copyright 2008 Cheryl K. Hosken, BSN, MS Psych.
"Why did he do that?" (as opposed to doing nothing), "Why does he keep on doing that? (as opposed to stopping). The study of motivation is an attempt to explain the causes of certain behaviors.
Motivation involves two subprocesses. First is arousal, which is a level of activation or excitement. Here we say that motivation is a force that initiates behaviors, that gets a person going, energized to do something and to keep doing it. An example is the feeling of hunger. When one is hungry, he may fix himself food and eat until he is satisfied. The second sub-process is direction or focus. More than simply being active, a motivated person's behavior is in some way goal-directed or purposeful. Thus, motivation is the process that arouses, directs, and maintains behavior.
Characteristics of Motivation
There have been many ways that psychologists have tried to summarize motivation. We will review a few of their ideas. As you might expect, no one approach to motivation will answer all of our questions in a satisfactory way.
Meditate Word By Word On These Verses:
Luke 7:1-10.
Instinct
In the psychology of the 1880's, behaviors were explained in terms of instinct. This is an unlearned, complex pattern of behavior that occurs when there are certain stimuli. Why do birds build nests? There is a nest building instinct. When conditions are right, birds build nests. This behavior can be modified by the organism's experiences, but the force behind it is unlearned or instinctive.
Instinct may explain some of the behaviors of birds, but what about people? William James reasoned that because they are more complex, humans have to have more instincts than animals. In 1908, William McDougall said that humans have 11 basic instincts. However, the list of instincts became increasingly longer with the different behaviors that humans have. The problem of long lists of instincts was obvious in that "explaining" behavior patterns in that it only renamed the behavior and didn't explain anything. One thing psychologists learned is that we have some behaviors that are basically physiological and more inherited than learned.
Needs and Drives
An alternative approach to instinct theory was the need and drive theory. A psychologist named Hull stated the a need is a shortage of a biological essence required for survival. When a body lacks food, a need develops for food. This need gives an organism drive, meaning that a person searches for food. A drive is a state of tension that makes a person do something to satisfy the need he has. Needs produce tension or drives that a person tries to reduce. This process is called drive reduction.
Question:
1. What is a need?
(Only one of the following answers is correct.)
An alternative approach to instinct theory.
A shortage of a biological essence required for survival.
A state of tension that makes a person try to satisfy it.
Instincts are part of a specific pattern of behavior, needs and drives are not. Going without food may produce a need, which causes a drive. However, the way that a drive is worked out in behavior is influenced by one's experiences and learning history. One person may go to a restaurant to buy a meal to satisfy his need for food. Another person will stay at home and prepare his own food. Yet another person might steal some food. What a person does to get food may depend on whether or not he cooks and also the amount of money he has to spend!
Question:
2. What is a drive?
A problem with this theory is that reducing of drives depends on only biological needs. It may be that not all of the drives that cause a person's behavior are from biological needs. People often behave to satisfy learned drives. A learned drive is called a secondary drive. Most drives that arouse and direct our behavior have little to do with a physiological need. You may want to buy a computer this year. You work hard to save money for it, but this is not a biological need. This is what advertising does. It tries to convince you that products that have little effect on survival are needed.
A related complication is that persons continue to behave even after their biological needs are met. We also know that sky divers jump from airplanes and mountain climbers risk their lives to climb sheer cliffs. These actions do not appear to reduce a drive. Therefore, the concept of reducing a drive may be useful, but cannot be accepted as a complete explanation for motivated behavior.
Question:
3. What is a secondary drive?
(One or more of the following answers may be correct.)
A drive that arises from biological needs.
That which causes a sky diver to jump from airplanes.
Behavior that continues after biological needs are met.
A learned drive.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Abraham Maslow is a humanistic psychologist who believed that needs motivating human action are few and arranged in a hierarchy. Hence, his idea is called Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. The first is physiological. These are needs related to survival for food, water, and shelter. Until these needs are met, a person cannot be concerned with anything else. The next level of need is safety or the need to feel secure and protected from dangers. The theory is already clear. We will not worry about what to eat tomorrow if there is not enough food for today, but if today's needs are met, we can focus on the future.
Concern for love and belongingness of a family or other loved ones is the next stage. As all the lower needs are satisfied, the next need level is esteem or recognition of our efforts and achievements. Behavior is motivated by an awareness of others and need for their approval. The highest stage is called self-actualization, which means we strive to be as creative and productive as possible.
In many ways, Maslow's arrangement of needs reflects the values of Western culture. It was clear to Maslow that many people in this world never have the time, opportunity, or energy to be concerned with such issues as self-esteem or belongingness, much less self-actualization. The problem with this theory is the ranking of needs and their order. Some persons are motivated in ways that violate this stage approach. For the sake of love some persons will give up their own needs for safety to save another person. There is little empirical research to support this theory, but many people like it and use it.
INCENTIVES
One alternative to the reduction of drives focuses on the end state or the goal of behavior. In this view, external stimulants motivate people to do something. The external stimulants are called incentives. They pull our behavior out us. After enjoying a large meal, we may also eat a nice piece of cake. We don't necessarily need the cake, but it looks good and previous experience tells us it will taste good as well.
Some parents want to know how to "motivate their child to clean his room". We can interpret this as establishing a goal or incentive. What a parent really wants to know is how they can get a child to value, work for, and be reinforced by orderliness. What they want is a clean room and for the child to clean it. If they want the child to be motivated to clean his room, the child needs to know the value or incentive of having a clean room. Sometimes that incentive is money or a special treat. But having a clean room is not an inborn need for a child.
Question:
4. What was Jesus' motivation for us?
We tend to do (or are motivated to do) what leads to reinforcement (positive incentives) and we tend not to do what leads to punishments or failure of reinforcement (negative incentives).
BALANCE OR EQUILIBRIUM
A. Homeostasis
One concept that has been useful in understanding motivation is balance or equilibrium. The idea is that we are motivated to maintain a state of balance. Sometimes balance involves physiological processes that need to be at a certain level in the body.
This idea was first introduced in 1932 by Walter Cannon. He was interested in internal physiological reactions and the term he used for balance was called homeostasis. This means that each of our physiological processes has a balanced set of operation. When anything upsets this balance, our physiological mechanisms return us to a state of balance without our awareness of it. We become motivated to return to balance if these mechanisms are not successful.
Question:
5. How is homeostasis involved in motivation?
(Only one of the following answers is correct.)
Homeostasis motivates us to stay in balance.
Homeostasis causes internal physiological reactions.
Motivation starts when our physiological mechanisms can't return us to a state of balance.
Each of us has a normal set level for heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, and so on. Cannon's concept of homeostatis was used to explain physiological processes, but the ideas of balance and optimal operation have been applied to psychological processes as well.
B. Arousal
Arousal is an overall level of excitement or activation. A person's arousal level may change from day to day and within the same day. After a good night's sleep, your arousal level may be high. At the end of a workday, your arousal level may be low.
It is thought that for any situation, there is an optimal level of arousal. To do well in an exam, a student needs a certain level of arousal. If a student is bored or tired, we can expect poor performance on the exam. If a student is anxious and barely able to function, he will also have a poor exam score. It has also been found that a high level of arousal is needed for simple tasks, but that same level of arousal would be disastrous for complex, complicated tasks.
Question:
6. What is arousal and how is it involved in motivation?
For some reason, optimum levels of arousal vary widely from one person to another. Some people need particularly high levels of arousal and excitement in their lives. Examples of there people are those who participate in "extreme sports" of skydiving or mountain climbing.
C. Cognitive Dissonance
There is another idea that we are motivated to maintain a state of balance between our ideas and beliefs as well as our physiological processes and levels of arousal. We want to maintain this balance among these four processes.
For example, if your child studies for an exam and feels well prepared, he thinks the exam will be an easy one. However, if he fails the exam, he has cognitive dissonance. He thought the exam was easy, but failed! This is inconsistent with what he thought. When this happens to us, we are motivated to change our cognitions or thoughts about the situation. Your child may think he truly did not understand the material or maybe the exam was graded improperly.
These days, almost all smokers have cognitive dissonance. They know that smoking is a dangerous habit, yet they continue to smoke. Some reduce this dissonance by convincing themselves that even if smoking is bad for health in general, it is not bad for them in particular.
Question:
7. What is your motivation for wanting to serve others?
MOTIVATION AND EVERYDAY BEHAVIOR
Now we can look at a few specific examples of motivation. We will use the word drive for talking about activators of behavior that have a biological or physiological basis (hunger drive). The term we will use for those that do not is motive.
Temperature Regulation
Most of us do not think about our body temperature being 37.5 is "normal". In homeostasis, body temperature may motivate us to do something. We are driven to return our body temperature to normal.
If you are outside on a very cold day, your body temperature begins to drop. Automatically your body responds to bring the temperature to normal: blood vessels in the hands and feet constrict forcing blood to the center of the body to conserve heat. You shiver so that your muscles create small amounts of heat energy. These are the types of automatic physiological reactions that Cannon wrote about homeostasis. Your hypothalamus in your brain is the center for trying to maintain body temperature. It operates automatically.
If the automatic reaction is not successful, you will have to come in out of the cold. You may also need to put on extra clothing. You have to use learned behaviors to maintain homeostasis in your body.
Hunger Drive and Eating Behaviors
If we don't eat, we die. What causes our hunger drive? There are many reasons to motivate a person to eat. Some are physiological and some psychological. Some involve social pressures.
The internal physiological cue for hunger is located in the hypothalamus of the brain. One part of the hypothalamus is an "eat" center that gives us feelings of hunger. The other side is a "no-eat" center that tells us when we have had enough to eat.
How do we know when we are hungry? One theory is based on blood glucose levels. When the levels of glucose in the blood are low, we are stimulated to eat. When glucose levels are adequate, we stop eating. The liver closely monitors the blood chemistry for us. Another view is that we respond to the levels of fat in our bodies. When fat stores are adequate, we feel no hunger. If fat stores are depleted, hunger comes. Again, it is the liver that regulates the cycle of storing and depleting fat supplies.
We are learning that there are powerful genetic forces that help to control our hunger. Researchers have found a gene that seems to tell how much fat is stored in the body. When something is wrong with the gene, the body keeps eating, and the result is an overweight body. Genetics also determine the distribution of body fat, and we now know that this distribution is linked to heart problems.
Eating behaviors are based on external cues. Sometimes, the stimulus is the properties of food - aroma, taste, or appearance. Sometimes, people eat more from habit than from need. For example, if it is 12 o'clock, it is lunchtime; so let's eat. This habit of eating may have nothing to do with the internal cues from the body.
Sometimes we eat because others around us are eating. Overweight people may be less sensitive to the internal body cues for hunger and more sensitive to the external stimuli to eat. We also know that overweight people have the tendency to minimize the amount of food they say they eat and overestimate their level of exercise and physical activity.
Psychologically-Based Motives
Many of our behaviors are aroused and directed (motivated) by forces that are not biological in origin. These motivators may reflect learned or social influences on our behaviors. We will consider three motives used for explaining human behavior.
Achievement Motivation
The need to achieve is an acquired need to meet or exceed some standard of excellence in one's behaviors. The test used to assess the need to achieve is called the Thematic Apperception Test. In this test, a person is asked to tell a short story about some pictures of people in various settings. There are no right or wrong answers to this type of test. The stories are interpreted according to a series of objective criteria about:
- attempting difficult tasks,
- being rewarded for making an effort,
- making long and short term goals, etc.
The people who measured high in the need to achievement attempt to do tasks where success is not guaranteed, but where they have a reasonable chance of succeeding. They may also work very hard to achieve goals for a certain group of people.
It seems that the need to achieve is learned, usually in childhood. Children who show high levels of achievement are those who have been encouraged in a positive way to excel. For example, " Tanya, that grade of B is very good. You must feel proud." versus "What! You only got a B?" Also, high achievement children are encouraged to work out problems for themselves with parental support and encouragement such as, "Leslie, see if you can do this." versus "Here, stupid, let me do it. You'll never get it right!"
Power Motivation
Some people need to excel and control of situations and people. They are said to have a need for power. The need for power is also measured by the Thematic Apperception Test. What is important about the need for power is how one uses power.
People with high need for power like to be admired. They prefer situations in which they can control the fate of others usually by manipulating access to information. Men are usually found in positions of power. People with low power needs avoid situations where others depend on them and tend to be somewhat submissive in interpersonal relationships.
Question:
8. What kind of motivation does the president of any country often have?
(Select the best answer.)
Love of money.
Physical lust.
Power over people.
The Need for Affiliation and Intimacy
The need for affiliation is a need to be with others, to work with others toward a goal, and form friendships and associations. There is also a reasonable argument that the need to affiliate and be with others is partly biologically based. We are social animals and social isolation is difficult particularly when we are young. On the other hand, if we value friendships, we may also have learned that they are good for us.
Intimacy is the need to form and maintain close affectionate relationships. It involves sharing personal information. Individuals with a high need for intimacy tend to be affectionate, warm, and express concern for others. Women are more likely to show a high need for intimacy.
Question:
9. What psychological motives do you have?
If our needs for intimacy and affiliation are not met, we are said to have a psychological state called loneliness. Loneliness happens when there is a discrepancy between the types of social relationships we have and what we would like to have. Being alone does not mean loneliness. There are people who prefer to be alone and probably have low needs for affiliation and intimacy. For some people loneliness is temporary. For others, it is a chronic way of life with a person having few close relationships. In many cases these people lack the skills to form relationships. They may also have negative expectations for social interactions and expect failure. They then act in such a way to fulfill their expectation. Such people suffer from social anxiety.
Question:
10. What is the definition of a lonely person?
(One or more of the following answers may be correct.)
When a person with low need for affiliation prefers to be alone.
When person having few close relationships would like more.
When a person with low social skills fails in social interactions.
When a person's needs for intimacy and affiliation are not met.
EMOTIONS
It is hard to define an emotion. Think of the last time you experienced an emotion of some significance. Perhaps it was the fear of going to the dentist or the joy of receiving a special gift. There are four components of an emotional reaction: (1) a subjective feeling that you might label fear, joy, anger or some other name, (2) a cognitive reaction: you recognize or know what happened, (3) there is an internal physiological reaction involving glands, hormones, and internal organs, (4) there is a behavioral reaction. You may tremble as you approach the dentist's chair. You may cry at the news of your friend's death.
When we add behavior to emotions, we cam see how emotions and motivation are related. Emotions are motivators and to be motivated is to be aroused to action.
Classification of Emotions
There are several ways to classify emotions, and psychologists have a difficult time agreeing on how this should be done. They have tried listing them as simple with an underlying physiological basis. They have been listed as those for survival. The only issue on which they have some agreement is that there are positive and negative emotions. Positive emotions are relief, happiness, joy. Negative emotions are fear, anger, and shame. There is not an agreement on how to distinguish between positive and negative emotions. For example, fear seems like a reasonable negative emotion. Yet fear can be useful and can serve to guide one's behavior in a positive way.
Here is a list of emotions that psychological researchers have made:
Emotion Relational Theme Anger a demeaning offense against me and mine Anxiety facing an uncertain threat Fright an immediate, overwhelming physical danger Guilt breaking a moral law Shame failing to live up to an ego ideal Sadness experiencing an irrevocable loss Envy wanting what someone else has Jealousy resenting a third party for the loss of another's affection Disgust taking in or being close to an awful object or idea Happiness making reasonable progress toward the realization of a goal Pride enhancing of ego by achievement through personal
action, or action of the group to which one belongsRelief a distressing condition that has changed or gone away Hope fearing the worst, but wanting better Love desiring affection, but not necessarily getting it in return Compassion being moved by another's suffering and wanting to help
There are also autonomic nervous system reactions to emotions providing us with the physiological reactions to emotions - dilation of the pupils of the eyes, increased respirations, blood pressure, and heart rate. These are but a few of the bodily reactions. The hypothalamus and the limbic system in the lower brain are also centers of emotion. The cerebral cortex interprets the impulses from the lower brain and modifies and directs the emotional action accordingly. I am not certain, but I like to think that the Holy Spirit is the one who helps our cerebral cortex to sort out emotions as we experience them, and guides our actions. With His help, we can make sense of our own emotions and the emotions of others.
Question:
11. How is the cerebral cortex involved with emotions?
(Only one of the following answers is correct.)
The autonomic nervous system reacts physiologically to emotions.
The brain's hypothalamus and the limbic system control emotions.
The cortex interprets the impulses from the lower brain and modifies the emotional actions.
Outward Expressions of Emotion
Charles Darwin was the first scientist to teach that facial expressions are indicators of an organism's emotional state. There is evidence that he was correct. It is useful for one organism to let another know what it is feeling. As one wild animal meets another, the second needs to have a good idea about the emotional state of the first. Is it angry? Is it merely curious, or is it looking for dinner? Is it sad and looking for comfort, or is it looking for a mate? An inability to make a determination of emotions can be disastrous. If animals are to survive for long, they need to know the emotional states of other animals.
It is also interesting that if a person simply moves his facial muscles into position associated with emotional expression can cause physiological changes associated with that emotional state. For example, if you raise your eyebrows, open your eyes more widely, and raise the corners of your mouth, you will produce and internal physiological change of happiness and will smile as a result. There are also universal distinctive facial expressions that most people world-wide display. They are anger, fear, disgust, sadness and happiness.
Question:
12. How do facial expressions communicate emotions?
In humans, there is the ability to communicate our feelings verbally. That way in which we speak can reflect our emotional state. Even without verbal language, we can give indication of our emotional condition. Someone sitting slumped and leaning slightly forward, may be viewed as being sad. Postural cues and gestures can be interpreted as fear, anger, happiness, and so on. These are learned emotional expressions from our social and cultural influences.
Behavioral Manifestations of Emotion
Facial expressions are not the only way emotions are expressed. Emotions directly affect behavior. For example, you are coming home on the tram. You stand as carefully as you can because it is crowded. Accidentally, you step on someone's foot. Immediately, the person begins to shout at you. His face is red and he shakes his fist in your face. You decide to get off the tram can catch the next one that comes by.
In the case above, the other passenger was experiencing an emotional episode that was translated into a behavior called aggression. Aggression is any behavior that is that is intended to inflict physical or psychological harm on another organism (that is, you the passenger on the tram) or the symbol of that organism. One theory of why aggression occurs is that a person is frustrated. Perhaps the angry person on the tram is late in getting to an important appointment or his child is sick.
Frustration is aroused by two conditions:
- we expect to do a certain behavior,
- that behavior is blocked in some way.
Frustration varies in strength depending on three factors. The first is the strength of the drive. If you are very thirsty, and deprived of water, your frustration will be greater than if you are only slightly thirsty. The second factor is the degree to which the behavior you want is stopped. If a water fountain dribbled just a little water for you to drink, you would be less frustrated than if the fountain did not work at all. The third factor is the number of frustrated responses one has. Frustrating experiences are cumulative. The person who shouted at you on the tram may have had a series of frustrations before you stepped on his foot.
Question:
13. What causes frustration, and how is it increased?
(One or more of the following answers may be correct.)
Another person's facial expression and shaking his fist in your face.
A person expects to do a certain behavior, but it is blocked.
A person communicates his feelings verbally or by body language.
The strengh of a person's drive, the degree to which it is stopped, and the accumulation of frustration.
We also know that anger is a part of aggression. The progression of emotions are thus - frustration, anger, aggressive behavior. Aggressive behavior is seen as a way of restoring justice in a situation. A perceived injustice in a frustrating situation is more likely to arouse anger and aggression. Not all perceived injustice leads to aggression. However, if a person feels particularly powerless, he may use aggression to restore justice or equity in a situation. We can begin to understand why groups who believe themselves powerless resort to aggressive tactics to make their situation better. Riots and terrorism are often the weapons of those who have little power.
Question:
14. How is terrorism related to frustration?