 |
Shopping Cart 
Checkout
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
What Is Motivation?
A motive is an impulse that causes a person to act.
Motivation is an internal process that makes a person move toward a goal.
Motivation, like intelligence, can’t be directly observed. Instead, motivation can only be
inferred by noting a person’s behavior.
Researchers have proposed theories that try to explain human motivation. These theories
include drive reduction theories and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
theory.
Drive Reduction Theories
Drive reduction theories of motivation suggest that people act in order
to reduce needs and maintain a constant physiological state. For example, people eat in order
to reduce their need for food. The idea of homeostasis is central to drive reduction
theories.Homeostasis is the maintenance of a state of physiological equilibrium.
Drive reduction theories fail to explain several aspects of motivation:
- People sometimes aren’t motivated by internal needs.
- Sometimes, people continue being motivated even when they have satisfied internal needs.
- People are often motivated by external incentives as well as internal needs.
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation
A motivation may be intrinsic, extrinsic, or both. Intrinsic
motivation is the motivation to act for the sake of the activity alone. For example,
people have intrinsic motivation to write poetry if they do it simply because they enjoy
it.Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, is the motivation to act for
external rewards. For example, people have extrinsic motivation to write if they do so in the
hopes of getting published, being famous, or making money.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
In the 1970s, the psychologist Abraham Maslow suggested that people are
motivated by a hierarchy of needs:
- First, most basic level: physiological needs, such as the need for food, water, safety, and security.
- Second level: needs for social interaction, such as the need to belong.
- Third level: needs for esteem, which include the need for respect from oneself and others.
- Fourth level: needs for self-actualization, or realizing one’s full potential.
Maslow believed people pay attention to higher needs only when lower needs are
satisfied.
Critics argue that Maslow’s theory doesn’t explain why higher needs often
motivate people even when lower needs are unsatisfied.
Critics also point out that people are sometimes simultaneously motivated by needs at
different levels.
Types of Needs
People have innate needs and learned needs, both of which are influenced by society
and culture. People have a limited number of innate needs, which include needs for food,
water, oxygen, and elimination of wastes. There are, however, a relatively large number of
learned needs, including needs for achievement, autonomy, and power. These needs are
determined byvalues, or people’s perceptions of what is important in life.
|
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
©2006 SparkNotes LLC, All Rights Reserved.