ABSTRACT | PDF
SEMINAR
Motivation
Susmita Hazarika
Introduction
Motivation are the driving and pulling forces which result in persistent behaviour directed towards particular goals, the factors that energise behaviour and give it direction.
Development of motivational concept
The term ‘motivation’ came into use in the beginning of twentieth century. If people are viewed as rational beings whose intellects are free to choose goals and decide on course of action, then a concept of motivation in unnecessary. Reason is the main determinant of what a person does. Gradually the theory of instinct came. An instinct is an innate biological force that predisposes the organism to act in a particular way. Strongest advocate of instinct theory was psychologist William McDougall. He listed 18 instincts and tried to explain all human behaviour by modifying and combining these instincts. The notion of instinct was replaced during 1920 by the concept of drives. A drive is an aroused state resulting from some bodily or tissue needs such as need for food, water, oxygen or avoidance of painful stimuli. This condition motivates the organism to initiate behaviour to remedy the need.
Theories of motivation
1. Drive theory: Push theory of motivation. Behaviour is pushed towards goals by driving states within the person or animal. When an internal driving state is aroused, the individual is pushed to engage in behaviour which will lead to a goal that reduces the intensity of the driving state. In human beings reaching the appropriate goal which reduces the driving state is satisfying and pleasurable. It consists of (a) driving state, (b) goal directed behaviour initiated by the driving state, (c) attainment of an appropriate goal, (d) the reduction of the driving state and subjective satisfaction and relief when the goal is reached. Freud conceived the driving forces as being inborn or instinctive. Other drive theorists have emphasised the role of learning in the origin of drive forces. Learned drives, as they called them, originate in the person’s or animal’s past experience and thus differ from one individual to another.
2. Incentive theories: Pull theory of motivation. The goal objects, because of certain characteristics, pull behaviour towards them. The goal objects which motivate behaviour are known as incentives. Individuals obtain pleasure from attainment of what are called positive incentive (salary, bonuses, wages) and avoidance of what are called negative incentive.
3. Opponent process theory: Hedonistic view of motivation says that we are motivated to seek goals which give us good emotional feelings and to avoid those resulting in displeasure. Basic to this theory is the observation that many emotional motivating states are followed by opposing or opposite states. The peak point of emotional motivational state occurs soon after the emotion provoking situation is encountered. This can be either pleasant or unpleasant emotional state. Next, with the emotion provoking stimulus still present, the intensity of the emotional-motivational state adapts and declines to a steady state. When the emotion provoking situation terminates, an after reaction occurs in which the emotional-motivational state (state B) is opposite of state A. State B, the opponent state gradually declines until baseline is reached again.
4. Optimal-level theories: Just right theories. The individual is motivated to behave in such a way as to maintain the optimal level of arousal. If arousal is too low, a person will seek situations or stimuli to increase aroursal. If arousal is too high, behaviour will be directed towards decreasing it.
5. Psychoanalytic theory of motivation: Freud believed that all behaviours stemmed from two opposing groups of instincts - the life instincts (eros) which enhance life and growth and the death instinct (thanatos) which push towards destruction. The energy of life instincts is libido which involves mainly sex and related activities. Death instinct can be directed inward in the form of suicide or self destructive behaviour or outward in the form of aggression like behaviour. Freud believed that the forerunners of sex and aggression are found early in a child’s life; sex is expressed in the pleasure derived from stimulating the sensitive zones of the body and aggression in biting or hitting. When parental prohibitions place taboos on both sex and aggression, their free expressions become repressed and instead of finding full conscious expression, they remain active as unconscious motives. Behaviour from which unconscious motives are inferred -
In dreams, we often express wishes and impulses of which we are unaware.
Unconscious mannerisms and slips of speech may reveal hidden motives.
Symptoms of illness (mental illness) often can be shown to serve the unconscious needs of the person.
6. Social learning theory of motivation: Social learning theory focuses on patterns of behaviour an individual learns in coping with the environment. Patterns of behaviour can be acquired through direct experience or by observing the behavior of others. Some responses may be successful, others may produce unfavourable results. The person eventually selects the successful behavioural patterns and discards the others - differential reinforcement. Many behaviours are learnt by watching the behaviour of others and observing its consequences for them - vicarious learning. A third emphasis of social learning theory is the self regulatory processes. A specific behaviour produces an external outcome but it also produces a self-evaluative reaction. People set their own standards of conduct and performance and respond to their behaviour in self-satisfied or self-critical ways.
Neurobiology of motivation
Amygdala mediates social emotional learning, laying down anagrams of what is familiar and safe, what is familiar and dangerous, and what is unknown and therefore potentially dangerous in the social environment. Amygdala also has a dominant role in avoidance behaviour. Straital circuits have a role in approach behaviour. Medial prefrontal cortex has a dominant role in both approach and avoidance responses. Hippocampus processes hormones that organise the pituitary regulation of adrenal cortical hormones that are in turn processed by hippocampus. Cortisone secreted by adrenal cortex is processed by hippocampus. Adrenaline secreted by adrenal core is processed by amygdala system. These hormones have a great role to play in motivation.
Biological motivation
The biological motives are rooted in the physiological state of the body. Biological motives include hunger, thirst, desire for sex, temperature regulation, sleep, avoidance of pain etc. Many biological motives are triggered by departure from balanced physiological conditions. Hormones and chemical messengers are important in arousal of some biological motives. Sensory stimuli or incentives also play a role in arousal of some drive states.
A. Hunger motivation: The biochemical processes which sustain life get their energy and chemical substances from food. Thus, hunger is a primary, basic motive necessary for life.
Activation of hunger motivation: Earlier experiments - When stomach is empty contractions occur and are sensed; sensed contractions were said to be feelings of hunger. Recent research - People feel hungry even when nerves from the stomach have been cut or stomach has been removed for medical reasons. Levels or rates of use of dissolved nutritive substances circulating in blood are crucial for the activation of feeding. If the levels of use fall below a certain point, called set point, hunger drive is initiated and food is ingested to raise blood levels of nutrients back to set point. Glucose is an important factor in initiation of hunger motivation and feeding, also other free fatty acids. The sight and smell of palatable food can itself lead to eating in the absence of internal need. Satiety - Stomach contains nutrient receptors which give ‘stop eating signals’ i.e. satiety. Another satiety signal is provided by hormone cholecystokinin.
Brain and hunger motivation (Hetherington and Ranson 1940; Anand and Brobeck 1951): Hypothalamus plays the most important role in regulation of hunger motivation. Lateral hypothalamus is the feeding centre. Ventromedial hypothalamus is the satiety centre. Recent studies show amygdala play an important role in hunger and eating.
B. Thirst motivation: Stimulus factors play a very large role in initiation of drinking. We drink to wet a dry mouth or taste a beverage. Pulled by incentives and stimuli, people drink more than what is required by the body and the kidney gets rid of the excess fluid. Antidiuretic hormone (ADH) regulates water balance. Thirst motivation and drinking are triggered by 2 conditions - loss of water from cells and reduction of blood volume.
Double depletion hypothesis: When water is lost from bodily fluids, water leaves the interior of the cells, thus dehydrating them. Anterior hypothalamus has nerve cells called osmoreceptors, which generate nerve impulses when they are dehydrated. Thirst generated by loss of water from osmoreceptors is called cellular–dehydration thirst. Loss of water from the body also causes hypovolemia which leads to decrease in blood pressure. Drop in pressure leads the kidneys to release an enzyme renin. Renin, through a several step mechanism, is involved in the formation of a substance, angiotensin II that circulate in the blood and trigger drinking. Regulation of stopping of drinking - There are monitoring mechanisms in the mouth, stomach or intestine which indicate that enough water has been consumed to meet the body’s needs.
C. Sexual motivation: Sexual behaviour depends, in part on physiological conditions and therefore it may be considered as a biological motive. Points setting sexual motivation apart from other biological motives -
a. Sex is not necessary to maintain life of an individual although it is necessary for the survival of the species.
b. Sexual behaviour is not aroused by a lack of substance in the body.
c. In higher animals mostly, sexual motivation is more under the influence of sensory information from the environment - incentives.
Sex hormones - their organisational role: Estrogens (from ovary and adrenal gland) is the female sex hormone. Estradiol is one of the important estrogens. Androgens (from testes and adrenal gland) are the male sex hormone. Testosterone is the major androgen. Both male and female sex hormones are present in both male and female, it is only their relative amounts that vary. While a person’s sex is inherited, the organisation of the body and the brain as male or female depends on the presence of appropriate sex hormones during early life in womb. Genes on sex chromosome start sexual development in one direction or the other; a fetus with female sex chromosome will develop ovaries which secrete estrogens while androgen secreting testes will develop in a foetus with male sex chromosomes. Brain too seems to be organised by sex hormones to predispose a person to behave in male or female ways.
Sex hormones - their activation role: It is seen that levels of sex hormones circulating in blood activate or trigger sexual behaviour. In many lower animals, during reproductive cycle, estrogen levels rise and the females come into 'estrus' or 'heat' and actively engage in sexual behaviour. In human females, the activation of sexual behaviour by estrogen is problematic. Some studies show peak of sexual interest at the midpoint of menstrual cycle when estrogen levels are high. Other studies (Bancroft 1978) show that greatest sexual interest occurs following menstruation, when estrogen levels are low. After menopause, even with overall decrease in circulating estrogen level, there is little change in most women’s sexual drive. So relationship between hormones and sexual drive in human females has not yet been fully proved. External stimuli, habits and attitudes seem to be more important in activating sexual behaviour in females. In males, lower animals and humans alike, a certain level of androgen, especially testosterone must be present for sexual behaviour to occur at all.
External stimuli, learning and sexual behaviour: Sexual behaviour gets turned on by stimuli which are called ‘incentives’. Hormonally ready humans are sexually aroused by what other people say their looks, voices, style, dressing, odour etc. In lower animals, much of the sexual behaviour is stereotyped, reflexive, automatic and triggered by appropriate stimuli if hormonal conditions are right; very much same for all members of the species. In humans, much variability occurs in sexual behaviour from person to person in the stimuli which will activate sexual behaviour. This occurs due to person’s early learning experiences.
Social motives
Social motives are complex motive states or needs that are the wellsprings of many human actions. They are called social because they are learned in social groups, especially in family where children grow up, and because they involve other people. Three of the most studied social motives - (a) need for achievement, (b) need for affiliation, and (c) need for power.
a. Achievement motivation: Need for achievement was one of the first of the motives to be studied in detail (McClelland et al 1953). People in whom the need for achievement is strong seek to become accomplished and to improve their task performance. They are task oriented and prefer to work on tasks that are challenging and on which their performances can be evaluated in some way, either by comparing with other people’s performance or with some standard. According to Smith, Spencer and Helmereich, achievement is task oriented behaviour that allows the individual’s performance to be evaluated according to some internally or externally imposed criterion that involves the individual in competing with others, or that otherwise involves some standard of excellence.
Source of achievement motivation - Children learn by coping the behaviour of their parents and other important people who serve as models. Through such observational learning, children take on or adopt many characteristics of the model, including the need for achievement if the model possesses it. Expectation that parents have for children also is important in development of achievement motivation. Parents, who want their children to work hard and strive for success, encourage them to have achievement directed behaviour.
Achievement motivation and behaviour - Fear of failure, is a motive which is said to inhibit expression of achievement behaviour, in people with strong achievement motivation. For people in whom fear of failure is low relative to need for achievement, achievement motivation expresses itself in many ways.
i. People with high need for achievement prefer to work on moderately challenging tasks which promote success.
ii. People with high need for achievement like tasks in which their performances can be compared with others. They like feedback on 'how they are doing.'
iii. People with high need for achievement tend to be persistent in working on tasks they perceive as career-related or as reflecting personal characteristics such as intelligence.
iv. When people with high need for achievement are successful, they tend to raise their levels of aspiration in a realistic way so that they will move on to a slightly more challenging and difficult tasks.
v. Such people like to work in situations in which they have some control over the outcome, they are not gamblers.
Gender difference exists in the expression of the need for achievement. Fear of success was proposed for women (Horner 1968). Tests were developed which seemed to show that women believed their successful performance would have negative consequences such as unpopularity and reduced feeling of feminity. But subsequent research showed that women, especially who accepted their traditional role in society and yet placed in competitive situations, do not have fear of success (Patty and Safford).
Achievement motivation and society - It has been suggested that need for achievement is related to a society’s economic and business growth. Studies have shown that high need for achievement comes before spurts of economic growth in a society.
b. Power motivation: Winter (1973) has defined social power as the ability or capacity of a person to produce consciously or unconsciously intended effects on the behaviour or emotions of another person. The goals of power motivation are to influence, control, cajole, persuade, lead, charm others and to enhance one’s own reputation in the eyes of others.
Power motivation and behaviour - Some of the ways in which people with high power motivation express themselves: (a) by impulsive and aggressive action, (b) by participation in competitive sports, (c) by joining organisations and holding office, (d) among men, by drinking and sexually dominating female, (e) by obtaining and collecting possessions such as fancy cars, guns, (f) by associating with people who are not particularly popular with others, (g) by choosing occupations such as teaching, diplomacy, business, (h) by building and disciplining their bodies, especially women with high need for power motivation.
c. Need for affiliation: It is the concern for establishing, maintaining, repairing friendly relations. People with high need for affiliation make more local phone calls, visits, seeks approval, dislikes disagreements with strangers. Such people look for opportunities to be with friends.
Measurement of social motives: To measure social motives, psychologists try to use some these themes: (a) Projective tests to study themes of imagined action, (b) Pencil and paper questionnaires, (c) Observation of actual behaviour in certain types of situation.
a. Projective tests: The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) - It is a projective technique used to assess social motives. A set of pictures depicting various people in various situations is presented and the person being tested is asked to make up stories describing what is happening in the pictures.
b. Personality questionnaires: Several pencil-paper tests called questionnaires or inventories have been developed to measure strength of social motives. It consists of questions for people to answer about their typical behaviour preferences.
c. Situational tests: A third way to assess social motives is to create situations in which person’s actions will reveal his or her dominant motives.
Motives to Know and be Effective: These are motives to seek variety in stimulation, to process information about the world around us, to explore, and to be effective in mastering challenges from the environment.
Stimulation and exploration needs: Stimulus needs and exploration needs are behind activities like visiting places of interest, exploring the environment, watching television, movies, reading newspaper, magazines.
Effectance motivation: It is a general motive to act competently and effectively when interacting with the environment (White 1959).
Intrinsic motivation: It is defined as a person’s need for feeling competent and self determining in dealing with the environment (Deci 1975). It is called intrinsic because goals are internal feelings of effectiveness, competence and self determination.
Extrinsic motivation: Extrinsic motivation is directed towards goals external to the person, such as money or grades in school.
Self-actualisation motivation (Maslow 1954)
Self-actualisation refers to a person’s need to develop his or her potentialities i.e. to do what he or she is actually capable of doing. Self-actualises are actually people who make the fullest use of their capabilities. Self-actualisation is thought to be the top need in the hierarchy of needs or motives. Going from the highest need of self-actualisation down, the needs in the hierarchy are - the need for self-actualisation; esteem needs like need for prestige, success, self-respect; belongingness and love needs, such as needs for affection, affiliation and identification; safety needs such as need for security, stability and order; physiological needs such as hunger, thirst and sex.
Frustration and conflict of motives
Since higher motives can be satisfied only after the lower motives are satisfied, higher motives often remain unfulfilled. Goals of higher motives are not met, leaving people with a feeling of frustration. Frustration refers to the blocking of behaviour directed towards a goal. People who cannot achieve their important goals feel depressed, fearful, anxious, guilty or angry. They are simply unable to derive ordinary pleasure from living.
Sources of frustration
a. Environment frustration: By making it difficult or impossible for a person to attain a goal, environmental obstacles can frustrate the satisfaction of motives. An obstacle may be something physical, such as a locked door or lack of money.
b. Personal frustration: Unattainable goals can be important sources of frustration. These are largely learned goals that cannot be achieved because they are beyond a person’s ability. People are often frustrated because they have aspiration beyond their capacity to perform.
c. Conflict-produced frustration: A major source of frustration is found in motivational conflict in which expression of one motive interfere with expression of other motives.
Types of conflict
1. Approach-approach conflict: It is the conflict between two positive goals, goals that are equally attractive at the same time. These conflicts are generally easy to resolve and generate little emotional response.
2. Avoidance-avoidance conflict: Avoidance-avoidance involves two negative goals. Two kinds of behaviour are likely to be conspicuous - vacillation of behaviour and thought which means that people are inconsistent in what they do and think. Next important behavioural feature is an attempt to leave the conflict situation. Intense emotions are generated in this conflict.
3. Approach-avoidance conflict: It is the most difficult to resolve conflict because in this type of conflict the person is both attracted and repelled by the same goal object.
Multiple approach-avoidance conflicts: Many of life’s major decisions involve multiple approach-avoidance conflicts which mean several goals with positive and negative valences are involved.
Clinical aspects
Stages of motivation in substance abuse: (1) Pre-contemplation, (2) Contemplation, (3) Decision, (4) Action, (5) Maintenance, (6) Relapse.
Bibliography
1. Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry, 9th Edition - Kaplan & Sadock.
2. Introduction to Psychology, 7th Edition - Morgan & King.
3. Introduction to Psychology, 6th Edition - Atkinson.
4. Shorter Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry, 5th edition - Michael Gelder, Paul Harrison, Philip Cowen.
5. Internet.
Author is Postgraduate Trainee of Psychiatry at Silchar Medical College Hospital, Silchar.
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