Motivation

• Motivation is defined as the process that

initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented
behaviors.
• Motivation is what causes you to act, whether
it is getting a glass of water to reduce thirst or
reading a book to gain knowledge.
B.F. Skinner,
• “Motivation in school learning
involves arousing, persisting,
sustaining and directing desirable
behavior.”
Motivation cycle
 Types of Motivation
• Intrinsic Motivation
• Extrinsic 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

• 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.

 Characteristics of Motivation:

• Personal and internal feeling.

• Art of stimulating someone.
• Produces goal.
• Motivation can be either positive or negative.
• It is system oriented.
• It is a sort of bargaining.
 Classification of Motives

Primary /physiologicalmotives
• food, water, sleep, sex, etc. These needs arise out
of the basic physiology of life and these are
important for survival and preservation of
species.
Secondary motives
• Social motives
• Personal motives
• Unconscious motives
SOCIAL MOTIVES

Achievement motives
power motives
Aggression motives
affiliation motives
 (a) Achievement motive
• The Need for Achievement is one of the most
important social motives.
• It is concerned with setting goals and
achieving them.
• It is concerned with becoming successful in
whatever activity one undertakes and avoiding
failures.
• People with a strong achievement motive not
only like to excel others, but also try to do
better than what they did in the past.
• Individuals who are high in need for achieve-
ment do better in school, in their job and in
other areas of life.
• People with a strong achievement motive
choose tasks which are neither very easy nor
very difficult but the one which they are
confident of accomplishing through their best
efforts.
 Achievement motives are influenced by

• Independence training in childhood

• Socio-cultural environment

• Past success

• Sex
 Power Motives
• power motivation can be defined as the need to
“Influence, control, cajole, persuade, lead charm
others and to enhance one’s reputation in the
eyes of the other people”.
• People with strong power motivation derive
satisfaction from achieving these goals.
• Power motivation can be expressed in many
ways; the manner of expression depends on the
person’s socio-economic status, sex, level of
maturity and the degree to which the individual
fears his or her own power motivation.
• Following are some of the ways in which
people with high motivation express
themselves :
(1) By impulsive and aggressive action.
(2) By participation in competitive sports such as
hockey, football, boxing swimming, etc.
(3) By joining organizations and holding office in the
organizations.
(4) Among men, by drinking and sexually dominating
women.
(5) By obtaining and collecting possessions, such as
fancy for cars, guns, elaborate stereo sets, numerous
credit cards, and the like.
(6) By associating with people who are no particularly
popular with others and who perhaps, are more
easily controlled.
(7) By choosing occupations such as teaching,
diplomacy, business, clergy, etc. in which, people in
high need for power, have a chance to have an
impact on others.
(8) By building and disciplining their bodies; this seems
especially characteristic of women with strong power
needs.
 Aggression motives

• It is a motive to harm or inflict pain into others

• Aggression can be physical or verbal, active or
passive, direct or indirect.
• Aggression can be result of many environmental
and social factors. Some of which are as follows:
1. Verbal insult or negative evaluation from another
person
2. Obedience to authority.
3. Crowding and intense noise.
 Affiliation motive
• Is a common social motive that relates to
socialising, interacting with others particularly
with peers; pleasing others and winning their
affection, expressing and maintaining
attitudes of loyalty to family and to friends.
• Need for affiliation has also been studied to a
very great extent by McClelland and Atkinson
using the TAT cards and other related
projective technique.
PERSONAL MOTIVES

Force of habits
Goals of life
Levels of aspirations
Attitudes and interests
• These are highly personalized and very much
individualized motives. The most important
among them are:

Force of habits
Goals of life
Levels of aspirations
Attitudes and interests
 Force of habits

• We see different people having formed different

habits like chewing tobacco, smoking, alcohol
consumption, etc.
• There may be good habits also like regular
exercising, reading newspapers, prayers,
meditations, etc.
• Once these habits are formed, they act as drivers
and compel the person to perform the act.
• The specialty of habits is that, they motivate the
individual to indulge in that action automatically.
 Goals of life:
• Every normal individual will have some goals in
the life.
• They may be related to education, occupation,
income, sports, acquisition of property, public
service, social service, etc.
• Once a goal is set, he will be motivated to fulfil
that goal.
• The goals people set, depend upon various
factors like knowledge, information, guidance,
support, personality, facilities available,
aspirations, family and social background, etc.
 Levels of aspirations
• Aspiration is aspiring to achieve or to get
something or a goal.
• But such achievement depends upon the level of
motivation the individual has.
• Every individual will have a goal in his life and
strive to reach that goal.
• But the effort to attain that goal varies from one
individual to another.
• The amount of satisfaction he gains depends
upon his level of aspiration.
• always higher level of aspiration is advisable.
However, it should be on par with his abilities
also.
• Because, if an individual aspires for higher
level of achievement without possessing
required ability, he will have to face frustration
and disappointment.
 Attitudes and interests
• Our attitudes and interests determine our
motivation.
• These are specific to individual.
• interests differ from one individual to another.
Example, interest in sports, T.V, etc
• Whenever we have a positive attitude, we will
have motivation to attain.
• In negative attitude, we will be motivated to
avoid. If a person is interested in music, he will be
motivated to learn it.
• In this way, our personal motives determine our
behaviour.
 Unconscious motives
• These motives or desires which are repressed by
our conscious remain in our unconscious and will
be influencing our behaviour.
• Our irrational behaviour, the slip of tongue, slip of
pen, amnesia, multiple personality,
somnambulism, etc., are some examples of such
behaviours for which we do not have answers
apparently.
• These motives can be delineated only by
psychoanalysis. Many times psychosomatic
disorders like paralysis, headaches, gastric ulcers,
etc., also may be due to unconscious motivation.
THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
• The content theories find the answer to what
motivates an individual and is concerned with
individual needs and wants.

• The process theories deal with “How” the

motivation occurs, i.e. the process of
motivation and following theories were given
in this context:
 Theory of instinct
• Psychologist William McDougall was one of the first
to write about the instinct theory of motivation.
• He suggested that instinctive behavior was
composed of three essential elements:
– perception,
– behavior,
– emotion.
According to the instinct theory of motivation, all organisms
are born with innate biological tendencies that help them
survive.
This theory suggests that instincts drive all behaviors.
 Drive reduction theory
• A theory of motivation developed by Clark L.
Hull, the Drive-Reduction Theory focuses on
howmotivation originates from biological
needs ordrives.
• In this theory, Hull proposed a person's
behaviour is an external display of his desire
to satisfy his physical deficiencies.
 Optimal-level Theory:

• This is also called as theory of homeostasis.

Claud Bernard coined the word homeostasis
to explain the state of equilibrium in the body.
This is a‘hedonistic’ (hedonism- doctrine that
happiness is the highest good) theory which
says that, there is a certain optimal level for
normal functioning of the body.
 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a motivational
theory in psychology comprising a five-tier model
of human needs, often depicted as hierarchical
levels within a pyramid.
• Needs lower down in the hierarchy must be
satisfied before individuals can attend to needs
higher up. From the bottom of the hierarchy
upwards, the needs are: physiological, safety, love
and belonging, esteem and self-actualization.
• Our most basic need is for physical survival,
and this will be the first thing that motivates
our behavior.
• Once that level is fulfilled the next level up is
what motivates us, and so on.
 Physiological needs
• These are biological requirements for human
survival, e.g. air, food, drink, shelter, clothing,
warmth, sex, sleep.
• If these needs are not satisfied the human
body cannot function optimally. Maslow
considered physiological needs the most
important as all the other needs become
secondary until these needs are met.
 Safety needs
• Protection from elements, security, order, law,
stability, freedom from fear.
 Love and belongingness needs
• After physiological and safety needs have
been fulfilled, the third level of human needs
is social and involves feelings of
belongingness. The need for interpersonal
relationships motivates behavior
• Examples include friendship, intimacy, trust,
and acceptance, receiving and giving affection
and love. Affiliating, being part of a group
(family, friends, work).
 Esteem needs
• which Maslow classified into two categories:
(i) esteem for oneself (dignity, achievement,
mastery, independence) and
• (ii) the desire for reputation or respect from
others (e.g., status, prestige).
• Maslow indicated that the need for respect or
reputation is most important for children and
adolescents and precedes real self-esteem or
dignity.
 Self-actualization needs
• Realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment,
seeking personal growth and peak
experiences. A desire “to become everything
one is capable of becoming”
 Hierarchy of needs summary

• (a) human beings are motivated by a hierarchy of

needs.
• (b) needs are organized in a hierarchy of prepotency in
which more basic needs must be more or less met
(rather than all or none) prior to higher needs.
• (c) the order of needs is not rigid but instead may be
flexible based on external circumstances or individual
differences.
• (d) most behavior is multi-motivated, that is,
simultaneously determined by more than one basic
need.