Motivation Реферат

Motivation is one of the most frequently used words in psychology. It refers to the factors which move or activate the organism. We infer the presence of motivation when we see that people work toward certain goals. For example, we might observe that a student works hard at almost every task that comes to him/her; from this we infer that the person has motive to achieve.

All human behavior appears to arise in response to some form of internal (physiological) or external (environmental) stimulation. The behaviors, however, are not random. They often involve some purpose or goal. It is often held that behaviors take place as a result of the arousal of certain motives. Thus motivation can be defined as the process of activating, maintaining and directing behavior towards a particular goal. The process is usually terminated once the desired goal is attained by the person.

The process of initiating action is technically called ‘motivation’. Directing behavior towards certain goal is the essence of motivation. Motivation is not always directly observable. It is inferred and used to explain behavior. When we ask “What motivates a person to do a particular task?” We usually mean why does she behave as she does. In other words, motivation, as popularly used, refers to the cause or why of behavior.

Interestingly, we are not aware of all our motives. Behavior can be governed by unconscious motives too. If our understanding of motives is correct, we have a powerful tool for explaining behavior. We explain our everyday behavior in terms of various motives.

Motives also help us make predictions about behavior. We may tell what a person will do in future. Motives may not tell exactly what will happen but they give us an idea about the range of activities a person will do. Thus a person with a need to achieve in academics will work hard in school, an individual with a strong need to excel in sports will put in a lot of hard work in that field; similarly in business and in many other situations.

Just like any other word, there are variations of definitions to describe a concept. Motivation too has many different definitions, but it is important to focus on those that are related to the workplace. Understanding exactly what motivation is will help managers decide what actions to take to encourage their employees. The definition of motivation starts with the root word, motive. Webster’s Dictionary defines motive as, something that causes a person to act. Therefore, motivation can be defined as, the act of providing motive that causes someone to act (Shanks, 24). In other words, according to Nancy Shanks, motivation causes someone to act and someone else cannot make someone motivated. It is the discretion of the person to decide if they are going to be motivated or not. Motivated and unmotivated are not opposites, but instead, there are determining factors that could cause someone to be unmotivated, such as life events and attitudes towards a specific job.

There are certain terms which you will commonly come across when you learn this lesson on motivation such as needs, goals, incentives etc. Let us understand some of these concepts.

1 Needs and Motives

A need is a condition of lack or deficit of something required by the organism. In order to maintain homeostasis or balance the organism finds it necessary to satisfy the needs.

The needs are of different types. The need for food or water is a physiological need, which arises out of lack or deficit of food or water in the organism. The needs for excretion and urination are also physiological needs. They are due to the organism’s necessity to eliminate waste matter from the body. The need for contact with other persons is a social need. The other social needs include need for prestige, status, affection, self-esteem, and so on. A person becomes more aware of his needs when they are not fulfilled. In other words, when you are hungry, you need food, and, when you are thirsty you need water. In these cases you are in a state of deprivation and your bodily system suffers from some kind of imbalance.

The needs may be broadly categorized as, primary or physiological needs and secondary or social needs. Needs for food, water, sex, sleep and rest, and elimination are primary needs. Needs for achievement, affiliation, power are examples of social needs.

The term ‘motive’ refers to goal directed behavior and energizing conditions within the organism that drive behavior. It is generally used to refer to certain conditions which, besides arousing, predispose a person to respond, or behave in a way appropriate to that motive. Motives direct the activity of the individual towards person’s goals.

2 Goals

Thinking about the goal motivates a person to organize his or her action. If hunger is a need, eating food is a goal. Thus goal is related to the need state. However, in certain cases, behavior is also guided by intrinsic goals. It means behavior does not always need external goal. It may be satisfying and enjoyable in itself. Some people may like to sing, dance or play just for the sake of singing, dancing or playing. They like such activities. Thus goals can be intrinsic or extrinsic.

3 Incentives

Incentives refer to the goal objects which satisfy the needs. Incentives vary in quality and quantity which make them less or more satisfying and attractive. Thus one can put in greater amount of effort to attain a more attractive incentive. As a matter of fact many incentives assume considerable significance in the lives of people and they do every thing possible to attain those incentives [1, p. 119].

4 Instincts

Instinct is an old concept in the field of motivation. It is defined as an innate biological force that predisposes the organism to act in a certain way. At one time all

When you come from school, you feel hungry and want to eat something. You want to eat because there is a force which compels you to have food. Likewise if a question is asked why do you want to join a college? The answer can be given in various ways like you want to learn or you need a degree to get a good job. You may want to join college to have lot of friends. This basic question of the ‘why of behaviour’ or factors which compel us to do certain activities makes us study the psychological process called motivation. In this lesson you will study about the nature of motivation, types of motives, intrinsic and extrinsic types of motivation, conflict, and frustration. Understanding motivation helps us to have insights into the dynamics of action.

3.1 Types of needs

It is difficult to classify needs into distinct categories because the behavior displayed by an individual at a given time is not the outcome of a single need. Many needs or motives contribute to it. But on the basis of information gained through the analysis of human behavior, psychologists have attempted to classify human needs into two broad categories. As mentioned earlier these categories are as follows. Primary or physiological needs, and Secondary or socio-psychogenic needs.

The primary needs are rooted in the physiological state of the body. They are innate and include bodily conditions such as hunger, thirst, sex, temperature regulation, sleep and pain. These needs are of recurring type because they can be satisfied for short periods only.

The secondary or socio-psychogenic needs are unique to human beings. Many of them are learned and they drive the individual toward special kinds of behaviors. Since these needs are learned, their strength differs greatly from one individual to another. Some of the important socio-psychogenic needs are power, affiliation, achievement and approval [3, p. 98].

Psychologists have developed a number of standardized tests for the assessment of these needs. They may also be assessed through non testing procedures as well.

3.2 Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs

Abraham Maslow, who was a humanistic psychologist, argued that needs are arranged in a ladder-like steps. He proposed a rising order of needs from the level of physiological to self transcendence. The order of needs starts from basic survival or lower order needs to higher order needs. As one level of need is satisfied another higher order need will emerge and assume importance in life. The hierarchy is shown in Fig. 1.1.

Motivation is the activation or energization of goal-oriented behavior. Motivation may be intrinsic or extrinsic. 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.

Motivation is the inner power or energy that pushes one toward performing a certain action. Motivation strengthens the ambition, increases initiative and gives direction, courage, energy and the persistence to follow one's goals.

Motivation is usually strong, when one has a vision, a clear mental image of a certain situation or achievement, faith in one's abilities and also a strong desire to materialize it. In this case motivation pushes one forward, toward taking action and making the vision a reality.

Motivating forces can be positive, as in impelling one to reach a certain goal. They can also be negative, as in driving one away from an unwanted situation.

You can be positively motivated about going to work because you like your colleagues and some parts of the work, and negatively motivated because you have bills to pay (moving away from poverty) and you wouldn't dare not show up.

There is internal motivation, or push. It's an internal state that impels one to act towards achieving a certain goal. Then there is external motivation, or pull. It's when an external goal influences one's behavior towards them. Behavior is a complex blend of internal pushes and external pulls.

You can be internally motivated to go to work because it makes you feel useful and creative. At the same time, it is expected of you by your surroundings and you may be doing something that only partly fulfills your desires.

Motivation leans on motives. Motives are often categorized into basic motives and learned motives. Basic or primary motives are unlearned and common to both animals and humans. We're talking hunger, thirst, sex, avoidance of pain, and perhaps aggression and fear. The learned or secondary motives include achievement, power, recognition, love.

Need theories revolve around the fulfillment of an internal state, that makes certain outcomes appear attractive. These theory form the basic foundations of motivation theories, and are the most straightforward. There are the main needs theories:

Maslow's theory states that people have a pyramide hierarchy of needs that they will satisfy from bottom to top. There are deficiency needs, that will stifle any other movement if they're not satisfied, and growth needs, that can be progressively satisfied once the basics have been covered.

Herzberg's model is the most widely replicated and used in business. It splits hygiene factors from motivation factors. Hygiene factors are related to pain-avoidance and lead to dissatisfaction when they're not satisfied. Motivation factors