Various theories of motivation
All people move and are in continuous activity, even the most lazy do a series of activities, so it is worth asking ourselves: Why do we move, act, care about things and worry constantly? The study of motivation, then, is nothing other than the attempt to find out, from the point of view of psychology, that all needs, desires and activities obey, that is, investigate the explanation of human actions themselves.
It is about studying the impulses, tendencies and stimuli that constantly haunt our life and our organism and lead us, whether we want to do it or not.
Instinctive behavior does not require the will of the subject, but motivated behavior does. Thus, it is not convenient to confuse motivation with stimuli or instincts, the three drive to act, but their origin and functions are very different. Motivated behavior requires a reason to get going. A behavior is motivated when it is clearly directed towards a goal. The reason is something that drives us to act, it always appears as an impulse, a tendency, a desire, a need.
We can point to motives that range from more elemental impulses, such as hunger, sleep; even the most complicated and complex, such as the impulse or desire to be a telecommunications engineer, journalist, teacher, etc. All activity is motivated by something, and that something is what we have called motive. It is like a closed circuit in which three main moments can be distinguished: motive, motivated behavior and decrease or satisfaction of need.
To analyze motivation, we will distinguish the following motivational outlets, classifying them based on problems that arise in systematic treatments and how specialists have treated them.
Outline of the topic:
Homeostatic theories
* Of the reduction of the impulse
* motivation for emotions
* Psychoanalytic theories
Incentive theories
* Hedonism
"Cognitive theories
* Cognitive dissonance
* Expectations theory
* Theory hope value
* Physiological theories
* Humanist theories
Homeostatic explanation of motivation:
Explains behaviors that originate from physiological imbalances such as hunger, thirst. They also serve to explain behaviors originating in psychological or mental imbalances due to emotions or mental illness.
Homeostasis is an organic and psychological control mechanism designed to maintain balance within the internal physiological conditions of the organism and the psyche, otherwise the life of the organism would be in danger.
Among the most representative authors of this trend we can point to Hull, Freud and Lewin.
Impulse reduction theory:
Momentum is the activity generated by a need. That need, which is the state of internal imbalance, is itself caused by a lack. This imbalance causes a demand for rebalancing in the body that does not cease until the lack, or even the excess, has been eliminated and replaced by another. We can highlight within this current representatives such as Hull and Lewin.
A need usually proceeds and accompanies the action of the organism, it is often said that the need motivates or drives the associated activity. Due to this motivational property of the needs, these are considered as producers of primary animal drives.
Summarizing we can say that behavior is a function:
Conduct = f (sEr) = f (D * K * sHr).
sEr - evocative response potential.
D - drive.
K - incentive motivation or quantity and quality of the reward.
sHr - force of habit.
Emotion motivation theory:
Emotions fulfill a biological function preparing the individual for its defense through important changes in the physiology of the organism and triggering the behaviors to reestablish the balance of the organism. When emotional states are unpleasant, the body tries to reduce them.
Psychoanalytic theory of motivation:
It is based on unconscious motives and their derivations. According to psychoanalytic theory, the primary tendencies are sex and aggression. The basic task of the nervous system is to preserve the organism from a flood stimulating imbalance, while facilitating the achievement of pleasure and the avoidance of pain.
The model adopted by Freud is a hedonistic model of tension-reduction that implies that the main goal of every individual is to obtain pleasure by reducing or extinguishing the tension produced by innate bodily needs. This motivation is known as psychodynamics, since it gives an explanation of human motives in terms of hypothetical underlying active conflicts. The main problem with this theory is the lack of empirical data, but it has still been very influential.
Incentive theory:
To this are authors such as Young, Thorndike, Olds, Mc Clelland, Skinner, Ritcher.
Basically it consists of rewarding and reinforcing the motive by rewarding it. The monkey who has performed his number in the circus immediately expects a lump of sugar, the bar waiter awaits the tip for a job well done, the boy who has passed all the subjects expects his father to buy him the bicycle he promised. The most important or common incentives are money, social recognition, praise and applause.
From the indisputable truth that organisms tend to achieve pleasure and avoid pain, hedonistic interpretations of the incentive have started.
Some reasons can come to satisfy organic needs and even trigger harmful behaviors for the body. This type of pleasure-seeking motivation would, for example, explain tobacco and drug use.
Young has empirically documented the motivating function of incentives regardless of homeostatic value.
Olds studies the pain and pleasure centers of the brain confirming the great motivational power of affective experiences that have no immediate function other than enjoyment.
Cognitive theories:
It is based on the way in which the individual perceives or represents the situation before him. They include the level of aspiration (related to individual goal setting), dissonance (in charge of the impulses to change associated with disharmonies that often persist after a choice has been made), and theories of hope-value (which they are about making a decision when the odds and cost or risks are taken into account.)
It emphasizes as determinants of motivated behavior, the perception of the forces of psychological needs, expectations about achieving a goal and the degree to which a correct result is valued.
The most representative authors are Festinger, Tolman, Weiner and Heider.
Cognitive dissonance theory:
The lack of harmony that worries is the consequence of making a decision. There is often a lack of harmony between what one does and what one believes, and therefore there is pressure to change either one's behavior or belief. A dissonant concept is one that is combatible with another. For example: if a regular smoker reads something about smoking and lung cancer, the usual action and no information are dissonant. If you decide to continue smoking, the dissonance will be reduced, not believing in the information. If you decide to quit smoking, you will firmly defend the information.
Hope theory - value:
This theory mainly has an origin in economics.
The individual can assign value or utility to possible incentives, and who makes his decision according to the assumed risk. You are willing to take a higher risk for something you value more.
choice = f (value, probability of achievement)
Expectations theory:
There are a series of mental determinants that you call expectations that would operate as guiding structures for action. The goal would thus function as an incentive.
Physiological theories:
There is no explicit emotional doctrine in Paulov's work. However, there are aspects that show a fairly direct relationship with the problem of motivation. One is related to arousal; the other refers to the unconditioned stimulus and the conditions under which it must be administered so that it can exercise its reinforcing function.
Humanistic theories:
They are descriptions and interpretations of human motives. The most prominent representative is GW Allport, whose detection of the phenomenon of functional autonomy of superior motives, difficult to fit into biological models of impulse reduction or hedonistic explanation.
The law of the functional autonomy of motifs therefore makes it clear that one thing is the historical origin of motifs and another its current value. At first, there may be no interest in performing a task, but the law of functional pleasure indicates that just performing the function produces pleasure and satisfies the subject.
Maslow organizes motivations on a hierarchical scale. When a motivation is satisfied, it occupies the place, which from now on will be in charge of controlling the subject's conduit.
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