasionally. When dogs are no longer able to distinguish between two stimuli, they develop neurosis. This motivational change may have been caused by the animal's lack of control and predictability rather than classical conditioning.
The American psychologists John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner demonstrated that a young boy can develop an emotional response by using classical conditioning techniques. The young boy was terrified of the white rat as well as the steel bar striking him. In only a few pairs of rats, the white rat evoked fear responses similar to those caused by striking the bar. Psychologists believe that many human motivations may be attributed to accidental pairings of events as a result of these early demonstrations of learned emotional responses. Fears, phobias, taste aversions, and even eating disorders can be attributed to classical conditioning.
Instrumental learning
Instrumental learning, also known as operant conditioning, uses instruments to teach. When a response is followed by a consequence, this type of conditioning changes the probability of future responses. Instrumental conditioning, for instance, may be used to alter aggressive motivation. In the future, if a child acts aggressively towards another child and then gets to play with a desired toy, he may be more motivated to act aggressively in the future. In addition, neutral stimuli can become reinforcers on their own through a process called conditioned reinforcement. Consequently, they become motivators. The most common conditioned reinforcer is money. Having numbers and intricate drawings on a piece of paper can motivate all kinds of behaviors if it has previously been associated with important reinforcers, such as food, clothing, and sex. Various things that represent the value of money can be bought with money. For example, psychologists have used a variety of tokens to implement reinforcement in schools, institutions, and hospitals (see below Applications).
Observational learning
In observational learning, one observes how another person behaves in order to learn new behaviors. Learning from others' mistakes or successes is in a sense a form of learning. It offers the advantage that it does not require the individual to perform the behavior. Therefore, watching another child stick their finger into an electrical outlet and getting shocked is often enough to dissuade the observing child from doing the same. Students can also be motivated by observing how well their friends do in school because they study hard. Bandura, an American psychologist, proposed observational learning as a method for understanding aggression in humans and provided numerous examples to support his theory. Children imitate a parent's aggressive behavior. Violent movies or television shows, or reading about violent behavior, can trigger these aggressive reactions. It is possible for observers to use aggressive behavior at a later date if they believe observed violent acts will further their goals.
People learn the rules of their society's sexual condsexual behavior in their societies. sources of sexual values. Despite indirect learning, people still learn how to express their sexuality. A culture seems to learn its sexual rules during adolescence. Isolation impairs monkeys' sexuality. Even though isolated monkeys appear to have adequate sexual motivation, the lack of appropriate social skills results in inappropriate behavior. As a result, normal sexual behavior requires learning. Certain sexual preferences can also be learned through various techniques. The pairing of pictures of boots with pictures of naked women created a boot fetish in three males (the fetish was extinguished at the end of the experiment). This kind of demonstration would suggest that some sexual preferences are learnable.
Incentive motivation
In the study of human motivation, incentives have proven to be useful. Incentives are goals that influence behavior. Often, people will travel across town to dine at a restaurant that serves their favorite dish. An ordinary frankfurter might not be as far away for the same person. Their incentives are different and their behavior is different as well.
A goal's stimulus characteristics are often credited with motivating qualities. Food's taste, smell, and texture might motivate behavior better than similar qualities in other foods. The concept of drives was considered innate, while the concept of incentives was considered learned. A person develops preferences for one over another as he or she experiences new goals. Goals associated with primary motives such as hunger, thirst, sex, or pain avoidance are not prohibited. A key feature of this type of motivation is that any goal can motivate behavior. If you want a high-paying job, studying hard could be motivating. Sometimes, incentive motivators do not even have to exist physically at the time they activate behavior, such as when a student is motivated to get good grades now in order to gain admission to medical school in the future.
As discussed in the section below, incentive motivation has been studied from mechanical stimulus-response approaches based on classical conditioning to cognitive approaches emphasizing the learning of expectations. A number of theories have emphasized the role of predictive cues in the development of incentive motivation. According to researchers who primarily study human motivation, much of human behavior is driven by specific goals.
Cognitive motivation
In cognitive theory, behavior is determined by the active processing and interpretation of information. Motivation is not regarded as a set of mechanical or innate processes, but as a set of purposeful and persistent decisions made in response to the information available. Expectations form the basis of behavior towards a specific goal.
Cognitive motivation theory includes concepts such as expectancy-value theory, attribution theory, cognitive dissonance, self-perception, and self-actualization.
Theory of expectation-value
As per the expectancy-value theory, behavior is a function of one's expectations and the value of the goal toward which one strives [expressed as B = f(E × V)]. An approach such as this predicts that, when multiple behaviors are possible, the one chosen will have the largest combination of expected success and value. Social behaviors, achievement motivation, and work motivation can be explained by the expectation-value theory. Various types of expectancy-value motivation can be analyzed through its use in achievement motivation.
The American psychologist Henry Murray first recognized achievement as a major source of motivation in the late 1930s. Murray identified achievement motivation as important to the behavior of many people, but it was David McClelland and John Atkinson who developed a method of measuring differences in achievement motivation. They used Murray's Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), a series of ambiguous pictures about which people were asked to write stories (as a measure of personality traits), to measure differences in motivation to achieve. The stories were scored for achievement imagery using a technique known as content analysis. We developed a theoretical model that relied on the fundamental concepts of expectancy and goal value, based on a substantial body of research.
According to the expectancy-value model of achievement motivation, the overall tendency to achieve in a particular situation depends on two stable motivations - the motivation for success and the motivation to avoid failure - and the subjective assessment of the probability of success in that situation. A person's motive for success is considered to be a relatively stable personality characteristic by the time he or she reaches adulthood. An individual's motivation for success is believed to originate from prior accomplishments he or she has achieved. People who have, for the most part, had successful experiences in the past are considered highly achievement-oriented. By adulthood, the motive to avoid failure is also assumed to be relatively stable and represents a compilation of prior failure behaviors. A person who has made many unsuccessful attempts in achieving success will develop a strong desire to avoid failure.
Almost everyone has experienced both success and failure during their development, so the theory assumes that each individual has varying levels of motivation for success and motivation to avoid failure. There is a difference in strength between these two motivations, and as a result, this difference determines whether someone is an "achiever" or not. People with high motivation for success and low motivation to avoid failure will be achievement-oriented, whereas people with strong motivation to avoid failure and weak motivation for success will try to avoid most achievement situations, if possible.
According to this theory of achievement, the expected probability of success in a particular situation is also important. According to the theory, individuals highly motivated for success will tend to choose achievement situations that they estimate to be moderately difficult, while individuals highly motivated to avoid failure will choose tasks that they estimate to be either very easy or extremely difficult. People who are highly motivated to achieve success or to avoid failure make choices differently because they place different values on easy, moderate, and difficult goals. For highly motivated individuals, it is mathematically predicted that goals that require moderate effort to achieve will have the greatest value. Another way to state this is that high achievers want to achieve goals that are challenging enough to be valuable but not so difficult as to be impossible or so easy as to be worthless. Individuals who are motivated to avoid failure believe they are likely to fail. As a result, the theory predicts that they would prefer simple tasks where success is likely or difficult tasks where humiliation would be minimal if they fail.
Testing these predictions has yielded mixed results. Several studies have found that people who are motivated for success choose tasks that they consider moderately difficult, while others have not. In addition, people with high motivation to avoid failure sometimes choose very easy tasks, as the theory predicts, but rarely do they choose very difficult tasks, as the theory predicts. Clearly, there is more research to be done before the model can be judged as accurate in predicting achievement behavior.
Attribution theory
The second major approach to achievement motivation rejects the expectancy-value formulation and examines the attributions people make about achievement situations instead. As a general principle, attribution theory seeks to understand how people make judgments about someone else's (or their own) behavior, i.e., the causes they attribute to behavior. Research has indicated that people typically attribute behavior to either stable personality characteristics, termed dispositions, or to the circumstances that existed at the time the behavior was observed.
Achievement behavior is said to be determined by attributions of ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck. It is likely that a person who is successful at a task and attributes it to ability will approach similar situations in the future. Also, if the success was attributed to a lot of effort, future success would depend on a willingness to put in similar effort in the future. The difficulty of a task appears to be determined by social norms. When most people fail at a task, it is considered difficult, and when most people succeed, it is considered easy. As a result, attribution of success to difficulty would modify future achievement behavior. Normally, if success is attributed to the fact that the task was very easy, future achievement behavior is unlikely to change much; however, success in a task judged very difficult might motivate a person to take on more challenging tasks. It is also possible that future achievement behaviour is also influenced by the attribution of luck in an achievement task. When a person expects to have no control over the outcome of a task, luck is assumed. Neither success attributed to luck nor failure attributed to bad luck should increase future achievement behavior much.
Based on research on the attributions people make in achievement-related situations, the four causal ascriptions described above and perhaps other causal explanations can be thought of as falling along three dimensions: locus, stability, and controllability. A locus refers to the perceived cause of an event, whether internal or external. Ability and effort, for example, can be considered as internal dispositions of a person, while the difficulty of a task and luck are external circumstances. Stability refers to the extent to which a specific reason for success or failure could be expected to change. Effort and luck are unstable and can therefore change dramatically over time, while ability and task difficulty are stable and therefore not expected to change much. The level of control an individual has over the events of the situation is referred to as controllability. Effort can be controlled, but luck cannot.
Cognitive dissonance
It was the American psychologist Leon Festinger who first systematically studied cognitive dissonance as an approach to studying motivation. People, according to this theory, strive to maintain consistency between their beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Whenever beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors are in conflict, cognitive dissonance occurs. Cognitive dissonance is considered aversive since it triggers mechanisms to bring cognitions back into line. In cognitive dissonance research, a lot of attention has been paid to what happens when attitudes and behaviors are out of sync. According to this research, behavior that is inconsistent with one's beliefs-if the behavior's justification is insufficient-will often lead to a modification of those beliefs. Assume, for example, that a member of a select group has to go through a stressful initiation. The person who undergoes this initiation realizes that being a member of the group does not provide the satisfaction he or she initially anticipated. The behavior required and the current beliefs about the group should lead to cognitive dissonance. Consequently, motivation will be triggered to re-establish a relationship between the dissonant elements. Because the behavior has already occurred, it cannot be changed; however, the belief can. The dissonance theory predicts that, under these conditions, the person's attitude will change and that he will actually believe that he likes the group more. This prediction has been confirmed in several studies.
Theory of self-perception
The cognitive dissonance approach has not gone unchallenged. An alternative perspective, called self-perception theory, holds that everyone analyses their own behavior much like an outside observer would and, as a result, makes judgments about the reasons why they act the way they do. In the example above, self-perception theory contends that the person evaluates his own behaviour and concludes that he endured the initiation because he really wanted to be a member of the group. Several studies suggest that dissonance theory and self-perception theory are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Both processes can and do occur under different conditions.
Self-actualization
The cognitive motivation field has also explored the idea that human motivation is heavily influenced by a sense of competence or control. Several varieties of these theories suggest that human behavior is at least partially driven by a desire to achieve as much as possible. The Self-actualization Theory of Abraham Maslow is an example of this approach.
A hierarchy of needs determines human motivation, according to Maslow. This progression begins with the most basic physiological needs and progresses through safety needs, belonging needs, and esteem needs, culminating in self-actualization. The levels of need that are not being met appropriately at each level determine behavior. When lower-level needs are met, motivation to meet higher-level needs becomes active. In addition, as a person advances upwards, it becomes more and more difficult to meet the needs of the higher levels. Accordingly, Maslow believed that self-actualization can only be achieved by a small number of people and is a lifelong process.
On the basis of his observations of self-actualized individuals, including historical figures such as Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson, Maslow identified a cluster of 14 characteristics. Essentially, these characteristics describe people who are accepting of themselves and others, are relatively independent of the culture or society in which they live, have very close personal ties to a few people, and are deeply committed to solving the problems they believe are important. Further, Maslow describes self-actualized individuals as enjoying simple, natural events, such as sunrises, and experiencing peak experiences from time to time. Transcendence and self-loss are common features of peak experiences. There are also descriptions of peak experiences as simultaneously powerful and weak, as if limitless horizons open before them. Peak experiences often result in a change in behavior for an individual in the future. According to Maslow, everyone is capable of experiencing peak experiences, but self-actualized individuals do so more frequently.
Applications in society
A number of motivational methods have been used in society to achieve certain goals. Reinforcement is achieved through depriving an organism of food when it comes to controlling animal behavior. In these circumstances, food can be used to shape an animal's behavior, maintain it, and control how it develops. In addition, it is evident that animals have preferences (in terms of food, for instance) and that preferred training substances are more effective in controlling their behavior.
Many cultures don't use deprivation as readily for humans as they do for animals, although there are many human examples. By denying recess time to children who behave in undesirable ways, teachers have had some success in encouraging desired behavior in the classroom. Schools, psychiatric hospitals, and institutions for the retarded have implemented token economies (e.g., poker chips). In turn, subjects' behavior and personal care tend to improve, as well as their ability to manage themselves. In such economies, tokens can be exchanged for goods and services (such as candy, toys). In order to earn tokens, you have to do such things as make beds, be clean, cooperate, and generally behave well. Academic achievement has improved dramatically among institutionalized juvenile delinquents who have been placed in token economies.
In institutions, where a great deal of control over the subjects' living conditions and activities is possible, this and other similar methods have been demonstrated to be most effective. Obviously, this level of control isn't possible in society in general. Furthermore, there are also widespread moral and ethical questions about whether such controls should be implemented, even if they were possible. Certain motivational techniques used to control human behavior seem incompatible with the ethics of personal freedom and prone to immoral misuse by those who seek to manipulate others in a politically or socially conformist manner.
Society's problems, on the other hand, are often motivated. Therefore, the goals and values of economically affluent groups in the Americas, Europe, and Asia are not shared by deprived urban populations or millions of poor people in industrially underdeveloped countries. It may also mean that the goals of those who own or control profit-seeking enterprises (to provide a product or service for investors' profit) are not shared by workers below middle management. There have been a number of techniques used in business and industry to motivate employees to participate in the production process. In some cases, they have been successful. We use incentive systems, employee participation in planning and decision-making, and employee relations training. The industrial sector has a substantial corps of specialists who provide programs designed to improve motivation, morale, and satisfaction among workers at all levels. Despite their wide acceptance, the majority of these programs have received very little objective evaluation.
Summary
Motivation is a complex topic that reaches into virtually all areas of psychology. It is impossible for one theory to explain all that we know about motivational processes. A biological perspective appears to be the best way to understand some motives, such as hunger, thirst, and sexual activity. Human activities are diverse and complex because other motives seem to be learned. Other motives are influenced by cognitive processes that we engage in. The way we interpret events influences our future motivation.
Even the most basic human motives are influenced by many factors. As an example, we may eat for energy, but some people also eat when stressed or anxious, when depressed or alone, or due to social influences such as seeing other people eat. Certain foods may also cause us to eat even when we aren't hungry because of their taste characteristics. Various factors interact to determine the motivation of behaviour, preventing us from understanding even the most basic motivational processes; the contribution of various motivational components must be carefully separated and analyzed. When the study of subtler motives is attempted, these complicating factors make understanding even more difficult. Although we have a great deal of knowledge about motivation, much remains to be understood.
