Introduction of Psychology
Motivation
By Aqsa Hayat

Introduction
• Motivation is defined as the desire and action towards goal-directed behavior.
This is an important concept in psychology as well as in business, schools,
and other areas. For example, we want our children to behave and do their
homework. Businesses want to get the population to buy their products.
Adults may want to change the behaviors of romantic others. All of these
situations are examples of times that we may want to motivate someone else
to do what we want them to do.

Definition
• Definitions of Motivation:
• According to B.F. Skinner, “Motivation in school learning involves arousing,
persisting, sustaining and directing desirable behavior.”
• According to Woodworth, “Motivation is the state of the individual which
disposes him to certain behavior for seeking goal.”

Homeostasis
• In psychological terms, this kind of balance is referred to as homeostasis, which is
most easily defined as a psychological and physiological state of stability.
The concept of homeostasis isn't limited to psychology, but can actually be applied
widely to any person or thing that demonstrates a stable equilibrium.
• Say, for example, that you've just come inside from the cold weather and you're
hungry. Other than these two things, every one of your physical and psychological
needs have been met. Once you take the time to satisfy your hunger and reach a
desired temperature, you will have reached the point of homeostasis.

Primary, Basic or Physiological Needs
• These needs arise out of the basic physiology of life and these are
important for survival and preservation of species. If primary motives remain
unsatisfied for a long time ,then the individual becomes disturbed physically
and mentally & it can be life risking also. It includes food, water, sleep, sex,
etc.

Secondary Needs
• They represent needs of the mind and spirit. For example, self-esteem,
sense of duty, self-assertion, etc.
• Conscious action arises from the needs. Needs create tensions that are
modified.

The relation of needs of action
• Individual needs (Motives) tensions
• Environment
• Wants (Tension positive negative incentives)
• Perception
• Action (Tension release)

Sources of Motivation to Learn
• Curiosity
• It is a strong motivator of learning. Since, people adapt rather quickly to
surprising events, curiosity must be sustained in order to be a continuing
source of motivation. To keep the learners alert, instructors can employ such
strategies as varying their tone of voice, using relevant humor occasionally,
etc.

Learning Task Relevance
• Students are more motivated to learn things that are relevant to their interest.
• Even children are more motivated to learn new things.

Goal Setting
• It is an important source of motivation. When individuals set goals, they
determine an external standard, to which they will internally evaluate their
present level of performance. Setting goals improves self-motivation and
performance to a greater extent. When learners set goals, they seek to gain
favorable judgments of their competence or avoid negative judgments of
their competence.

Secondary Motives
• Social Motives
• Psychological Motives
• General Motives

Social Motives
• Social Approval
• Social Comparison

Social Approval
• We want everyone to like us, we want people approve us. It is fundamental
purely, psychological and social need. The need to have other approve of us
and our action. It is obvious, that need to affiliate with others could be based
on a need for approval.
• One could argue that the need to achieve is ultimately based on a need to
win recognition and approval from other.

Social Comparison
• Some psychologists say that social approval and social comparison are just
two aspects of one motive. Anyhow both are interlinked, when we socially
compare ourselves we just want to gain social approval.

Psychological Motives
• Physiological Need
• Safety Need
• Affiliation/Social Need
• Self Esteem
• Self Actualization

Physiological Need
• These needs related to the survival and maintenance of human body.
Ex- Food , clothing, housing, sex, air, water and other bare necessities for the
existence of human race.
The popular proverb certifies this attitude – ‘Bhukhe bhajan na hoye
Gopala’ ( God can not be worshiped when one is hungry).

Safety or Security Needs
• Once the physical needs are satisfied up to a certain level, a person desires
the fulfilment of these needs in the near future also.
• A person takes a number of steps to ensure the fulfilment of his safety
needs through out his life.
Ex- contribution of Provident Fund, bank deposits, contribution to
pension scheme, desire for permanent job in a public sector company
etc.

Affiliation
• A man is a social animal.
• He desires to meet and mix with other members of the society.
• He wants to love others and loved by others.
• He wishes to make friends and exchange his feelings with them as per his
convenience.
• These feelings of sociability, love, affection, friendship and belongingness etc. have
been termed as social needs by Maslow.
Ex-Need to sit or eat together during lunch hours or to participates in the
cultural programs of the organization.

Self Esteem
• Once a person mixes with the society, he tries to project himself superior as
compared to others.
• He wears costly clothes, gems and jewelry, resides in expensive houses, gives
hefty tips to waiters in hotels, travels in luxury vehicles, carrier rare pieces of
mobiles or watches and does a number of other things in an attempt to look
different and superior as compared to others.
• This need of respect and praise from others or status and prestige in the society has
been termed as egoistic or esteem needs by Maslow.
Ex- Promotion, assignment of important work in the organization award of a
prestigious honor by the employer

Self Actualization
• The last category of the needs, placed at the highest level of hierarchy of
needs of needs by Maslow, is self actualization needs.
• At this stage of needs, he does not care what others are doing or saying – his
only mission is to enlarge his abilities to the maximum extent and give
his cent-per-cent efforts for the achievement of goals.
• Such person does work for his ‘self-satisfaction’.

General Motives
• Aggression
• Achievement
• Power Motive
• Curiosity Motive
• Exploration &
• Manipulation

Aggressive
• It is a motive to react aggressively when faced frustrations. Frustration may
occur when a person is obstructed from reaching a goal or when he is
insulted by others. Even in a fearful and dangerous do or die situation the
individual may resort to aggressive behavior. Individual expresses such
behavior to overcome opposition forcefully, which may be physical or verbal
aggression.

Achievement
• Achievement motivation refers to a desire to achieve some goal. This motive is developed in
the individual who has seen some people in the society attaining high success, reaching high
positions and standards.
• He/she develops a concern to do better, to improve performance. David C Mc Clelland
who conducted a longitudinal study on characteristics of high and low achievers found that
the high achievers choose and perform better at challenging tasks, prefers personal
responsibility, seeks and utilizes feedback about the performance standard, having innovative
ideas to improve performance.
• They must allow children to take decisions independently, and guide them for higher
achievement from the childhood, so that the children develop high achievement motivation.

Power motive
• People with power motive will be concerned with having an impact on
others. They try to influence people by their reputation. They expect people
to bow their heads and obey their instructions.
• Usually people with high power motive choose jobs, where they can exert
their powers. They want people as followers. They expect high prestige and
recognition from others. For example, a person may aspire to go for jobs like
Police Officer, Politician, Deputy Commissioner, etc.

Curiosity motive
• This is otherwise called stimulus and exploration motive. Curiosity is a
tendency to explore and know new things. We see people indulge in a
travelling to look at new places, new things and new developments taking
place outside their environment.
• People want to extend their knowledge and experiences by exploring new
things. Curiosity motive will be very powerful during childhood. That is why
they do not accept any toy or other articles unless they examine them from
different angles, even at the cost of spoiling or breaking the objects.

Exploration &
Manipulation
• Individual will conform to social norms, mores and other ethical codes of
the groups in which he/she is interested. To the greater extent
gregariousness is developed because many of the needs like basic needs,
safety and security needs are fulfilled.
• In addition to the above there are some other social motives like need for
self-esteem, social approval, self-actualization, autonomy, master motive,
combat, defense, abasement, etc.

Motive Matching
• It is the degree to which learning tasks meet particular students needs or
align with students values. A need can be defined as “any type of deficiency
in the human organism or the absence of anything the person requires or
thinks he requires for his overall well being.” The instructor should be
sensitive to individual’s needs for achievement and for affiliation.

Self-Efficacy
• Motivation also comes from learner’s beliefs about themselves. According to
Bandura, self-efficacy involves a belief that one can produce some behavior,
independent of whether one actually can or not. Learners can be sure that
certain activities will produce a particular set of outcomes. These
expectations are referred as outcome expectations.

Types of Motivation
• Intrinsic Motivation
• Extrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation
• Intrinsic motivation is the natural tendency to seek out and conquer
challenges as we pursue personal interests and exercise capabilities. When we
are intrinsically motivated, we do not need incentives or punishments
because the activity itself is rewarding.

Extrinsic motivation
• On the other hand, if we do something in order to earn a grade, avoid
punishment or for some other reason that has very little to do with the task
itself, then it is known as Extrinsic motivation.

Four General Approaches to Motivation
• Behaviorist Approaches to Motivation
• Humanistic Approaches to Motivation
• Cognitive Approaches to Motivation
• Attribution Theory of Motivation

Behaviorist Approaches to Motivation
• According to the behavioral view, the motivation depends on the incentives
and rewards present in the environment. A reward is an attractive object or
event supplied as a consequence of a particular behavior. An incentive is an
object or event that encourages or discourages behavior.

Humanistic Approaches to Motivation
• In the early 1940s, Carl Rogers, one of the proponents of humanistic
psychology emphasize that intrinsic sources of motivation as a person’s
needs. So, from the humanistic perspective to motivate means to encourage
people’s inner resources, their sense of competence, self-esteem autonomy
and self actualization, Maslow’s Theory is a very influential humanistic
explanation of motivation.

Maslow’s Hierarchy (of Needs):
• Abraham Maslow (1970) suggested that humans have a hierarchy of needs
ranging from lower level needs for survival and safety to higher level needs
for intellectual achievement and self-actualization.

Maslow’s Hierarchy (of Needs):

Cognitive Approaches to Motivation
• Cognitive theorists believe that the behavior of an individual is determined
by the thinking process and not by rewards and punishment. Behavior is
initiated and regulated by plans, goals, schemas, expectations. and
attributions. People respond to their interpretations of the external events or
physical conditions. Cognitive theorist emphasizes on intrinsic motivation.

Attribution Theory of Motivation
• It is the cognitive explanation that describes the individual’s explanations,
justification and excuses about self and others that influence motivation. Bernard
Weiner propounded the Theory of Attribution.
• Weiner gave three dimensions of the attributed causes for success and failure. The
three dimensions are the following:
• Locus: Location of the cause internal or external to the person.
• Stability: Whether the cause stays the same or can change.
• Controllability: Whether the person can control the cause.