A Introduction to Motivation Lecture
The word motive comes from the Latin word movere. Motive is a specific need or
desire that arouses the organism and directs its behavior toward a goal. All motives are
triggered by some kind of stimulus: a bodily condition, such as low levels of blood sugar
or dehydration; a cue in the environment, such as a “Sale” sign; or feeling, such as
loneliness, guilt, or anger. When a stimulus induces goal-directed behavior, we say it has
motivated the person.
Emotion refers to the experience of feelings such as fear, joy, surprise, and anger.
Like motives, emotions also activated and affect behavior, but it is more difficult to
predict the kind of behavior that a particular emotion will prompt. If a man is hungry, we
can be reasonably sure that he will seek food. If, however, this same man experiences a
feeling of joy or surprise, we cannot know with certainty how he will act.
The important thing to remember about both motives and emotions is that they
push us to take some kind of action – from an act as drastic as murder to a habit as
mundane as drumming our fingers on a table when we are nervous. Motivation occurs
whether or not we are aware of it.
Instincts
Early in the twentieth century psychologists were inclined to attribute behavior to
instincts- specific, inborn behavior patterns characteristic of an entire species. For
example, it is agreed that infants instinctually know certain reflexes such as sucking,
swallowing, grasping, smiling and so forth. Can you think of other behaviors that are
motivated by instinct?
Drive-Reduction Theory
Another view of motivation holds that bodily needs (such as the need for food or the need
for water) create a state of tension or arousal called a drive (such as hunger or thirst).
According to drive-reduction theory, motivated behavior is an attempt to reduce this
unpleasant state of tension in the body and to return the body to a state of homeostasis, or
balance. According to drive-reduction theory, drives can generally be divided into two
categories. Primary drives are unlearned. Not all motivation stems from the need to
reduce or satisfy primary drives, however. Humans, in particular, are also motivated by
secondary drives, drives that are acquired through learning. For example, as people learn
to associate money with the ability to buy things to satisfy primary drives for food,
shelter and so on, having money may become a secondary drive.
Arousal Theory
Still, humans and animals often go to great lengths to do things that do not appear to
reduce any drive. Consider curiosity. Most of us cannot resist checking out whatever is
new and unusual. We go to the mall, surf the Internet, and travel the world just to see
what there is to see. Some psychologists suggest that motivation might have more to do
with arousal or state of alertness. Arousal theory suggests that each individual has an
optimum level of arousal that varies from one situation to another and over the course of
the day. According to the theory, behavior is motivated by the desire to maintain the
optimum level of arousal for a given moment.
Incentive Theory
Instinct, drive-reduction, and arousal theories of motivation all focus on internal
processes that prompt people to behave in certain ways. In contrast, incentive theory
emphasizes the role of external stimuli that motivate behavior. According to this view,
people are pulled toward behaviors that offer positive incentives and pushed away from
behaviors associated with negative incentives.
Achievement
It is the desire for achievement for its own sake that leads psychologists to suggest there
is a separate achievement motive. Some researchers discovered three separate but
interrelated aspects of achievement-oriented behavior: work orientation, the desire to
work hard and do a good job; mastery, the preference for difficult or challenging fears,
with an emphasis on improving one’s past performance; and competitiveness, the
enjoyment of pitting one’s skills against those of other people.
Psychologists have developed a profile of people with a high level of achievement
motivation. These people are fast learners. They relish the opportunity to develop new
strategies for unique and challenging tasks, whereas people with a low need for
achievement rarely deviate from methods that worked for them in the past. Driven less by
the desire for fame or fortune than by the need to live up to a high, self-imposed standard
of performance, people with a high level of achievement motivation are self-confident,
willingly take on responsibility, and do not readily boy to outside social pressures.
Although they are energetic and allow few things to stand in the way of their goals, they
are also apt to be tense and to suffer from stress-related ailments, such as headaches.
However, the negative side of achievement motive can manifest as the perfectionist type
and/or the “workaholic” or someone who is obsessed with always “doing” and can’t
relax.
Work motivation is one of the key areas of organizational psychology.
Organization theory is frequently described as an interdisciplinary study that examines
the structure and functioning of organizations and the behavior of the people within
organizations.
McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y Douglas McGregor (1960) summarized two
possible views of management in worker motivation Theory X is the traditional view of
direction and control. It states that the worker dislikes work and tries to avoid it. The
function of management therefore, is to force the employee to work, through coercion
and threats of punishment. The worker prefers in most cases to be directed and wants to
avoid responsibility. The main motivator for the worker therefore, is money. Theory Y is
the humanistic/self-actualization approach to human motivation. Sometimes called the
human resources model, it states that work is natural and can be a source of satisfaction,
and that when it is the worker can be highly committed and motivated. Workers often
seek responsibility and need to be more fully involved with management to become
motivated. Theory Y is most likely to be used when management utilizes worker
participation in organizational decisions.
Organizational psychologists have become interested in devising strategies to help
workers enhance their quality of work life (QWL). Lawler (1982) suggested several
strategies for raising job satisfaction and QWL, including improving work conditions and
security, increasing worker responsibility, and providing financial stability. Other
strategies include enhancing the worker’s sense of self-worth and providing opportunities
for social relationships to develop within the organization. Job satisfaction is an area of
organizational psychology that will continue to be important in the future.
Equity Motivation
We want fairness in our lives, whether it is in our social relationships
Affiliation
For one thing, the affiliation motive is aroused when people feel threatened. Cues that
signal danger, such as illness or catastrophe, appear to increase our desire to be with
others—the feeling of being part of a sympathetic group—is critical among troops going
into a battle, just as a football coach’s pregame pep talk fuels team spirit. Both are
designed to make people feel they are working for a common cause or against a common
foe. Finally, it is believed that evolutionary factors have played a role since social groups
can help in food, shelter, reproduction and so forth.
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic motivation refers to motivation provided by an activity itself. Extrinsic
motivation refers to motivation that derives from the consequences of an activity.