MOTIVATION

AND
EMOTIONS
TOPIC # 2
Motivation
 Motivation is defined as the process that initiates,
guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviours.
Motivation is what causes us to act, whether it is
getting a glass of water to reduce thirst or reading a
book to gain knowledge.
 It involves the biological, emotional, social and
cognitive forces that activate behaviour. In
everyday usage, the term motivation is frequently
used to describe why a person does something.
Motive
 A motive is an inner directing force– a specific
need or want– that arouses the organism and directs
its behaviour toward a goal. When one or more
stimuli create a motive, the result is goal-directed
behaviour (Morris & Maisto, 2001)
 Motives are hypothetical states within an organism
that activate behaviour and propel the organisms
toward goals (Rathus, 2001).
Need, Drive and Incentive
 Psychologist assumes that motives give rise to behaviour.
Motives may take the form of need, drive and incentives.
 Need is a state of deprivation. Physiological needs reside in the
physical make up of the organism e.g. hunger and thirst.
Psychological needs may be acquired through experience or
learned e.g. Need for achievement, power, self-esteem and
belonging.
 Needs give rise to drives. It is a condition of arousal in an
organism that is associated with need.
 An incentive is an object, person or situation that is perceived as
being capable of satisfying a need or as desirable for its own
sake.
Theories of Motivation
 There are four main theoretical perspectives on
motivation.
 The Biological Perspective
 Drive Reductionism and Homeostasis
 Humanistic Theory
 Cognitive Theory
The Biological Perspective
 The biological perspective considers the roles of the
nervous system, the endocrine system (hormones), and
evolution and heredity in behaviour and mental processes.
 For example animals tend to be neurally “prewired”– to
respond to certain situations in certain ways. Species
specific behaviour do not rely on learning. They are also
called instincts, or fixed-action patterns (FAPs).
 Sigmund Freud also used the word instincts to refer to
physiological needs in humans. He believed that the need
of sex and aggression give rise to psychic energy, which is
perceived as feeling of tension. Tension motivates us to
restore ourselves to a calmer, resting stage.
Drive Reductionism and Homeostasis

 Reduction of tension (drives) is a goal.

 According to Clark Hull in 1930’s, primary drives such as
hunger, thirst and pain trigger arousal and activate behaviour.
We learn to engage in behaviour that reduce the drive.
 Through association we may acquire drives. We may acquire
a drive for money because money enable us to obtain food,
drink and homes. We may acquire drives for social approval
and affiliation because it help us reduce primary drives.
 Primary drives like hunger are triggered when we are in a
state of deprivation. Sensation o fhunger motivate us to act in
ways that will restore the balance. This tendency to maintain
a steady state is called homeostasis.
Humanistic Theory
 Abraham Maslow believed that people are also
motivated by the conscious desire of personal
growth.
 Humanistic note that people tolerate pain, hunger,
and many other sources of tension to obtain
personal fulfilment.
 Maslow(1970) organized the human needs into a
hierarchy and believed that we strive to travel
upward in this hierarchy.
Maslow Hierarchy of Needs
Cognitive Theory
 Cognitive theorists note that people represent their
worlds mentally.
 The hypothesize that people are born scientists who
strive to understand the world so that they can
predict and control events.
 For example Sandra Bem (1993) argues that
children try to create consistency between their
own gender and their society’s ‘gender schema’.
 Cognitive-Dissonance Theory
 Cognitive theorists propose that organisms are
motivated to create realistic mental maps of the world.
 Organisms adjust their representations of the world, as
needed, to make things fit.
 Awareness that two cognitions are dissonant, or that
our attitudes are incompatible with our behaviour, is
unpleasant and motivates us to reduce the discrepancy.
 People tend to engage in effort justification. The
discomfort of cognitive dissonance motivates them to
explain their behaviour to themselves in such a way
that unpleasant undertakings seem worth it.
The Three A’s of Motivation
 Achievement
 Affiliation
 Aggression
 Henery Murry (1938) hypothized that each of these
“A’s” reflect a psychological needs.
 He also referred to them as social motives, which he
believed differ from primary motives such as hunger
in that they are acquired through social learning.
Achievement: Just do it

 Why do some people strive to get ahead?

 David McClelland(1958) helped pioneer the assessment
of achievement motivation through evaluation of
fantasies.
 Henry Murray developed a Thematic Assessment
Test(TAT). It contains cards with pictures and drawings
that are subject to interpretation.
 Classic studies shows that people with high achievement
motivation earn higher grades than people with comparable
learning ability but lower achievement motivation.
 Carol Dweck (1997) finds that achievement motivation can be
driven by different forces.
 Affiliation: People who need people
 Why do people need people?
 The motive of affiliation prompts us to make friends, join groups, and

prefer to do things with others rather than alone.

 Sometimes we learn that we can accomplish more by doing things

with others than alone. However the need to affiliate with others can
also be instinctive– an inborn aspect of our makeup as social beings.
 Stanley suggests that a particularly high need to affiliate may also

indicate anxiety, such as when people huddle together in fear of an

outside force.
 His theory of social comparison states that in an ambiguous situation–

that is, a situation in which we are not certain about what we should
do and how we should feel– we affiliate with people whom we
compare their reactions with those of other ‘victims’, but not with
people who had no reason to be anxious.
Aggression

 Why do people kill, maim, and injure one another?

 The Biological Perspective: Numerous biological
structures and chemicals appeared to be involved in
aggression. In response to certain stimuli, many lower
animals show instinctive aggressive reaction.
 Testosterone (male sex hormone) appears to affect the
tendencies to dominate and control others. Men have
higher testosterone levels than women do and are also
(usually) more aggressive than women.
 The psychodynamic perspective: Sigmund Freud
believed that aggressive impulses are inevitable
reactions to the frustration of daily life.
 Aggression (continued)
 According to this theory, the best way to prevent harmful aggression
may be to encourage less harmful aggression. Psychoanalyst refer to the
venting of aggressive impulses as catharsis.
 The Cognitive Perspective: It asserts that our behaviour is influenced by
our values, by how we interpret situations and by choice. For example
people who believe that aggression is necessary and justified are likely
to act aggressively.
 Learning perspective: There are two learning perspective– behavioural
perspective and the social-cognitive perspective.
 In behavioural perspective learning is acquired through reinforcement.
Organisms reinforced for aggressive behaviour are more likely to
behave aggressively in similar situation.
 In social-cognitive perspective, aggressive skills are mainly acquired by
observation.
Emotions
 Like motives, emotions– the experience of such
feelings as fear, joy, surprise and anger– may
activate and affect behaviour, but it is more
difficult to predict the kind of behaviour that a
particular emotion will prompt.
 Emotion is a state of feeling that has cognitive,
physiological, and behavioural components.
Theories of Emotions
 The James-Lange Theory
 The Cannon-Brad Theory
 The Theory of Cognitive Appraisal